I generally try to keep all  my blog content original and don’t repost articles but this was too good to pass up and speaks for itself….   This appeared in the Austin American Statesman.  Having been watching the great HBO mini-series “John Adams“,  I can’t help but think he would have approved….

Lawyer jailed over lewd gesture at judge Man detained briefly while representing DWI client.

By Steven Kreytak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 21, 2008

An Austin defense lawyer was jailed last week after being accused of making a lewd gesture at a judge while in court representing a client on charges of driving while intoxicated.

Adam Reposa, 33, was held in contempt of court by County-Court-at-Law Judge Jan Breland for his “intentional and contumacious conduct during the court’s review of the plea bargain offer to his client before jury trial.”

Reposa, who could not be reached for comment, “made a simulated masturbatory gesture with his hand while making eye contact with the court in response to an objection by the state to his interference with the court plea bargain inquiry,” Breland wrote in a judgment of criminal contempt of court filed March 11.

Breland, who also could not be reached, noted that she and prosecutor Richard Gentry witnessed the gesture and “acknowledged so on the record.”

Breland ordered Reposa taken into custody and returned to court the next morning for a sentencing hearing. Handwritten on the bottom of the order above the initials “JB” was: “No bond without my approval.”

However, Reposa was released later that day on a personal bond signed by state District Judge Charlie Baird, who said the law requires that judges set bond in lawyer-contempt cases.

It does not appear from court records that further action on the case has occurred since his release.

skreytak@statesman.com; 912-2946

Texas Law and the U.S. Supreme Court are coming together in a timely fashion to determine my right to blow your brains out…..

The Dallas Morning News published an interesting piece the other day about Texas new “Castle Law“.   Without going into details, this law significantly broadens the circumstances under which a homeowner or vehicle owner can use deadly force to protect his/her home or vehicle.   There is now a broader “presumption” that under certain circumstances the use of deadly force is reasonable.   This will certainly make it easier for a grand jury to say “but for the grace of god” and let someone walk…….

I share the concern of Dallas prosecutors that it will de-criminalize acts that should be classified as murder but then again I have never been the victim of a home invasion. (Knock on wood).   I have no doubt I would feel differently if I had…..

This article is also a timely intersects with the argument about to take place before the U.S.  Supreme Court interpreting the “right to bear arms” provision of the Second Amendment of the Constitution.   They are being asked to determine whether the right to bears arm as outlined in the Second Amendment is an individual right or a collective right. Arguably one of the most important  and polarizing cases before the court since the Constitution was drafted….

We have now shifted from “What’s mine is mine” to “What’s mine is mine and by the way… F***K you!”    I am not going to going into the specifics of the law but the laymen’s version for me to know and for the next person who I catch trying to steal my IPOD out of my car is that law under certain circumstances now gives me a much broader presumption that   I was acting properly when I put one between your eyes to protect my 400 dollar IPOD.  

 My prediction is that we are now going to have roving groups of what I will call “IPOD VIGILANTES”  who will  park their vehicles  in high crime areas with their pricey electronics gadgets in the front seat  laying in what for that unsuspecting music lover to attempt a snatch…..  

I wonder if Ben Franklin hid with gun waiting when someone tried to steal his fife off his horse….

What good is the right to bear arms if there is no right to pop a cap in someone as I see fit?

 By TRAVIS REED Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour apologized for killing a hawk that was making noise while he tried to film a TV show. Now the Humane Society wants the PGA Tour to take action.

“Because of the high profile nature of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don’t condone animal cruelty,” said Dale Bartlett, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

Bartlett said the organization would contact the PGA Tour on Friday to discuss the issue.

Isenhour, who plays on the developmental Nationwide Tour, was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird, misdemeanors that carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

Isenhour quickly apologized Thursday.

“As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset,” Isenhour said in a statement issued through his management company, SFX Golf. “I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”

The 39-year-old player, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, became angry while filming “Shoot Like A Pro” on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf Club when a squawking red-shouldered hawk roughly 300 yards away forced another take.

He drove closer to the bird in his golf cart and starting hitting balls at it. The bird didn’t move and Isenhour gave up and drove away.

Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said, “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

Bartlett said Isenhour’s case, like the Michael Vick dog fighting case, is disappointing for society.

“We look up to professional athletes and we want them to reflect the best of us as a society and I think we’re appalled when it turns out they instead reflect some of the very worst attributes,” he said in a phone interview Thursday night.

Isenhour said he is an animal lover and his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.

“We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family’s privacy,” he said.

Isenhour has won four times on the Nationwide Tour, including twice in 2006. The former Georgia Tech star has played three events this year on the tour the last a 36th-place tie two weeks ago in the Moonah Classic in Australia.

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot, said hitting the bird was “basically like a joke to Isenhour).”

“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” Senger said. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

Senger said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.

“It was one of those cases where there’s some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something,” Senger said.

Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.

“Americans have no tolerance for cruelty to animals. Such a petty, mean-spirited act against a wild bird is inexcusable and prosecutors are right to hold Isenhour accountable to the law,” Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian said in a statement released Thursday.

MY TAKE ON THIS:  We cannot castigate and imprison Michael Vick and then turn a blind eye to this guy’s action.  Intent is Intent.  Isenhour should be suspended from the PGA tour. The matter should be referred to both the state and federal grand jury for the killing of the bird as cruelty case and killing of a protected species under the Migratory Bird Act.  The guy’s claim of remorse is also a complete joke.  His initial reaction to what he did was to say it was “one in a million”   

MY RESPONSE TO ISENHOUR:  Apology accepted, now comes accountability….   Step up like a man and accept what comes with that ……..

Former high priced hooker/escort Ashley Alexandra Dupre’s (aka Kirsten) is ready to cash in big time on her “client #9 fame” liaisons with disgraced and soon to be indicted former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.   She shouldn’t buy the Park Avenue Penthouse just yet…. 

It is my bet that the tabloids, mainstream press and the blogosphere will make make more out of her projected multi-millionaire status than she will ever see a penny of.  The “Cuban Crystal Ball” is telling me that unless she rolls both her civil and criminal liability into an immunity grant in exchange for her testimony against Spitzer, before the year is out she will be facing both federal and state indictment as well as civil liability for income tax evasion and back taxes.  I admittedly know very little about the area of the law but if I were on the government side I would already be working on a “levy” against any profits she gets from appearances on the talk circut,magazine appearances clothed and unclothed and books. Even if she is able to roll any criminal tax liability into any criminal testimony for the government, I find it very hard to believe she will get a pass on the civil tax liability…..

Any criminal and civil tax attorneys out there to comment?