Law Times

Page 16 January 21, 2013 Law Times • u The u Bizarre Briefs InsIde story By Viola James MAN HOG-TIED, DRAGGED BY EX-WIFE, POLICE ALLEGE DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Florida man who was hog-tied and dragged behind a truck likely regrets bringing his girlfriend to his exwife's home. According to Reuters, the ex-wife allegedly used a stun gun on him, tied him to a truck bumper, and dragged him before he escaped, the Volusia County sheriff's office reported. Robert Hall, 54, remained in the surgical intensive care unit at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where he was being treated for a broken pelvis, broken facial bones, and bleeding in his brain, according to the sheriff's office. The attack took place in a rural part of New Smyrna Beach, a popular Florida resort town, where Hall typically stayed at the home of his ex-wife, Jeanette Morris, 61, while she was away working as a truck driver. Morris suspected that Hall had allowed his girlfriend in the house and arranged for a deputy to escort her when she returned to her home in order to avoid a confrontation, the sheriff's report said. The deputy left the house after Morris told him she would spend the night at her brother's house, Reuters reported. Instead, Morris and her brother, Harold Anderson, 63, and a woman named Joan Hobart, 46, began drinking vodka with Hall. The three turned on him, shocked him three times with a stun gun, punched him in the face, and put a gun to his head, the sheriff's report said. They allegedly tied Hall's hands behind his back, tied his ankles together, attached the rope to the bumper of a pickup truck, and dragged him, the report said. After the truck stopped, the three allegedly tossed Hall into the truck bed, cut off some of his hair, and talked about scalping him and looking for a hole to bury him, according to the report. As the truck took off again, Hall leaped out and ran to a house for help, the report said. According to Reuters, Morris, Anderson, and Hobart are facing charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault. POLICE PROPOSE BAIT BOTTLES IN DRUGSTORES NEW YORK — New York police want drugstores to stock decoy pills to catch robbers, but what about legitimate users with prescriptions? According to Reuters, police will begin asking city pharmacies to stock decoy bottles fitted with GPS devices among powerful painkillers like Oxycontin and oxycodone in the latest bid to combat gunpoint robberies of drug stores. Police hope that in the event of a robbery, the bait bottles will lead them back to large stocks of stolen prescription drugs. Last year, federal and New York Police Department investigators seized 9,000 painkillers being sold at an open-air drug market in northern Manhattan, Reuters reported. The effort follows an announcement by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that the city's public hospitals will begin restricting emergency room patients to a three-day supply of opioid painkillers to limit abuse since most addicts get their pills from family and friends who have leftover supplies from legitimate prescriptions. According to Reuters, the NYPD's effort is a response to a growing black market of stolen prescription painkillers. In 2011, a 33-year-old military veteran with no prior criminal record fatally shot four people while robbing a Long Island pharmacy. CLEANING LADY STEALS TRAIN STOCKHOLM — In a case that evokes the movie Speed, a cleaning lady stole a train, drove it off the end of the tracks, and smashed into a house in Sweden. According to Reuters, she injured only herself. It wasn't clear how the woman got access to the key needed to start the train. LT "There were a couple of points of interest in his criminal background check." NEW LEGAL DIRECTOR AT LEAF Kim Stanton has joined the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund as legal director. While Stanton's practice in Toronto focuses on aboriginal rights, human rights, and administrative law, she has significant experience on the international front as well. Previous stints include working with the United Nations in the Gaza Strip and the AfriKim Stanton can Women Lawyers Association to address sexual harassment in Ghana. She also supported a legal team on the Bosnia-Hercegovina genocide case before the International Court of Justice. TLA AWARDS NEXT MONTH The Toronto Lawyers Association is gearing up for its awards of distinction next month. Honourees this year are Tim Kennish and Ontario Court Justice Edward Ormston. The organization is honouring Kennish for his contributions to the development of competition law in Canada, his leadership in the Toronto legal community, and his record of exemplifying the highest standards of civility, service, and excellence in the profession. Ormston, meanwhile, is receiving accolades for his advocacy in the area of mental health and the law. The event takes place Feb. 26 at One King West in Toronto. For more information, contact events@tlaonline.ca. POLL RESULTS As the public eagerly awaits the Divisional Court's ruling in Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's conflict of interest case, Law Times readers aren't optimistic he'll emerge victorious. The Jan. 7 Law Times poll asked readers their thoughts on Ford's chances of appealing last year's Superior Court ruling that declared him to be in a conflict of interest for voting on a matter related to a council decision ordering him to repay $3,150 in donations to his football charity. According to the poll, 64 per cent of respondents believe Ford will lose his appeal. LAWYER RAPPED FOR SEX WITH CLIENT A Kingston, Ont., lawyer who had sex with a client while in a joint retainer with both her and her husband was in a conflict of interest, a Law Society of Upper Canada hearing panel has found. "The respondent clearly violated his duty of loyalty to his client, Mr. M., in a manner that in fact adversely affected his judgment on behalf of Mr. M., when the respondent engaged in a sexual relationship with Mr. M.'s separated spouse, who had jointly retained the respondent as counsel to obtain a divorce," wrote hearing panel chairman Raj Anand of lawyer Jehuda Kaminer. The recently released ruling also found Kaminer violated his duty of loyalty to Ms. M. "because he exploited her vulnerability and failed to provide objective, disinterested advice and representation." According to the ruling, the law society relied on a request to admit. The panel accepted it as agreed as Kaminer didn't answer it. "Thus, the parties agreed on most of the unusual fact situation that was put before us," Anand wrote. Besides the conflict of interest findings, the panel determined Kaminer failed to serve clients; failed to deposit funds in trust; failed to account for funds received in trust; and failed to provide a complete and substantive response to voicemail messages and letters sent by law society staff. According to the ruling, Kaminer's relationship with the client began after he asked her out on a date in October 2006. The dates included dinners, evenings at the casino, and time at his home. "Their relationship was sexual," Anand noted, adding Kaminer ended the relationship after six weeks. The panel has yet to determine penalty. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM

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