Thomas Spargo, a former N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice was convicted by a federal jury today in Albany today of attempted extortion and bribery.

According to his original indictment (see below), in 2003 Spargo solicited a $10,000 bribe from any attorney who had cases pending before him. At trial, it federal prosecutors proved that when the attorney refused to pay the bribe, the Judge called the attorney on the telephone and told him that he and another judge in New York's Ulster County were assigned to handle divorce cases, including the attorney's own pending divorce case.

The message was clear: while he was sitting on the bench, then-Justice Spargo suggested that the attorney's failure to pay the bribe could have potentially negative personal and professional repercussions.

The movie "Bananas!" purports to be an intense look at the struggles of Nicaraguan farmers to obtain compensation for sterility resulting of the use of pesticides on banana plantation.

If the Dole Food Co. and a California Supreme Court Judge are right, however, the movie might have to change its ending.

Judge Samuel Kent received some good news and some bad news yesterday.  Well, it was really a case of bad news and it-could've-been-worse news.

Kent, you may remember, is the federal district court judge from Galveston, Texas who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice related to the investigation into allegations (which he later admitted were true) that he had non-consensual sexual contact with courthouse employees.

You would think that, after all the times that a prominent, successful man has seen his career undone through association with a stripper, eventually people would learn that success brings with it certain behavioral strictures.

But, human nature being what it is, the pattern keeps repeating itself again and again, and even an erudite man of the bench can get caught up in it.

Thomas E. Stringer was, until February of this year, a judge on Florida's 2nd District Court of Appeal in the Tampa Bay area.  He broke down barriers by becoming the first black graduate of his law school, Stetson University College of Law, and worked as a state attorney before becoming a circuit judge and then joining the Court of Appeal.

Then, last March, his legal career of thirty-plus years came crashing down.