August 2011 Archives

The First Circuit Court of Appeals just opened a new chapter in the story about a Massachusetts attorney who was arrested for illegal wiretapping after he recorded a video of Boston police officers arresting a suspect.

In case you haven’t read about this case, attorney Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston Police officers in 2007 while they were arresting a suspect, because he thought they were using excessive force against the suspect. The police told him to stop recording. When Glik confirmed to one of the officers that the phone recorded audio, police arrested Glik for illegal wiretapping.

Disgraced North Providence attorney Robert Ciresi is appealing to the First Circuit Court of Appeals for a new trial, and bail pending the decision, one week before he reports to federal prison.

In April, a federal jury convicted Ciresi of conspiracy, bribery, and Hobbs Acts extortion in a corruption and kickback scheme that implicated three North Providence town councilmen. The three councilmen pleaded guilty and are in prison. Ciresi, who had previously served as a North Providence Town Solicitor and Councilman, was the only one to proceed to trial.

If Law & Order ever wants to give a civil dispute its "ripped-from-the-headlines" treatment, this case is an excellent contender.

Adam Anhang Uster was murdered in September 2005 while leaving a restaurant with his wife of six months, Áurea Vázquez-Rijos. In March 2006, Vázquez sued Adam's parents, Abraham and Barbara Anhang, in Puerto Rico Superior Court, alleging that the Anhangs had assumed control of Adam's estate and had prevented her from accessing the assets therein.

Want to spend your first year out of law school clerking for the First Circuit Court of Appeals? You're in luck: we have all the details for the Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan.

With judges covering cities ranging from cold, (Boston and Providence) to tropical, (San Juan, Puerto Rico), the First Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the three geographic grab bags among the circuits. (If you guessed that the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits were the other two, give yourself a gold star.)

Why are the appellate dockets filled with pedophiles?

Whether they are more persistent in general, or simply more fearful of becoming another inmate's "special friend" in prison, pedophiles seem quite often to appeal their verdicts.

This case involves one such appellant, Michael Berk of Brownfield, Maine, who trolled Craigslist for parents who were looking for work or housing, and offered them cash to prostitute their underage daughters.