Weekend Roundup - May 9, 2009
Not Guilty Verdicts in W.R. Grace Case
Not a lot happening locally in the federal criminal defense sphere, so we’ll reach out to Montana to report a resounding victory for the defense by way of not guilty verdicts for all remaining defendants in the W.R. Grace case. The University of Montana has this exceptional blog here that has been reporting on this case throughout everyday of trial. The jury deliberated only one full day before returning the not guilty verdicts yesterday for not only the corporate defendant, W.R. Grace, but also the three remaining individual defendants, all former W.R. Grace executives at the Libby, Montana plant (note this cite is, apparently down right now). The AP story is here.
Prominent Arkansas Attorney Under Investigation in New York
The Wall Street Journal law blog reports that a prominent Arkansas plaintiff’s attorney, Gene Cauley, is unable to account for $9 million in settlement funds from a civil securities case. Southern District of New York, District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, who is known to this blogger for some exceptionally well written sentencing orders, requested that the United States Attorneys Office investigate because according to the transcript, Judge Rakoff said, “it appears not unlikely from the little information available to me that Mr. Cauley may have committed a crime or several crimes, that he may have committed disbarrable conduct in one or many ways.” Cauley, who was represented by counsel, who invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination, hopes to have the missing $9 million available shortly. A representative from the U.S. Attorneys Office attended the hearing. No doubt, more to come shortly.
