Crime Stories

By Julia Cole, Junior Editor A man who turned himself in last fall after escaping from a Maryland prison more than 30 years ago has been granted parole, according the Washington Post. Anthony Rackley, who is now 63 years old, turned himself in to police in Oklahoma last year, admitting that he had escaped from the Maryland prison system in 1980 with about six years left on his sentence. Rackley originally went to jail at age 18 for armed robbery and a parole violation, then fled from a pre-release program years later. He traveled around the country for a few years before eventually settling in Oklahoma in the early 1990s, where he started a new life under the alias Jack Watson. He became a fundraiser for a Lions Club chapter and, for all intents and purposes, turned his life around. Rackley eventually divulged the truth about his fugitive status to a colleague,…

By Julia Cole, Junior Editor Chris Brown is free from jail once again, according to the Washington Post. The R&B singer with a checkered past, which included the widely publicized beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna, was released from a Los Angeles County jail just after midnight on Monday. The 24-year-old Brown has been behind bars since March, when he was expelled from a court-ordered rehabilitation facility for continuing to violate their rules. He was being treated for issues relating to anger management, drug abuse, and bipolar disorder before he was dismissed from the facility. Brown violated the terms of his probation last year when he allegedly assaulted a man in Washington, DC last year. In May, the singer admitted to violating his probation and was immediately ordered to serve 365 days in jail. Brown was credited with 234 days due to his rehab and jail time already served, as well as…

By Larry Bodine, Publisher, National Trial Lawyers Under the U.S. Constitution, the police must have a “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity before they can stop and search you. But a new ruling by a federal appellate court upended 225 years of legal protection for Americans, saying it is permissible for the cops to stop you for perfectly innocent behavior. It happened to Cindy Lee Westhoven, who was returning from a shopping trip one evening and taking the scenic route home. She was driving under the speed limit with her hands at the “ten-and-two” position on the steering wheel when a cop started tailing her. He ran her plates and found no warrants for her. Astonishingly, the court found that this scenario created a reasonable suspicion for an “investigative stop” – because the policeman injected an ominous context that would make anybody look guilty. “Although the factors, in isolation, may be…