Grand Jury Research Articles

“Point Your Finger and Say, ‘That’s the Bad Guy’”: Performativity in Donal MacIntyre’s A Very British Gangster (2007)

winner of grand jury prize at 2007 Sundance film festival, Donal MacIntyre's A Very British Gangster (2007) is an intriguing example of a critically acclaimed documentary. This article seeks to explore structure of film and how constant allusions to pop culture within it create a frame of reference that is performative and playful. Like any documentary, film is beyond simple categorization. However, this article engages with processes of labeling and defining of modes in order to show film as an expression of reality that is caught up in a very definite desire to entertain rather than educate. One of John Grierson's original principles of describes it as arrangements, rearrangements and creative shapings [of natural material] (First Principles 146). This principle appears to accept certain elements of subjectivity and construction as part of form and thus suggests a close connection between factual and fictional forms. However, other work, such as that of Ellis and McLane, asserts that is purposive; it is intended to achieve something in addition to entertaining (4), which is related to Grierson's desire for to educate and inspire. Both interpretations are valid, though appearing to be at odds. Documentary can both entertain and educate. It can also be constructed and factual. It is perhaps useful to note, as John Corner does in The Art of Record, that Grierson's definitions were in fact designed to promote argument for as a recognized form, rather than to be definitions of form. Therefore, such definitions should be viewed as discursive rather than fixed. In view of this, it is most useful to see all definitions as opening of a discussion rather than fixed, in that all films utilize a variety of modes and purposes. The following discussion of definitions is designed to offer such an opening. The development and popularity of reality TV continued to blur distinctions between reality and entertainment, and this had a profound influence on how other forms of are being defined. Bruzzi notes that reality TV as factual entertainment brought entertainment and drama further into arena, and John Corner coined label as diversion to account for growth in lighter topics or treatments in television (Performing Real). Paul Arthur suggests that one new style has begun to attract film viewers who before might have chosen a dentist's appointment rather than pay to see a documentary (75). The documentary, often with filmmaker as visible interviewer, seeks to investigate subjects and entertain audiences through a mix of observational, archival, and interview modes. Such documentaries, Arthur states, focus on the business of public voyeurism, media celebrity, and political economy of imagemaking (74). The label tabloid is appropriate, according to Arthur, because this style of filmmaking mainly prioritizes voyeuristic pleasures rather than specifically educational or critical discourse, and consequently its function resembles entertainment as much as, if not more than, actuality. Arthur uses term tabloid in order to identify such documentaries within a readily understood framework of reference that is associated with television format that dominates cable TV channels, such as Biography Channel,1 or alternatively, broadcast network programs such as NBC's Dateline (US) and BBC's Witness (UK). He suggests that this format appears in varying degrees in feature-length, critically acclaimed films such as Berlinger and Sinofsky's Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996), Nick Broomfield's Fetishes (1996) and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), and Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). A basic similarity between television and film formats is their participatory structure, in that voice of text, through presenter or filmmaker, a significant role onscreen, in voice-over, or both. …

Losing the Faith: Organizational identification and wrongdoing in the Catholic church

We contribute to research on organizational wrongdoing by empirically investigating the effect of a rare but consequential type of wrongdoing–intentional wrongdoing that leads to severe consequences–on supportive behaviors by stakeholders with different levels of organizational identification. We examine these relationships in the context of a 2005 grand jury investigation that detailed alleged sexual abuse within the parishes of a single Catholic Church archdiocese. We use this report as a natural experiment to investigate the effect of parish association with wrongdoing priests on churchgoer activity statistics during 1970-2010. Consistent with prior research, our findings indicate that the occurrence of a severe wrongdoing leads to lower support from low-identification stakeholders. Interestingly, and contrary to prior studies, while a mere occurrence of a severe wrongdoing does not lead to lower support from high-identification stakeholders, this group withdraws their support with an increase in the magnitude of wrongdoing.

The Constitution, The Roberts Court & Business: The Significant Business Impact of the 2011-2012 Supreme Court Term

The 2011-2012 Supreme Court term created quite the media buzz. The Affordable Care Act cases and the controversial Arizona immigration law dominated the headlines. But the term also included other fascinating yet less sensationalized cases. The Court heard its fair share of criminal law controversies involving derelict defense attorneys and prosecutors as well as civil procedure disputes involving qualified immunity for witness in grand jury proceedings and private parties assisting the government in litigation. The justices also entertained arguments on a federal law allowing United States citizens born in Jerusalem to have “Israel” stamped as their birthplace on a passport. The Secretary of State refused arguing that the practice would inflame tensions in an already volatile Middle East. Another case pitted the First Amendment right to lie about receiving military honors against the Stolen Valor Act prohibiting that type of dishonest speech. A case from Montana hearkened back to 1889 and implicated the Equal Footing Doctrine – a Constitutional provision granting territory to states upon entering the Union. Texas crafted new electoral maps based on the 2010 census and soon found them scrutinized under the Voting Rights Act. In all, the term was extraordinary because most of its cases revolved around topics ripped from the headlines and touched on areas of public policy relevant to Americans in 2012 and beyond. The term was also compelling because of its impact on the business arena. The justices granted certiorari in fourteen business cases, eight of which were cherry picked for this article. Each case chosen covered a classic business law topic, generated strong interest within the business community, contained predominately business-focused facts, and had a connection to a business-related constitutional provision/amendment or statute. These eight cases provide the best glimpse into the Roberts Court’s most recent stance on topics important to the business community. This article evaluates these cases in depth and proposes the following business impact theory of the term: (1) the Court’s opinion in each case had as strong pro-business slant with business interests receiving fifty out of fifty-two potential votes. This slant is significantly different from the previous term where the Court unanimously voted against business interests several times; (2) these pro-business decisions did not occur in ordinary, run of the mill cases. Instead the impact of these decisions is magnified because they involved subjects critical to America’s economic recovery; (3) perhaps surprisingly, the Court’s liberal-leaning justices voted with the Court’s conservatives in twenty out of a possible twenty-two opportunities. They did so in cases that presented compelling arguments from both a conservative and liberal perspective and where the facts allowed for a strong four-justice dissent; (4) perhaps unsurprisingly, the Court proved willing to narrow or expand Constitutional provisions or state/federal statutes to reach its desired result. There appeared to be no concerted effort to adhere to a minimalist or living Constitutionalist philosophy. In the end, the results in the business cases of the term could prove to be a fluke. Or, they could indicate a pivot at the Court towards supporting business interests to a greater extent. Time will tell because the next first Monday of October is right around the corner.

The Retention and Subsequent Use of Suspect, Elimination, and Victim DNA Samples or Records: A Report to the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence

When DNA evidence is found at the scene of a crime, it can be compared to DNA obtained from five classes of individuals. First, suspects in ongoing investigations may volunteer to supply DNA samples, or they can be ordered to give samples by a court or grand jury (suspect samples). Second, samples may be obtained purely to eliminate an individual as a possible source of DNA left by the perpetrator of a crime (“elimination samples”). Third, “victim samples” come from victims of violent crimes. Fourth, relatives of missing persons sometimes provide DNA samples to assist in the identification of remains. Finally, DNA profiles derived from “convicted offender samples” are routinely checked against crime-scene samples. On September 24-25, 2000, various members of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence, its working groups, and other individuals met to discuss the retention and subsequent use of DNA samples or records from people who were not suspected of criminal activity or who have been eliminated as possible sources of the crime-scene DNA. This group sought to identify the nature of the privacy interests and the law enforcement concerns. This report outlines these issues and concerns. Part I describes how some police agencies and forensic laboratories deal with the first three classes of samples or records — suspect, elimination, and victim. Part II describes the legal issues raised by the practice of retaining and reusing these nonoffender samples. Part III identifies arguments of public policy that are crucial in deciding how these DNA profiles or samples ought to be handled. The report seeks to frame the issues that must be addressed in developing an appropriate policy for reusing the identifying features of DNA samples that are legally obtained from suspects, victims, and other individuals.

Unnecessary Roughness

This essay undertakes an analysis of ESPN’s coverage of the “Penn State sex abuse scandal” during the first week following the release of the November 2011 Grand Jury presentment, which indicted former Penn State college football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on 40 counts of criminal sexual abuse. Understanding ESPN’s coverage—its particular framing of this story—is important and instructive, for it reveals how the news media shape public attitudes and opinions, pressure public officials, and model agentive citizenship in response to public traumas. Specifically, it is argued that ESPN’s visualnarrative framing of the scandal perpetuates a hypermasculine (and heteronormative) fantasy of violent vigilante justice that reduces political agency to personal and private acts.

MEASURING THE THREAT OF GLOBAL CRIME: INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH BY THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS INTO THE TRAFFIC IN WOMEN*

Despite increasing concern about the threat of global crime, it remains difficult to measure. During the 1920s and 1930s, the League of Nations conducted the first social‐scientific study of global crime in two studies of the worldwide traffic in women. The first study included 112 cities and 28 countries; researchers carried out 6,500 interviews in 14 languages, including 5,000 with figures in the international underworld. By drawing on archival materials in Geneva and New York, this article examines the role of ethnography in developing a social‐science measure of global crime threats. The discussion covers the Rockefeller grand jury and formation of the Bureau of Social Hygiene; the League's research in Europe, the Americas, and the Mediterranean; controversy concerning the use of undercover researchers; the League's research in Asia; and the end of the Bureau. The League's experience demonstrates the promise of multisite ethnography in research about global crime as well as the difficulty of mapping crime on a global scale.

A Parliamentary Satire of 1675

From a collection of miscellaneous seventeenth century English verse in manuscripts acquired by the Library, French discovered "A Charge to the Grand Inquest of England," an unsigned poem of about 140 lines of rhymed couplets attacking the English Parliament, or more specifically the House of Commons. The poem is partially transcribed and commented on by French.

The People of Illinois v. Edward V. Cicotte, et al

Generally speaking, the judicial proceedings spawned by the corruption of the 1919 World Series are not accurately related or well understood in the Black Sox canon. In a forthcoming book to be published by McFarland, the writer will attempt to remedy this situation by offering a comprehensive, non-partisan factual account of Black Sox- related grand jury proceedings, the Black Sox criminal trial, and ensuing civil litigation involving scandal principals. Legal analysis will also be provided on certain aspects of these actions. This article is drawn from that work and recounts events attending late-September 1920 grand jury hearings, focusing on a four-day period when the simmering Black Sox scandal finally exploded. An introductory summary of preceding scandal developments is designed to place the article's narrative in perspective.Preceding Scandal DevelopmentsSuspicions about the bona fides of Chisox play were raised in post-1919 World Series columns by syndicated sportswriter Hugh F. Fullerton and a few other scribes.1 But for the most part, sportswriter concerns did not generate great public interest and the matter had become mostly forgotten by the time that the 1920 season commenced. Rather, the exposure of the Black Sox scandal was largely a byproduct of investigation of an altogether different Chicago baseball contretemps: the alleged fixing of a meaningless August 31, 1920 game between the Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies. Shortly after the existence of an internal investigation of the contest was revealed by Cubs President William L. Veeck, Sr., the judiciary stepped in. On September 7, 1920, the suspect game was brought to the attention of a Cook County grand jury by Illinois Circuit Court Judge Charles A. McDonald, newly appointed chief justice of the local criminal courts and an avid Chicago baseball fan.2 In time, the scope of the grand jury's probe expanded into other matters: game-related skullduggery attributed to Hal Chase, the operation of baseball betting pools in the greater Chicago area, and the rumored fixing of the 1919 World Series.Early proceedings were slow-moving and unfocused but gathered steam following testimony about the alleged Series fix from White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, Chicago Tribune sportswriter James Crusinberry, and New York Giants pitcher and Chase teammate Rube Benton, all of which was immediately leaked to the press. Probe developments were also supplied by lead grand jury prosecutor Hartley Replogle and grand jury foreman Henry H. Brigham, both of whom spoke openly about matters revealed during the proceedings. All of this was highly irregular, if not unlawful. By statute and case law, grand jury proceedings are strictly confidential and proceeding principals, like the prosecutor and panel members, take an oath to keep grand jury testimony and other proof secret.3 Stranger still, this disregard of grand jury protocol appeared countenanced by Judge McDonald. According to one report, officials of Chief Justice Charles McDonald's court, desirous of giving the national game the benefit of publicity in its purging, lifted the curtain on the grand jury proceeding. 4 By September 25, the transparency of grand jury proceedings permitted press publication of the names of eight White Sox players believed targeted for indictment- Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, Lefty Williams, Swede Risberg, Happy Felsch, Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, and Buck Weaver-and the nature of the charge likely to be preferred against them: conspiracy to defraud.5 But details of the series fix as well as the roles of the accused players in it remained unsettled. That would change two days later, for in Philadelphia, a figure from baseball's margins was giving the interview that would blow open the corruption of the 1919 World Series.Publication of the Billy Maharg StoryOn September 27, 1920, sportswriter James Isaminger provided readers of the Philadelphia North American with the first insider's account of the abasement of the 1919 Series. …

“A Push out of Chaos”: An Interview with Sapphire

It should not surprise us that the artist known as Sapphire (Ramona Lofton) began her career as a performance poet. Sapphire's most famous work, the novel Push (1996), is a startling tribute to the strong, urban voice of the underrepresented and abused. Push tells the brutal story of a young girl, Precious Jones, who suffers sexual, emotional, and physical abuse at the hands of those closest to her and as a result of a systemic oppression pervasive in urban city slums. Although many critics have deemed the novel unrealistic and exaggerated, Sapphire remains unapologetic for the seemingly insurmountable challenges her young protagonist faces: incest, illiteracy, obesity, and finally AIDS. Truth, Sapphire might say, needs no apology. What victims of abuse and illiteracy do need is visibility and voice. Sapphire's greatest achievement as an artist stems from her powerful ability to give a voice to those who have not been heard. Her literary style strikes, and strikes on its own terms. The speakers in Sapphire's poems and the characters in her fiction always explode from their own worlds; what results is art that pulls us into truths and realities completely outside of ourselves. We are uncomfortable in the world that Sapphire creates, even as we share these truths with burning intimacy. Sapphire would be the first to defend the truth if not the historicity in her work. She began as a performance poet. Her work strives to speak for one--someone--many someones--who is much more than a fictitious creation. When discussing the urban, humorous, first-person narrator of Push, Sapphire persistently discusses Precious Jones as a truthful compilation of the women she encountered during her early career while teaching. Perhaps that is the point. These realities are truth. These circumstances exist and have existed around us, unheard and unaddressed, for many years. As both a renowned author and a performance poet, Sapphire uses an acerbic style that demands the attention these thwarted lives deserve, not only because of her style's connectedness and awareness of its role as a voice for those who are so marginalized as to seem unreal to the vast majority of America, but also because of the striking subject matter these realities reveal. Child abuse, homosexuality, urban oppression, illiteracy in twenty-first-century America, and the AIDS epidemic remain among the many poignant topics at the heart of Sapphire's writing. In 2007 at the Boundaries, PUSHing Art symposium held at Arizona State University in honor of Sapphire's work, scholars from across the country discussed Sapphire's poetry and fiction as each relates to the blues tradition, the abject nutritional and educational conditions of urban environments, and feminism in the twenty-first century. The academic considerations and relevance of her writing were the subject of the one-day symposium, and with the symposium, Sapphire's work made its way into the classrooms and universities of America. As Sapphire sat among the academic chatter at the Boundaries, PUSHing Art symposium, thick in the excitement and energy of scholarship, she was both humble and proud. Yet her pride resulted not from her own personal accomplishment as an artist, but from the arrival of her work into the world of academia. Sapphire remains passionate about education and its relevance to an escape from societal oppression. What she wanted was a place for her body of work inside the world of academia, to bring new awareness, a new audience, and permanence to her words. The result is perhaps what Sapphire has always wanted since beginning her career on the streets of New York, speaking art to the pulse of humanity and being a voice for the many others. Following the 2007 symposium, the film adaptation of Sapphire's novel, Precious. Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, receiving the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the drama category and a Special Jury Prize for the actress Mo'Nique. …

A Voice in the Wilderness: Alexander Addison’s Case for Peace during the Whiskey Rebellion

On the first day of September 1794, while tension seized western Pennsylvania over whiskey excises, Alexander Addison, president of the Court of Common Pleas for the Fifth Circuit, delivered a charge to the Grand Jury of Allegheny County on behalf of peace and order. Addison's presentation came at an important moment, as new whiskey excise laws had threatened to sever relations between the young United States government in Philadelphia and the western counties of Pennsylvania. At the time of Addison's presentation, the citizens of western Pennsylvania, gathered together in township halls, were asked to choose whether or not to consent to legal terms of submission to the United States in an effort to avoid a violent confrontation between the government and western insurgents.1 In his presentation, Addison made a plea for submission to the laws of the United States and to peace.

Optimal Multistage Adjudication

In many settings, there are preliminary or interim decision points at which legal cases may be terminated: e.g., motions to dismiss and for summary judgment in U.S. civil litigation, grand jury decisions in criminal cases, and agencies’ screening and other exercises of discretion in pursuing investigations. This article analyzes how the decision whether to continue versus terminate should optimally be made when (A) proceeding to the next stage generates further information but at a cost to both the defendant and the government and (B) the prospect of going forward, and ultimately imposing sanctions, deters harmful acts and also chills desirable behavior. This subject involves a mechanism design analogue to the standard value of information problem, one that proves to be qualitatively different and notably more complex. Numerous factors enter into the optimal decision rule – some expected, some subtle, and some counterintuitive. The optimal rule for initial or intermediate stages is also qualitatively different from that for assigning liability at the final stage of adjudication.

Penn State Scandal Draws Attention to Child Sexual Abuse

Penn State Scandal Draws Attention to Child Sexual Abuse

Intermittent institutions

Standing institutions have a continuous existence: examples include the United Nations, the British Parliament, the US presidency, the standing committees of the US Congress, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Intermittent institutions have a discontinuous existence: examples include the Roman dictatorship, the Estates-General of France, constitutional conventions, citizens' assemblies, the Electoral College, grand and petit juries, special prosecutors, various types of temporary courts and military tribunals, ad hoc congressional committees, and ad hoc panels such as the 9/11 Commission and base-closing commissions. Within the class of intermittent institutions, one may distinguish periodic from episodic institutions. The former come into being on a schedule set down in advance, while the latter come into being at unpredictable intervals. The Electoral College is a periodic institution, while the Roman dictatorship is an episodic one. This article attempts to identify the benefits and costs of intermittent institutions, both as a class and in their periodic and episodic varieties. The largest goals are to state some general conditions under which intermittent institutions prove superior or inferior to standing institutions, and to illuminate the temporal dimension of institutional design.

A Stabbing in Chawton, Jane Austen, and Emma

SOME of the background to the stabbing in March 1814 of a young man in Chawton, to which Jane Austen alludes in one of her letters as ‘the Baigent business’,1 has already been explained by Robin Vick. We know that the victim was Stephen Mersh, and that the accused, who was later acquitted, was James Baigent, the ten-year old son of yeoman farmer William (1765–1838) and his second wife Elizabeth Baigen (d. 1845). A large family called Mersh, too, lived in Chawton, although there is no evidence that a Stephen Mersh had been baptised, despite the parish records showing the baptisms of ten children with that surname. Vick also identified Mr Wickham, mentioned in Austen’s letter, as the Honourable William Wickham (1761–1840), the eminent politician and diplomat, and he believed that Wickham’s lawyer friend, who had written to Austen’s brother Edward, was Sir John Bayley.2 As Austen told her sister Cassandra, the lawyer ‘is to be on the Grand Jury’ and, judging by his letters, ‘must be an Excellent Man’. His letters to Wickham, which the latter had passed on to Edward, anticipated the boy’s acquittal on the first charge of ‘maliciously stabbing a person’,3 but gave his opinion ‘for the prosecution for assault’ on the second charge.4

Review of Icarus Films' Seventeen

Review of Icarus Films' Seventeen The 1985 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Documentary winner, Seventeen was produced for PBS in 1982 by Peter Davis and directed, photographed, and edited by Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines. It is the most revealing, the most controversial, and (at 118 minutes) the longest of the six documentaries that comprise the 457minute Middletown Film Project, an ambitious attempt to capture the nitty-gritty cadence of life in 1982 Muncie, Indiana, that was inspired by earlier sociological texts Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture (1929) and Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts (1937), Robert and Helen Lynd's landmark anthropological investigations of Muncie in the 1920s. The other five documentaries in The Middletown Film Project- which examine politics, religion, high-school sports, marriage and divorce, and a struggling family-owned business- were broadcast on PBS in 1982, but Seventeen was never aired on TV (although it was subsequently released in theaters) due to its more incendiary content: an earthy mix of disrespect for authority, foul language, drunkenness, pot-smoking, interracial sex, and just hanging out that the executives at PBS preferred to believe was an accurate portrayal of American youth. Yet, what was shocking to the point of being ostensibly incredible in 1982 is all too easy to credit today, and from a contemporary perspective the most surprising element of Seventeen is its contemner se but the fact that the filmmakers were so able to elicit such candor and unselfconscious openness from their subjects, the seniors at Southside High School, their teachers, and their parents. Seventeen is a grainy, warty, heaping slice of life in the 1980s that, through this 2010 Icarus Films Home Video release of the entire Middletown Film Project, can finally find its small-screen authence. Kiss my ass, says Michelle to her high school home economics teacher Miss Hartley, and her desk-mate Lynn then announces that her mother has promised to beat the shit out of the teacher if she gives her daughter another F. Thus begins Seventeen, which follows a group of seniors through their final year at racially integrated Southside with a leisurely, even languid pace that reflects how unremarkable and commonplace such ostensibly scandalous behavior really is. Lynn, a lively, bright, attractive, and likable brunette, is the central figure in this engagingly honest and strangely timeless expose of the American teenage experience. Some black students are shown smoking marijuana at home. The next day in school, the government teacher discusses the class project, writing a letter to the president. Back to Miss Hartley's class, where it clear that students are at all good at following directions, and then home with Lynn, who introduces her black boyfriend John Vance to her white family. Southside wins the Senior Day basketball game, but the coach nonetheless chews out the team for being more preoccupied with girls than with basketball. And back in home economics, Miss Hartley is surprised to learn that Robert has impregnated Kim, but does plan to marry her, while Lynn and Michelle agree that Robert is not stupid as Robert just laughs it off, admitting We wasn't going together when it happened, that was a mistake. . . . My mother was happy; it's her first grandchild. Both Robert and Kim are black. The students, who consistently throw the word fuck around a lot - sometimes creatively-attend a local carnival, but on the ride home Lynn and a white friend, Tink, are upset that their black boyfriends would publicly acknowledge them; they argue that they are the ones risking their reputations because we're seen with one of you guys ain't no white dude ever gonna touch us again, and after you guys are seen with a white girl, ain't nobody cares. While doing much research in the library, another of Lynn's white friends tells her, I could read a dirty book and be interested; why these books don't thrill me. …

A Black Sox Mystery

Quietly nestled among renowned sports names charged in Black Sox scandal is that of obscure figure: one Rachael Brown.1 Based on surviving evidence, it appears that Brown was indicted by Cook County grand jury almost entirely on word of Lefty Williams, who identified negotiators of fix as two fellows introduced as Brown and Sullivan ... gamblers from New York.2 Defendant Brown, however, was never taken into custody on indictment. Nor did he ever make appearance, either personally or via counsel, in a Chicago courtroom. From time of scandal until today, Rachael Brown has remained largely a cipher, a scandal actor whose identity has never been conclusively established. In order in which they appeared on public stage, here are snapshots of most likely candidates for role of Black Sox defendant Rachael Brown.1. Abram Braunstein, Commonly Known as BrownA contemporary of Arnold Rothstein, Abram Braunstein was a smalltime Manhattan gambler who first came to public attention via his connection to Louis Webber, a key prosecution witness in trial of notorious Rosenthal murder case. Those proceedings culminated in conviction with death sentences for five men, including corrupt NYPD Vice Squad Lieutenant Charles Becker. While in a jail cell awaiting his fate, Becker claimed that Rosenthal's killers had had earlier target, namely 'Rachel' Braunstein, Webber's partner in a 42nd Street gambling house and known in gambling fraternity as Brown.3 According to Becker, a prospective new trial witness named Jack Sullivan would testify that Rosenthal's slayers had plotted to kill Braunstein and take his half of gambling partnership. Sullivan learned of it ... told Braunstein and escorted him to a steamship on which Braunstein escaped to Spain, as reported in Boston Globe, The New York Times, New Brunswick (N.J.) Times, and Washington Post, Oct. 29, 1912. In due course, this allegation precipitated issuance of a subpoena for Rachel Brown of 123 Manhattan Avenue, served while Brown was appearing in magistrate's court to answer a disorderly conduct charge that stemmed from a fight. Indignant, Brown disclaimed knowledge of reason why subpoena had been issued and asserted that since Becker trial he had been hounded and threatened on many occasions, as per The New York Times, Mar. 6, 1914.After that, Brown apparently tried to stay out of public eye. But four years later, Rachie Brown, old partner of Bridgie Webber was back in news after being netted in a police raid of newly opened Picadilly Club in Manhattan. The arrestee identified himself as fish dealer Aaron Braun but vice detectives immediately recognized him as the genuine 'Rachie Brown' (Boston Globe, Dec. 9, 1918). The following summer, Brown was in custody again, arrested during a raid on a disreputable gambling resort in Saratoga, as reported in Saratogian, Jul. 29, 1919. After much foot-dragging by local officials cozy with gaming interests, a specially convened Saratoga County grand jury returned gambling-related indictments against 48 targets, including Abram (Rachie) Brown, as per Saratoga Sun, Aug. 20, 1920.4None of above received mention when newspapers nationwide ran stories about forthcoming indictment of Joseph Sport Sullivan and Brown, an otherwise unidentified gambler from New York City, in connection with Cook County probe of 1919 World Series (see, e.g., Chicago Tribune, Sept. 30, 1920). Within days, however, it was reported that Rachie Brown, a gambler said to have been deeply involved in Series plot, has left New York City and gone to Europe. His departure is regarded by underworld gossips as proof that he was mixed up in baseball plot. He [Brown] had been known as a 'steerer' for Rothstein's gambling operations (see unidentified news item reprinted in The Sporting News, Oct. …

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Samuel F. McPhetres (bio) In July 2008, rumors began circulating that Lieutenant Governor Timothy Villagomez was under investigation for some unknown federal crime. The FBI called members of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) in to a grand jury. By mid-August, it was rumored that Villagomez had been arrested at a convention of lieutenant governors in New York. This was denied by the administration of Governor Benigno Fitial. However, by Monday, 14 August, both local newspapers had front-page articles about the arrest and indictment of Villagomez, his sister Joaquina Santos, and Secretary of Commerce James Santos, who is married to Villagomez's sister. Also arrested was Tony Guerrero, who was CUC executive director at the time, having succeeded Villagomez. Tony Guerrero immediately accepted a plea bargain with the federal attorney and agreed to testify against the other three. At issue was the sale, over several years, of Rydlyme, a chemical used to clean pipes around generators. A company owned by Joaquina and James Santos sold 8,000 gallons of the descaler to the utilities corporation at a 400 percent markup. The federal charges include three felony counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and theft involving federal funds, and bribery. Villagomez, his sister, and her husband were all charged and released on $50,000 unsecured bonds; Guerrero was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Investigations lasting eight months revealed that only 11 percent of the chemical was ever used. According to the twelve-page indictment, the chemical, which was bought in several installments over several years for about $300,000, was used only for cleaning floors or was put into storage on Rota and Tinian. Despite the charges, Villagomez remained in office, actively performing his duties as lieutenant governor. The trial lasted for almost three weeks and incorporated some defense techniques that will probably go down in the annals of jurisprudence as very unconventional. The first was the "mango defense," in which one defense attorney, in his closing remarks, faced the jury from behind a podium and pulled out two mangoes. He presented them to the jury and said that the one in his right hand was a Hayden mango, which was imported from Hawai'i. In the other hand, he held a carabao mango, which was grown locally. The local mango was, of course, sweeter than the imported. [End Page 144] This was a veiled reference to the federal court and the prosecution being a foreign agency and the defendant a local person. Another defense lawyer showed a PowerPoint presentation, which, after describing the female FBI agent who was the main investigator for the prosecution as probably a very nice person, included a photograph of a snarling wolf looking out of the screen and a wolf howling on the soundtrack. This was meant to characterize the key FBI investigator as a wolf in sheep's clothing. In spite of these antics and many others, the jury took only four hours to return guilty verdicts on all charges for all three defendants. Sentencing was originally set for 28 July 2009 but has been rescheduled for 5 August. Sentencing for Tony Guerrero took place on 21 June; he received three years probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $6,000 fine. On conviction, Villagomez formally resigned from his position as lieutenant governor. In the meantime, the defense has been filing motions with the federal court, charging judicial misconduct and jury tampering, among other things. Defense attorneys want the guilty verdict overturned by the judge or a new trial, neither of which has been approved as of this writing. In August 2008, Saipan was experiencing massive power-supply problems throughout the island. In September, CUC Executive Director Tony Muña (appointed to replace Tony Guerrero after his indictment) received authorization from the CNMI executive and legislative branches to enter into a one-year, $500,000 a month, contract with Aggreko, a Singapore-based generator company. Fifteen container-sized generators were transported to Saipan and brought on line to relieve the pressure on the old mainline generators while repairs and maintenance were being made. Brownouts and blackouts became fairly rare, and work on the CUC generators...

The Violet Bay School District Deficit of 2005: Evaluating Internal Control and Identifying Risks

ABSTRACT: In August 2005, Violet Bay taxpayers were surprised to learn that their school system had amassed a $7 million deficit for the 2004–2005 budget year, despite previous assurances of a surplus. Ultimately, the actual deficit was found to be $12.1 million. A special grand jury investigation uncovered numerous internal control problems that contributed to the deficit.This instructional case provides students the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the importance of internal control, particularly a strong control environment, through examination of the problems encountered by an actual governmental entity, renamed the Violet Bay School District. It also gives students some practical experience with tasks such as gaining an understanding of an entity and identifying its business risks, evaluation of internal control using the five components of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) framework, identification of fraud indicators, and consideration of the likelihood of fraud occurrence. The case also provides exposure to ethical issues.

Mandatives: Lessons on raising/control diagnostics

Mandatives:Lessons on raising/control diagnostics Michael Barrie and Christine Pittman 1. Introduction At first blush, mandative infinitival constructions (1) in English (Quirk and Greenbaum 1973) take on the appearance of control constructions based on traditional raising/control diagnostics. (1) a. Mary ordered John to peel the grapes. b. John commanded Mary to wash the star fruit. c. Mary obliged John to slice the papaya. d. Mary permitted John to core the apple. There are a number of important differences between mandatives and control predicates. First, unlike most control predicates, mandatives do not allow a partial control reading (Wurmbrand 2001:241, 247). (2) a. John ordered Mary to go to the opera (*together). b. Susan obliged Fred to *meet/*gather/wait in the lobby. This is surprising since mandatives do not fit neatly in Landau's (2000) class of control verbs that do not allow partial control, namely modals, aspectuals, and implicatives, which take so-called tenseless infinitives. We employ a variety of traditional diagnostics (mostly derived from Perlmutter and Soames 1978) to show that the mandatives instead pattern with raising-to-object verbs. Crucially for the analysis we lay out, the subject of the embedded clause is not θ-marked by the matrix verb. However, we argue that these predicates have an additional requirement. This usually leads to the interpretation of an implicit (pragmatically determined) goal of mandation (i.e., an orderee). This goal of mandation is often equivalent to the embedded subject (thus the appearance of control) but is not necessarily the embedded subject, as we illustrate below. [End Page 131] The remainder of the squib is organized as follows. Section 2 argues that mandatives such as order, command, and oblige are raising-to-object predicates. Section 3 presents a suggestion for the argument structure of mandatives. Section 4 is a brief conclusion. 2. Mandatives Are Raising-To-Object Verbs This section examines the standard diagnostics for raising versus control showing that they give mixed results for mandatives. We argue that the requirement that mandatives have an implicit goal of mandation interferes with some of the standard tests. Once these interfering factors are controlled for, the diagnostics clearly show these predicates to be raising verbs. 2.1 Non-thematic subjects Mandatives are usually thought to pattern with control verbs and not with raising-to-object verbs in terms of their ability to occur with non-thematic subjects. The following examples show that weather-it is not permitted in control constructions, but is permitted in raising constructions, respectively. (3)*John persuaded it to snow. (4) John expected it to snow. On the surface, mandatives seem to pattern with control (3) and not with raising-to-object (4). (5)*John ordered/commanded/required/permitted it to snow. However, non-thematic there shows a different pattern. Again, expletives are not permitted with control constructions but are available in raising constructions. (6)*John persuaded there to be fruit available at the reception. (7) John expected there to be fruit available at the reception. (8) John ordered/required/commanded/permitted there to be fruit available at the reception. Example (8) shows that the expletive there is available to mandatives. The following examples were found on various websites using Google.1 Similar data can easily be found with other mandative verbs. (9) There is no known evidence however that Arnold Palmer (the "King") ordered there to be any harm done to him. (imademymark.blogspot.com/2005/04/tiger-woods-is-god.html) (10) In the 5th century Bishop Memertus of Vienne ordered there to be processions of prayer on these days . . . (nottinghamchurches.org/seasons/pentecost.htm) (11) The local Commissar had ordered there to be no fraternising with the British . . . (www.war-experience.org/collections/sea/alliedbrit/gsmith/default.asp) [End Page 132] (12) When President Nixon, in a secret memo later made public by NBC, ordered there to be no federal grand jury into the shootings at Kent State . . . (www.may4archive.org/plainview.shtml) (13) . . . and so the local landowner ordered there to be a disputation. (www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/royte.html) The question now is why (5) is ungrammatical. The proposal that mandatives contain an obligatory and implicit goal of mandation...

Dissatisfaction Theory in the 21st Century

This case study uses two theoretical lenses to analyze political events in a Southern California school district: dissatisfaction theory and groupthink. The case study technique of pattern matching was used to frame the analysis (Yin, 2009). Data for 1992–2008 was gathered from interviews, the Orange County Registrar of Voters, newspapers, webpages, grand jury testimony, and other documents. Dissatisfaction theory was evident in the retirement of a controversial superintendent and the turnover of incumbent board seats. The outsiders successfully employed both political and web-based networks to take control of the district.