Justice (courts/crime/law)
Identity thieves targeting tax returns
In one of the fastest growing forms of identity theft, crooks are using a stranger’s Social Security number and other personal information to fool the Internal Revenue Service into diverting the person’s rightful refund to the thieves’ pockets, according to a Scripps Howard News Service investigation. The volume of tax- or wage-related identity theft complaints…
Read MoreFired officer had history of misconduct allegations
A recently fired Milwaukee police officer under federal investigation after a woman said he raped her on duty in July has been accused of breaking the law five times before, according to department records obtained by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Gina Barton. Three of the previous allegations involved sexual misconduct — two with female prisoners…
Read MoreProgram for violent offenders deporting non-criminal immigrants
“Secure Communities, a federal immigration-enforcement program designed to identify and deport violent illegal immigrants, has increasingly targeted and deported undocumented immigrants with no criminal backgrounds,” reports Thomas Francis of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Nationally, 28 percent of the immigrants deported since the program began in 2008 have been “non-criminal” immigrants. In Florida, the…
Read MoreConvicted attorneys continue to practice in Wisconsin
At least 135 attorneys with criminal convictions are practicing law in Wisconsin — including some who kept their licenses while serving time and others who got them back before they were off probation, an investigation by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Cary Spivak and Ben Poston has found. The roster includes lawyers with felony or misdemeanor convictions…
Read MoreRelease of British jihadist jailed in connection with Daniel Pearl’s murder probable
A recent investigation in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, reveals that a British jihadist who was jailed in connection with Pearl’s murder is “likely to be released” because of tainted evidence used by Pakistani officials. A group of American journalists collected the report that suggests Pakistani prosecutes used “concocted evidence” to prove the…
Read MoreNew details emerge on the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl
Former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Asra Q. Nomani, and Georgetown University Journalism Director Barbara Feinman Todd led a team of 32 students in investigating the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl that occurred in 2002. The three-year investigation, broken down into 11 parts, reveals new information and details about the 27 men who…
Read MoreReporter’s investigation implicates man in civil rights murder cold case
The work of reporter Stanley Nelson, of the Concordia (La.) Sentinel, has implicated a man in the unsolved 1964 civil rights murder of Frank Morris. Interviews with three people linked a Richland Parish truck driver to the arson that killed Morris. “The three people, all of them now or previously related to the truck driver,…
Read MoreAs deportations from county jails increase, some avoid criminal prosecutions
As the number of deportations from county jails increases across the country and in central Ohio, local authorities are struggling to deal with the fallout, a year-long examination by the The Columbus Dispatch found. In a communication mixup, ICE agents deported a witness in a murder trial before he could testify. The accused, a US…
Read MoreGun stores remain open due to ineffective laws
Hobbled by Congress, federal watchdogs rarely revoke the licenses of lawbreaking gun dealers. And when they do, stores can easily beat the system by having a relative, friend or employee pull a fresh license – something that routinely happens across the country, a Journal Sentinel investigation by reporters John Diedrich and Ben Poston has found.…
Read MoreU.S. guns linked to Mexican crime scenes, cartels
The Washington Post‘s yearlong investigation documenting the way guns move through American society continues with an examination of the role U.S. gun dealers play in supplying Mexican drug cartels. The Post cracked the secrecy of the federal government’s gun-trace database and obtained the names of the top U.S. stores with the most guns traced back…
Read More