News for Norm Pattis

For 12 days between February and March, 2014, the FBI was the world’s largest peddler of images and video depicting child sexual abuse on the internet.
In an attempt to catch criminals uploading, viewing, sharing and downloading these files, the US government authorized members of the FBI to run an operation — ‘Operation Pacifier’ — of dubious legality to catch pedophiles visiting Playpen, the world’s largest child sexual abuse site.
“There...

Over one six-day stretch over the past two weeks, South Florida police officers shot seven people. Two of them died. Four who survived were teenagers. Three of the teens were inside a truck. One of those shot was a reputed gang member. The two who died suffered from mental illness.
The circumstances of the shootings varied, but their frequency was far higher than normal: Miami-Dade County averages about 1 1/2 police-related shootings a month. But in less than a week, there were five...

Sentenced several years ago to die for what one attorney called “an assault on the American dream,” two of Connecticut’s most despised criminals are among the 11 Connecticut death row inmates who will no longer be executed.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Connecticut’s death penalty is unconstitutional. The state passed a law in April 2012 to repeal the death penalty for all future capital offenses. But one death row inmate, Eduardo Santiago,...

Last month, firefighters in Southern California had their mission interrupted by a stray drone, which blocked the aerial path of a plane carrying gallons of flame-retardant to the site of a forest fire, delaying efforts to quell the forest fire and costing the department $15,000.
The department presumably turned back its airplane because it’s illegal to damage someone’s drone, even if you have good cause. To avoid future disruptions of firefighting activity, California state...

It was several years in the making, but the conclusion of the Aaron Hernandez trial with a guilty verdict for murder and a sentence of life behind bars without parole still shocked and saddened many in his hometown of Bristol.
At Riverside Restaurant, a favorite Bristol haunt, some patrons wearily looked up at the TV as Hernandez learned his ultimate fate. "It really hurts inside because I know the whole family and he used to come here all the time," said Riverside server Ghislaine...

The First Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on a motion by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to move his trial in the Boston Marathon bombings out of Boston to Washington, D.C. The complaint by Tsarnaev’s lawyers is that an impartial jury can’t be found in Boston. New England trial lawyer Norm Pattis discusses the situation in this report.
Pattis points out that Tsarnaev is entitled to a fair trial by “a group of jurors who can approach his case dispassionately” and...

Attorney Norm Pattis discusses the suspension of Adrian Peterson following the resolution of Peterson's child abuse case and suggests that Peterson should have been immediately reinstated to play football. Pattis says that Ray Rice is in a similar situation and should likewise be reinstated. He believes that the NFL is giving in to political correctness at the expense of its players.

Sam Thurman, Dennis Merritt, Wayne Wright and Michele Harris of the Colorado exoneration firm A Just Cause, discuss what happens when the wheels of justice trample unbridled over the rights of innocent Americans.
Although the American system of justice is the most-respected worldwide, it is still a system designed, and operated, by humans, which means it's not perfect. Sam, Dennis, Wayne, and Michele will highlight ongoing struggles against "the system" to free wrongfully imprisoned...

A hung jury in a murder case has dealt a blow to Connecticut prosecutors targeting a Hartford man who police say led an unusually violent street gang with a “hit squad” that was involved in numerous shootings and drug dealing in the city’s North End in 2007 and 2008.
Prosecutors intend to retry the case in February against Donald Raynor, 29, for the death of Delano Gray, 22.
A Hartford Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Tuesday because jurors couldn’t...

Attorney Norm Pattis will preview the federal trial of former governor, John Rowland, which kicks off tomorrow in New Haven after a pre-trial conference today. Rowland is back in court trying to prove that he provided a payable service to the nursing home owned by Brian Foley and not just a sham to cover his efforts to influence the election of Foley's wife, former congressional candidate, Lisa Wilson-Foley. Also, will Rowland be allowed to use email communications between Foley and his lawyer...