Barnes and Noble Receives Subpoena from New York State Attorney General in Online Retailer Investigation

Bookseller Barnes & Noble acknowledged that it has received a subpoena from the New York State Attorney General for information concerning an investigation into online retailers who link customers to discount clubs that charge hidden fees.

Barnes & Noble said that it wants to reassure customers that it is not one of the retailers who turns over personal or credit or debit card information to discount clubs.

"We welcome the Attorney General's review because it will show that Barnes & Noble does not, nor has it ever, shared customer debit or credit card information with discount clubs," said William Lynch, President, of Barnes & Noble.com. "Customers should be reassured that their personal information, including credit and debit card information is not and never has been shared with discount clubs."

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Facebook Resists Subpoena in Shooting that Involved St. Louis Officer

A former St. Louis police officer who faces a felony trial for a shooting in Pontoon Beach wants to see the Facebook records of several investigating officers and other potential witnesses against him.

Facebook Inc. is resisting a subpoena for those records.

Albert Watkins, attorney for the ex-officer, Bryan Pour, said he believes there are "Facebook friendships" between several officers involved in the investigation and people who were present at Mac N Mick's Sports Bar & Grill on Nov. 9, 2008, when the shooting occurred.

Watkins said those relationships and other evidence "give rise to concerns" about the impartiality of the investigation.

"We believe law enforcement had pre-existing and subsequent relationships with material witnesses," Watkins said. He said it is important to explore those connections.

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Late Night Serve Scares Wife

MONTGOMERY — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne on Tuesday said opponents who are in a lawsuit over two-year college system policies established while he was the system chancellor are trying to intimidate him.

Byrne said a process server attempted Monday to serve him a subpoena to give a deposition in the lawsuit after dark at his home while he wasn’t there.

In a statement from his campaign, Byrne said his wife answered the door Monday night and was greeted by a man who allegedly wouldn’t identify himself, facts that a lawyer for legislators who sued disputed. “Needless to say my wife was unnerved by this strange, unexpected and mysterious middle-of-the-night caller,” Byrne said.

Byrne campaign spokes-woman Marty Sullivan said the attempt to serve the subpoena occurred between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday.

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Judge Tells Government to Serve Lawsuit on Agents

A judge on Monday ordered the government to serve a lawsuit on two unidentified federal agents who allegedly participated overseas in the mistreatment of a Muslim man from New Jersey who was held in Africa for four months between 2006-2007.

Lawyers for Amir Mohamed Meshal, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Tinton Falls, N.J., say he was questioned more than 30 times as a suspected terrorist and threatened with torture and death while imprisoned in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

In a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, Meshal says he knew two of his interrogators only as "Tim" and "Dennis." Meshal's lawyers say they are confident the two were FBI agents.

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Bomb Squad Sent to Sandhill Road Property

A routine delivery of eviction papers became more exciting for Sangamon County process servers Friday afternoon when an explosive device was found on the property.

The incident happened about noon at a home in the 2300 block of Sandhill Road. Sangamon County process servers went to the home to serve eviction paperwork. They arrived to find numerous vehicles on the property, so they summoned an Illinois Secretary of State officer there to investigate whether the vehicles were legal.

Police discovered what apparently was a blasting cap shoved into a flare. Sandhill Road was closed down, and members of the Secretary of State bomb squad was sent to the property to investigate further.

The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office said the blasting cap was considered a “valid explosive device.” The bomb squad retrieved it, and charges are pending, they said.

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FHA Subpoenas 15 Mortgage Companies

The Federal Housing Administration initiated on Tuesday a probe of 15 mortgage companies that have disproportionately high default rates on loans insured by the government agency.

Officials served subpoenas on the companies on Tuesday. The agency is looking at mortgage companies that have had above-average rates of loans that default shortly after origination, which is often a sign of fraud or sloppy underwriting.

The FHA, which doesn’t make loans but instead insures lenders against losses, has boosted its market share rapidly in the aftermath of the housing bust, and it now accounts for around one-quarter of the U.S. mortgage market. The agency is under pressure to stem losses from rising defaults and its capital reserves are expected to be heavily depleted as a result of those defaulted loans.

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Deceased Victim Subpoenaed To Testify Against Alleged Killer

Imagine losing a loved one to a violent assault. Then imagine getting a subpoena addressed to that dead loved one ordering them to testify against the alleged killer.

It happened in Englewood.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Della Soliz told 7NEWS. “It’s like rubbing salt into the wound.”

Soliz found her battered son, Timothy Sanchez, sitting on her front porch last March. He’d been drinking at a neighbor’s house across the street on the 3500 block of South Bannock.

According to the arrest affidavit, the suspect, Leonard Ross, told his neighbors that he “kicked Tim’s ass,” because Tim was disrespecting his wife and stepdaughter.

Those neighbors said Ross told them that Tim said, “Which one of your women am I taking with me?”

The victim’s sister, Amanda Garcia, said, “Ross should have walked across the street and told us that Tim was getting out of hand.”

“The thing that really gets me,” Soliz said, “is that when the ambulance was here for my son, Leonard Ross and his family were standing outside across the street. We were trying to figure out what happened. They didn’t say a thing.”

It’s not just the subpoena that family members are upset about. They’re also distressed about a plea bargain that may limit the amount of time Ross spends behind bars.

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Process Server Admits Fraud

A Long Island-based process server who was accused of leaving thousands of New Yorkers unaware that they had been sued for unpaid debts, subjecting many of them to surprise judgments, liens and wage garnishments, has pleaded guilty to fraud.

William Singler, owner of American Legal Process, entered the plea Friday in Nassau County Supreme Court, admitting to one count of a class E felony. He is to be sentenced March 24 and still faces a civil suit in which New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking damages and penalties.

In a statement announcing the guilty plea Friday, Cuomo said that ALP employees had not served properly, or at all, thousands of notices attorneys and creditors had paid them to serve.

When the uninformed defendants did not respond to the undelivered notices, an estimated 100,000 default judgments were entered in courts across the state. Some 4,800 of those judgments were filed in Erie County, and 2,700 in Niagara County.

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NYRA Complying With Comptroller's Subpoena

The New York Racing Association, which says it may need more taxpayer money to ensure the
Belmont Stakes goes off as planned, said Wednesday it will open its books to the scrutiny of state auditors.

The nonprofit corporation, which oversees racing at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga, said last month that New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli lacked authority to audit it. But on Wednesday, it said it would comply with DiNapoli's subpoenas for its financial records.

Following legislation enacted in 2008, the New York Racing Association was reorganized as a not-for-profit corporation and awarded a new 25-year franchise to operate the state's thoroughbred racetracks.

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House Panel Subpoenas N.Y. Fed's AIG Documents

WASHINGTON—A U.S. House panel issued a subpoena for Federal Reserve Bank of New York documents related to American International Group Inc., as the political pressure surrounding one of the more controversial events of the financial crisis continued to grow.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D., N.Y.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he was issuing a subpoena for documents that would "shed light on how and why taxpayer dollars were used for a backdoor bailout." At issue is the government-orchestrated decision to make whole AIG's counterparties on some $62 billion in bets on soured mortgage securities.

"We will work with the committee to provide relevant information as appropriate," said a spokeswoman for the New York Fed.

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Busker Subpoenas Larry O'Brien for His Defence

Look up, look way up.

A street musician inspired to take up the tin whistle after watching the classic children’s show The Friendly Giant is facing charges after allegedly cutting the wires of a Muzak radio speaker that was drowning out his live music in a Rideau Street underpass.

But busker Raymond Loomer is planning an interesting defence: he has successfully subpoenaed Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien, hoping the colourful politician’s testimony will help vindicate him.

Loomer, 47, has been playing the tin whistle for 15 years in the underpass, which is in the shadow of 700 Sussex Dr., where Larry O’Brien lives.

O’Brien, who walks the streets of Ottawa, has passed by the “The Whistler”, and once, according to the busker, said his music reminded him of The Friendly Giant, the show that featured a giant, a rooster named Rusty, who lived in a sack, and a giraffe named Jerome.

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Senate Subpoenaed for Records on Espada

ALBANY — Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo subpoenaed the New York Senate on Wednesday for a broad range of e-mail messages and other records concerning Senator Pedro Espada Jr., the Bronx Democrat who led a monthlong coup that brought state government to a standstill this summer, Mr. Espada said.

Mr. Cuomo has been investigating Mr. Espada for months in cooperation with the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, over matters including political activity by employees of health clinics he founded and whether he resides in his Bronx Senate district.

The latest subpoena focuses on the health clinics, which are part of the Soundview HealthCare Network, and Mr. Espada’s efforts, since winning office two years ago, to obtain Senate earmarks and other state grants.

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Feds subpoena Superdome Commission for documents

An attorney for the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District Board -- also known as the Superdome Commission -- confirms federal authorities served the board with a subpoena for documents.

Larry Roedel, Superdome Commission attorney, said the subpoena does not mention any person by name.

Former Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon was chairman of the LSED from 2004-2008. He has since resigned from the board.

Coulon is also implicated in the insurance scandal involving former Jefferson Parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer.

Documents reveal Coulon and Whitmer may have been secretly sharing commissions on a lucrative insurance contract at West Jefferson Hospital.

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TSA withdraws subpoenas of travel bloggers

Just days after serving subpoenas to two travel bloggers, the Transportation Security Administration withdrew the subpoenas late Thursday, saying its investigation into how the bloggers received a sensitive security directive "is nearing a successful conclusion."

With little explanation, the TSA withdrew subpoenas of bloggers Steve Frischling and Christopher Elliott seeking information on how they obtained a December 25 security directive. The directive, which had been sent to every airline and airport in the United States, ordered precautions after the failed terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

The TSA acknowledged in a previous statement that it was investigating the leak and publication of the document, saying, "Security directives are not for public disclosure."

Frischling, founder of the Travel Strategist blog, said TSA agents came to his Connecticut home Tuesday evening to question him about his source, leaving for a brief time to go to Wal-Mart to buy a hard drive in a failed effort to copy his hard drive that night.

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TSA agents subpoena bloggers to find out who leaked new securitydocument

Two East Coast travel bloggers who posted a sensitive airport security memo on their Internet sites have been subpoenaed by federal officials trying to find out who sent them the document.
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One of the writers, Steve Frischling, also had his laptop seized by agents looking for evidence of his source for the Transportation Security Administration directive. It outlined stricter security guidelines adopted by TSA in the wake of a failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight.

The memo, which Frischling said was sent to airports and airlines worldwide that fly into the United States, set forth screening measures such as increased pat-downs at airport check points, concentrating on upper legs and torsos, and a rule that passengers stay in their seats for one hour before planes landed.

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Process Server Says Man Assaulted Her At His Bremerton Home

A 41-year-old Spanaway woman said she was assaulted Monday by a man at a Bremerton home where she was trying to serve papers.

The woman, who owns a legal process-serving company, told Kitsap County sheriff?s deputies that she knocked at the home on the 800 block of NE Michelle Court and identified herself. The 28-year-old man who answered the door said that the recipient was not there.

The woman tried to hand the paperwork to the man, but he refused to take it.

The process server said she set the papers on the doorstep and told the man that they were his now. She turned to go back to her car, but the man followed, trying to give the papers back to her. He continued to insist she take them as she tried to get in the car, and, according to the woman, he pushed her twice.

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Pasco deputies' knock brings supper, not subpoena, during holidays

There was a knock on her door. Someone called out "Sheriff's Office," and Krystal Simonds stiffened.

She remembered the last time authorities came by her home.

In April, Dade City police found her brother-in-law, Charles Andrew Simonds, 37, dead from multiple gunshot wounds to his back.

Five months later, Krystal Simonds' husband was laid off from his job with a Tampa pest control company. The next month, her father-in-law died.

"It has been a rough year," said Simonds, 33.

But the knock on the door Tuesday morning brought good news.

Simonds was one of 540 families that received a food basket as part of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office annual holiday food drive.

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Missing mom case: Cops subpoena TV interviews with Susan Powell's husband

West Valley City police want copies of Joshua Powell's interviews with television reporters.

Three stations confirmed police have asked for copies of Powell's interviews, including any excerpts which have not been broadcast. ABC Channel 4 reported in a news story Friday it had received a subpoena for the footage.

Con Psarras, vice president for news at KSL, did not know whether his station had yet been served with a subpoena. But Psarras said a West Valley City detective called him Friday to say he wanted copies of KSL's interview with Powell.

Psarras said KSL has broadcast all of its interview with Powell online or on television and anticipates giving copies to police.

"I'm not sure what the principle will be [in fighting a subpoena] because what we have, we've aired," Psarras said.

Powell's wife, Susan Powell, has been missing since Dec. 7. Joshua Powell said he last saw her at 12:30 a.m. that day when he took their two young sons on a camping trip.

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Lander Hit With WFP-Related Subpoena

Brooklyn Councilman-elect Brad Lander confirmed he is among the Working Families Party candidates to have received a subpoena from the US attorney's office in its probe of the labor-backed party's efforts in the 2009 elections.

Lander told me his campaign received a call Monday (the same day the WFP itself was subpoenaed) informing him that there was a subpoena with his name on it seeking information about the work conducted on his Council bid by the party's for-profit arm, Data and Field Services.

"They said: 'We have a subpoena for you, please call and tell us where to deliver it," said Lander, who got the document in question via fax on Tuesday morning at his Park Slope campaign office.

"Did I have on my Chanukah list a subpoena from the US attorney? It was not on my Chanukah list. It's a stack of documents to give them. I'm happy to provide them all, and I feel confident that when they review them, they'll find we complied fully with both the letter and spirit of the law."

Lander said his campaign has already provided much of the information the US attorney is now seeking to the Campaign Finance Board.

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Police officers 'bitten, punched' by man in Yamba

New South Wales police officers have been attacked twice by a man they attempted to serve with papers on the state's north coast.

Two officers were first assaulted while serving papers on a 30-year-old man at a home in Ballanda Crescent, Yamba, about 4.15pm (AEDT) yesterday.

Police said the man punched a senior constable twice in the head and pushed him into a wall.

The officer retaliated with capsicum spray but failed to subdue the man, who fled and was arrested a short time later at a house in Charles Street, Iluka.

The man was taken to Grafton Police Station where it's alleged he again became aggressive.

He's accused of attempting to bite a sergeant's face before striking him on the head, then biting a constable's arm.

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Attorneys in Calais Upset over Processing of Service Papers in Washington County

Attorneys in Calais have come to the city council with problems they say they're having with the Washington County Sheriff's Department.

The issues have been passed on to the Sheriff and are being discussed at Thursday's council meeting.

Meghan Hayward reports.

"It's the inability to get a prompt service and also the atrocious amount of money we pay for a service to process."

Currently, there are three deputies throughout Washington County that can serve documents.

" We don't see complaints from anyone else. We serve papers for everybody in the county, attorneys across the state and across the country, and we don't receive any complaints."

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Protester serves papers to Guelph police

A Hanlon Creek Business Park opponent, who is one of two environmental activists suing the Guelph Police Services Board, paid a visit to the Guelph Police headquarters on Fountain Street Monday, accompanied by about 10 supporters.

The peaceful action was part of a week-long protest series billed as “5 Days of Action for the Hanlon Creek.” Opponents of the business park will stage an information picket at the park site on Wednesday.

Kelly Pflug-Back, 20, intended to serve legal papers to the police on Monday but was temporarily stymied in her efforts. She was told by a police official at the front counter that no papers would be accepted.

Later in the day, police Chief Rob Davis said a misunderstanding occurred at the time of the delivery and that the papers would be accepted. Police officials thought papers had already been served. A notice of intent to sue had been previously delivered. Pflug-Back was serving the legal documents pertaining to the actual claim.

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Jennifer Aniston Served Papers at Yoga Party

Jennifer Aniston was all smiles at last week’s SELF Magazine launch of her personal trainer Mandy Ingber’s “Yogalosophy” DVD in West Hollywood.

That is until she was served a summons in an ongoing court case!

Aniston showed up to give support to her yoga mentor Ingber, and talked about her path to yoga enlightenment.

“I had a block; I went to class once years ago and thought this is just a lot of sweaty people and a really small room. I didn't quite get it,” Aniston said. “Then Mandy was like ‘just try it with me one time’ and it was a completely different experience. She motivates you, you start to crave it. You crave that adrenaline. She combines her wisdom of astrology with the mind and the body, and cardio.”
And the result of all those private sessions?

“My body got stronger and everything got stronger,” Aniston added.

One of Ingber’s other pals and clients had a light-hearted bone to pick with the yoga queen.

“I don't have Jennifer Aniston body, what's up with that?” Ricki Lee asked.

“You have Ricki Lake’s body and Ricki Lakes body is hot,” Ingber quickly responded. “You're damn fine.”

What was not "damn fine" was how the party ended for Aniston, as the "Friends" star was served with legal documents on the way out.

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Party crashers Salahis face subpoenas Desiree Rogers does not

Reality TV show wannabees Michaele and Tareq Salahi face a subpoena from the House Homeland Security Committee after skipping Thursday's hearing on how they passed through Secret Service checkpoints to crash President Obama's Nov. 24 state dinner and ended up shaking hands with him.

The Democratic chairman of the panel brushed aside a request from the ranking Republican to issue a subpoena forcing social secretary Desiree Rogers also to testify.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told the House panel that three Secret Service officers who failed to stop the Salahis have been placed on administrative leave with pay.

Throughout the hearing, Sullivan took the blame for the breach, saying the Secret Service -- not Rogers' operation -- was responsible for security. The Salahis were not stopped -- but should have been, Sullivan said -- at the first of two checkpoints when the Secret Service officer on duty could not find their names on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife.

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ServeManager, Process Server Software Tool Announces More Intuitive Affidavits of Services

ServeManager, is an online application where legal professionals can collaborate on jobs with process servers.  Recently, a new and more intuitive affidavit was released. New features include:

• cleaner layout and more flexible design
• more room for service notes
• multi-page support
• fields expand for job/case information
• client reference # included
• improvements to the notary block and server signature block
• all attempt data available at the time of creation - this can be edited, deleted before the affidavit is created

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