Judge Squashes Cuccinelli Subpoena of U-Va. Records

An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann.

Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli can investigate whether fraud has occurred in university grants, as the attorney general had contended, but ruled that Cuccinelli's subpoena failed to state a "reason to believe" that Mann had committed fraud.

The ruling is a major blow for Cuccinelli, a global warming skeptic who had maintained that he was investigating whether Mann committed fraud in seeking government money for research that showed that the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming. Mann, now at Penn State University, worked at U-Va. until 2005.

According to Peatross, the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, under which the civil investigative demand was issued, requires that the attorney general include an "objective basis" to believe that fraud has been committed. Peatross indicates that the attorney general must state the reason so that it can be reviewed by a court, which Cuccinelli failed to do.

Peatross set the subpoena aside without prejudice, meaning Cuccinelli could give the subpoena another try by rewriting the civil demand to better explain the conduct he wishes to investigate. But the judge seemed skeptical of Cuccinelli's underlying claim about Mann, noting that Cuccinelli's deputy maintained in a court hearing that the nature of Mann's fraud was described in subsequent court papers in the case.

"The Court has read with care those pages and understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann's work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia," Peatross wrote.

Additionally, the judge said Cuccinelli could only ask about one of five grants issued to Mann that the attorney general has been seeking to investigate. That's because the other four involved the use of federal, not state, funds.

In a statement, Cuccinelli said he will take the judge's ruling into account and rewrite the civil investigative demand. Spokesman Brian Gottstein said Cuccinelli is also examining the ruling to decide whether to appeal.

"While this was not an outright ruling in our favor, I am pleased that the judge has agreed with my office on several key legal points and has given us a framework for issuing a new civil investigative demand to get the information necessary to continue our investigation into whether or not fraud has been committed against the commonwealth," he said.

Mann, meanwhile, said he was pleased with the judge's ruling.

"I'm very pleased that the judge has ruled in our favor," he said in a statement. "It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically-motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests.


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Employee of Process-Serving Company Indicted

In a rare action, the office manager of an embattled process serving company was indicted Wednesday on a felony charge of filing a false notary public application with the Nevada secretary of state's office.

The charge is part of a nine-count indictment against Vilisia Coleman in the growing scandal tied to her unlicensed company, On Scene Mediations, which is accused of filing false affidavits of service in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said his notary administrator, Laura Ethridge, has never seen anyone prosecuted criminally for filing a false application during her 21 years overseeing the notary process.

"The fact that we were able to bring forward charges is significant," said Miller whose office has assisted Las Vegas police with their investigation of On Scene Mediations. "I believe that this type of notary fraud is relatively common, but undetected. We largely lack the resources to effectively enforce these statutes."

Miller said his office can seek to revoke Coleman's notary appointment, but won't take action until the criminal case concludes.

The eight other charges against the 46-year-old Coleman, which include perjury and filing false court documents, are the same as those in a criminal complaint filed against her earlier this month. That complaint will be dismissed, and Coleman, who is free on bond, will be arraigned in District Court on the new charges on Sept. 1.

The notary charge follows an Aug. 11 Las Vegas Review-Journal story that questioned whether Coleman lied about her criminal past when she filled out her application with the secretary of state. When asked whether she had ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, she checked the "No" box, officials told the newspaper.

But records show that she was sentenced to three years of probation for felony cocaine possession in 2006 and was ordered to undergo drug treatment.

She also has a gross misdemeanor conviction for attempted grand larceny at a Walmart in 2001. In that case, she was charged with violating her two-year probation in 2003 and ordered to spend eight months behind bars at the Clark County Detention Center.


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Virtual Service of Process

YouTube is going to the Guggenheim, and Twitter and Facebook could be the future avenues for service of process.

Service of process has traditionally been a person to person exchange, a hand delivery of legal documents. Doctors do not make house calls, but lawyers do via sheriffs’ deputies or authorized process servers.

It is not always the easiest job to deliver lawsuits, especially if folks do not want to receive them, even when it is in a person’s best interest to be well-informed. Singapore’s top court is considering use of social media to get the job done. Facebook and Twitter are already serving legal documents in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Just as YouTube is trying to grow up into a sophisticated age of arts and culture, social networking sites could become legal avenues of service, finding folks where footwork is less effective.


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Court Server Leaves Gun in Viera Walmart

After falling ill, a 65-year-old Brevard County court process server left his loaded 9-mm handgun at the sink of a Walmart restroom in Viera on Monday, but the sidearm was secured about a half-hour later without injury to anyone.

According to a report by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, Ronald Kostin of Viera, an independent process server, felt sick around 9 a.m. Monday and went into the men’s restroom of the Walmart Supercenter at 8500 N. Wickham Road.


Under a concealed-weapons permit, Kostin carries a silver-and-black Makarov 9-mm, a Hungarian-made weapon most notably used in the former Soviet Union’s military. On Monday, it contained a clip with eight rounds.


“He placed his handgun on the sink in the handicap stall of the men’s restroom,” the case report said. “After he felt better, Mr. Kostin left in a hurry to go serve someone at Kennedy Space Center. He accidentally forgot the gun.”


Kostin drove northward to KSC, where he remembered the weapon and called the Walmart and the sheriff’s office. A manager went into the bathroom and secured the gun more than a half-hour after it was misplaced.


No customers came into contact with the firearm, according to the sheriff’s office.


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Oksana's Lawyers Set To Subpoena Mel Gibson's Ex-Wife

Oksana Grigorieva's lawyers want to question Mel Gibson's ex-wife Robyn about her claims the Braveheart star was not violent during their marriage, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
Team Oksana is poised to sensationally subpoena Robyn Moore Gibson to appear before a deposition; Robyn, of course, is the same woman who the actor left for the Russian musician after 28 years of marriage.

As RadarOnline.com was first to report, Oksana has told law enforcement that Mel once admitted hurling a television at his former wife.

The actor's ex-girlfriend also said she personally witnessed him hitting his youngest son, Tommy.

The legal move adds yet another twist in the bitter battle between the Mel and Oksana and could result in Robyn being forced into the witness stand to be questioned.

Oksana's legal advisors want to probe Robyn about the sworn affidavit she submitted to the court stating Mel was not ever abusive to her or his children.

"Mel never engaged in any physical abuse of any kind toward me before, during, or after our marriage," Robyn reportedly told the judge overseeing the case.

Robyn's support of Mel raised eyebrows within Oksana's camp who want to question her motivation for doing so, said a source familiar with the case.

She filed for divorce from the Oscar-winning Braveheart star last year, citing irreconcilable differences.

The decision triggered one of Hollywood's most expensive divorces, because the pair reportedly had no pre-nup and she was able to secure half of the star's $850 million fortune.

Robyn, 54, is the mother of Mel's seven children - six of whom are adults.

Specifically Oksana's lawyers want to investigate what supposedly happened during one allegedly brutal confrontation throughout their marriage.

"Mel was telling several times how he threw a TV into her (Robyn) once when they were arguing," a source has claimed.

"Thank god he missed and the TV fell out a second story window."

Oksana also alleges that Mel hit Tommy in the head while at a hockey game at Los Angele's Staples Center two-and-a-half-years ago.

"Oksana told authorities about Mel's 'angry outbursts' toward his own family and friends," said a source familiar with the Mel Gibson investigation.


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Sheriff Won't Serve Himself Summons

A hearing regarding the validity of Gov. Bob Riley’s appointment for sheriff of Greene County had to be delayed on Tuesday because the man whose qualifications were being questioned didn’t appear.

The plaintiffs contend the reason he was never served a summons to appear was because he didn’t serve himself.

The sheriff’s attorney, however, contends that he never needed to appear in the first place.

George Cook was appointed sheriff of Greene County by the governor on June 18. Three days later, two county residents — current coroner and former interim Sheriff Ronald K. Smith and former County Commissioner Garria Spencer — filed court action to determine whether Riley’s selection complied with state law.

They contend that Riley’s choice was improper because Cook was a Tuscaloosa County resident working as an enforcement agent for the Alabama Beverage Control Board and not a registered Greene County voter at the time of the appointment. That same day, an entire courtroom full of people turned out to agree with them during an organized protest the appointment at the Greene County Courthouse.

Prince Darius Chestnut, who is representing the plaintiffs but also serves as the Greene County Commission’s legal counsel, accused Cook and his legal team on Tuesday of trying to stall the case until at least January 2011, when Cook’s interim role as sheriff ends, and the county’s newly elected sheriff — most likely Jonathan “Joe” Benison, who won the Democratic primary and faces no Republican opposition in the November general election — will take over.


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Johnson and Johnson Discloses More Subpoenas Over Consumer Recalls

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson and Johnson disclosed Wednesday that the health products giant has now received multiple subpoenas from federal prosecutors related to repeated recalls of Tylenol and other consumer health products.

The grand jury subpoenas request "documents broadly relating to" both the recent recalls of products made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare and inspections of two of the unit's factories.

One of the plants, in the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, Pa., has been shut down since April due to multiple problems and is expected to remain shut until at least next summer.

The other, in Lancaster, Pa., is operated by a joint venture called Johnson & Johnson/Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co. Food and Drug Administration inspectors noted many severe problems after spending a dozen days there, from not following rules for manufacturing quality to poor record-keeping.

Johnson & Johnson mentioned the grand jury subpoenas, filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, in its quarterly financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The disclosure follows one made by a company official on July 20, when J&J reported its second-quarter results, that it had received a single subpoena related to the recalls. J&J gave no details about that subpoena at the time, but said that the recalls and plant closure would cost the company $600 million this year alone.

The maker of Band-Aids, birth control and biotech drugs said it is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office in responding to the subpoenas.

"The company and its subsidiaries are vigorously contesting the allegations asserted against them and otherwise pursuing defenses to maximize the prospect of success," J&J said in the quarterly filing.

Those allegations also include demands for documents from "multiple State Attorneys General Offices relating to the same issues," according to the SEC filing. The filing also noted that multiple lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed against the company related to the recalls. The company gave no further details.

Company officials declined further comment.

Patricia Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, said she could neither confirm nor deny any investigation.

New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J has been under scrutiny by Congress, FDA officials and others for eight recalls since September covering tens of millions of bottles of pain reliever Tylenol and other popular nonprescription medicines. That includes some liquid medicines for children.

The series of recalls covered products made at the Fort Washington plant and another in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. They have involved problems ranging from contamination with bacteria and a nauseating smell on containers to possible problems with the wrong amount of active ingredient and liquid medicines that may contain tiny metal shavings.

In May, an FDA official told Congress the agency had turned the case over to its Office of Criminal Investigations. No one has been charged.

The Fort Washington factory makes nonprescription pain relievers, allergy medicine, sleeping pills and heartburn tablets. The recalled products include liquid Tylenol for infants and children, Tylenol arthritis caplets, Motrin, Benadryl, Rolaids, St. Joseph's aspirin and Simply Sleep.

The manager of the Fort Washington plant has since been fired, 300 of the 400 workers there will lose their jobs shortly and the fiasco led Johnson & Johnson to sharply reduce its 2010 profit forecast.

Then a July 21 FDA report on inspections at the Lancaster, Pa., factory in the past month indicates a pattern of ignoring rules for manufacturing and quality, failure to investigate problems that could affect the composition of products, carelessness in cleaning and maintaining equipment, and shoddy record-keeping. In some cases, medicine batches made during equipment failures were not checked for quality. That factory makes nonprescription heartburn medicines Mylanta and Pepcid, plus Imodium for diarrhea.

In trading Wednesday, shares fell down 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $58.50, as the broader markets also declined.

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Probe to Focus on how Felon Became Notary, Process Server

Vilisia Coleman is a felon, but that didn't stop the second suspect arrested in a growing Clark County court scandal from becoming a state-approved notary public and unlicensed process server.

State regulators are investigating how Coleman slipped under the radar.

Coleman, 46, who police say was a process server and office manager for On Scene Mediations, the unlicensed company at the center of the scandal, was sentenced to three years of probation for felony cocaine possession in 2006 and ordered to undergo drug treatment, records show.

She also has a gross misdemeanor conviction for attempted grand larceny at a local Walmart in 2001, records show.

In that case, she was charged with violating her two-year probation in 2003 and ordered to spend eight months behind bars at the Clark County Detention Center.

Coleman, back in custody Tuesday, is now charged in what authorities call a sweeping scheme to file false court affidavits that allowed payday loan and debt collection companies to get default judgments in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Also charged is Maurice Carroll, 41, a former Las Vegas police officer who owns On Scene Mediations. He is free on $35,000 bond.

Because of her criminal history, Coleman by law cannot receive a notary appointment from the state or be a licensed process server.

But Secretary of State Ross Miller said Coleman obtained a notary appointment from his office in June 2009. When she applied to become a notary, she filled out a form that asked if she had ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. She checked the "No" box, said Miller, who has ordered an investigation.

He would not discuss his investigation further but said state agents have spoken with Las Vegas police, who are spearheading the criminal investigation.

Miller said that in November 2009, several months after Coleman received her notary appointment, she reported to Las Vegas police that her notary stamp had been stolen. He said Coleman got a new stamp from his office in January, and the old stamp never surfaced.

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White House Gate Crashers Served With Court Papers

'Real Housewives of DC' star Michaele Salahi and her husband were presented with court papers from PR firm Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications during their own private party Thursday at EFN nightclub, The Washington Post reports.

The company alleges the White House gate crashers owe more than $15,000 in unpaid fees from a 2008 polo event. "It was an affidavit for debtors interrogatory," Steve Winter, president of BWF, said (via RadarOnline.)

"It means they'll have to appear in court to discuss their financial means -- how they are capable of paying off the debt."According to one BWF employee, when Michaele's husband was handed the documents and dropped them on the floor.

When the process server tried to deliver them again, Tareq dropped the papers a second time and called security.Last week, Salahi accused Whoopi Goldberg of manhandling her during 'The View.'

Goldberg confronted the D.C. housewife backstage, using obscene language to drive home her disgust."I think I started crying," Salahi said on NBC's 'Today' on Thursday, "because now I have someone that I don't even know, I'm a guest of their show, and they're berating me" with expletives.

When Wednesday's broadcast was over, Goldberg said, "I was told that she thought I hit her. So I went up to her and I told her that she KNEW I didn't hit her. And yeah, you know how I said it: choice words."During the ruckus, Salahi's husband began filming the scene with his cell phone.

"Needless to say, I really went off, then. And there was even more, choicer words. I mean, they were so choice you could have cut'em with a knife and eaten them," Goldberg added.

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Subpoena for Toyota Over Defects in Steering

A federal grand jury in New York has subpoenaed Toyota Motor, seeking information on steering-related defects in its vehicles. The move could widen an investigation into the automaker’s handling of a recall in 2005.

In a short filing on Tuesday with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Toyota said the subpoena, received by subsidiaries in the United States on June 29, had demanded documents about defects in steering relay rods in the company’s cars.

Toyota intended to “cooperate earnestly” with investigations, the filing said. Toyota had already received two subpoenas this year, one from a grand jury in February for documents related to sudden acceleration and braking and one from the Michigan attorney general in March for information on recalls.

It was not immediately clear what defects — or which models or production years — the latest subpoena concerned. Ririko Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Toyota based in Tokyo, said the automaker was still clarifying details of the subpoena.

Earlier this year, American regulators said they were investigating a 2005 Toyota recall — for a steering-related problem in vehicles including 4Runners — in connection with a possible breach of rules for alerting the authorities about flaws.

The Transportation Department said in May that it was investigating the timing of the September 2005 recall for steering relay rod defects after an October 2004 recall in Japan for the same flaw. Under American law, carmakers have five days to report safety problems to regulators.


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Subpoenas Continue For Terri Horman's Friends

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Another friend of Terri Horman has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury this week as the investigation into 7-year-old Kyron Horman's disappearance reached its 61st day.

Chelsea Aleshire, who identified herself as a close friend to Terri Horman, said she will appear in court Thursday. Aleshire spoke to Terri Horman on the day Kyron disappeared from Skyline School, but at the time they spoke, Aleshire was not aware that Kyron was missing, she said.

She has not spoken to Terri Horman since then, she said.

Aleshire is at least the second of Terri Horman's friends to have been subpoenaed. Eight days ago, DeDe Spicher appeared before the grand jury. Sources have said Spicher did not answer any questions. Kyron's birth parents, Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, have suggested she's not cooperating with the investigators.

Jim McIntyre, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who is not involved in the case, said the grand jury is a tool for investigators to question people under oath.

"In Oregon, you can talk to police officers all day long and as long as you're not providing them with false information about date of birth, you can lie. And it's not a crime," McIntyre said. "But put somebody in front of a grand jury and put them under oath, then if they start to lie, there starts to be some serious consequences."

In Multnomah County, McIntyre said grand juries are comprised of seven people selected from the jury pool. They listen to witness testimony and can issue an indictment if at least five of the seven agree.The grand jury proceedings are secret, and details about the subject of discussion are unknown.

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Arrest Warrant Issued for Process Server

LAS VEGAS -- An arrest warrant has been issued for a process server accused of falsifying paperwork in dozens of cases and potentially hundreds more, in what police called a scheme to defraud the courts.

Former Las Vegas Metro police officer Maurice Carroll is wanted by police for 35 counts of perjury, false filing of paperwork and obtaining money under false pretenses. Metro says he said he served people with legal papers, but didn't.

Carroll runs On Scene Mediations out of a North Las Vegas home. The criminal complaint said he admitted to officers he lied on affidavits and falsified work. That has caused problems in an unknown number of cases at the Regional Justice Center and potentially in District Court.

Defendants lost cases because they had not been notified could try to overturn judgments.

One of those already going through that trouble is Alan Wood. He's racked up $20,000 fighting what amounted to be a $700 charge for a medical bill. All it seems because of improper paperwork.

The fallout even reached his work. "My payroll department called me one day and said, 'Hey, you know, we just got a judgment and a garnishment against you,' and I said, 'That's impossible. I've never been to court,'" he said.

These mistakes can continue until keen-eyed workers at the court sort through the hundreds of old and pending cases trying to see if Carroll's firm had anything to do with them.

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Process Server was Cited by State Investigators

State investigators in 2003 cited former Las Vegas police officer Maurice Carroll for operating as a process server without a license, but he did not appear on their radar again until a couple of months ago, when justices of the peace complained about his activities.

Las Vegas police are now investigating allegations that Carroll's latest process serving company, On Scene Mediations, submitted false affidavits in justice courts around the valley, potentially disrupting the lives and finances of thousands of civil case defendants.

On Scene Mediations is alleged to have filed affidavits swearing that it served defendants with copies of lawsuits, but in many cases the lawsuits were not served, police said. That resulted in judgments of default against some defendants because they failed to respond to the lawsuits in a timely manner.

The company's clients include widely known payday loan and debt collecting firms.

Police suspect that Carroll, 42, who left the police department in 2000 after roughly 10 years on the job, has been an unlicensed process server since 2003, but they said they have yet to substantiate their suspicions.

Mechele Ray, executive director of the Nevada Private Investigators License Board, said agency investigators issued Carroll a $2,500 citation in late 2003 after receiving a complaint that he wasn't licensed. The citation, approved by board members in March 2004, ordered Carroll to stop doing business, she said.

But Ray acknowledged that the agency has no record of any other action against Carroll until the Las Vegas justices of the peace complained about him in May.

The board now has an ongoing investigation of Carroll, she said.

Court officials said they don't know the scope of the problems On Scene Mediations created for Southern Nevada's courts, but police estimated thousands of cases could be affected. Records show that Carroll's company, which was run out of his North Las Vegas home, was doing about $50,000 in business a month, police said.

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Living by the Goldman Rule

What profiteth the man who loses honor while reaping gold? Plenty!

As in that new Gulfstream fast enough to outrun the process server. And the house in Montecito, Calif., with walls high enough you can’t hear the howling do-gooder mob outside.

Sure, we want the respect of the world — as long as it doesn’t mean giving up bonuses as big as the gross national product of a Baltic republic for nothing more than showing up to collect the check. Such are the elements of the philosophy we call the Goldman rule. And if you want to keep collecting those bonuses, you ought to practice it every day.

Do unto yourself as you would have others do unto you: That’s the gist. Or, in simple Goldman terms, look out for ol’ No. 1. Treat everybody exactly the way you suspect they would treat you if the tables were turned. For example, no backstabbing — unless you sense somebody’s about to backstab you, which allows you to wield the dagger first, because, come on people, how can you follow the Goldman rule if you’re dead?

By the way, you don’t really have to lose respect while reaping gold. You do just like the U.S. does in Afghanistan and buy it. Goldman guy walks into a room: palpable contempt. Goldman guy walks into a room and starts throwing around Rolex Oysters: palpable respect!

Thus, you can feel free to grab that obscene year-end bonus for yourself while blocking everybody else. Think about it: A great virtue of the Goldman rule is that you can. It’s actually humane. If you were in their tax bracket, you’d want to be spared all the tax problems, the estate-planning headaches and the media carping over huge windfalls that followed, resulting in public humiliation for your loved ones.

If you have loved ones. And if you do, you’re obviously spending too much time out of the office, betraying Goldman rule small-type disclaimer Q-556-9A: “If you can’t do the time, don’t expect Goldman to cover up the crime.”

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Town Upset with Process Server

FRONT ROYAL -- Town officials are upset with the way defendants in a $30 million lawsuit were served their notices during a Town Council work session.

"I don't know how else to describe it, [the process server] was slapping the copies [of the lawsuit] down on the table, just plopping the copies of the lawsuit to the named defendants and to me, which was of course to serve the town," Town Attorney Thomas R. Robinett said of the Monday session.

"I think he did, if not disrupt, he certainly interrupted an ongoing meeting of the council," Robinett said. "In other words, all they had done was vote to close the meeting and therefore to clear the room. Their meeting was ongoing and continuing at the time he decided it was time to serve process, and various folks started snapping pictures and running video cameras and whatever."

The town and three councilmen are defendants in the $30 million defamation suit that is related to an allegation involving whether Town Manager J. Michael Graham was offered what could be construed as a bribe during the bidding process for the construction of a solar energy farm.

On Thursday, David W. Silek, of the Manassas law firm of Ours & Silek, filed the lawsuit in Warren County Circuit Court on behalf of SolAVerde LLC, Donald F. Poe and Gregory A. Horton.

In addition to the town, the defendants in the lawsuit are Vice Mayor Chris W. Holloway and Councilmen Carson C. Lauder Jr. and Thomas H. Sayre.

Silek says Horton and Poe are partners in SolAVerde. Horton is the owner of Arctic Air Refrigeration Inc. in Front Royal, and Poe operates a local construction business, Silek says, adding there could possibly be other defendants added to the lawsuit.

Silek had informed The Northern Virginia Daily prior to Monday's meeting that he was going to have the defendants served at that time.

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Use of Private Process Servers Is Up; Concern Is, Too

When Frank Knight fell behind on his house payments in 2008 and the mortgage lender began a foreclosure case, a process server said he handed Mr. Knight the court papers at his bungalow on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

But public records show that at the time the server said Mr. Knight was being served, Mr. Knight was at a job site on the West Side, more than seven miles from his brick home in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

“He lied on his affidavit,” Mr. Knight said this week. “I just feel like they were trying to foreclose upon me and my family as fast as possible. Why? So the bank could get their hands on this property, so they could turn it around.”

The man responsible for hand-delivering the foreclosure papers to Mr. Knight’s home is a special process server, an employee of a private detective agency. In the summer of 2007, with the housing bubble bursting and the number of foreclosure cases soaring, a Cook County judge issued an order making it easier for mortgage-foreclosure lawyers to hire special process servers to do what otherwise would be carried out by Cook County sheriff’s deputies, according to records reviewed by the Chicago News Cooperative and the Better Government Association.

The process server in Mr. Knight’s case was Timothy McWard, who said he did not recall the case. But Mr. McWard said he has served more than 20,000 legal documents in the past five years and the papers are “always given to somebody,” he said. “They will say whatever they can to save their house.”

A lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Chicago is challenging the practice, saying it is a violation of state and federal law for the judge to allow freer use of special process servers. The lawyer for David L. Washington, the foreclosed property owner who is the plaintiff in the suit, said he hoped to convert the case into a class-action suit that would void tens of thousands of foreclosure cases handled by special process servers in recent years.

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Town Upset with Process Server

FRONT ROYAL -- Town officials are upset with the way defendants in a $30 million lawsuit were served their notices during a Town Council work session.
"I don't know how else to describe it, [the process server] was slapping the copies [of the lawsuit] down on the table, just plopping the copies of the lawsuit to the named defendants and to me, which was of course to serve the town," Town Attorney Thomas R. Robinett said of the Monday session.
"I think he did, if not disrupt, he certainly interrupted an ongoing meeting of the council," Robinett said. "In other words, all they had done was vote to close the meeting and therefore to clear the room. Their meeting was ongoing and continuing at the time he decided it was time to serve process, and various folks started snapping pictures and running video cameras and whatever."
The town and three councilmen are defendants in the $30 million defamation suit that is related to an allegation involving whether Town Manager J. Michael Graham was offered what could be construed as a bribe during the bidding process for the construction of a solar energy farm.
On Thursday, David W. Silek, of the Manassas law firm of Ours & Silek, filed the lawsuit in Warren County Circuit Court on behalf of SolAVerde LLC, Donald F. Poe and Gregory A. Horton.
In addition to the town, the defendants in the lawsuit are Vice Mayor Chris W. Holloway and Councilmen Carson C. Lauder Jr. and Thomas H. Sayre.
Silek says Horton and Poe are partners in SolAVerde. Horton is the owner of Arctic Air Refrigeration Inc. in Front Royal, and Poe operates a local construction business, Silek says, adding there could possibly be other defendants added to the lawsuit.
Silek had informed The Northern Virginia Daily prior to Monday's meeting that he was going to have the defendants served at that time.

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Grand jury subpoenas Lance Armstrong sponsor Trek in cycling drug probe

A federal grand jury investigating possible doping conspiracies in cycling has issued a subpoena for documents to the Trek Bicycle Corporation, the Wisconsin-based bike manufacturer that sponsored Lance Armstrong's cycling teams since 1998, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.

The grand jury's investigation coincides with the recent confession of performance-enhancing drug use by Armstrong's former teammate Floyd Landis, who alleged that Armstrong, other top riders, and team leaders were complicit in doping practices on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Federal grand juries, which convene in secrecy, have the power to issue subpoenas for documents, witness testimony, or both. According to a Daily News source close to the case, testimony subpoenas have not yet been issued.

Bill Mashek, a spokesman for Trek, said the company would not comment on an ongoing federal investigation, and sent the Daily News a statement from the company.

"Trek will not comment on whether or not it has been contacted by federal investigators; however, if contacted, the company would fully cooperate in an investigation," the statement said.

Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal quoted Landis saying Armstrong's team sold high-end racing bikes to finance an sophisticated doping program that included blood transfusions and performance-enhancing drug use. Armstrong has strenuously denied all allegations that he doped on his way to Tour de France victories. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Melissa Etheridge Was Expecting a Call From the Kids, Got Served Instead

A process server didn't come to Melissa Etheridge's window, but his arrival at the door of her hotel room wasn't particularly welcome, either.

"In a ploy to have me served, and mistakenly believing that by serving me I would have to dismiss my Petition, [Tammy Lynn Michaels] used our children as pawns," Etheridge states in a declaration released Thursday in which she describes how she was presented with her ex's petition for sole custody of their 3-year-old twins.

The Grammy and Oscar winner says Michaels told her the kids were going to meet Etheridge at her hotel. "Finally, I received a text message...stating, 'My plans changed, sorry,'" the singer recounts.

View the documents.

Etheridge offered up this custody-battle fodder as part of a filing objecting to Michaels' request for more spousal support, plus $4,300 in monthly child-support payments so that the former Popular actress—who says she has no income at this time—can afford childcare while she's out working.

Among the monthly expenses Michaels lists in her latest court filing are $6,000 for rent, $1,500 for groceries, $800 for eating out and $50 for laundry and cleaning. Plus, she's used to spending $5,000 a month on clothes.

Etheridge makes between $600,000 and $750,000 a month, Michaels claims—more than enough to fork over more dough.

But Etheridge, who stated in her petition to dissolve their domestic partnership that she wants to share custody of daughter Johnnie Rose and son Miller, isn't biting.

Her lawyer told a judge Monday that his client has been giving Michaels $2,000 a month and paying all of her household expenses.

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Scottsdale Asking Judge for Alternative Measure to Serve Alleged Speeders, Red-Light Runners

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The city of Scottsdale is looking at giving process servers some additional power when it comes to serving residents with red-light-running or speeding tickets.

In a move designed to crack down on people who ignore those tickets, the city is asking a judge for permission to run an alternative measure to serve alleged offenders.

Right now a process server has to make actual physical contact with a person in order to serve him or her with a summons.

If the judge approves the city's request, process servers who have made three attempts to serve a summons will be allowed to leave a court date at the driver's home address without any signatures. The alleged offender would be required to appear in court on that date and proceedings would then move forward from there.

Missing that court date would result in a suspended driver license.

Attorneys Christopher Corso and John Rhude of the Peoria law firm Corso & Rhude are challenging Scottsdale's proposed serving process, saying "it will set a dangerous precedent."



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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Served Legal Papers

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently received a side dish of legal papers with his lunch while at a media lunch event on Saturday in Idaho.

According to an article in the NY Post, he was sitting with COO Sheryl Sandberg when someone approached their table, asked for Zuckerberg's signature and stated, "You've been served."

What the lawsuit is about is not clear. The NY Post indicates that a Facebook spokeswoman had "no immediate details" about the lawsuit.

Zack Whittaker, who writes the iGeneration blog on ZDNet posted some updated information on the situation on Sunday.

I spoke to ZDNet blogger Denise Howell, a qualified lawyer in regards to this to try and get a better perspective of this issue ... Howell said, "Long story short, the law specifies ‘personal service’ for things like a summons and complaint or a subpoena ... Service by ambush like this is something more the province of collection actions against deadbeats, not captains of industry in Sun Valley. Seems like there’s some kind of embarrassment-related agenda at work here perhaps.”

Hard to say what the alleged lawsuit is about but the facts behind it are likely to surface over the next few days. After all, there's nothing faster than the social media grapevine.

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Wisconsin Department of Justice Settles Grievance with Agent Accused of Harrasing Process Server

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A state Justice Department agent accused of harassing a process server has settled a grievance with the agency.

Special Agent Gilbert Magolan was suspended for 30 work days in March. Magolan appealed the violation.

Magolan on Tuesday agreed to drop his appeal. DOJ in return reduced his suspension to 30 calendar days and agreed to reimburse him for eight days of lost wages.

According to agency documents, a process server complained Magolan was harassing him after he tried to serve Magolan with a lawsuit over a dentist bill. Magolan improperly used a DOJ fax machine to send a complaint about the server to state licensing officials and improperly persuaded a police officer to find the server's address through the National Crime Information Center.

A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council, the union that represents DOJ agents, didn't immediately return messages.

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Lindsay Lohan Had "F*** U" On Fingernail In Court

Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) - So was all the crying and begging and pleading just part of the show? Lindsay Lohan was spotted with a "f*** u" written on her middle fingernail the entire time she was in court Tuesday.

Just before she was sentenced to 90 days in jail, Lohan, 24, made the impassioned plea to Judge Martha Revel to go easy on her, saying that she has done everything that the court expected of her.

However, WWTDD.com has discovered that the sometime actress had "f*** u" written on her left hand middle fingernail, which was pointed toward Revel for most of the day. It begs the question whether her whole "I am not taking this as a joke" speech was sincere.

There's more trouble for Lohan, who allegedly received a punch from a waitress when she was celebrating her 24th birthday during the weekend. According to TMZ, she was served with legal papers in a civil lawsuit while she was in the courtroom elevator.

Lohan was on her way to the courtroom when a process server working for Tough As Nails attempted to hand her the legal documents. The process server said she "freaked out" and told people around her to get the guy out of the elevator. She would not take the papers so the process server dropped them on the elevator floor by her feet.

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War Crimes Court Orders Naomi Campbell to Testify

(CNN) -- A war crimes tribunal served a subpoena on supermodel Naomi Campbell Thursday, ordering her to testify in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

The court ordered her to appear July 29 to testify or "show good cause why" she cannot.

If she fails to comply she could face a prison term of up to seven years, a fine of about $500, or both, the subpoena says.

Campbell's lawyer, Gideon Benaim, had no immediate response, his secretary said.

Prosecutors asked the court in May to order the supermodel to testify about allegations she got a "blood diamond" from Taylor, and requested permission to reopen their case against him.

The court granted both requests this week.

Read the subpoena -- PDF

Taylor faces war crimes charges over a brutal conflict in Sierra Leone which was fueled by rough diamonds, also known as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds.

The prosecution -- which rested in February of last year -- asked to reopen their case specifically in order to call Campbell, as well as actress Mia Farrow and a witness named Carole Taylor, court papers show.

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Anti-tax advocate served with subpoena

DENVER — Colorado Attorney General John Suthers finally got his man.

Suthers' spokesman Mike Saccone said Tuesday that process servers located anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce and served him with a citation for contempt of court after trying more than 30 times to serve him with a subpoena.

Denver District Court Judge Brian Whitney ruled there is evidence that Bruce flouted the law. He ordered Bruce to show up July 26 for a hearing.

Bruce said he was never properly served.

"I did nothing wrong, that's the upshot, because I was never served. The judge has already found me guilty, he's already made up his mind. This is America, and Douglas Bruce has rights to due process of law," Bruce said.

Bruce was in court Tuesday fighting a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in an unrelated case, but Saccone said he didn't know when or where process servers found Bruce.

Kathleen Walsh, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Bruce was ordered to show up Wednesday to testify before the grand jury. She said the grand jury proceedings are secret and she refused to disclose why Bruce was called to testify.

The judge denied a motion by Bruce to quash the two subpoenas for the grand jury after Bruce contended they weren't valid because one was unsigned and the other didn't provide sufficient notice.

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