For the third week, federal forces continue to perform law enforcement duties in the District of Columbia pursuant to President Trump’s efforts to combat an alleged epidemic of crime there. This is despite the Department of Justice’s data indicating that violent crime in the district is at a 30-year low. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has instructed federal prosecutors to seek the highest possible charges against arrestees and to attempt to hold arrestees in pretrial detention. Some law enforcement encounters have raised questions about their legality, with a local U.S. Magistrate Judge recently describing one case as involving “the most illegal search I’ve ever seen in my life,” according to this report. Separately, the executive branch has announced plans to similarly deploy federal law enforcement in other cities like Chicago and New York, according to this story. Read on for more criminal law news.
New Executive Orders on Criminal Law. On August 25, President Trump signed a trio of executive orders affecting criminal law and procedure. Two of the orders target the practice of cashless bail. The more general order is directed at state and local jurisdictions that have eliminated or significantly reduced the use of cash bail for crimes involving a serious threat to public safety. The order requests that executive agency and department heads identify federal funding flowing to such jurisdictions for potential suspension or termination. The more specific order directed at D.C. orders federal law enforcement officials to hold arrestees in pretrial detention to the maximum extent permitted by law and instructs the Attorney General to review local policies that may permit the pretrial release of dangerous defendants, among other directives. Separately, the President signed an executive order prioritizing prosecution of offense involving the burning of the American flag to the extent permitted by law and authorizing the Attorney General to “pursue litigation to clarify the scope of First Amendment exceptions in this area.” The order acknowledges that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that burning an American flag as a political protest is constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment. Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).
They’ll Indict a Ham Sandwich . . . So goes the old saying among criminal law practitioners about grand juries. Apparently the same is not true for the throwing of a ham sandwich. Sean Charles Dunn was a Department of Justice employee who was unhappy with U.S Customs and Border Patrol officers on the streets of D.C. He encountered a group of agents on the street after purchasing a foot-long Subway sandwich and, after a verbal exchange with an officer, chucked his still-wrapped sandwich directly into one of the agent’s chest. Dunn was arrested and charged with felony assault on an officer, and was fired from his position at DOJ. CNBC and other news outlets report that a D.C. grand jury refused to return a true bill on the felony assault charge, a development the story notes is “rare.” According to the report, this is the second recent instance of a D.C. grand jury refusing to find probable cause to justify a felony charge.
County Election Board Chair Arrested. According to this report, the chair of the Surry County Board of Elections was arrested Wednesday on charges of felony child abuse, felony possession of Schedule I drugs, and felony contaminating food or drink with a controlled substance. The defendant in the case called police to report that his granddaughters had found pills in their Dairy Queen ice cream. In the course of investigating the complaint, police reviewed video surveillance, which allegedly showed the defendant putting the pills in the desserts. The pills field-tested positive for cocaine and ecstasy. The defendant is free after posting a $100,000 bond but has since resigned from his position with the Board of Elections.
Ankle Monitor Funding in Jeopardy. WRAL reports that funding has nearly run out for the outfit tasked with overseeing a commonly used GPS monitoring system in the state. The North Carolina Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN) operates in most counties within the state and keeps track of ankle monitoring data to help enforce “no contact” orders for criminal defendants, many of whom are charged with offenses like stalking or domestic violence protective order violations. The group is currently operating more than 1,200 ankle monitors in 63 North Carolina counties. The chair of CJIN’s governing board recently notified district court judges across the state that the program would be suspended as of August 18th. Some emergency funding from the Department of Public Safety has so far kept the monitors on through September, but the program’s future is unclear without additional long-term funding.
Lil Nude X? The musical artist Lil Nas X, famous for his 2019 crossover hit “Old Town Road,” was in the news this week after being arrested while walking down the street nude in Los Angeles around 6 p.m. last Friday. Police apparently suspected that he was experiencing a drug overdose at the time and delivered him to a hospital before taking him to jail. The criminal pleading alleges that Lil Nas X, also known as Montero Lamar Hill, charged at and injured three officers when they confronted him. He is charged with three counts of battery on an officer inflicting injury, along with one count of resisting an executive officer, all of which qualify as felonies under state law depending on the circumstances. An attorney for Lil Nas X described the incident, if true, as an “absolute aberration in [his] life.” The rapper spent three days in jail on the charges before posting a bond of $75,000 and agreeing to seek substance abuse treatment. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The AP has the story here.
More AI-Generated Legal Errors. An Australian lawyer representing a teenager on murder charges made the news this week when it came to light that he submitted a filing full of AI-generated mistakes and hallucinations to the Supreme Court of Victoria, delaying the proceedings for a full day. The errors included “fabricated quotes from a speech to the state legislature and nonexistent case citations purportedly from the Supreme Court,” according to the report. The defense informed the court that they had checked the initial citations generated by the artificial intelligence program and, finding them accurate, assumed that other citations were similarly correct. The prosecution apparently did not check the citations, leaving the court to discover the error. The story notes that such mistakes have led to sanctions against lawyers in other cases and that this incident is one in what is now a long-running list of similar AI-induced legal errors. In classic British style, the presiding justice in the case categorized the mishap as “unsatisfactory.”
Babe Ruth Baseball Fraud. According to this story from ESPN, George Herman “Babe” Ruth of Greenville, Tennessee, has been charged federally with over 90 counts of mail fraud, identity theft, money laundering and other offenses. The charges stem from the man’s alleged use of dead or retired professional baseball players’ names to make fraudulent claims in class action settlements. The indictment alleges that Mr. Ruth made or attempted to make more than $500,000 from the scam. Court records indicate Mr. Ruth was previously convicted of social security fraud in 2020 and only recently completed his period of supervised release for that conviction.
StrawBeary Ice Cream. Fox has the scoop on our criminal law animal story of the week. Camp Richardson is a resort in the Lake Tahoe region of California. Presumably responding to a break-in, deputies were momentarily frozen with surprise when they found a large black bear behind the counter of a local ice cream parlor. The bear, nicknamed “Fuzzy” by the deputies, eventually left the store without causing major damage, but not before helping himself to a variety of ice cream flavors. Fuzzy was especially interested in strawberry-flavored ice cream and was considerate enough to bearly make a mess in the process.
Florida Man. Around 10:15pm last Sunday, police received a call from a man reporting his involvement in a car accident. The 68-year-old Florida man had hit a deer while driving in the Ormond Beach area. The man was laying next to the injured animal and “visibly emotional” when deputies arrived. He also exhibited signs of impairment and failed a field sobriety test, leading to his arrest for driving under the influence. Despite his arrest, the man was soon back in good spirits, joking with the officers, “I hope you tell them the deer had a knife,” according to this report. It is unclear whether the deer survived.
Florida Batman. Meanwhile on the other side of the state, Cape Coral police praised a local man whose swift actions helped nab a suspect breaking into his neighbor’s home. On Wednesday, Kyle Myvet was in bed for the night wearing his complete set of Batman pajamas when his security system notified him that something was amiss. Myvet stepped outside to discover a suspect rifling through his truck and then entering the neighbor’s garage. Still in his Batman attire, Myvet successfully apprehended the would-be burglar and held the suspect until law enforcement arrived. The suspect was later charged with burglary and theft offenses. That story is here. The caped crusader earned his picture on the police department’s Facebook page, below (with credit to the Cape Coral Police Department and local ABC affiliate WPBF).
I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend. I can always be reached for questions, comments, or feedback at dixon@sog.unc.edu.