it ain’t what it seems
Last November a Colchester police officer allegedly failed to charge an off-duty Burlington police officer suspected of driving drunk. The alleged drunk resigned, and the Colchester officer was fired along with another Burlington officer who allegedly failed to be forthcoming during an internal investigation. Public criticism has, at times, been harsh.
In a January 28th interview [...]
“In this country we’ve lost the war on drugs but we still have to fight the battle.”
– Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux, president of the Vermont Sheriff’s Association, during a hearing before the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee considering whether to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
According to an AP story, a Maine man sold some drugs to the cops, then bought a winning lottery ticket with the proceeds. He was busted a few minutes later, and the ticket confiscated. In this case, there can be no doubt that the ticket was bought with ill-gotten gains, and the court will most likely [...]
The Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems recently announced a new policy not to seek payments from patients or insurers for obvious medical errors. Among the mistakes that hospitals won’t charge for are surgery on the wrong patient, surgery on the wrong body part and retention of a foreign object in the body. No [...]
The government filed an unopposed motion for a stay (temporary cessation of activity) in the Lambda Iota fraternity house forfeiture case, and Judge Sessions recently granted it. In support of its motion the government stated that “Investigation into additional activities and/or members of the conspiracy is ongoing…” and “deponents in the civil case will likely include [...]
The Burlington Free Press reported on October 27th that the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s Office had filed papers for the civil forfeiture of the Lambda Iota fraternity house on Pearl St. in Burlington because a few fraternity members were allegedly selling drugs, and two members of the Board of Governors were among the customers. (The article [...]
An earlier post, CSI Vermont, urged skepticism regarding conclusions of forensics laboratories and mentioned the previous inquiry into the operations of the FBI lab. Apparently the FBI learned nothing. Following a joint investigation, 60 Minutes and the Washington Post reported the FBI’s use of bullet lead analysis to tie crime bullets to a specific box [...]
Green Mountain Daily has recently reported that the Vermont State Police, under the guise of implementing the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System (18 VSA §4281 et. seq.), are data mining by obtaining the entire pharmacy prescription records of everyone prescribed a Schedule II, III or IV drug – and all without a warrant. As Justice [...]
With the tremendous popularity of CSI (and CSI New York and CSI Miami) the public now places great faith in crime labs. After all, there are strict procedures and the forensic scientists have little apparent reason to lie. Unfortunately, the public should be more skeptical. [...]