Last January, the operator of RipOffReport.com, which is the Xcentric Ventures, LLC filed a federal lawsuit in Iowa looking to block any further investigation of its activities by Sac Country, Iowa District Attorney Ben Smith. He had indicted one ROR operative, Darren Meade for witness tampering and other charges. In addition to this, RipOffReport sought an injunction blocking Attorney Ben Smith from further pursuing the investigation and last week a federal magistrate recommended granting the injunction in part.

Apart from this, the court rejected the claim of RipOffReport since “there is substantial evidence suggesting that the plaintiffs materially contributed to the alleged illegality of the information at issue. As noted above, there is an undisputed connection between Magedson and Meade concerning the Richer case, as they have participated in a “common cause” to free Richer. Xcentric made substantial payments to Meade while he was gathering information and posting complaints about the case. Including complaints with titles that associate certain state’s witnesses with illegal and embarrassing conduct.”

RipOffReport attempts to argue that, although it paid Meade substantial sums it didn’t have any advance involvement. And this is one of the reasons why the court rejected the claim, noting that it could not believe that RipOffReport was blissfully unaware of what Meade was planning to post. Meade has testified that RipOffReport founder Ed Magedson directed him to make posts about Bennet Kelley out of concern that he might represent one of their adversaries.

Despite the fact that the record indicated that RipOffReport had conspired with Meade. The magistrate recommended granting the injunction since it found Smith’s actions to be retaliatory for their posting negative content about him on each of RipOffReport pages.
The court explained, “there is substantial evidence that Smith’s actions have been motivated, in large part, by statements made about him on RipOffReport. Smith admits that he has worked over a thousand hours and has issued over one hundred subpoenas during his investigation into RipOffReport. Smith presented no evidence that in his role of Sac Country Attorney, he has devoted similar time and resources to other investigations of potential misdemeanor offenses.

The finder of fact could easily determine that Smith is treating this investigation differently, and indeed obsessively, because he is angry and embarrassed by RipOffReport posts that have criticized and ridiculed him. But this ignores the fact that Sac Country is a tiny country with only 10,350 people.

Most small counties like Sac Country are not normally targeted for abuse by large websites so that this investigation would take substantially more of Smith’s time than prior cases. The court recommended limiting the injunction only to Smith such that it would not prevent the Attorney General of Iowa or a special prosecutor from investigating potential criminal charges against plaintiffs. It means RipOffReport is by no means out of danger of indictment.

If you want to know the opinion of the Court, please feel free to visit this website for more information:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/275219321/Xcentric-Ventures-v-Ben-Smith-Injunction-Order

The post Magistrate Gives RipOffReport Split Decision To Where They Still Could Be Prosecuted appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.

Steve Bott

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down denials of same-sex marriage in each of the 50 states on Friday, in a decision held onto as a noteworthy time in history for LGBT rights.

In any case, now the decision must be issued — and numerous areas in Southern states where marriages of same-sex couples had been either banned or outlawed are not hurrying to change their policies in the wake of the decision.

Here’s a glance at how a few states have reacted:

Louisiana

Gov. Bobby Jindal, a outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, has power over marriage licenses in the city of New Orleans and has said that the city can’t issue licenses to same-sex couples until the local federal court has ordered them to. Execution of the court decision has additionally been held up in different parts of the state: Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell advised the state’s 63 different parishes to hold off for 25 days before beginning to issue licenses, according to Times-Picayune. .

Alexandra Bellink

Texas

Disarray rules in the Lone Star State, where Attorney General Ken Paxton told clerk’s offices before the decision not to issue any licenses on the off chance that it was upheld, until he sent word to do as such. However, the decision came and Paxton has issued the word to issues licenses, as indicated by the Houston Chronicle. Still, some more liberal clerks have started issuing same-sex marriage licenses on their own.

Alabama

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, a famous adversary of same-sex marriage who administers the state’s probate courts, has not yet halted any nearby judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Yet, probate judges there have reacted in an assortment of ways, including some who have quit issuing marriage licenses for both straight and gay couples, according to AL.com.

Mississippi

The state clerks are waiting for the local federal court to request them to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses, per an announcement from state Attorney General Jim Hood. Another authority, Mississippi Judiciary Chairman Andy Gipson, recommended that the state should consider not issuing marriage licenses altogether as a result of the ruling, according to the Clarion-Ledger

The post Where Are Same-Sex Marriages Being Blocked in the U.S.? appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.

Wikipedia/RWS

Some gamblers ended up winning $1.5 million at a casino. But, after the casino realized that the win was because the cards got shuffled they ordered the gamblers to return the money back.
Judge Donna Taylor from the State Superior Court sided alongside the Golden Nugget casino situated in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In this dispute, the 14 gamblers who were involved claim that it wasn’t their fault and that they should be permitted to keep the money the won.
The game which fell on the issue is mini-baccarat which was played back in April 2012. The casino had paid a manufacturer to pre-shuffle the cards, but it was later discovered that they have not been shuffled. The players started to realize the pattern in which the cards were coming, and they increased their bets from $10 right to $5000 and won 41 straight hands.

The ruling which was issued on Monday got publicized by the casino on Thursday. In it the judge determined that the games considered illegal under state law because they were not according to the rules and regulations of gambling.
The judge wrote that the dealer was in fault as it did not pre-shuffle the cards right before the beginning of the play. Thus, the cards were not pre-shuffled according to the regulations. He further stated that that this act was a violation of the Casino Control Act and, therefore, was not authorized. She ruled that any cash paid to the gamblers by the casino and any outstanding chips in their possession should be returned. In return of that, the gamblers would be refunded the money they first put up to play.

Wikipedia

The court’s ruling pleased the Golden Nugget and Tom Pohlman, the casino general manager said, “We believe it was the right decision.”
The ‘so called’ pre-shuffled cards were purchased by The Golden Nugget from a Kansas City manufacturer. In court, the manufacturer acknowledged that it failed to shuffle them. The casino accepted that the lawsuit with the manufacturer has been taken care of, but due to a confidentiality agreement, they can’t reveal the details.
This ruling by the judge was the latest in a long series of decisions which have been swinging between favoring the gamblers and favoring the casinos. Tillman Fertitta, Texas billionaire and the owner of the casino made the decision that the players keep their winnings. But this offer was dependent on the fact that the gamblers should drop their claims which they made against the casino, but they declined to do so.

For the disputed games, around $1 million chips remain outstanding, plus the casino paid out around $500,000 in winnings.

The post An Order Passed by the Judge; Gamblers Should Return $1.5 Million appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.

When what you need is ‘Straight Talk’ and not legal jargon that you will never be able to understand without full and detailed explanations every step of the way, where do you turn? Do you open up the phone book and throw a dart? Do you simply go off of the word of mouth from friends and relatives? Honestly, neither of these are good options. A legal representative that worked well for someone else may not work for you and your situation. Research is going to be your best option when it comes to a legal representative that will be able to represent you. This is especially true when it comes to family law, business law, and real estate disputes.

Here are some helpful items to look for in a Law Group:

* Free consultation: A firm that offers a 30 to 60-minute free consultation is obviously
vested in their clients. This gives the legal representative time to hear your point of view,
possibly review documentation and governing laws, and discuss with you what exactly the
options would be. From this free consultation, you will be able to make an educated
decision on whether or not the firm is a good fit for you and vice versa.

* Encourage Electronic Usage: There are plenty of firms that encourage correspondence
through forms of electronic measures instead of coming to the office every other day to
discuss something in person that could have been sent in an email. This saves money and
in turn shows you that the potential legal representative is concerned with your financial
health as well.

* Mediation versus Litigation: Not every case needs to go to court. This is not a new
realization for most legal representatives. Entertain the idea of meeting with legal
representatives that use mediation and collaborative law in your financial favor. They are
doing it to keep you out of court, keep your financial burdens low, and assist in closing the
case sooner rather than later. This is especially true if the outcome will be the same
regardless of going to court or not.

The post Three Points To Consider When Choosing A Law Group appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.

The U.S District Court Judge Murray came a step closer to carry out contempt charges against Joe Arpaio, a lawman in Arizona. The judge held the charges against the subject this Thursday because he failed to follow the court mandate in the case of racial-profiling back in 2007.

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr

Arpaio is an 82 year old Maricopa County sheriff who declares himself to be the toughest sheriff in America. He is accused of holding the Latino drivers for extended periods of time at traffic stops, last year. The case has transformed into a racial-profiling case.

The judge ordered to put a stop to such acts. To fulfill the purpose, the U.S District Court Judge Murray assigned a court monitor to supervise and manage the operations of the sheriff’s office.

Arpaio, Maricopa County and the Latino plaintiffs were ordered by Murray to file the court papers latest by the 8th of January. He declared that the issue be tried on the civil and criminal charges.

In the court hearing in downtown Phoenix, Snow cited some occurrences and said that he has some apprehensions regarding the deputies who were not told about the court’s mandate and order, where the material was not returned to the lawyers of the Latino drivers.

Photo Credit: mcso.org

He further added that there are some serious violations of law on many fronts and a number of issues are of great concern.

Snow issued his ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by the Latino plaintiffs in May 2013. The Latino drivers argued for their constitutional rights which they believed were violated because they were signaled out by the deputies for traffic stops.

The hearing was attended by Apraio along with his criminal defense attorney, Melvin McDonald on Thursday. He refused the racial profiling charges and made an appeal for the ruling of the last year made by Snow.

The post Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio May Face Civil and Criminal Charges appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.

Photo Credit: Facebook

The U.S. District Court filed charges on reality television stars Teresa and Joe Giudice for bankruptcy, bank, and mortgage fraud charges totaling more than $4 million.

On October 2, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge sentenced Teresa to 15 months for multiple fraud charges that she pleaded guilty to earlier this year. 
She has to surrender to authorities on January 5, 2015. Just before receiving her sentence, Teresa told the Judge that she takes responsibility for her actions and didn’t care about the Bravo TV series. She also said she was “more sorry than anyone will ever know.” Her words may have had some effect as the prosecutors were seeking 21 months.

Joe was sentenced to three years and after the sentencing, Joe told the court that he was “humiliated” by his actions and also took “full responsibility” for the consequences. Since Teresa has the less time to serve, she will go to prison first and Joe will take care of the kids while she is in prison. Joe will go to prison once Teresa is released from prison. Joe could also face possible deportation back to Italy after Joe serves his time.

“Prison is the appropriate penalty for these serious financial crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman after the sentencing.

Bravo TV has given no word on how today’s sentencing will effect the outcome of the show for the remainder of season six.

The post REAL HOUSEWIFES OF NEW JERSEY STARS GET TIME BEHIND BARS FOR FRAUD appeared first on NIR News / National Investigative Report.