We’ve all done it. It’s lunch time, we want something fast and easy so we swing by McDonald’s, order a double quarter-pounder with cheese, and we’re on our way. Then we decide we don’t want to wait to eat that juicy burger that’s calling our name so we start eating on the drive back. That’s what Madison Turner of Alabama did, but what he didn’t expect was to find himself holding a ticket for distracted driving because of it.
Traffic defense lawyer William Head said he had never seen a citation like that before. “I’ve only seen something like this charge when there’s an accident,” he said. “There was no accident here so the fact that this man was charged with eating and driving is a first for me.” He went on to say, “if this was the law, I’d have to hire more attorneys because everybody does it, including me.” Cobb County Solicitor General Barry Morgan told Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would prosecute if he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that eating affected his driving, but in order to do so would mean proving Turner was eating the burger, the burger was distracting, and that the distraction made Turner drive unsafely.
Turner will appear in court February 3rd.

Bryant Cochran, former chief judge of Murray County’s Magistrate Court, was convicted on federal charges in Rome, Georgia last Thursday for conspiring to plant meth under the car of Angela Garmley who accused him of propositioning her when she asked for legal help. Garmley claims back in 2012 she went to Cochran to get warrants against three people allegedly assaulting her. What she didn’t expect was for the judge to ask her to be his mistress and to come to see him wearing a dress with no underwear. After the accusations became public Cochran decided something had to be done. In August 2012 police stopped Garmley for failing to dim her headlights for oncoming cars. They then searched the car with a drug dog, but were unable to find anything according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Davis. Another officer – who also happened to be Cochran’s cousin – then informed police on the scene that the drugs were located in a magnetic box under the left, back end of the car. Garmley was charged with and everything seemed to be going to Cochran’s plan. That is until Cochran’s tenant admitted to hiding the drugs. Charges against Garmley were dropped and two deputies involved in her arrest plead guilty to obstruction.
Prosecutors alleged that while Cochran’s tenant planted the drugs, Cochran himself planned and orchestrated the plan and was also the one who called police with the tip that Garmley had drugs. Though Cochran was convicted on several charges, his lawyer, Page Pate, says he plans to appeal if the conviction isn’t set aside. Pate claims the tenant planted the drugs on his own accord and that Cochran had received several tips about Garmley’s drug use. “I will continue to fight as hard as I can for Bryant. Based on everything I know about this case, he is not guilty of any conspiracy to plant drugs,” Pate said.

For more see: http://www.abajourna...m_campaign=most_read http://www.ajc.com/n...rugs-on-woman/njQwd/

Fort Lauderdale, Florida has recently passed a new ordinance banning public food sharing and now one 90-year-old Arnold Abbot and two pastors may be paying the price. Arnold and the others were charged Sunday for feeding the homeless in public which means they could face jail time and a $500 fine.
“An officer said, ‘Drop that plate right now’ – like I had a weapon,” Abbott said. Though homeless advocates are against the new ordinance, city officials say they will enforce it. Mayor Jack Seiler also defended the law telling the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, “I’m not satisfied with having a cycle of homeless in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Providing them with a meal and keeping them in that cycle on the street is not productive.” But Arnold disagrees. “They have nothing. They don’t have a roof over their head,” he said. “Who can turn them away?” This isn’t the first time Arnold has been in this situation. In 1999 he sued the city for not allowing him to feed the homeless on the beach. He fought and won then and sais this threat isn’t going to stop him from doing it again saying he’ll be back out on Wednesday serving food to the homeless at Fort Lauderdale Beach.

For more see: http://www.cnn.com/2...e+%28RSS%3A+Crime%29

According to the Indiana Law Blog and the Indianapolis Star Judge Edward Najam Jr. didn’t like the smell of a few appeals that came across his desk. Not that there was something wrong with the case, but that the papers literally smelled funny.
The judge's footnote said the smell coming from the documents was “consistent with that of cigarette or pipe smoke that is apparent, offensive, and consistent. We kindly remind all those who handle the record on appeal to avoid such contamination.” Though both cases were handled by the same deputy attorney general the offices are in a smoke-free building and the documents handled by several other people. Spokesman for the attorney general, Bryan Corbin, said he couldn’t speculate on how the documents became so stinky. The good news is the smell didn’t seem to affect the appeals. Convictions were held in both cases.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Trade Secrets Protection Act are both bipartisan bills that have been introduced in recent months to Congress to hopefully provide a remedy for trade secret misappropriation. Both amend the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. As of September 17, 2014 the Trade Secrets Protection Act has been approved by the House Judiciary Committee and is presumably moving toward a full House vote. Copyrights, patents, and trademarks are already covered by Federal protection, trade secrets, however, are not. These bills would finally extend Federal civil protection to these trade secrets. If the new bills are passed, they would provide new, better tools and leverage with which to fight competitors and the occasional former employees. Some of this would include:

1. Trade secret law across the country would be uniform.
2. Procedures for ex parte seizure of evidence.
3. Statute of limitations will be longer.
4. Increased recoverable damages.
5. Direct access to Federal Courts
6. Strong statement that trade secret protection is an important U.S. public policy.

See http://www.jdsupra.c...campaign=legalalerts for more information.