Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that Tanisha Gomez (DOB 06/18/85) of 132-39 88th Street, Ozone Park, New York, pled guilty today to all counts of a nine count indictment that charged her with:

• three counts of Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, class “B” Felonies,
• one count of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class “C” Felony,
• one count of Vehicular Assault in the First Degree, a class “D” Felony,
• one count of Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated, an unclassified Misdemeanor in the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law,
• two counts of Driving While Intoxicated, unclassified Misdemeanors in the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law,
• one count of Reckless Driving, an unclassified Misdemeanor in the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law.

As I continue to involve my law firm with the internet world, I have come across some very useful legal links to websites and blogs. Here are a few that I check regularly:

– Are you a U.S. Supreme Court junkie? Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute is a terrific resource. Check out this link to review the latest decisions from the highest court in the land:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/

– There are so many other useful pages on this Cornell Law School site, but in particular, there is a link for New York law, which contains the NYS Constitution and statutes, Court of Appeals and Appellate Division decisions, and a lot more. Here is the link:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/ny.html

– Do you have questions about the NYS Civil Practice Law & Rules, better known as the CPLR? This blog has always been helpful to my litigation practice:

http://www.thecplrblog.com/

– I just added two RSS feeds to this Blog that you can find in the right column. The first is the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, and I always find it interesting:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/

– The second is FindLaw’s Noteworthy Decisions & Settlements Blog:

Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and officers from the New York Police Department arrested 5 men this morning in connection with a series of violent robberies in The Bronx And Westchester County including one robbery and assault on Pelham Road last fall.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joseph Anarumo Jr., the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Raymond W. Kelly, the Commissioner of the Police Department for the City of New York (“NYPD”), announced charges today against Fahd Hussain, Jermaine Dore, Dwayne Barrett, Taijay Todd, and Tameshwar Singh – five members of a violent robbery crew that operated in the Bronx and Westchester County, New York.

According to an indictment handed down this morning, on October 11th, 2011, Fahd Hussain, Jermaine Dore and Taijay Todd robbed at knifepoint a person engaged in the business of selling telephone calling cards during which the victim was beaten and more than $6,000 in cash and another $6,000 worth of telephone calling cards was taken from the victim. Other violent robberies like to the five-man crew occurred in Mount Vernon and The Bronx in which one victim was shot and killed and two others in which victims were stabbed during the course of the robberies.

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that James Pileggi (DOB 4/06/80) of 40 Mill Road, Eastchester, New York was sentenced today to an indeterminate term of three to nine years in state prison on his conviction after a jury trial of: one count of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class “C” Felony, for causing the death of Andre Everett.

On the evening of November 3, 2009, the victim, a New Rochelle realtor, was inside his home on Albert Place in New Rochelle.

He went out onto his driveway to talk to a group of acquaintances who were seated in the defendant’s car.

The car was owned by James Pileggi who at the time was an off-duty Eastchester Police Officer.

Pileggi was seated in the front passenger seat of his car and was playing with his off-duty gun, a Glock 9mm, with a laser sight affixed to it.

At some point while the victim was standing by the rear driver’s door, the defendant discharged the weapon and the bullet struck the victim in the throat.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Fevang Case will be the topic of discussion on tonights Talk of the Sound radio show at 7 p.m. Listen by clicking the link to the right, call-in to sound off at 805-830-8302.

Richard Fevang. who was facing a 66-Count Indictment for Fraud related to his work as DPW Fleet Manager for the City of New Rochelle, was sentenced today to 5 years probation and time served (1 day) by Judge Robert A. Neary under an agreement negotiated with Judge Albert Lorenzo. Under the deal, Fevang plead guilty to Tampering with Public Records, a Class D Felony. Judge Neary also approved a permanent order of protection to stay away from the entire population of New Rochelle. Neary warned Fevang that any contact, on any form, direct or indirect, with anyone from New Rochelle would be a violation and could result in a separate prosecution.

"That's the last thing you need right now", said Judge Neary.

One of the hot issues being debated in Congress is the Stop Online Privacy Act or SOPA (a similar bill in the U.S. Senate is called Protect IP Act).  The internet world is waging a fierce battle against it, and I am pleased to see the opposition.

It is my view that SOPA is deeply flawed and being rushed through Congress without the proper due diligence of a substantive review.  I believe it creates a prior restraint of free speech on the internet and grants way too much power to the federal government to regulate speech and commercial activity, while eliminating rule of law safeguards to those regulated and sanctioned by the law.  I strongly urge opposition to this law as currently drafted.

I don’t deny that internet piracy is a real problem, but this law is a massively overbroad remedy to the problem.  Unfortunately, it appears to be moving quickly through both houses of Congress since it is backed by the massive money and power of the media corporate world.  The U.S. Senate vote is currently scheduled for January 24.

I noticed an interesting blog post entitled The Tort of Political Discriminationby Burt Likko. The writer raises a concern about something that probably occurs too often – a potential law school professor was denied a position because she held political views that were different from the rest of the faculty.