I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Assistant U.S. trial attorney Kendall Day closed the prosecution’s argument in the Fieger trial Tuesday by calling the defendant, Geoffrey Fieger, a liar.
Day told the jurors that Fieger thought he was above the law and that he thought he was smarter than the jurors. “This isn’t ‘Law and Order,’” Day told the jurors. “There’s no way we’re going to be able to catch someone as slick and as smart as Mr. Fieger in an out-and-out lie.”
Later Tuesday, Fieger’s high-profile defense attorney Gerry Spence addressed the jury in rebuttal. He told the jurors that they could stop the federal government’s “hateful” abuse of power. Spence claimed that the Fieger case was about “freedom.” “If the government can do this to Mr. Fieger, the government can do it to anyone else,” Spence told the jurors in his closing argument.
Spence, a prominent Wyoming attorney who has tried numerous cases and boasts that he’s never lost one, also announced his retirement in court Tuesday, saying that Fieger’s will be his last case.
Continued -Geoffrey Fieger was on the witness stand for three days in his own defense last week, and said he believed all of the campaign reimbursements from his company were legal because he researched the law beforehand. The question now is not whether he broke the law but whether he knew he was breaking the law when he and his law partner Ven Johnson issued $127,000 in reimbursements to friends, family members and co-workers when they donated money to John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign.
Fieger, a controversial defense attorney best known for his defense in Jack Kevorkian’s assisted suicide trial, argued that he was bullied by the government throughout the investigation. Fieger and Johnson are charged with conspiracy, false statements and illegal campaign contributions, and could serve five years for each charge and a $250,000 fine (each) if they are convicted. They could also lose their law licenses.
U.S. Eastern District Judge Paul Borman is expected to leave the case up to the jury as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
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