Legalectric

Just the kind of press we all love, getting ejected from a hearing for calling the other side on their “crap.” In a criminal case, the prosecutor is required to turn over everything they’ve got against the defendant. The prosecutor hasn’t, and yet the judge seems to think it’s OK to go forward without it, and that it’s a problem to object.  EH???? So there’s Tom, defending his client and their right to get the info, and the judge is telling him to shut up.  AND THEN THE PHONE RINGS!!!  Oh great… (hope the phone tune was a good one!)

Back at Clean Water Action, I learned from exchanging spitballs in board meetings that Dunnwald has an attitude a lot like mine, and he’s had some great legal successes in the shit-strewn land use area of feedlots. And he represented my buddy Victor in the Northfield shit-storm mess.  Yes, there’s a theme.  And he’s one of the few attorneys I’d recommend.  That’s Tom Dunnwald, partner of the equally talented Sonja Peterson, hence Dunnwald & Peterson!

Here’s the article about yesterday’s hearing, it was copied in the STrib.

YOU GO, TOM!!!

Attorney’s outburst halts hearing

February 17, 2011

By Dan Nienaber The Mankato Free Press
Thu Feb 17, 2011, 08:20 PM CST

MANKATO — A court hearing scheduled for an alleged drug dealer came to a quick end Thursday when his attorney was kicked out of the courtroom.

It didn’t take long for tension to build during the hearing for 32-year-old Cedric Lamont Berry. He is facing racketeering and drug charges for allegedly using gang connections to sell cocaine in Mankato. He was one of several people arrested after a Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force investigation last fall.

District Court Judge Kurt Johnson showed his first sign of irritation when Berry’s attorney, Thomas Dunnwald, said he wasn’t ready to argue his motion. Dunnwald said he wasn’t getting the evidence he needed from Chris Rovney, assistant Blue Earth County attorney.

A task force report was short dozens of pages that had been turned over to attorneys working for other defendants in the case, Dunnwald said. He also said he was waiting for a recorded interview Berry had with Hennepin County investigators, which took place after Berry’s arrest in Minneapolis.

Dunnwald’s argument came to an abrupt halt when his cell phone received a call. And Johnson just stared as the phone played its tune. After fumbling through his jacket pocket for a few seconds, Dunnwald eventually silenced the digital music.

Things got worse after Johnson asked Rovney to explain why Dunnwald hadn’t been given the information he needed. Rovney was explaining that the recording, which allegedly includes Berry saying he can sell large amounts of cocaine, isn’t clear. Rovney said he would provide a copy of the DVD after the sound is enhanced.

“The defendant is a mumbler,” Rovney said.

Dunnwald stood up, waived his arm toward Rovney and barked at Johnson.

“This is utter crap,” he said. “Never in court have I seen this.”

As a bailiff made his way toward the attorney, Johnson told him to calm down.

“Mr. Dunnwald, sit down and be quiet or I will have a bailiff remove you,” Johnson said.

Dunnwald said he would remove himself. Johnson said he should.

“Are you ordering me out?”

“I’m ordering you out. Go ahead.”

Once Dunnwald was gone, Johnson told Rovney to turn over a copy of the recording as soon as possible. Rovney said this isn’t the first time the two attorneys have butted heads while on opposite sides of a case.

Johnson said they needed to find a way to get along before ending the hearing.

“It’s not Mr. Berry’s fault that you two don’t get along,” he said.

Today Gov. Mark Dayton proposes a step towards equalization of tax rates, inching up income tax rates of wealthier people.  Now isn’t it time they were fully raised to the same percentage that poor people have to pay?  The increase will result in small increases for those with incomes, still a ways to go to equity! But this is a good step in the right direction for Dayton, after some… errrrrrr… misteps, capitulations, bad moves? Salvation perhaps! Here we go! Let the whining begin…

Impacts of tax rate change – downloaded from STrib site

Gov. Dayton’s budget bill HERE!

And more good news — today the Capitol of Madison was shut down by 15,000 protesting Gov. Wingnut Walker’s union busting, this is the same guy who pulled the plug on the high speed train to Chicago:

What’s disgusting?  Union busting!

How much good news can a person take in one day?

2010 Annual Foreclosures in Minnesota Report

Our “new” house that we closed on last month, a foreclosure that had been abandoned for two years.  The good news is that there’s heat in the basement now from a Craigslist furnace, a new toilet in the basement too, the old broken and burst pipes are out and a manifold and pex is going in, we got a “new” hot water heater that we can use for heating the house too.  Tearing up carpets and padding, I’d found rosemaling in the front bedroom, cream background with two blue and red detailed flowery rectangles a foot and a half inside and the second a foot inside that, and last weekend, in the back room with the door to the rug porch, seafoam green with red and cream flowers, just beautiful, but huge chunks of it sanded off, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?   So probably it will all be sanded (note the passive voice there, I’ve done a whole house before and am not looking forward to it again).

And David bought a condo back here in Minnesota in December, and put up his house in Pasco, and that sold in what, a week!  And he made some dough in the process.

This is THE best time to buy a house, but it’s the WORST time to own one if you’re the typical American in the habit of running up credit cards and refinancing the house with each change of season.  I’m so glad I’m not doing family law now, because when I think of my clients back then who were getting divorced, had a couple or more kids, living beyond their means, and struggling to stay in the “refinanced” house then with zero equity, most couldn’t afford to live separately.  What’s happening to them now?  How many are out on the street, living with family members, adults living with parents, and millions of vacant homes across the country…

I’ve been watching this for a while, remembering all the vacant spec houses in New Prague and Belle Plaine in 2004, even going back to 2002, and well, since the crash, it was bad before and now it’s a nightmare.

Look at all the homes in New Prague for sale:

New Prague houses for sale

Belle Plaine houses for sale

Here’s Red Wing, with one less foreclosed house on the market as last month — there’s been up to 222 for sale at once that I’ve noticed, and now it’s down a bit, but I’ve still got two empty houses on either side of me here on the bluff, and I think one near the new one is vacant:

Red Wing houses for sale

It’ll be interesting getting this one fixed up to sell in the spring… this has been a good little house, and I remember it had been abandoned for at least a year when I bought it 11 years ago.  Big improvements since then!

Wow!  Amazing!!!!   The 9th Circuit Court has tossed out the DOE’s designation of the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, and the DOE will now have to fully consult with states and do some serious environmental review:

TWS v DOE – 9th Circuit Opinion