Mexico's Attorney General last week said he believed the U.S. was hours away from filing a new extradition request for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. His lawyers immediately filed a new request a writ of Amparo seeking protection from extradition.

It's all very confusing, since the news and the court filings are in Spanish and Google translate does not do a good job of translating legal terms. I'm reprinting the summary of the court's order below from the court's website, and hoping someone can respond in comments as to whether I'm reporting this correctly. [More...]

Virginia Roberts, aka Jane Doe #3 and Jane Doe #102, has filed an Affidavit in support of her allegations that she had sex with Alan Dershowitz while she was under the age of 18. The article contains a link to the Affidavit. [More...]

Amidst much fanfare and back-patting at a press conference last week, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego Friday announced recently unsealed drug and money laundering indictments of various leaders and members of the Sinaloa cartel. The Government's press release is here, and the list of charged defendants is here.

"Recently unsealed" does not mean "new." [More...]

I thought I was done with this topic for a few days but there's news: Lawyers for Jane Doe #3 (aka Virginia Roberts), Paul Cassell (pictured above right) and Bradley Edwards (not pictured) have sued Alan Dershowitz for defamation per se in state court in Broward County (Fort Lauderdale.) The complaint is here.

(Dershowitz' Motion to Intervene in the Florida federal case filed yesterday is here. His affidavit claiming Virginia Roberts is a "serial liar" and her lawyers conspired with her to make false accusations against him is here.)

Some quick thoughts on the new defamation suit: [More...]

Update: Jane Doe #3's lawyers fight back. They have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz. The complaint is here.

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Alan Dershowitz filed a motion to intervene in the victims rights lawsuit of Jane Does 1, 2 and 3 today. I have uploaded it here.

He also filed an affidavit emphatically denying the allegations and explaining why they could not be true. In it, he calls Virginia Roberts (aka Jane Doe #3 and 102) a "serial liar" and says her lawyers knew she was a serial liar but put her false allegations in the pleading anyway, for the purpose of having the media pick up on them. You can read the affidavit here. [More...]

Both Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew emphatically deny the allegations of sexual activity made by victims rights lawyers for "Jane Does 3 and 4" in a long-pending civil lawsuit against the U.S. arising from DOJ's handling of an investigation of sexual misconduct claims against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Espstein pleaded guilty in state court and has long finished serving his sentence. By agreement, he was not charged in federal court. Dershowitz was one of Epstein's many lawyers.

The suit was originally brought by Jane Doe 1 and 2 in 2008 as an action to enforce their rights under the Crime Victims Rights Act. Jane Does 3 and 4 sought to join the case last week. The new allegations referencing Dershowitz and Prince Andrew are contained in Jane Doe 3 and 4's motion to join the suit (Available here.)

The suit is not against Epstein. All four have settled civil claims against Epstein and received payouts. It is a suit against the United States. The Jane Does claim the Government violated the federal Crime Victims Act by not informing them it had entered a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein. It advised them of other things, just not that such an agreement had been made or was in the works. [More...]

Just when the police were about to get some sympathy as a result of the killing of two Brooklyn police officers, the President of the Police Union, Patrick Lynch, takes to the microphones and outlandishly claims there's blood on the hands of protesters and the Mayor. Think Progress has the video.

What a ridiculous claim. The protesters in New York and the Mayor had nothing to do with these killings. The only person responsible is a man from Atlanta with several outstanding warrants who was fleeing Baltimore after having shot his girlfriend. His depraved acts have nothing to do with the thousands of New Yorkers who protested peacefully, or the Mayor, who endorsed their right to do so.

Rabble-rouser Lynch deserves nothing but a Bronx cheer. The NYPD should get a better spokesman. Lynch is a disgrace.

Two Brooklyn police officers who were sitting in their patrol car were shot and killed by a lone gunman from Baltimore. The gunman shot himself in a nearby subway station. The Daily News has a graphic photo of him alive on a stretcher as he was removed from the subway station. He has reportedly since died.

The shooter, identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, boasted about wanting to kill cops in the hours before he ambushed the officers outside the Tompkins Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant about 3 p.m. Saturday.

“I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours...Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” Brinsley wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of a silver handgun.

Hours earlier, Brinsley allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend in Baltimore. Brooklyn police confirm both officers are dead.

Whatever the grievance with police, it is unacceptable and wrong to physically attack them. Vigilante justice is no justice at all.

Ferguson DA Rob McCulloch broke his silence today. In an interview, he said that he thinks some grand jury witnesses lied.

[McCulloch] acknowledged that witnesses he did not believe to be truthful had come before the jurors. Mr. McCulloch said that one female witness, who provided testimony that appeared to bolster Officer Wilson’s account of events, “clearly wasn’t present” when the shooting occurred.

....[He] added that the grand jury also heard from other witnesses whose testimony was also in doubt. “It went both directions,” he said.

McCulloch said he decided to let them testify even though he thought they were lying. He wanted the grand jury to hear everything. [More...]

It may be time soon to go back to paying by check or in cash. There was another breach announced today: Staples Office Supplies. If you shopped there between July and September, this is for you.

Staples said on Friday that an investigation showed that the criminals used malware that may have allowed access to information for transactions at 115 of its United States stores. That includes cardholder names, payment card numbers, expiration dates and card verification codes. The company is offering free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to customers who might be at risk.

Roman Polanski, now represented by Alan Dershowitz, among others, has filed a motion to close his Los Angeles case once and for all.

The request by Mr. Dershowitz to represent Mr. Polanski opened what promises to be a broad legal and public-relations effort to lift the threat of extradition and jail time from Mr. Polanski, now 81. He was first charged with raping a 13-year-old girl, who has since identified herself as Samantha Geimer, in 1977.

The LA Times has more on the 133 motion here.

The new motion alleges bias by the judge who presided over the 2008 court proceedings. It also alleges recent unethical conduct by prosecutors. [More....]

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ruled the state can appeal her judgment of culpable homicide and dismissal of the murder charge against Pistorius. She ruled that she can't say it's a remote possibility that the appeals court might rule differently on the legal issue of whether dolus eventualis applies.

She refused to allow the state to appeal Oscar's sentence for culpable homicide. She said that's a factual ruling and she made it based on the evidence presented. So if the appeals court upholds the judge's ruling dismissing the murder charge, his sentence cannot be increased.

Based on the cases she cited in her original ruling dismissing the murder charge, and some related cases in South Africa I looked at, I think the judge was correct in her legal ruling. I don't think the state proved Oscar had the necessary intent for a murder conviction. Dolus eventualis exists when an accused foresees that his conduct poses a risk that an unlawful killing might occur, reconciles himself to the risk, and decides to proceed anyway. There was no evidence Oscar contemplated that risk. He was operating under a mistaken assumption of fact. That his assumption was wrong does not translate to intent. Intent is a subjective test. [More...]