Federal authorities  in Atlanta announced today that agents have arrested four Mexican nationals and dismantled what they describe as a sex trafficking ring here.

Three defendants , all of Tenancingo in the State of Tlaxcala, Mexico were indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta on charges of sex trafficking and alien harboring. A fourth man, also of Tlaxcala, was charged with encouraging and inducing aliens to enter and reside in the U.S. unlawfully.

The joint operation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Federal authorities said that three of the defendants used force, fraud and coercion to compel three women to engage in prostitution in Atlanta and Norcross.

Two others are charged with inducing a fourth woman to illegally enter the U.S. within the past three years.  For more information, see ICE’s news release.

The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association has a new president—a partner at Fried Rogers Goldberg who specializes in trucking cases.

Following a vote last Friday during GTLA’s Annual Gala, Brian “Buck” Rogers took up the gavel to become the organizations 58th president. He succeeds Jay Sadd, a personal injury lawyer at Slappey & Sadd.

“It is a true honor to be elected by my peers to serve as the next president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association,” Rogers said in a written statement. “The focus of my practice has been dedicated to protecting and securing justice for all Georgians, and no organization stands stronger for this inalienable right than GTLA.”

Rogers earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1994 and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia the same year. He serves on the boards of directors for Roadsafe America and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, lectures on commercial motor vehicle collisions and holds a Class A commercial driver’s license.
In February, Rogers and Simon Law Firm partner H. Michael Ruppersburg secured a $1 million pre-suit settlement with insurer AutoOwners on behalf of the family of a woman killed in a car wreck in June 2012 on Old Alpharetta Road in Forsyth County.

Rogers participated in a panel discussion on tort reform hosted by the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association last November in which he stood up for GTLA, saying that the organization does not support the abuse of Holt demands in bad faith claims. He also sits on the bar’s committee on third-party litigation lending, though the committee has not been active.

As part of the ongoing IRS scandal over its scrutiny of applications for non-profit status by organizations affiliated with the Tea Party movement, comedian Stephen Colbert invited Washington lawyer Trevor Potter – former chairman  of the Federal Elections Commission  and current president of the Campaign Legal Center  – back on his show.  Last year, Potter helped Colbert  establish  political action committees the Colbert Super PAC, the Colbert Super PAC SHH , and the Ham Rove Memorial Fund, which became the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars that, courtesy of federal campaign finance and tax laws,  vanished without a trace from the Colbert Super PAC following the election.

On Monday night, Colbert learned that his PAC, a 501(c)(4), was never granted tax exempt status by the IRS because the Colbert Super PAC SHH never filed for it, even though it is a registered Delaware corporation and hundreds of thousands of dollars have passed through it.

“Your lawyers advised you that there is no legal requirement that you file with the IRS an application for exemption,” Potter explained.

“Wait a second,” Colbert replied. “You can form a 501(c)(4) without asking to form one? These tea party anti- big government organizations didn’t have to ask big government for permission but they did anyway?”

“Right,” Potter replied.

Now that the IRS is in political hot water, it might be under some pressure to approve tax exempt status for any Tea Party group that applied, Colbert sid, and so with Potter’s help, he filed for tax-exempt status for the Colbert Super PAC SHH. But, the comedian said, he was filing for tax-exempt status under a different name because the Colbert Super PAC SHH “is not  sufficiently Tea Party for me. I just want to put a little bit more pressure on the IRS.”

The new name under which the Colbert Super PAC SHH will do business as a 501(c)(4): The Making America a Better Place Tea Party Patriot 9-12 Place to Constitution America Tea Party Nominally Social Welfare Conservative Political Action Tea Party Secret Money Liberty I Dare You to Deny This Application of America Tea Party.

Stay tuned. To see the entire clip, go to: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/426445/may-20-2013/mazda-scandal-booth—the-irs—trevor-potter

The Supreme Court of Georgia reprimanded Michael Berlon, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, over a complaint from a client.

On the recommendation of special master Steven Hathorn, the high court accepted Berlon’s petition for voluntary discipline, choosing a reprimand over the harshest possible penalty of disbarment. Berlon has been temporarily suspended while the matter was pending.

The court’s decision, issued Monday, was “based on admissions contained in Berlon’s petition.” The decision said that Berlon represented a client for several years in child support issues. The client  asked Berlon to file an action for change of custody, “but Berlon failed to do so.” The decision said the client, who filed the complaint, only learned the change had not been filed upon appearing at a hearing for child support contempt. “The client confronted Berlon, who then filed the change of custody action.”

The court’s decision said the penalty was mitigated by the fact that Berlon returned $2,500 to the client, and that Berlon had no prior disciplinary sanctions. “Berlon and the client ultimately decided to terminate the attorney-client relationship, and the client later voluntarily dismissed the custody action,” the decision said.

The Daily Report could not reach Berlon. He told the Associated Press that he takes responsibility for the miscommunication with the client on legal strategy.

Herbert Phipps will be sworn in as the next chief judge of the state Court of Appeals next month, the court announced today.

Phipps’ ascension to the position of chief had been expected. The court’s judges select their own chief but follow a tradition of transferring the chief judge spot by seniority. Phipps was next in line after the current chief, John Ellington. A press release issued by the court today said Phipps’ election to the chief post was unanimous.

Governor Roy Barnes appointed Phipps, Ellington and M. Yvette Miller to the appeals court on the same day in 1999, but by random selection, Phipps was deemed to follow the other two in seniority. Phipps previously had been a judge on magistrate, juvenile, state and superior courts in Dougherty County.

Phipps will be sworn into the new position in a ceremony in the Court of Appeals courtroom on June 25 and will officially take over the job on July 1, the court’s release said. Two years ago,  Phipps swore in Ellington as chief in an unusually low-key investiture held in the court’s banc room.

Anyone who has ridden the subway in New York or Paris or any number of other international cities is likely familiar with the street musicians who can easily charm a crowd or brighten up an otherwise weary commute with impromptu serenades.

Not so in Atlanta, where MARTA police arrested a traveling violinist after his impromptu concert inside the Five Points station downtown.

The MARTA violinist spent five days in jail.  It’s a good thing that world class violinist Joshua Bell opted for the Washington D.C. Metro instead of MARTA when he decided in 2007 to play incognito for tips.

In Washington, Bell was just ignored.

TV crime drama fans are being misled, according to Jerry Scott, agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Statewide Crime Scene Program and coordinator of the GBI’s Body Recovery Team.

Scott was speaking at “Guns 101: What journalists need to know to shoot straight and get it right when reporting on firearms,” a seminar at the Georgia Press Association offices Thursday.

After presenting diagrams showing possible lines of travel for bullets and close up pictures of gun shots that look like those in TV crime shows such as CSI, Law & Order and Castle, Scott was asked,  what’s his favorite crime show?

“I don’t watch any of them,” he said. Of their realism, he added, “They’re not even close.”

Read more »

Following reports that the state Department of Natural Resources instructed state parks to remove Bibles from cabins and lodges after a citizen complaint, Governor. Nathan Deal has ordered the books returned. (View the first report on the issue here: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/22250958/bibles-removed-from-state-lodges-and-cabins)

“Out of an abundance of caution to avoid potential litigation, the commissioner removed the Bibles from rooms – though they were still available on site – after a complaint from a visitor,” the governor’s office said in a written statement. “The attorney general and I agree that the state is on firm legal footing as we move to return the Bibles to the rooms. These Bibles are donated by outside groups, not paid for by the state, and I do not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion. In fact, any religious group is free to donate literature.”

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Sam Olens confirmed the Law Department is reviewing the matter.

“Nothing in the Constitution prohibits private organizations from purchasing Bibles and placing them in a public lodge, so long as other groups wishing to place their own literature are offered similar accommodation,” the AG’s office said in a written statement.

Georgia State Constitutional Law professor L. Lynn Hogue said having donated religious books in state park cabins and lodges does not present a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, unless the state parks were soliciting them.

“If the Gideons volunteered them, and the state-owned inns allowed them to be put in the rooms, that presents no Establishment Clause problem,” Hogue said via email.

“The more pertinent issue is whether placing the Bibles in inn drawers transforms them into something like a public forum, which would open them to others with religious books to provide,” added Hogue. “ If I am right, and other religions wanted to place their books in the drawer (say books from other non-traditional or non-Christian religions) they would have to be allowed to do so.  If the drawer fills up, access could be rationed on some neutral basis or they could all be removed at that point.  They could not be removed based on preference for particular religious faiths.”

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted a Buckhead couple of forcing a 17-year-old who lived with them into prostitution, federal prosecutors announced today.

The grand jury indicted Steven E. Thompson and Tierra Michelle Waters on charges of sex trafficking a juvenile.  The couple, who had invited the teen to stay at their Buckhead condominium, informed her after she moved in that she would have to have sex with men they solicited in order to earn her rent, federal prosecutors said.

Additional details are in the U.S. attorney’s news release.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial columnist Gerald F. Seib notes in a column today that Bondurant Mixson & Elmore partner Jill Pryor – a nominee for the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals – has been waiting 689 days for the U.S. Senate to act on her nomination.

In the column, headlined “Judicial Vacancies Typify Capital Dysfunction,  Seib noted that Pryor shares that distinction with Rosemary Marquez of Arizona, a  nominee to the U.S. District Court in Arizona,  who has waited 689 days for the Senate to act.

Seib’s column notes that 85 federal judgeships sit vacant, about 10 percent of the federal judiciary, and offers that while President Obama must shoulder some of the blame, “The lion’s share of the blame lies with the Senate, a body that’s becoming an embarrassment to itself and that increasingly infects the rest of government with its paralysis.”