June 11, 2008.
The wild turkey of Battery Park surveys his domain. ER

Go directly to jail.

On Monday, Sam Israel was supposed to directly surrender to federal prison in Ayer, Massachusetts, to begin a 20-year sentence for securities fraud in connection with his tenure as the manager of the Bayou Group hedge fund. Instead, today he is missing. His GMC Envoy was found abandoned near the Bear Mountain Bridge, which spans a remote and wild portion of the Hudson River. Someone scratched the message “Suicide Is Painless,” the theme song from the TV show M*A*S*H, into the layer of dust on the SUV. While the bridge is quite isolated and imposing, a law-enforcement source stated, “We’re not searching the river because it is widely presumed he didn’t jump.” Ross Intelisano, a lawyer for victims of Israel’s investment fraud, said, “Unless they find a body, I think he’s on the lam.”

Back in April, I wrote about our country’s “rogue state” status, in which draconian sentences are imposed even in nonviolent cases. I cited Israel’s 20-year sentence as an extreme example of punishment run amok. Despite the fact that Israel cooperated with government prosecutors and then pled guilty, he received an extraordinarily tough sentence from Judge Colleen McMahon. While the Department of Justice claims that the suicide rate for inmates now is much lower than it was 20 years ago, I can tell you from experience that people who face even a small amount of time behind bars often become unbearably anxious. If the authorities do discover Sam Israel’s body, those who are calling the disappearance his “greatest con” should be truly ashamed. On the other hand, if the Feds find him on a beach in Tahiti drinking a Mai Tai, it's going to be harder for all of us defense attorneys to get judges to allow our clients to surrender directly to prison instead of being thrown in the can at sentence.

Broadway and Wall, June 11, 2008. Our sister building, the U.S. Realty Building and the Woolworth Building. CR

Reefer Madness and the Potsicle

New York Post reported that six people, three from Alabama and two from Connecticut, were arrested at New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade for selling so-called “marijuana lollipops.” The report states that the alleged sales staff, working from a green van decorated with pictures of scantily clad women, told undercover cops that the pops and Gummi bear candies they were hawking contained marijuana. However, most manufacturers of pot flavored candy clearly state that while the flavoring ingredient, hemp oil, makes “pot suckers” with names like Purple Haze and Kronic Kandy taste like the real thing, there is no drug in the confection.

The tale will be told in the lab report. In every drug case, the prosecution must submit a lab report to the court where the case is filed which demonstrates that the substance being peddled is indeed a controlled substance. The candies will be subjected to a compound analysis which may or may not show that the active chemical ingredients in marijuana were present. Various officials such as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Pennsylvania state representative Thomas Corrigan have actively sought to outlaw all marijuana flavored candies such as the venerable “Stoner Pop.” Corrigan states, “It is really frightening to develop a taste for marijuana in children through lollipops." Here in the new millennium “reefer madness” has now extended to candies which contain hemp oil. However, no matter how hysterical politicians get, you still need a positive lab report to prosecute a marijuana case in court. CR