On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 07:15:29PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
You talk a lot about "courts not being amused" but I can find no evidence that such laws exist. Nor can I find any case where a Mafia don was prosecuted for "spoliating" a future prosecution by whispering.
Do you have such examples? And an appeals court assessment of the examples?
BU may be speaking of the attitude of a district judge when he learns what you've done. It may not be an offense in itself, but it skirts refusing a court order (in one hypothetical), and is really going to just piss the judge off. So many trials include both sides trying to convince the judge that they're taking reasonable positions, and occasionally getting blindsided by a pissed off judge when he thinks they're not. It's petty tyranny, true (look at my wired.com report on the Scarfo case and the judge getting pissed at press coverage of it) but it's what happens. -Declan