Legal Humour News - November 2, 2009

Odd or Amusing Legal Headlines from the Past Week (or Two):

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1 - See You In Court!

Judge pleads guilty to letting air out of tire

A Maryland judge has apologized for engaging in a bit of vigilante justice when he let the air out of the tire of a courthouse employee who parked in a restricted area.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/28/11559276-ap.html

Inmate sues over lousy shoes

Call him Shoeless Joe, with a jail-house twist.
Former Headingley Correctional Centre inmate Joseph Mason says he broke his leg playing volleyball because jail officials wouldn't give him a new pair of shoes. Mason has filed a lawsuit against the province, alleging jail officials issued him "worn and unsafe" shoes and rejected his pleas for new ones.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/21/11470386-sun.html

2 - Crime and Punishment

Lack of bus fare led to SUV theft

A man who was too proud to beg for bus fare — so he stole an SUV to get home to Gatineau, Quebec — was sentenced to six months in jail. Around noon on Sept. 14, the man — who didn’t have bus fare — went to a MotorX garage and asked to see a Toyota Rav4 facing the street. He opened and closed the hood and asked to sit in the driver’s seat. When there was a break in traffic, he drove off the lot.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/28/11561731-sun.html

Drunk clown nabbed after crash

A Vancouver-area man has learned that if driving erratically in a clown suit is not enough to signal intoxication, then crashing into a police car certainly is. A police officer in suburban West Vancouver was searching for suspects involved in a reported fight when he spotted a man, later found to be wearing a brightly colored clown costume, driving at him on the wrong side of the road.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/27/11545046-reuters.html

Well here's your problem right here, sir..

A man was caught by Norwegian customs carrying a tarantula in his bag, and a further 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos taped to his body. The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark. Customs found the tarantula, before deciding to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings -- one for each snake -- taped around his torso.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59Q2JO20091027

Man staged nearly 100 car crashes in cash scam

A Briton who cost the insurance industry some 1.6 million pounds by staging almost 100 car crashes as part of a scam to win fraudulent payouts, was jailed for 4-1/2 years. The 24-year-old charged 500 pounds a time to stage accidents which enabled fraudsters to claim an average of 17,000 pounds from their insurers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59K3SX20091021

4 US teens cited for disorderly conduct for rapping their McDonald's orders

A rap by four teenagers at a McDonald's has gotten them a bad rap in one Utah city. The teens were cited by American Fork police for disorderly conduct after they rapped their order at a McDonald's drive-through.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091029/koddities/us_odd_mcdonald_s_rap

3 - Politics, Law, and Governance

Officials suggest legislators wed single mothers

Malaysian legislators in the poor conservative Muslim northeastern state of Kelantan should marry single mothers to help care for their children, a state representative suggested.
The state's family and health committee chairwoman Wan Ubaidah Omar said that legislators should be awarded prizes for increasing their "quota" of wives.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59S3PU20091029

Ban on tight trousers for women?

Women may soon be banned from wearing tight trousers in parts of an Indonesian province that practices strict Islamic law, and offenders could see their attire cut up.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59Q2IT20091027

Cheating husbands should be whipped?

Most Bruneians want husbands who cheat on their wives to be whipped, according to a recent survey in the Muslim-majority country. The survey found 76 percent of 272 respondents said men should be whipped for having affairs while only 55 percent said unfaithful wives should receive the same punishment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59K3SP20091021

Minnesota man pleads guilty to driving motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. A criminal complaint says 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left a bar in the northern Minnesota town of Proctor on his chair after drinking eight or nine beers.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091022/koddities/us_lounge_chair_drunk_driving_1

4 - And Now for Something Completely Different

Sicilian prefers prison to house arrest with wife

A Sicilian builder transferred from prison to house arrest tried to get himself locked up again to escape arguments with his wife at home. Gambino went to the police station and asked to be put away again to avoid arguing with his wife, who accused him of failing to pay for the upkeep of their two children.
Police charged him with violating the conditions of his sentence and made him go home and patch things up with his wife.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59L56L20091022

Worried Iran pilot asks passengers to pray

A worried Iranian airline pilot asked passengers to start praying after his plane was hit by a technical glitch, highlighting once again the notorious record of Tehran's aircraft. The Aseman Airlines Boeing plane had taken off from Tehran airport after a six-hour delay, but had to return following a technical fault

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091029/oddities/iran_aviation_offbeat

Balloon boy costume flies for Halloween

A Saskatoon company cashed in on the story of the Colorado family whose young son supposedly floated off in a homemade balloon. Plantraco Microflight produced a Balloon Boy Halloween costume kit. The costume puts kids into a box hanging from a small-scale replica of the silver helium balloon.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/22/11495856-cp.html