Lawyer keys Marine's car, tries to get away with it
Via Kat, Anti-Military Lawyer Damages Marine's Car on Eve of Deployment
While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides.A vandal in the legal profession, no less.
After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.
Mike called the Chicago police and had the man arrested. A citation against the man was issued for misdemeanor criminal damage to private property.
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As it turns out, the man is Chicago lawyer Jay R. Grodner, who owns a law firm in the city and has offices in the suburbs.
Volokh asks:
BlackFive carries a report of an alleged anti-military hate crime (vandalism). I can't speak to the facts, having seen just this one account; but I am curious about one legal question: When a complainant in a criminal case — or some other kind of witness, in a criminal or civil case — is about to become unavailable because he is being recalled to active duty, how does the legal system treat the matter?It is a hate crime.
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Note, incidentally, that I label this incident an alleged hate crime because, if the facts are as alleged, it is a hate crime, and because that's a clear quick way of describing the matter. I am not urging any specially heightened penalties for such crimes, nor to my knowledge is the complainant.
The question remains, what can the Marine legally do?
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posted by Fausta @ 9:42 AM
3 Comments:
Now, we know the miscreant's full name and profession, and that's usually enough to find out where he lives, where he works, and what he drives, no? Not that I'm suggesting that anyone invade the fellow's privacy or interfere with his property. That would be wrong. But he could be induced to feel a little...unwanted interest from offended others without violating his civil rights. The sort that might move him to invest in a new, very expensive security system for his house and car. Something that costs about $2400, maybe?
He can sue the jerk for damages and maybe even get some punitives, because this was clearly intentionally bad conduct. If the guy is convicted criminally, it makes a civil suit a cakewalk.
In addition, he can report this to the state body (differs in each state) that polices lawyers' ethics and hands out suspensions and disbarments.
I also trust that the lawyer is "enjoying" the publicity that he and his firm will receive.
This is so wrong....on soooo many levels.
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