Published: December 23, 2008 10:40 pm            

Charles Oliver: It couldn't happen here?

y could prove Lawrence Ray was a convicted felon in possession of a revolver. What they couldn’t prove was that the revolver was a firearm. Federal law, it seems, says a firearm is not a weapon unless it was manufactured after 1896. The revolver Ray had was a model that was made between 1880 and 1941, and they had no way to prove when it was made. Unable to prosecute him for illegally possessing a firearm, they instead charged him with being a felon in possession of ammunition. A jury convicted him of that crime.

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When California Highway Patrol officers tried to stop an Acura Integra, the driver refused to pull over and led them on a high-speed chase before crashing. One officer arrested a female passenger from the car, placed her in his patrol car and went to help fellow troopers subdue the driver. Somehow the woman slipped her handcuffed hand from behind her back, got into the front seat of the patrol car and drove off. She led officers on a chase reaching speeds of more than 100 mph before crashing the vehicle at a freeway off-ramp.

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The New York Daily News was convinced there were problems in the office of the city register. Specifically, they found that the office wasn’t requiring people to verify documents they present to it when registering or transferring property. So the newspaper created documents transferring ownership of the Empire State Building to them. Just to see if anyone was paying attention, the signatures of the witnesses to the transfer were “Fay Wray” and “Willie Sutton.” Wray, of course, was the actress in the movie “King Kong,” and Sutton was a famous bank robber. No one noticed, and the city transferred title to the landmark to the reporters.

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Several members of the Australia New South Wales state legislature say they will support a law requiring members to take an alcohol breath test before voting. The proposal comes after several incidents at Christmas parties, including a male lawmaker shoving a female colleague and the state police minister “dirty dancing” in his underwear.

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When Nebraska residents Wayne and Sharmon Stock were killed, the police suspected Matt Livers, a mentally handicapped cousin of one of the couple. After intensive interrogations in which they promised Livers he would be executed if he didn’t cooperate, police not only got him to confess, he implicated another relative. They then called in crime scene investigator David Kofoed to search Livers’ alleged getaway car. A search by his team uncovered no evidence. But Kofoed went back later by himself and claimed to have found a speck of Wayne Stock’s blood they had overlooked. One problem: a few days later police arrested a pair of teens with no connection to Livers or his alleged partner in crime, and their car was covered with Stocks’ DNA. Charges against Livers and his partner were dropped. The teens were charged with the Stocks’ murder, and an internal investigation cleared Kofoed of any wrongdoing. He’s back on the job, but the FBI says it is now investigating him.

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Earlier this year, the Ohio legislature tacked on an extra $10 penalty to every traffic ticket. Local governments had two months to get ready for the change, but some still didn’t order new tickets that noted the additional fees. As a result, thousands of people have gotten tickets, paid them in full, then weeks later gotten notices that they still owe money. Officials say they may have new tickets ready early next year.

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Some Oregon car dealers are asking the state legislature to ban car dealers from opening on Sunday. Those dealers say they’d like to close on Sunday, but they don’t want to lose business to dealers who choose to stay open on that day.



Charles Oliver is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen

        

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