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A school official, this one the superintendent in Litchfield, is not having his contract renewed by the school board. Why? The school board, officially, won't say.

"I can't disclose or discuss the contents of the board's discussion, or the rationale behind the vote," said school board chairman Dennis Miller, sounding very much like someone pleading the Fifth Amendment before Congress

Chairman Miller and a majority of the board have decided this is a "personnel matter" and therefore not for the public's ears.

Well, of course it is a personnel matter. But it involves a public employee, paid for with taxpayer dollars and not only responsible to the citizens of the school district, but in charge of the district.

Yet again, we have a case where elected officials, acting on the public's behalf, refuse to tell the public the reason for their actions. Such cases are happening too frequently.

The public has limited, but powerful, recourse. It can decide not to renew the employment "contracts" of school board members.

Some argue that they are elected to represent the public, which needs to just trust their judgment. But without knowing their reasoning for such important decisions as the hiring or firing of key personnel, how is that judgment to be assessed?

To his credit, board member John York, one of the two board members who opposed not renewing the contract, said it was more personality than anything else.

Supt. Brian Cochrane also spoke out to the Union Leader. And the world, surprise, didn't end.

The public doesn't need great specificity or gory details in such cases. But officials like Miller who won't explain their actions either don't care to take the time to do so or they really don't have a strong case in the first place.

Continued here:
Public be damned Litchfield latest example

Invoking your Fifth Amendment rights is a sign of guilt, according to one Florida police officer.

TechDirt.com reports that one of its readers recently sent the website a video (below) of two people filming an area where prisoners are taken in and out of the Duval County courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida.

This area is known as a "sally port," and is in full view of a public sidewalk where the cameramen were filming from.

However, two officers from the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office recently tried to stop the men from filming.

In the video, one of the officers tells the cameramen this is a "secure area" and asks why they are filming.

One cameraman says, "I am filming in a public space.

The officer then wants to know the cameraman's name and why he refuses to tell him (the officer) why he is filming.

According to TheFreeThoughtProject.com, when the cameraman says he wants to "remain silent," the police officer appears to laugh and says, "You must be doing something wrong if you invoke your rights."

The officer then doubles down on his bizarre claim and refuses to show the cameraman the statute that bans people from filming prisoners entering and leaving the sally port.

Eventually, the officers leave the scene and allow the men to film.

Read the original here:
Cop Says 'You Must Be Doing Something Wrong if You Invoke Your Rights' (Video)

September 9, 2014 4:45 PM Share with others:

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A federal appeals court today overturned the conviction of a Texas man on drug charges, saying the government violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during his trial here.

Gathon Shannon, 48, of Houston, described by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a courier in a Texas-to-Beaver County cocaine ring, was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced in 2013 to 20 years.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the prosecution violated his rights in cross-examining him about his silence following his arrest in 2011.

The circuit judges vacated the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch and ordered that Mr. Shannon receive a new trial.

Mr. Shannon was among a group of accused conspirators targeted by the U.S. attorney's Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, which said the ring supplied much of Beaver County's cocaine demand from 2009 to 2011.

Continued here:
Texas man's conviction overturned because of Fifth Amendment violation

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a Wyandotte County district court's dismissal of indictments against an attorney for the Board of Public Utilities of Kansas City, Kan.

The high court overturned a Court of Appeals reversal, agreeing with the district court that Robert Turner's constitutional right against self-incrimination had been violated during the grand jury proceedings.

A citizen-called grand jury in 2008 indicted Turner on two counts of theft and 55 counts of presenting a false claim, which was based on nonitemized vouchers totaling about $400,000 he submitted for work he did for BPU.

The grand jury had been called to look into allegations of misappropriation of public funds by directors of BPU, an arm of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

It was during testimony before the grand jury that William Delaney a special agent of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation who was assigned to serve as the investigator for the grand jury made repeated suggestions that Turner was somehow involved in the 1989 unsolved murder of Chuck Thompson, a Kansas City, Kan., politician and lawyer.

Delaney told jurors he had been investigating the case for years, and that he would be asking questions of people he thought were involved during the BPU probe.

The grand jury subpoenaed Turner, who gave notice in advance that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Delaney questioned him anyway, asking questions related not just to the BPU probe but also the Thompson murder. Turner, court records show, addressed about 100 or more questions by invoking his right against self-incrimination.

The district court, on appeal, ruled that Delaney's continual leading questioning and remarks to jurors suggesting that Turner's silence meant he had something to hide were prejudicial to Turner, and dismissed the indictments.

The Court of Appeals overturned the decision, saying a person can be compelled to appear before a grand jury and be asked questions to which he can invoke constitutional protections on a question-by-question basis. The appeals court said Turner had not demonstrated that he was prejudiced by Delaney's methods.

The Supreme Court disagreed.

Go here to read the rest:
Kansas Supreme Court: Grand jury violated man's Fifth Amendment rights

Cristin Milioti in The Good Wife - Julianna Margulies
The Fifth Amendment of United States Constitution protects individuals from being forced to incriminate (be accused of a crime) themselves. Cristin #39;s charact...

By: Mario Rustan

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Cristin Milioti in The Good Wife - Julianna Margulies - Video