Like James Stewart in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” Robert Amstadt watched the atrocity from his Milwaukee apartment in horror. It was “the most evil thing I’ve ever seen,” he later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Amstadt had heard the telltale signs of a domestic disturbance — voices rising in heated, passionate argument — around 8:45 p.m. Saturday night. It was like any … [Read more...]

It’s been painfully evident for years, if not decades, that the State Bar – the quasi-public organization that licenses lawyers and is supposed regulate their conduct – is an institutional disaster zone. Multiple reports by outside auditors about its managerial shortcomings, regulatory backlogs and financial irregularities, very public exchanges of charges and countercharges by State Bar … [Read more...]

Exclusive: victim of domestic violence sees troubling parallels between her case and that of the former Stanford swimmer, both brought before Aaron Persky, now facing scrutiny over whether the men in his courtroom got off too lightly Half an hour before the victim in the Stanford sexual assault case delivered an emotional speech that launched one of the biggest US crime stories of the year, … [Read more...]

The six-month sentence imposed by the judge in the Stanford University sexual assault case has ignited calls for greater judicial accountability and transparency in California state courts. Among them, Assemblywoman Catharine Baker has requested an audit to the body that investigates judicial misconduct, the Commission on Judicial Performance. The state created the Commission on Judicial … [Read more...]

Dillon Wyckoff, a plumber from Madrid, is the father of a 2-year-old son, Mason, who was found dead July 22. A funeral was scheduled Saturday in Des Moines. Faced with a profound tragedy, all week he continued to answer reporters' calls and text messages. He wanted to talk about how this could happen. He vows to find out what can be done to stop it from happening to other … [Read more...]