A missing Boston teenage girl was recently found employed as a dancer
at a Providence, Rhode Island strip club. A second missing teen was
also found when police discovered her at a man’s residence. The man was
later arrested and charged with crimes related to the trafficking of
both teenage girls.
An undercover operation led Providence police to arrest 51-year-old
Troy Footman of Dorchester, RI and charge him with sex trafficking of a
minor. Footman has been convicted of a long list of sex crimes including
rape and running a prostitution ring.
To read more about this disturbing case of sex trafficking in Rhode Island, click on the following link:
http://www.turnto10.com/story/23040905/missing-teen-found-dancing-at-providence-strip-club----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Rhode Island White Collar Crime's Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald named Local Counsel in $10 Million bribery case
Rhode Island White Collar Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald named as the Local Counsel representing Rhode Island Defense Contractor and U.S. Navy personnel in a $10 Million bribery case. Details found below were reported in last weeks Providence Journal.
By Katie Mulvaney, John E. Mulligan, and Tom Mooney
PROVIDENCE — Anjan Dutta-Gupta drove with his family by van from Georgia to face federal charges in Rhode Island that he doled out $10 million in bribes to secure Navy contracts for his Middletown company.
In his first appearance in U.S. District Court, in Rhode Island, Dutta-Gupta bowed his head slightly as he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond Tuesday he understood the charge against him.
“I do, sir,” said Dutta-Gupta as his wife, two children and other family members looked on. The 58-year-old founder of Georgia-based Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow Inc. used headphones to assist his hearing. Heavyset with salt-and-pepper hair and a pronounced accent, Dutta-Gupta leaned in to speak with his lawyers John E. MacDonald and David M. Fragale, a Washington, D.C., attorney specializing in white-collar criminal defense.
Extra
Authorities arrested Dutta-Gupta on Feb. 6 in Atlanta as he returned from Chile. He is charged with bribing Ralph M. Mariano, a civilian program manager with the Naval Sea Systems Command, in a $10-million kickback scheme that authorities allege siphoned thousands of federal dollars to Dutta-Gupta, Mariano and Mariano’s family through a series of shell companies. Mariano, of Arlington, Va., who managed Advanced Solutions’ contracts with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, in Newport, was also charged with bribery.
A federal magistrate in Georgia released Dutta-Gupta last week on a $25,000 unsecured bond. But Almond upped that sum Tuesday to a $50,000 unsecured bond, plus he must post $10,000 within a week.
Almond imposed the $10,000 bond, he said, in lieu of requiring Dutta-Gupta, of Roswell, Ga., to be monitored electronically and abide by a curfew, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich had asked. Almond restricted Dutta-Gupta’s travel to northern Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and Rhode Island. A native of Calcutta who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, Dutta-Gupta surrendered his passport.
Dutta-Gupta asked Almond if he would be violating the terms of his release by driving from Georgia to his Rhode Island court dates. Almond said he could stop briefly for food and gas but should not make long-term stops on his journeys without consulting court officials.
Dutta-Gupta founded Advanced Solutions in 1992, overseeing its growth as its Navy business increased. The firm worked on Navy research programs in Newport that included unmanned underwater vehicles and submarine command and control systems. The company is headquartered in Roswell, Ga., with offices in Middletown and Fairfax, Va.
Authorities say Dutta-Gupta and Mariano engineered a system of regular payments, largely for work never performed, to shell companies in a scheme dating to the late 1990s. A criminal complaint describes Mariano using his power as a senior Navy program official to steer contracts to Advanced Solutions.
Dutta-Gupta is accused of then channeling about $10 million, through companies he and associates controlled, to Mariano, his relatives and friends in return for his role in securing millions of dollars in Navy contracts for Dutta-Gupta’s firm.
Advanced Solutions was something of a family affair, according to the complaint, statements on the company’s website and other sources; Anjan’s wife, Indrani, was a company vice president.
The Dutta-Guptas and their children have been financial supporters of political campaigns. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based campaign finance monitor, the four family members have given an aggregate total of $48,512 to political campaigns over the years. But Anjan and Indrani Dutta-Gupta concentrated their political giving on members of the Rhode Island congressional delegation.
The younger Dutta-Guptas grew up in Georgia, where they ranked as award-winning scholars. Daughter Amrita Dutta-Gupta graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2003 and is listed as a fellow at the university’s management school.
A 2005 graduate of the University of Chicago, son Indivar Dutta-Gupta served as an $89,000-a-year staffer on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee until last year. He joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, this year. He is an expert on poverty issues.
Amrita, too, was president of Paramount Solutions, another defense contractor with offices in Middletown that did business with the Navy and Advanced Solutions. Like her father’s company, Paramount Solutions secured Navy work “earmarked” into a federal spending bill by Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.
Reed’s office said Tuesday that the senator secured a $1.6-million project that Paramount Solutions undertook jointly with the Naval Undersea Systems Command in Newport. That earmark, for work on submarine command-and-control systems, was in the 2008 appropriations bill. Amrita Dutta-Gupta was chief financial officer of the firm at the time, according to a company statement in which she thanked the senator for his assistance.
Reed spokesman Chip Unruh said the senator does not recall having met Amrita Dutta-Gupta.
Paramount Solutions was registered in Rhode Island in 2005 as a Georgia-based company “pursuing professional development services opportunities” with the state and the Navy. Amrita Dutta-Gupta was listed as president and vice president at the time. The directors include Wayne King of Bristol, who was in the news Monday as the acting chief of Advanced Solutions who informed its nearly 100 employees in Middletown that the company was closing its doors.
Paramount is tucked into a corner of a small, one-story office plaza along Aquidneck Avenue, less than two miles from Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow.
In total, Reed and former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy secured more than $13 million in federal earmark money for Advanced Solutions projects. But Reed’s spokesman and a former top aide to Kennedy have said emphatically there appear to be no links between the money the lawmakers earmarked for the firm and the contracts detailed in the criminal papers as corrupted by Mariano and Dutta-Gupta.
There has been no suggestion of impropriety by Amrita Dutta-Gupta’s company or by the members of the state’s political delegation. It is not clear whether Amrita Dutta-Gupta is still associated with the firm.
A few former Advanced Solutions employees turned up Tuesday to witness Dutta-Gupta’s court appearance.
One, Richard Kulesh, stood in the cold outside the federal building waiting to face his old boss and watch him walk in.
“I want to see him go in … and I want the truth to come out,” said Kulesh, 37, of North Kingstown. “And if he’s done wrong, I want to see him to get his due.”
Kulesh described Dutta-Gupta as the kind of boss who made an effort to know the names of all, but “I had a lot of anger,” he said. His feelings moved to skepticism when he heard one of Dutta-Gupta’s lawyers say that the defendant, alleged to have skimmed more than $10 million from federal government contracts, had only $20,000 in cash.
“That’s really hard to believe,” he said. “I’m genuinely shocked by that. You could speculate all day about why.”
Dutta-Gupta “was a great guy if you can overlook this.”
Kulesh scoffed at his own suggestion.
He couldn’t.
KEY POINTS: Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow
STATUS: The company closed Monday; CEO Wayne M. King told employees in an e-mail that its assets had been frozen and efforts to find a buyer had failed. The closing followed the Feb. 6 arrest of company founder and owner Anjan Dutta-Gupta.
LOCATION: Had headquarters in Roswell, Ga., with offices in Washington and in Middletown, at the Aquidneck Corporate Park.
EMPLOYEES: Work force, about 160, has been laid off.
REVENUES: $30 million
BUSINESS: Provided information and technology services to government and private industry, including the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, in Newport. It had won contracts to develop submarine technology and underwater, unmanned vehicles for reconnaissance and combat missions. ASFT had 10 open contracts with the Navy, including the 3 largest, which total $128 million.
HISTORY: Founded by Anjan Dutta-Gupta in 1992 through a Department of Defense mentor program. The company expanded into Rhode Island in 1996 when it acquired Amtech, of Newport.
Sources: Affidavit of Patrick J. Hegart, special agent of U.S. Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Service; ASFT Web pages, Zoominfo.com.
KEY PLAYER: Anjan Dutta-Gupta
AGE: 58
HOME: Roswell, Ga.
GROWING UP: Raised in Calcutta, India, son of a prominent banker from a large family.
EDUCATION: Undergraduate degree, University of Calcutta; master’s degree in business management from the Institute of Business Management, in Pakistan.
FAMILY: Married to Indrani Dutta-Gupta, former executive vice president of Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow; two children.
Sources: Affidavit of Patrick J. Hegart, special agent of U.S. Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Service; article published by Indian-American author Kavitta Chibber
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have questions about this posting or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce, or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Lawyer John E. MacDonald at 401-421-1440.
To learn more about The Law Office of John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
R.I. Defense Firm Owner Out On Bond After Court Appearance
10:18 AM EST on Wednesday, February 16, 2011By Katie Mulvaney, John E. Mulligan, and Tom Mooney
PROVIDENCE — Anjan Dutta-Gupta drove with his family by van from Georgia to face federal charges in Rhode Island that he doled out $10 million in bribes to secure Navy contracts for his Middletown company.
In his first appearance in U.S. District Court, in Rhode Island, Dutta-Gupta bowed his head slightly as he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond Tuesday he understood the charge against him.
“I do, sir,” said Dutta-Gupta as his wife, two children and other family members looked on. The 58-year-old founder of Georgia-based Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow Inc. used headphones to assist his hearing. Heavyset with salt-and-pepper hair and a pronounced accent, Dutta-Gupta leaned in to speak with his lawyers John E. MacDonald and David M. Fragale, a Washington, D.C., attorney specializing in white-collar criminal defense.
Extra
Authorities arrested Dutta-Gupta on Feb. 6 in Atlanta as he returned from Chile. He is charged with bribing Ralph M. Mariano, a civilian program manager with the Naval Sea Systems Command, in a $10-million kickback scheme that authorities allege siphoned thousands of federal dollars to Dutta-Gupta, Mariano and Mariano’s family through a series of shell companies. Mariano, of Arlington, Va., who managed Advanced Solutions’ contracts with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, in Newport, was also charged with bribery.
A federal magistrate in Georgia released Dutta-Gupta last week on a $25,000 unsecured bond. But Almond upped that sum Tuesday to a $50,000 unsecured bond, plus he must post $10,000 within a week.
Almond imposed the $10,000 bond, he said, in lieu of requiring Dutta-Gupta, of Roswell, Ga., to be monitored electronically and abide by a curfew, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich had asked. Almond restricted Dutta-Gupta’s travel to northern Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and Rhode Island. A native of Calcutta who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, Dutta-Gupta surrendered his passport.
Dutta-Gupta asked Almond if he would be violating the terms of his release by driving from Georgia to his Rhode Island court dates. Almond said he could stop briefly for food and gas but should not make long-term stops on his journeys without consulting court officials.
Dutta-Gupta founded Advanced Solutions in 1992, overseeing its growth as its Navy business increased. The firm worked on Navy research programs in Newport that included unmanned underwater vehicles and submarine command and control systems. The company is headquartered in Roswell, Ga., with offices in Middletown and Fairfax, Va.
Authorities say Dutta-Gupta and Mariano engineered a system of regular payments, largely for work never performed, to shell companies in a scheme dating to the late 1990s. A criminal complaint describes Mariano using his power as a senior Navy program official to steer contracts to Advanced Solutions.
Dutta-Gupta is accused of then channeling about $10 million, through companies he and associates controlled, to Mariano, his relatives and friends in return for his role in securing millions of dollars in Navy contracts for Dutta-Gupta’s firm.
Advanced Solutions was something of a family affair, according to the complaint, statements on the company’s website and other sources; Anjan’s wife, Indrani, was a company vice president.
The Dutta-Guptas and their children have been financial supporters of political campaigns. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based campaign finance monitor, the four family members have given an aggregate total of $48,512 to political campaigns over the years. But Anjan and Indrani Dutta-Gupta concentrated their political giving on members of the Rhode Island congressional delegation.
The younger Dutta-Guptas grew up in Georgia, where they ranked as award-winning scholars. Daughter Amrita Dutta-Gupta graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2003 and is listed as a fellow at the university’s management school.
A 2005 graduate of the University of Chicago, son Indivar Dutta-Gupta served as an $89,000-a-year staffer on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee until last year. He joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, this year. He is an expert on poverty issues.
Amrita, too, was president of Paramount Solutions, another defense contractor with offices in Middletown that did business with the Navy and Advanced Solutions. Like her father’s company, Paramount Solutions secured Navy work “earmarked” into a federal spending bill by Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.
Reed’s office said Tuesday that the senator secured a $1.6-million project that Paramount Solutions undertook jointly with the Naval Undersea Systems Command in Newport. That earmark, for work on submarine command-and-control systems, was in the 2008 appropriations bill. Amrita Dutta-Gupta was chief financial officer of the firm at the time, according to a company statement in which she thanked the senator for his assistance.
Reed spokesman Chip Unruh said the senator does not recall having met Amrita Dutta-Gupta.
Paramount Solutions was registered in Rhode Island in 2005 as a Georgia-based company “pursuing professional development services opportunities” with the state and the Navy. Amrita Dutta-Gupta was listed as president and vice president at the time. The directors include Wayne King of Bristol, who was in the news Monday as the acting chief of Advanced Solutions who informed its nearly 100 employees in Middletown that the company was closing its doors.
Paramount is tucked into a corner of a small, one-story office plaza along Aquidneck Avenue, less than two miles from Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow.
In total, Reed and former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy secured more than $13 million in federal earmark money for Advanced Solutions projects. But Reed’s spokesman and a former top aide to Kennedy have said emphatically there appear to be no links between the money the lawmakers earmarked for the firm and the contracts detailed in the criminal papers as corrupted by Mariano and Dutta-Gupta.
There has been no suggestion of impropriety by Amrita Dutta-Gupta’s company or by the members of the state’s political delegation. It is not clear whether Amrita Dutta-Gupta is still associated with the firm.
A few former Advanced Solutions employees turned up Tuesday to witness Dutta-Gupta’s court appearance.
One, Richard Kulesh, stood in the cold outside the federal building waiting to face his old boss and watch him walk in.
“I want to see him go in … and I want the truth to come out,” said Kulesh, 37, of North Kingstown. “And if he’s done wrong, I want to see him to get his due.”
Kulesh described Dutta-Gupta as the kind of boss who made an effort to know the names of all, but “I had a lot of anger,” he said. His feelings moved to skepticism when he heard one of Dutta-Gupta’s lawyers say that the defendant, alleged to have skimmed more than $10 million from federal government contracts, had only $20,000 in cash.
“That’s really hard to believe,” he said. “I’m genuinely shocked by that. You could speculate all day about why.”
Dutta-Gupta “was a great guy if you can overlook this.”
Kulesh scoffed at his own suggestion.
He couldn’t.
KEY POINTS: Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow
STATUS: The company closed Monday; CEO Wayne M. King told employees in an e-mail that its assets had been frozen and efforts to find a buyer had failed. The closing followed the Feb. 6 arrest of company founder and owner Anjan Dutta-Gupta.
LOCATION: Had headquarters in Roswell, Ga., with offices in Washington and in Middletown, at the Aquidneck Corporate Park.
EMPLOYEES: Work force, about 160, has been laid off.
REVENUES: $30 million
BUSINESS: Provided information and technology services to government and private industry, including the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, in Newport. It had won contracts to develop submarine technology and underwater, unmanned vehicles for reconnaissance and combat missions. ASFT had 10 open contracts with the Navy, including the 3 largest, which total $128 million.
HISTORY: Founded by Anjan Dutta-Gupta in 1992 through a Department of Defense mentor program. The company expanded into Rhode Island in 1996 when it acquired Amtech, of Newport.
Sources: Affidavit of Patrick J. Hegart, special agent of U.S. Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Service; ASFT Web pages, Zoominfo.com.
KEY PLAYER: Anjan Dutta-Gupta
AGE: 58
HOME: Roswell, Ga.
GROWING UP: Raised in Calcutta, India, son of a prominent banker from a large family.
EDUCATION: Undergraduate degree, University of Calcutta; master’s degree in business management from the Institute of Business Management, in Pakistan.
FAMILY: Married to Indrani Dutta-Gupta, former executive vice president of Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow; two children.
Sources: Affidavit of Patrick J. Hegart, special agent of U.S. Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Service; article published by Indian-American author Kavitta Chibber
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have questions about this posting or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce, or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Lawyer John E. MacDonald at 401-421-1440.
To learn more about The Law Office of John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Post-Conviction Relief Attorney MacDonald vacates a Misdemeanor conviction for Domestic Assault
Criminal Defense Attorney Results
Post-Conviction Relief Attorney John E. MacDonald announces a successful result for a client facing deportation. Attorney MacDonald achieved post-conviction relief for client and vacates a Misdemeanor conviction for Domestic Assault.CASE DETAILS: Client had a 2003 misdemeanor conviction for domestic assault. Client is a lawful permanent resident from Portugal who would have been subject to deportation if the conviction remained in place.
OUTCOME: The grounds of the motion was failure to receive the proper alien warnings. Upon appeal misdemeanor conviction vacated in Kent County Superior Court.
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If you have questions about this posting or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce, or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Lawyer John E. MacDonald at 401-421-1440.
To learn more about The Law Office of John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Friday, April 12, 2013
RI First Degree Sexual Assault Case Results and Testimonial
First Degree Sexual Assault Charges Results
March, 2013. Client was facing two counts of First Degree Sexual Assault in Providence Superior Court. After a six-day jury trial in which the state called 9 prosecution witnesses, including a DNA expert, client was found Not Guilty on all counts.
Testimonial by family:
"There are no words to describe the gratitude of our family. You have helped us navigate the most stressful and difficult 16 months of our lives. Because of your representation, two beautiful children will know their father's love, will never have to endure the shame and humiliation of having an incarcerated parent, can giggle and laugh as they run through the house chasing their dad as they were doing earlier. They'll never know how close they came to a life changing experience. Thank you from the depth of my soul!"
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If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
What does it mean to be a domiciled inhabitant in a RI or MA divorce proceeding?
Rhode Island and Massachusetts handle divorce petitions very differently, but for the purpose of establishing jurisdiction (the proper court venue and the right to hear your case) both systems operate from the standpoint that at least one of the parties must be a physical resident, or a domiciled inhabitant, of the state in which you are filing.
For instance, if you live in Rhode Island with your spouse, and at least one of you has done so for at least 1 year, then you are eligible to file your divorce petition in the RI Family Court. If you or your spouse has just moved to RI however, and the time that either of you has lived here is less than a year, you will need to either live in RI for a complete year and then file your petition, or file for your divorce in the state where you resided at the time that you were married.
The same rules of residency apply for Massachusetts divorce proceedings, although the structure is a bit different. In order to file a MA divorce petition, you must have been living within the State when the grounds for divorce occured. If you were not living in the state at that time, then either you or your spouse will need to maintain a permanent, physical residence in Massachusetts for one year prior to filing for your divorce.
In both states, there is no requirement that you remain in the state after the filing of your divorce petition; merely that you have lived there for one year beforehand, and live there on the date that you file the petition.
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If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
For instance, if you live in Rhode Island with your spouse, and at least one of you has done so for at least 1 year, then you are eligible to file your divorce petition in the RI Family Court. If you or your spouse has just moved to RI however, and the time that either of you has lived here is less than a year, you will need to either live in RI for a complete year and then file your petition, or file for your divorce in the state where you resided at the time that you were married.
The same rules of residency apply for Massachusetts divorce proceedings, although the structure is a bit different. In order to file a MA divorce petition, you must have been living within the State when the grounds for divorce occured. If you were not living in the state at that time, then either you or your spouse will need to maintain a permanent, physical residence in Massachusetts for one year prior to filing for your divorce.
In both states, there is no requirement that you remain in the state after the filing of your divorce petition; merely that you have lived there for one year beforehand, and live there on the date that you file the petition.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
3 Things You Need to Know About a Rhode Island Divorce
Divorce is divorce, right?
Not exactly. Although there are basic similarities from state to state, each state still has its own process. In Rhode Island for instance, you typically go to court first and then work out an agreement, whereas in Massachusetts, you are required to work out your agreement, then you will be given a court date.
So what are a few things particular to
your RI divorce?
Equitable Distribution
This is a nice way of saying that if
you and your spouse cannot reach an agreement regarding the division
of your marital property, the court can and may decide for you. In
reaching their decision, they will consider the length of your
marriage, the income levels of you and your spouse, the contributions
that you have each made to your marital assets, education and job
skills, whether either of you took time off from a career to care for
children at home, and many other factors. If you are having trouble
deciding how to divide your marital property, you should seek the
advice of a qualified family court attorney.
Custody, Visitation, and Placement of
Minor Children
Again, in a situation where neither you
or your spouse can reach an agreement concerning the physical
placement of your children, the court will decide based upon what
will be in the best interest of the child. Custody (sole or joint)
will typically determine the placement of the child. The parent with
custody will have physical placement, and the other parent, the
non-custodial parent, will be given reasonable rights of visitation.
In every instance, the well-being of the child should be the main
focus of negotiating parties. If you need help determining what would
be in the best interest of your child, you should ask your divorce
attorney for their advice.
Health Insurance Coverage Continuation
This is a very complicated area of not
only divorce law, but also the RI General Laws and the Federal
Regulations known as the COBRA laws. There is no simple answer as to
whether or not your former spouse is required to continue to provide
health coverage for you. Researching your current employer's health
plan, as well as your spouse's health coverage, is a good starting
point. Because these discussions tend to involve an additional
financial burden for one party or the other, discussions should be at
least supervised by a Divorce Mediator, if not a RI Family Court
Lawyer.
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If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Social Media Technology Called Into Play in Family Court Cases
Bedridden Man Uses Skype to Testify Against Wife
By Jacob GershmanSeeking an extension of a protection order against his estranged wife, an elderly Illinois man needed to show up to court and testify. The problem was that he had suffered a stroke and felt too weak to get out of bed. But he was able to testify anyway — thanks to Skype and an iPad.
Emil Kogan, according to his attorney, answered questions from his bedroom by talking into his laptop. On the other end of the video call was his attorney, who brought her iPad into the courtroom so the judge and the other lawyer could see him.
There were some technical glitches. It took a while for Mr. Kogan, who was assisted by another former wife, to lower the lid of his laptop and get the camera to focus on his face — not the wall above his head. “They didn’t quite know how the camera worked,” his attorney, Marie Fahnert, told Law Blog.
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If you have questions about this post or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Attorney John E. MacDonald at 401.421.1440.
To learn more about John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com.
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