NOLA native Birdman, aka Bryan Williams, was busted yesterday

According to press reports, a police officer saw the RV change lanes, forcing a tractor trailer rig into the emergency lane.  The cop pulled the Birdman-mobile over, and smelled marijuana smoke coming from inside the RV.  He asked for permission to search the RV, was given consent, and found a pound of marijuana in a trash can, in the RV’s kitchenette.

He also found a handgun, a magazine for a .45, and an assault rifle.  (This has brought ATF into the case, but there haven’t been any charges on the guns yet.)

So, when can the police pull you over?  When can they search your car? 

1.  The police have a right to stop a person for committing a traffic violation.  They can also stop a person who they suspect is committing a crime (a “Terry Stop”), and they can stop a person to arrest him/her.

The law has a lot of limits on a cop being able to stop someone based upon the police officer’s suspicions.  These “Terry Stops” can include asking the person for identification, and frisking them for weapons.  They can remove weapons, or what they think are weapons, from a person’s pockets — but nothing else, even if it’s drugs or something else illegal. The cop can ask questions, too.  However, these questions must be limited to the suspicious activity.

Since the cop saw Birdman’s RV illegally change lanes, he had a legal right to pull the RV over.

2.  The police don’t have the right to search your car automatically.  If they ask permission to search the car, then they are assuming that they’ll find illegal stuff in the car.  You can say no.  However, if the police officer has a legal basis to search anyway, he’ll do it.  This is called “probable cause.”  Your best bet is to say no — it’s a better protection of your rights.

Since the cop smelled smoke when he approached the RV, then he had probable cause to search for marijuana.  However, giving the consent probably wasn’t smart for Birdman to do, anyway.  It’s not a crime to not give your consent to the search.

Watch:  there’s going to be charges on those guns coming from the feds ….

As detailed in today’s News Release by the Clearwater Florida Police, Hulk Hogan’s son, Nick Hogan Bollea, turned himself in this morning and was booked on the both felony and misdemeanor charges resulting from the August 26th car crash that left his friend John Graziano seriously incapacitated.   Witnesses have confirmed that Nick Hogan was speed racing with Daniel Jacobs, who’s being charges with reckless driving.  

What’s the law here?  Well, both civil and criminal law come into play in serious car crashes like this one.   There’s jail time to consider, fines, and big civil damages. 

Today’s news is the criminal side: Nick must face the possibility of fines and jail time.  He’s facing the felony charge of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury which is compounded by being under the age of 21 with a BAC of .02 or higher at the time of the crash.  Not good.

Driving drunk while speed racing and permanently incapacitating your passenger?  Good luck getting around jail time here ….

No news yet on the civil side: Graziano looks to have a well-documented personal injury suit against Nick Hogan, should he (or someone acting on his behalf) decide to file one.  The news media covered the crash and have extensive photos to provide any personal injury lawyer pursuing the matter. 

Looks like someone’s preparing for a civil defense somewhere: the Hogan family has already issued a statement where John Granziano’s failure to be wearing his seatbelt is clearly pointed out.  Contributory negligence is a legal defense, of course.

And, last month, TMZ reported that evidence was provided in the suit involving having someone become legal guardian for John (his mother filed, her estranged husband fought for an independent appointee) that the Hogan family was providing significant financial support for John’s mother, including providing her a condo and assorted living expenses to avoid a civil lawsuit. 

Why file a civil lawsuit?  John remains in a “coma-like state” which may mean he’s suffered a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury, or both.  These are severe injuries, requiring long term health care as well as therapeutic and rehabilitative expense should he ever improve to any degree.  This cost can be in the millions, and personal injury lawsuits detail those damages and insure that these costs are covered over the victim’s lifetime. 

A civil personal injury lawsuit will protect Graziano’s long term needs – he may survive many years in that coma-like state.  Expect one to be filed. 

Meanwhile, Nick Hogan’s family has released a statement, which you can read in its entirety over at Tampa Bay’s TV channel 10′s web site.

Also this afternoon, Britney Spear’s attorney appeared in court on her behalf — and Britney has been ordered to come into LA County and be booked for hit and run before the big 10/26 hearing in her custody case. 

What’s the big deal about all this?

For Kiefer, it may mean some jail time since the “no contest” plea translates into his admission that he violated his probation from the 2004 case (not to mention failing the 9/2007 sobriety test).  Probation is a second chance given by a judge: coming back before a judge for violation of probation?  You better have a darn good reason for being there, because the judge is usually ready to send you off for some jail time at that point. 

Is the economic impact to 24 if Kiefer can’t work a good enough reason?  Probably not.

As for Britney’s hit and run, this involves the fender bender in the parking lot, and her biggest problem there is the lack of a valid driver’s license at the time.  No sobriety test was done, no one was hurt, it wasn’t significant property damage.  All that video doesn’t help her case though — you see her smiling as she walks away from the scene.  Plus, all this bad press and the commissioner’s ruling that she’s habitually under the influence won’t help her, either. 

Kiefer’s in a much more serious situation than Britney today — and all this disregard of the law by celebrities, back to back, may hurt them both.  Judges don’t like to see the law disrespected.  Why not?

Well, maybe it is because they take it personally.  Then again, maybe it’s because they’ve seen too many cases where cars were involved that ended up like John Graziano.  Maybe they see the legal privilege of driving a car as a bigger responsibility than most. 

So who’s this John Graziano?  You remember him — he was the passenger in the car that Hulk Hogan’s son crashed last month.  He may be spending the rest of his life in a nursing home: he’s still not responding to light or sound.�

The Guardian has compiled a good overview

TMZ is quoting a story from the New York Post, where six weeks ago OJ allegedly appeared at the home of his handyman, girlfriend Christine Prody in tow, to accuse the guy of sleeping with Prody and threatening to kill him.  Included in the story is a reference to several domestic dispute calls made by Prody over the past 10 years. 

Meanwhile, OJ’s being used as the prime example of a “well implemented asset protection strategy” by at least one law firm, while the Goldman Family is attempting to seize the Vegas sports memorabilia as part of collecting on its civil judgment and they’re investigating the possibility of money stashed in offshore bank accounts.  They’ve already obtained OJ’s Rolex, after seeing the watch in a news photo covering the Vegas caper. 

OJ made bail, even though several pundits were arguing that it would never happen.  He left Nevada, and returned to Florida without a problem.  He’s said to be pleading “not guilty” to the charges. 

What’s next?

Well, there will be a long while before any trial happens in Nevada: probably a year will pass before there’s any trial time.  Meanwhile, there are a variety of witnesses here.  All these men will be trying to negotiate the best deal for themselves.  The old adage “there’s no honor among thieves,” comes to mind as these guys all try to trade info for leniency. 

The character and credibility of these men is suspect.  And, the more that their stories begin conflicting, the better it is for OJ.  Look for his case to be tried last.  While the audio tape will be admissible, look for OJ to not know about the guns, and to not know that anything other than his stuff (i.e., the Montana and Rose memorabilia) was taken from the room.  And look for the tape to be discredited via the character and motivation of its source: Tom Riccio is a convicted felon, after setting this sting operation up, why was he taping all this?

Until trial time, OJ’s going to stay in Florida, where the law protects his home and his huge pension payments.  He’ll live in his new mansion, keep sending his kids to college, and taking his girlfriend to Hooter’s. 

The Goldmans will try and find those offshore accounts, and maybe the handyman will press charges – not likely, though, if he’s waited six weeks now.  And, there’s some talk that he and Prody did know each other ….

Don’t expect this to be the Slam-Dunk Case that the media is hyping.  Once again, OJ will have expert legal counsel at a trial to limit the admissible evidence, and discredit the rest.  And while OJ’s reputation will be the elephant in that courtroom that no one wants to talk about, the standard will remain proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  

I wouldn’t bet the ranch on OJ going down this time, either.  �