review a court case

reviewing a court case

The present paper will review a court case in one of the District Courts. It will specifically highlight the case details and the type of crime the defendant partook in. Lastly, it will mention the significance of the case and the challenges in carrying out the research.

Case Details

The Court case is a motion that sought reconsideration in three denials. They are the Rule 29 motion, suppression motions and dismissal of charges in the theft and bribery programs. The case was presented in United States District Court, W.D of Pennsylvania in 14th May 2009. The defendant is Cyril H. Wecht, a former Coroner of Allegheny County and prominent forensic pathologist. The ruling made by the presiding judge, Sean McLaughlin, was, granting of the motion of the defendant to suppress evidence held from the laptop warrant and Penn Avenue warrant. However, he denied the motions of dismissing the indictment and the judgement of the acquittal. The judge granted the defendant the suppression of motion as it is a harsh remedy, and should only happen when the evidence from the seized belongings have a considerable deterrent effect. Also, because it is grounded in the Fourth Amendment doctrine where the people are protected from unwarranted government intrusion (McLaughlin n.p.).

Type of Crime

Dr Wecht was charged with 41 criminal counts. The counts include mail and wire fraud, money launder, embezzlement, theft and forgery. He committed theft of honest services and property in his position as Allegheny County coroner. Here, he misused the personnel and resources in his office (ACCO) and obtained services for his motives, therefore, depriving the region with its people the right to honest services. Additinally, he forced the ACCO employs to perform private works on his firm, Wetch pathology, like running of the errands and acting as chauffeurs to his family. He had engaged in multiple acts of wire fraud. He generated falsified limousine charges and inflated the expenses of airfare then embezzled the fraudulent bills to his private clients through facsimile. Between 2001-05 he had embezzled ACCO property valued over $5000 comprising of vehicles, resources and space.

Reasons for Choice

I chose this case because it is related to fraud, which causes detrimental effects in all societies. Fraud has been in existence since ancient times. It was first reported in 300BC when a seafaring merchant from Greece attempted to defraud the insurers by sinking his liner and selling commodities onboard. In the 21srt century, fraudsters capabilities have reached frightening heights, to the point of destabilizing international governments and economies. Researchers advocate for pervasiveness as a way of combating fraudulent activities. Nonetheless, the criminals involved often re-organize and pose new challenges which are expedited by substantial development in technology and data use.

I discovered the court case by perusing the online New York Times. The article is titled “Pathologist Accused of Profiting from Office” and edited by Hamill (n,p).

White-collar Crimes

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the chief motivation for a white-collar job is financial-related issues that revolve around securing a business or personal advantage. All the criminal charges of Dr Wecth fall under this category as they contain features of the white-collar crimes- as highlighted by the FBI. The characteristics are concealment, deceit and trust violation.

Challenges

The first step I did in this research is to confirm whether I can access the court case documents. I successfully located them in a trusted and credible website, www.courtlistener.com. I found the case for motion reconsideration, of 2009, whereas I was searching for the one with the ruling and, consequently, the 41 count charges.