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June 18th, 2019

Diversions

Can't Possibly Be True!

News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

By News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

Published May 24, 2016

Can't Possibly Be True!
• "Wall of Sound," Updated: Police, finally armed with a warrant after months of neighbors' complaints about loud music, raided Michael Baker's small one-bedroom apartment in Croydon, England, in March and confiscated 34 loudspeakers that allegedly Baker had been using at high volume at "all hours." After entering the home with the aid of a locksmith, police left Baker with only a CD player and a pair of earphones. [Croydon.gov.uk, 3-8-2016]



• Nicholas Ragin finally got his conviction overturned in March, but it took 10 years before the U.S. Court of Appeals declared that his "right to counsel" had been violated because his lawyer slept during various parts of Ragin's conspiracy and racketeering trial. (His sentence had 20 more years to run.) One juror later recalled that lawyer Nikita Mackey slept "almost every day, morning and evening" for "30 minutes at least." Once, according to court documents, after the trial judge called Mackey's name loudly, only belatedly getting a response, Mackey "jumped up and sort of looked around and was licking his lips ... and looked sort of confused and looked around the room." (The prosecutor said she intends to retry Ragin.) [WYFF-TV (Geenville, S.C.), 3-14-2016] [The Independent (London), 3-13-2016]

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