Daily Briefs

Detroit-area judge gets probation in hit-and-run crash case


MARINE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit judge accused of crashing into a man’s car and driving away has been given a suspended jail sentence, probation and 100 hours of community service.

Roseville’s 39th District Court Judge Catherine Steenland learned her punishment Friday in a St. Clair County courtroom. She earlier pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of failing to stop at the scene of an accident where someone was injured and failing to report an accident.

Her lawyer Stephen Rabaut says she’s accepted responsibility. A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing.

The crash occurred in 2017 in the Macomb County community of Roseville. A man said a woman in a red sedan hit his car and drove away. Steenland was on medical leave at the time.

 

ABA’s Immigration  Justice Project marks 10-year anniversary


In 2008, the U.S. immigration system was in crisis – and the American Bar Association responded. As federal courts became clogged with immigration appeals, the ABA created the Immigration Justice Project in San Diego. A decade later, the project continues to promote due process and access to justice at every level of the immigration system.

Each year the IJP’s Legal Orientation Program helps approximately 3,500 detained immigrants who are fleeing violence in their home countries to understand their legal rights in court. The project’s National Qualified Representative Program provides appointed legal counsel for detained immigrants who are mentally incompetent to represent themselves. And IJP recruits, trains and mentors volunteer attorneys and law students to represent clients in the San Diego area.

At the project’s recent 10th anniversary celebration, Ahilan Arulanantham, senior counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, encouraged lawyers to fight to ensure that immigrants are not detained and deported without legal representation and due process. He decried the “system of imprisonment without trial, built on the legal fiction that immigration detention is civil, not criminal.”

“Punishment that results in even one day’s incarceration cannot be imposed without counsel,” Arulanantham said. “But the government recognizes almost no right to appointed counsel in deportation cases – even in asylum cases, cases involving long-time lawful residents or cases involving children.”

 

Oakland County Bar Association 2018 Holiday Gala Dec. 6


Join more than 400 Oakland County Bar Association members for an evening of elegance, building friendships and celebrating the season at the premier OCBA social event of the holidays. The gala will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, December 6 at the Townsend Hotel, 100 Townsend St. in Birmingham, and will feature festive music, plentiful hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. The cost to attend is $90 for OCBA members; $65 for OCBA New Lawyers (P77000+), paralegals and students; and $100 for non-members. Register at www. ocba.org.

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