A Michigan man who accidentally left his 3-year-old son to die inside of a hot car for several hours last summer may, in the end, avoid significant jail time altogether, a judge ruled this week.

In January, Chad Martin, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of leaving a child in a vehicle causing death.

On Thursday, the judge overseeing the case sentenced Martin to spend nine months in the Kalamazoo County Jail — with two favorable conditions. First, the sentence is delayed to start until February 2026. Second, the judge also scheduled a conference for December of this year that could lead to the sentence being jettisoned entirely.

Regardless of his time behind bars, however, the defendant was sentenced to three years of probation that began this week.

An Indiana husband who shot and killed his wife during a dangerous dispute aboard a truck that the victim was driving pleaded guilty this week and received a relatively light sentence — in real terms at least.

David Brinker Jr., 39, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of reckless homicide over the death of his wife, Dorothy Brinker, 36.

The incident occurred just over two years prior.

In the early morning hours on March 6, 2023, after a contemptuous night of communication over the phone, David Brinker and Dorothy Brinker were briefly in each others’ presence at their Oak Avenue residence in the Irvington neighborhood of Indianapolis.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asked a New York City judge to expand and enforce a previously issued gag order in former President Donald Trump’s upcoming hush money trial.

In an 8-page motion, the district attorney’s office once again implored New York Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan to issue guidance on who, exactly, is covered by the order and to warn the defendant over a series of recent online social media posts.

“Defendant’s dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric fundamentally threatens the integrity of these proceedings and is intended to intimidate witnesses and trial participants alike — including this Court,” Bragg and his office wrote in the Monday court filing.

Recently, my wife mentioned watching American Nightmare, a new Netflix true-crime documentary. Numerous other folks told me that I had to watch and report. Couple that with the program having 21.4 million views shortly after it was released, I figured that it was a three-part documentary worth digging into. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

It tells the tale of a young couple who suffered a 2015 break-in while they slept. According to the then-boyfriend and now-husband, Aaron Quinn, an assailant surprised him and his now-wife, Denise Huskins. She was kidnapped, and Quinn was left alone in the home, drugged with a sedative, zip-tied and wearing blacked-out swimming goggles.

When he woke, Quinn contacted his brother, an FBI agent, who instructed him to call law enforcement immediately. They brought in Quinn for an interview. And a polygraph test. In my line of business, polygraph tests offered by law enforcement are rarely what they appear to be.

One of American Nightmare’s main themes is believability—such as prosecutors believing law enforcement’s position and police officers not believing what was said during a polygraph test. None of the initial law enforcement officers gave Quinn much credit when he relayed what had happened to him and Huskins.

Admittedly, Quinn’s account is tough to swallow. It is full of meticulous details, and my experience is that when someone adds extravagant details to their story, they’re usually trying way too hard to sell a lie.

Polygraphs and tunnel vision

I can’t tell you the number of times that a client either requested a polygraph from law enforcement or was offered one before retaining my services. It happens more often than most know because we never really hear about polygraphs during criminal court cases. After all, think about the legal posture of the polygraph setting. The tests are usually given during the initial investigation, so prosecutors have already seen the results before deciding to bring formal charges.

First off, a polygraph test is not mandatory, and it’s often scheduled for some time separate and distinct from the initial interrogation. The scheduling accomplishes two essential aspects for the prosecution. Because it’s merely “offered,” the prosecution can argue that the questioning is a consensual encounter as opposed to a criminal interrogation. And because it happens at a different time and potentially on a different date than the initial interrogation, there is more room to argue the suspect was “free to leave” and not in custody.

Law enforcement often use polygraphs as another avenue to interrogate the suspect indirectly. I’ve seen polygraph examiners bust the denial, with investigator tactics such as calling issue to easy answers, even when they are true. The motive is sometimes to make the suspect nervous, which could lead to them saying something incriminating or stop denying the accusation.

At the end of the day, they aren’t trying to get to the truth. They are trying to get to the arrest.

Lie-detector tests in court

Most are unfamiliar with how often polygraphs are misused and abused in our criminal justice system because they’re the dirty little secret that never makes it to the public. Why is that? Because in most jurisdictions, courts have long held that polygraph evidence is inadmissible, as the test hasn’t gained acceptance among scientists. The first case, Frye v. United States, was decided in 1923 by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

In 1993, Frye was abandoned by the majority of courts, following the landmark opinion in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.. In Daubert, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Frye test was superseded by the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Also, rather than focusing on general acceptance, Daubert instructs judges to consider whether a scientific theory or a technique could be tested, whether it had been subject to peer review, and what the known error rate was, among other factors.

As was the case with Frye, polygraphs continued to fall short of the Daubert standard in the eyes of most courts. Some jurisdictions allowed the introduction of polygraph results and related testimony in limited situations.

The Supreme Court offered a bit more guidance in 1998, when it decided the case of United States v. Scheffer. It held that Military Rule of Evidence 707, which makes polygraph evidence inadmissible in court martial proceedings, does not unconstitutionally infringe on an accused person’s right to present a total and complete defense.

Regardless, state and federal courts continue to be highly polarized regarding the reliability and subsequent admissibility of polygraph evidence.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander

The issue comes back to the misuse and abuse of polygraphs by law enforcement. It’s common for investigators and polygraphers to tell suspects that they’ve failed a polygraph when, in truth, they did not, or at worst, the results were inconclusive.

That allegation can wreck someone’s psyche. If they are telling the truth about their innocence only to be told that the “lie detector” doesn’t believe them, it’s normal for a suspect to start second-guessing the reality of the situation.

They may start wondering whether they’re incorrect in their beliefs. After all, the test that detects lies says they are lying, right? Even if they know that they’re telling the truth, law enforcement’s insistence that they aren’t can pin an accused person into a corner.

I’ve asked clients why they give up the ghost and admit something that they didn’t do in the face of unfavorable results. I usually receive an answer somewhat similar to: “If the polygraph doesn’t believe me, then the cops aren’t going to either, and neither will a jury, most likely.”

In those circumstances, I’ll usually put the client through a polygraph with an independent examiner in my office. Sometimes they fail that test too, but other times, they pass with flying colors. When they do pass, it’s common for those same prosecutors and detectives who use polygraphs to break a suspect’s will to have no interest in reviewing results that don’t favor their theory of a case.

In the end, they argue that polygraphs aren’t reliable and are too easily manipulated. You don’t say, huh? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

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Adam R. Banner is the founder and lead attorney of the Oklahoma Legal Group, a criminal defense law firm in Oklahoma City. His practice focuses solely on state and federal criminal defense. He represents the accused against allegations of sex crimes, violent crimes, drug crimes and white-collar crimes.

The study of law isn’t for everyone, yet its practice and procedure seems to permeate pop culture at an increasing rate. This column is about the intersection of law and pop culture in an attempt to separate the real from the ridiculous.

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

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Law Firms

As law firm office space shrinks, natural light is in and ‘capacious’ corner offices are gone

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 29, 2024, 9:06 am CST

Law firms moving to new offices are often saving on space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will save money, according to a story in the New York Times on the BigLaw office market.

Firms that move to newer offices are paying a higher price tag per square foot. That means that firms “may wind up paying the same amount” or even more, said Thomas Fulcher, a vice chairman at Savills, a real estate services agency, in an interview with the New York Times.

Fulcher said the new benchmark is about 600 square feet per lawyer, compared to 1,000 square feet in the past.

Now, physical libraries “have gone the way of the landline and the Dictaphone,” and walls of filing cabinets are no longer needed. Also gone are “capacious corner offices,” which have been replaced with “collaborative spaces and multimedia-equipped conference rooms.”

“Lawyers of all seniority, including the so-called rainmakers, now sit in offices of similar size with uniform furniture,” the article reports.

Work-at-home policies are also affecting office size. Chapman and Cutler assigns offices to lawyers who commit to coming to spending three days per week at the office. Those spending less time there will have office space, “but not necessarily one with their name on the door,” said Kelley M. Bender, the firm’s chief operating partner.

New offices often emphasize natural light and may incorporate glass doors instead of wood, audio and video technology, plenty of electrical outlets, air filtration, acoustics and better artificial lighting.

“And recreation has come to the fore,” the New York Times reports. “Few will own up to adding a foosball table, but Venable does have a regulation bocce ball court in its Washington office.”

ARCATA, Calif.  –  The Bureau of Land Management has completed restoration of the 114-year-old Punta Gorda Light Station overlooking the Pacific Coast along the Lost Coast Trail south of Eureka. The rehabilitation project was partially funded by $2.8 million received through the Great American Outdoors Act.

In addition to restoring the scenic quality of the two-story lighthouse and adjacent oil house, renovations included repairing railings and replacing a spiral stairway leading to the lighthouse lantern room and deck. The project was planned and supervised by a team of BLM Arcata Field Office staff members with expertise ranging from engineering to wildlife biology.

“A challenging aspect was completing the work without disturbing a colony of northern elephant seals and harbor seals protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” said Paul Sever, manager of the BLM King Range National Conservation Area. “We had a four-month window of work time and monitored the seals constantly for any sign of disturbance. We were happy to see that the seals tolerated our project well.”

The light station, a beacon for ship navigation, was built in 1910. Its light was fueled by oil stored in the nearby and now-restored oil house. The station also included housing and other wooden structures. The light station was deactivated in 1951 and the Fresnel lens used to cast the lighthouse beam far out to sea was removed. The station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.  

The light station is near the Mattole Trailhead at the north end of the King Range National Conservation Area, near the community of Petrolia. Hiking to the site requires planning and caution due to creek crossings, a trail section that is only passable at low tide, and the potential for unpredictably high waves. Information on day hiking to the site and backpacking the Lost Coast Trail safely is available from the BLM King Range Office at 707-986-5400.