If you drive north of the Detroit metro for about two hours, you will arrive in Bay County, Michigan, sitting beside Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. The scenic area was recently the site of the arrests of two Detroit-area men who have been charged with credit card fraud and larceny.
The Bay County sheriff said that when the 21- and 22-year-old suspects were taken into custody, they were attempting to use credit cards to purchases Visa gift cards at a local grocery store.
A few years ago, a dedicated group of legal and mental health professionals formed the Parental Alienation Study Group, an international, not-for-profit organization that wants to help the general public, mental health clinicians, forensic practitioners, attorneys and judges understand parental alienation. PASG is also busy developing and promoting research into the causes of parental alienation, as well as prevention, evaluation and treatment methods.
This year's PASG conference is from Thursday, Sept. 12 to Saturday, Sept. 14 in Philadelphia. The organization will feature a number of the leading voices on parental alienation, including Ann Arbor family law attorney Ashish Joshi.
Parental alienation is a phenomenon in which one parent tries to turn the couple's children against the other parent. These extraordinarily difficult divorce and child custody cases put courts to the test here in Michigan, as judges, lawyers and even family members struggle to make sense of disturbing accusations – though false and unfounded – made by a parent and child against the other parent.
Unsurprisingly, parental alienation cases are just as confounding in the UK as they are here. A recent BBC Radio report on this increasingly prevalent part of divorce and custody battles reached out to Ann Arbor family law attorney Ashish S. Joshi, an internationally recognized authority on the subject for his input.
In a recent 5-2 opinion, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed with a woman who argued that a police officer made an “unreasonable” arrest inside her apartment without a search warrant. Justices also questioned some of the evidence used to convict her of drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
Jennifer Hammerlund and her attorney argued that her Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated four years ago during her arrest in her home, and that the evidence gathered afterwards – alcohol breath tests indicating she was drunk – should be excluded from her case.
For more than 40 years, the Ann Arbor Observer has been keeping its readers in touch with the people and places that make our city an easy place to love and a hard place to leave. Our law firm was recently honored when the Observer included a detailed profile of owner and managing partner Ashish Joshi.
The path to “Tree Town” began for 43-year-old Joshi in his native India, where he holds a law degree from Gujarat University, in addition to the one he earned here from the University of Michigan. Joshi has over the years built “a reputation as a gifted and aggressive litigator in criminal, business, international and, particularly, family law, where he specializes in some of the most bitter child custody cases.”
Credit card skimmers are electronic devices often placed over the card-swipe mechanisms on gas pumps. When a person purchases gas with a card, the skimmer captures and records the card’s information stored in its magnetic strip. That data is later downloaded and exploited fraudulent purchases or to manufacture a counterfeit credit card.
A recent set of indictments reveal just how seriously authorities are taking this particular act. The seven defendants are facing charges of bank fraud, conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.
Just a few minutes east of Ann Arbor, two brothers and their businesses have received national attention after they were allegedly targeted for harassment by Canton Township officials. The brothers were fined $450,000 last year by Canton Township for removing trees from their property without permission.
The brothers publicly complained about the ordinance and the fine. And that is when the harassment of them and their businesses began, according to a lawsuit.
If you drive east of Ann Arbor for a few minutes, you will arrive in Wyandotte. The Downriver community was recently the site of a raid by federal law enforcement agents on a house.
According to a news report, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed a search warrant at a residence. They reportedly seized guns, ammunition and a controlled substance at the home, but made no arrests.
According to the FBI and federal prosecutors, the evidence in a recent investigation just northeast of Ann Arbor involved conversations about customers angry about a drop-off in product quality.
Federal agents recently arrested four people on drug-trafficking charges, claiming that they are part of a Pontiac-based operation that sells large amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines.
When a person is arrested in Ann Arbor or Detroit or anywhere else in Michigan, the criminal justice system is supposed to have a presumption of innocence. In other words, you are supposed to be considered innocent until you are proven guilty.
But the ACLU of Michigan recently filed a federal class-action lawsuit that argues that the 36th District Court in Detroit is violating the constitutional rights of those who are arrested and then confined to jail because they cannot afford bail. The lawsuit argues that the cash bail system is presuming that those who cannot come up with bail are guilty, not innocent.
Joshi | 2433 Oak Valley Drive | Suite 500 | Ann Arbor, MI 48103 | Phone: 734-249-6170 | Fax: 734-327-5032 | Map & Directions
