Maryland Criminal Law Blog

File this one under (attempted) pre-trial indictment investigations. For anyone who wonders why a rule requiring police to get a valid search warrant before actually conducting the search is a good rule, look no further than Cyrus Farivar's story with Ars Technica.

Jon Kelly with BBC News Magazine says that fake ID is an American rite of passage, based on the fact that so many college kids, because they're in college, drink. Yet the legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21. That's higher than pretty much every other country. In Maryland, for example, one lawyer says fake IDs are "endemic" and that getting busted for underage drinking and possession of fake ID can result in a criminal record.

The criminal record, in turn, can impact a young person's future.

As Chad Bray reports for the Wall Street Journal, 34-year-old finance trader Matthew Taylor pleaded guilty in federal court today to a white collar crime charge of wire fraud. The fraud involved a staggering $8.3 billion trade that he made while employed at Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs said: "Matt Taylor provided false explanations when confronted about irregularities we detected in his account during [...] the trading day," while U.S. District Judge William Pauley III was more direct: "He cooked the books."

Not a local story, but some issues go beyond state borders to speak more broadly. When it comes to juvenile crimes, some kids are going to face more scrutiny than others, especially if you're the son of a politician.

Although it must be said that any juvenile crime like underage drinking will have an impact on a young person's life.

17 years behind bars was the sentence for 26-year-old Casey Fury, after having pleaded guilty to arson by setting a fire aboard the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Miami. As O'Ryan Johnson reports for the Boston Herald, the fire caused significant damage to the sub - $450 million worth - and put it out of commission indefinitely.

You might find Fury's reason for setting the fire somewhat surprising. Apparently, Fury did it because he wanted to go home early from work.

The infamous Trayvon Martin case became major news when George Zimmerman, the man accused of shooting and killing the 17-year-old Martin, claimed to have acted in self-defense and wasn't arrested or charged with any crime until more than a month later.

This, despite the apparent lack of evidence that Martin attacked him, as well as Zimmerman's claim that his state's stand-your-ground law justified the shooting, made this case major news.

As Kevin Rector reports for the Baltimore Sun, an undercover federal agent in Baltimore snagged a 34-year-old man on eBay when he pretended to be an out-of-country buyer of night vision goggles.

The 34-year-old, who resides in Florida, mailed a package marked as "Rangefinder" with a value of $70, although the package really contained night vision goggles that cost $7,000.

It's not clear how closely the popular FX show Sons of Anarchy resembles a real club like the Outlaws MC. But one club member from Baltimore, as Van Smith reports for the City Paper, was recently the subject of federal charges involving a methamphetamine deal gone wrong.