This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays, we look at the case of a family law dispute that turned pretty crazy pretty quickly. Then, we examine the consequences of forgery. Finally, we look at what happens when you seek out cold comfort for an itch you cannot seem to scratch.
Follow the jump to learn more about this week’s weirdest and wackiest legal cases from around the globe.
Not the Way to Win a Family Case
I got into criminal law because I thought the crazy facts and fun stories would keep me endlessly entertained. But apparently, family law is where the drama is at. In a very contentious child custody dispute, a woman in Ontario got herself in more than a little hot water.
After text messages between the two parents were filed into evidence in the father’s case, the mother filed her own version of the text messages. The father denied sending them. Eventually, the trial judge allowed the cell phone to be produced and inspected in court, with the mother holding it up to the screen. She tried to block the court from seeing text messages before a specific date by preventing the phone from scrolling with her finger. Then, when that was unsuccessful, and the text messages were not there, she claimed they were sent from her iPad instead of her phone.
Eventually, the court had to take a break; but the father’s counsel was not finished with their cross-examination. The court ordered that the mother leave her cell phone on the table, where it could be seen from the screen, while the father sent a staff member to pick up the phone and bring it to the father’s lawyer in person. The mother’s Zoom call disconnected for about five minutes in the last few minutes before the phone was collected.
Lo and behold, when the phone arrived at the father’s lawyer’s office, all the text messages had been wiped.
Suffice it to say, the court did not believe the mother’s text messages were real, or that the mother was telling the truth in the trial.
Speaking of Forgery
A lawyer in Pennsylvania has been suspended from practicing law for eighteen months.
In some respects, it is possible to have some sympathy for the lawyer. After all, she was dealing with a difficult client who wanted his bankruptcy case processed as fast as possible. In order to alleviate his anxiety, she forged a judge’s signature on the order. But sympathy or not, the conduct is obviously inexcusable and the lawyer was suspended.
So, a word of advice that really should not need to be given: if you are a lawyer, do not forge signatures.
Cold Comfort
A Florida man came up with a very strange scheme to publicly masturbate.
It seems the man faked breathing difficulties, resulting in his calling an ambulance for assistance. While inside the ambulance, he asked for an ice pack. Then, he removed all his clothes, stared at the paramedics who were treating him, folded the ice pack in two, and started pleasuring himself with it.
According to police, who gave a statement, “First responders would like to prosecute.”
