Legal papers served on officials in Jersey City

Jersey City was in need of police officers in December 2005, and the news had filtered down to an officer in Middletown Township, N.J., who was looking for a fresh start.

The officer, Kevin Freibott, approached his chief in Middletown with a transfer form, a gesture that was met with little surprise. Officer Freibott was fired from the department there in 2001 after a car accident outside a bar and grill in Atlantic Highlands in which he was driving with an expired license. Although he was reinstated after petitioning the state, he received a six-month suspension.

“He took a big, whopping suspension,” said his former chief, Robert Oches. “I bet in his mind he felt his career dead-ended here.”

In Bay County District Court on Monday, a deputy who once upheld security in the building sat in an orange jumpsuit and shackles as several former colleagues took the stand to testify against him.

Dale Van Wert, 48, of Garfield Township, has pleaded not guilty to 11 felonies and four misdemeanors stemming from allegedly operating his private process serving company while on duty at the Bay County Court Facility from February to June of last year.

Additional charges alleging that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in December - charges that carry, upon conviction, penalties of up to life in prison - also are pending against Van Wert, though those charges weren’t addressed in Monday’s hearing.

Prosecutors allege that Van Wert misused his authority as a deputy to obtain information on people and vehicles to facilitate the operations of his business, Court Service Integrity.

Dennis Kozlowski, has been served with divorce papers

Tyco International Ltd.’s imprisoned former chief executive officer, L. Dennis Kozlowski, has been served with divorce papers, giving him 45 days to disclose his financial condition to his estranged wife, Karen.

Former Cumberland resident Kozlowski, 60, was served Thursday at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., his lawyer Dirk Lorenzen said. The former CEO previously refused his wife’s demand for disclosure. His lawyers told a Palm Beach County, Fla., court he was never served with divorce papers, so disclosure wasn’t mandatory within 45 days of her July 31 filing.

Kozlowski’s financial information may be of interest to Tyco shareholders who sued him and the company. They are seeking to recover money lost when Tyco shares plunged after accounting problems became public in 2002.

20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena Wednesday

20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena Wednesday demanding the Google-owned viral video site disclose the identity of a user who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of primetime series “24″ and “The Simpsons.”

The subpoena, which first came to light on the blog Google Watch was granted by a judge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after being filed by the News Corp.-owned studio on Jan. 18. It is not yet known whether YouTube has complied with the request.

In addition, a second, lesser-known video site, LiveDigital, was also served with a similar subpoena.

A Fox spokesman confirmed the subpoena was filed to both YouTube and LiveDigital and served but declined further comment. A spokesman for YouTube declined comment.

The “24″ episodes in question actually appeared on YouTube prior to their primetime Jan. 14 premiere on the Fox broadcast network, which spread four hourlong episodes of the hit drama over two consecutive nights. Fox became aware the episodes were on YouTube on Jan. 8, according to the subpoena.

A Bartlett mother and her seven children are about to lose their home.

The mother says her husband walked out on the family. Now she says she can’t get Juvenile Court to make him pay child support.

Gina Holmes is trying to make ends meet on her own, but because of health reasons she can’t work. Holmes petitioned Juvenile Court for child support February 27, 2006. Now nearly seven months later she still is waiting for a court date.

Holmes say she had it all — beautiful children, a wonderful home, and a loving husband until she says he walked out last October for another woman. Holmes calls it a “heartbreaking” loss but says nothing compares to the stress of trying to provide for her children, pay bills, and deal with what she calls an unresponsive court system.

Lindsay Lohan was slapped with a huge surprise while attending the Annual American Cinematheque Award honoring George Clooney Friday — a subpoena! And to make matters worse, it all went down on the red carpet.

It all started after the actress was approached by a woman who Lindsay assumed was an autograph seeker on her way out of the event. Lindsay said to the woman “You’re my first autograph!” to which the woman promptly answered “You’ve been served.” According to witnesses, Lindsay then dropped the paperwork and chased after the process server. No word on whether she caught up to the process server.

What you don’t know about process serving can get you in trouble or get your case thrown out of court.

Newspapers across Ohio had some pretty unusual headlines at the end of June, thanks to the dramatic arrest of the president of the Medina County Bar Association. The crime? The attorney was arrested for trespassing on someone’s property – while he was trying to serve some court documents. Witnesses claimed that the attorney, who was serving papers related to a case he was working on, did not knock and instead walked into a woman’s garage then handed her a subpoena. According to local laws, this would constitute trespassing. The situation has now become even more complicated for the Medina County attorney – his client is facing problems with the case and now he has to fight his own legal battles before being able to help his client with their case.

Had the lawyer in this instance hired a professional process server who understood the rules of civil procedure, this may not have happened. read more »

• Group for Private Investigators
• Group for Process Servers