Atlanta Defense Attorneys

Archive for April, 2010

By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. May 6, 2009 at 12:00 PM PST

 

The Mother of kidnapped little 3-year-old, Briant Rodriguez Rosalina Millan embraces her son’s shirt against her chest during a news conference at the San Bernardino County Sheriff s Department in San Bernardino. Young Rodriguez was forced at gun point from his modest San Bernardino home by two armed men during a home invasion Sunday. “They grabbed my kid, told me, ‘I’m going to take the kid to Mexico and I’m going to kill him,’ ” said Briant’s mother

Briant’s Mother spent over five hours relating to investigators and sketch artists Tuesday, drawing on painful memories to help compose pictures of the two men suspected of tying up her and her youngest five children Sunday afternoon before abducting the boy.

Briant’s Mother continues to make desperate pleas for her son’s safe return.

“Please, I’m asking them to release my son. Give him back to me,” she said as she cried. “Why did they take him? Let him go. Don’t harm my boy. My boy, my life. He’s a good boy.”

The suspects are both said to be skinny, Spanish-speaking Latino men. One is said to be 18 years old, 5-foot-8 and wearing a black ball cap, blue jeans and a green T-shirt. The second suspect was about 24 years old, 5-foot-10 and was wearing a black shirt, black pants, black boots and a white bandana.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has released these composite sketches of the suspects involved in the kidnap of 3 year old Briant Rodriguez. The suspect on the left is approximately 18 years old and the suspect on the right is approximately 24 years old. (Courtesy of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)

Millan, her husband and their six children have only lived in the home about three months. For some unknown reason no information is yet available on the people who previously lived in the family’s home.

 

Both parents deny that the family was involved in any illegal activity and said they do not know why anyone would take their baby. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said the kidnappers have not contacted the family for ransom and “we are concerned the child has been taken across the border.”

Briant Rodriguez was kidnapped from his home in the 8000 block of Pedley Road on Sunday after the two gunmen spent about 20 minutes ransacking the home while his mother and five of her children were tied up, San Bernardino sheriff’s officials say.

One of Briant’s siblings was able to free himself and untied his family members.

Also taken from the home was Millan’s cell phone, so she made the emergency call from a nearby liquor store.

“It’s horrifying,” sheriff’s Lt. Rick Ells told the Associated Press. “I don’t think I could impress on you how rare a kidnapping like this is.”

Briant’s father, who lives with the family, was at work at the time of the robbery and kidnapping, Ells said.

“The family is saying there’s no motive and they do not know the kidnappers,” Ells said, adding that the kidnapping does not appear to be a family abduction.

Briant’s mother told sheriff’s officials that she heard a vehicle door slammed just outside the family’s home when the men left, leading her to believe that the gunmen fled by car.

San Bernardino sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller told the Associated Press that authorities along the Mexican border have been put on alert, and FBI investigators were also helping in the investigation. Detectives emphasize that Briant’s parents are not suspects.

Less than 200 stranger abductions nationwide are reported annually, according to the FBI.

Last year another young boy, Cole Puffinburger, was abducted from a Las Vegas home by three men posing as police officers. Police said they believe the men were Mexican drug dealers and that the kidnapping at gunpoint was a “message” to the Childs grandfather.

Clemons Fred Tinnemeyer, 51, the grandfather of the kidnapped 6-year-old Nevada boy, was arrested by the FBI’s fugitive task force in Riverside. According to police Tinnemeyer allegedly stole millions of dollars from a powerful Mexican drug cartel out of Tijuana, Baja Mexico and believe as a result a contract hit was ordered. Unconfirmed reports say Tinnemeyer turned himself in rather than be found by the Mexican cartels assassination team. It is believed that Tinnemeyer played a major roll in the distribution and sells of drugs in Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

Federal officials say they believe the kidnappers were attempting to locate Tinnemeyer to collect the debt or to take other serious action, but because Tinnemeyer was not there the Mexican gangsters took Cole and were seeking a ransom as payback and would trade Cole for the amount owed. Investigators in the Rodriguez kidnapping in San Bernardino are checking for any similarities.

 

Briant Rodriguez

VICTIM DESCRIPTION:
BRIANT RODRIGUEZ, MALE, HISPANIC, WEIGHT: 40LBS, EYES: BROWN, HAIR: BROWN, CLOTHES: YELLOW SHIRT BLUE SLEEVES, BLUE STRIPED SHORTS. BLACK  SANDALS.

 

Organized, well-financed and violent Mexican drug cartels kidnapping cells are targeting a growing number of U.S. citizens; many victims are believed family members of drug dealers. The MDT’s are ordering murders, kidnappings and other violence against innocent Americans and some of the victims are children.

Some of the kidnappings are believed retaliation for drug dealers owing the MDC’s cash for drugs.

Authorities believe this is about terrorizing people for retaliation.

Many American residents were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico and others kidnapped from the United States and taken to Mexico.

“Some of the kidnapped were recovered, some were hurt and some were killed,” said agent Alex Horan, who directs the FBI’s violent-crime squad in San Diego.

“It’s not a pleasant experience. Victims have reported beatings, torture and there have been rapes.  . . . Handcuffs and hoods over the head are common,” he said. “I would certainly be concerned,” Horan said.

He described the kidnapping groups as sophisticated operations similar to terrorist cells, each with a boss and clear divisions of labor. Usually, one group is involved in scouting, another carries out the kidnapping, a third holds the victim and a fourth handles the ransom.

“They know who they’re going after. I think they have a list,” Horan said. “These are kidnapping cells.  . . . That’s what they do. They do kidnappings all year long.”

While the FBI wouldn’t say what the ransom demands are, or how often they’re paid, agents said money is driving the increase.

 “We’ve had victims held for days to months,” Horan said.

Not every victim is Hispanic, but there have been “very few cases where a tourist is targeted at random,” said Eric Drickersen, who supervises the FBI’s border liaison office in San Diego.

Some of the kidnappings go unreported because people fear retribution, Drickersen said.

From Brownsville Texas to San Diego California Mexican cities bordering American cities are where most Americans are being killed by assassinations and executions. But other Americans are being killed by the long arm of the Mexican drug cartels which reach deep into America. There are accounts of Mexican drug cartel surrogate terrorist’s invading the U.S. by crossing the porous international border and killing Americans in Dallas Texas, Atlanta Geo, New York City, Phoenix Ariz, Las Vegas Nevada, and is believed to have reached Shelby County Alabama where five people were found murdered gangland style by Mexican nationals.

 

Many Americans were kidnapped in the U.S. and taken to Mexico where they were murdered. Still other Americans were abducted and slain in Mexico while visiting, others where shot gangland style in country. Dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped, or held hostage, or killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom and Americans being killed continue to be reported.

 

Carey Marcella McClintock was threatening to testify against a prominent and well known El Paso Texas criminal defense lawyer who has represented Mexican and American drug traffickers and that he himself was beholding to the drug cartels and their gang members.

Carey’s father has been independently investigating his daughter’s killing and now believes that Carey was taken from a Texas town near Dallas to Juarez Mexico across the border from El Paso Texas on a ruse, and was brutally murdered on August 31, 2008 in Juarez so she could not testify.  She was found in an abandoned house in the desert minutes outside of the city.  She had been beaten and stabbed multiple times. Carey’s father believes that his daughter was about to testify against the attorney and others in a federal and on going investigation involving the Mexican drug cartel and there hired assailants the El Paso Barrio Azteca gang. “I believe she was coerced into going to El Paso by the attorney and the attorney’s girl friend where she was provided transportation and was put up in a hotel in Juarez and all paid for by the same attorney. Her family fears that what really happened to Carey has happened to others and that her murder and others like hers will never see the light of day and will never be solved by the corrupt Mexican authorities. He also says the American authorities refuse to investigate because they claim the crime was in Mexico. The El Paso Police Dept has been informed as to the details surrounding the case where the local attorney illegally transported and harbored a known fugitive, yet no investigation is underway. The father also thinks the same attorney had something to do with his daughter’s murder.

 For Related articles and photo’s go to: wwwlagunajournal.com

Mexican Drug cartels terror reaches deep into the U.S.

 

Current team members include John Abraham (55), Jamaal Anderson (98), Jonathan Babineaux (95), Sam Baker (72), Kroy Biermann (71), Justin Blalock (63), Michael Boley (59), Eric Brock (42), Keith Brooking (56), Thomas Brown (27), Tyson Clabo (77), Erik Coleman (26), Harvey Dahl (73), Chauncey Davis (92), Thomas DeCoud (28), Harry Douglas (83), Jason Elam (1), Brian Finneran (86), Renardo Foster (79), Domonique Foxworth (24), Simon Fraser (75), Jamaal Fudge (29), Wayne Gandy (68), Tony Gilbert (51), Brent Grimes (20), Antoine Harris (41), Ben Hartsock (89), Chris Houston (23), Von Hutchins (25), David Irons (30), Chevis Jackson (222), Grady Jackson (90), Robert James (0), Jason Jefferson (99), Michael Jenkins (12), Michael Koenen (9), Trey Lewis (97), Curtis Lofton (50), Todd McClure (62), Pat McCoy (64), Lawyer Milloy (36), Kindal Moorehead (94), Ovie Mughelli (34), Stephen Nicholas (54), Jerious Norwood (32), Quinn Ojinnaka (76), Justin Peelle (87), Marcus Pollard (81), Jason Rader (85), Chris Redman (8), Laurent Robinson (19), Matt Ryan (2), Mike Schneck (46), Glenn Sharpe (37), D.J. Shockley (3), Jason Snelling (44), Alex Stepanovich (69), Michael Turner (33), Michael Vick (7), Eric Weems (14), Todd Weiner (74), Roddy White (84), Ben Wilkerson (67) and Coy Wire (52).

Of those members, Vick remains suspended. Members on injured reserve include Brown, Harris, Hartsock, Hutchins, Irons, James, McCoy and Robinson. Members who are unable to perform include Foster and Lewis.

No team is as effective without a great group of coaches. Falcons have head coach Mike Smith, defensive backs Emmitt Thomas, defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, special teams Keith Armstrong, wide receivers Terry Robiskie, strength and conditioning Jeff Fish, defensive assistant Joe Danna, offensive line Paul Boudreau, running backs Gerald brown, assistant offensive line Paul Dunn, assistant strength and conditioning Bill Hughan, defensive line Ray Hamilton, assistant special teams Tom McMahon, quarterbacks Bill Musgrave, linebackers Glenn Pires, defensive backs Alvin Reynolds and offensive assistant Glenn Thomas.

The Falcons were founded in 1966 and currently play all of their home games at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons will hold the No. 24 pick in the 2009 draft to be held on Saturday, April 25, 2009 in New York, New York. With the season official over, team mascot Freddie Falcon won’t be hanging up his uniform just yet. For $250, Freddie Falcon will make your Metro Atlanta area Valentine’s Day delivery and give your sweetheart a box of chocolates, a Falcons gift page that include a free hair makeover from Salon Red and a dozen roses.

Although Freddie Falcon is most comfortable at home in the Georgia Dome, he has travelled to Japan, Las Vegas, New York, Egypt, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Florida and Guam. Freddie Falcon also has been captured on video in the mall, going tubing, at training camp, doing the Soulja Boy and the MC Hammer dances.

 

Patent numbers are issued sequentially, beginning with the number one. Patent number one was issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1790. It took 75 years for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to issue patent number 1,000,000. Patent number 7,000,000 was issued February 14, 2006. It took only seven years for the USPTO to move from issuance of patent number 6,000,000 to 7,000,000.

What does this mean? Simply, there is more creativity now that at any time in history. The old saw that “there is nothing new” is completely wrong. There has never been so many people and entities creating novel, unique products, technology and services, and so driven to commercialize these inventions. More patents and entrepreneurs attempting to market their products is indicative that there is more competition for successful placement.

It is essential that entrepreneurs protect their inventions. This is a form of insurance. To attempt to market an invention without covering the work with the shield of patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret protection indicates a frivolous approach that will not succeed. Investors, licensees, and investors demand the protection that these intellectual property products afford. Even if the entrepreneur is going to self-market the invention, protection is essential in order to fend off competition.

A pharmacist in Atlanta, at the beginning of the 20th century, created a formula for syrup that he sold at the soda fountain in his pharmacy. John Pemberton mixed the syrup with soda water and sold drinks of the concoction as a wellness beverage to cure aches and pains. Mr. Pemberton had created Coca-Cola. He never anticipated that Coke would become an international comfort product, the soft drink. The smartest thing John Pemberton ever did, besides inventing Coca-Cola, was to handle the secret formula for the syrup as a Trade Secret. To this day, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company zealously protects the ingredients and chemistry involved in producing the base syrup that is the essence of classic Coca-Cola.

Big Boy Restaurants protects the recipe for the tartar sauce that goes on their sandwiches, and that many customers buy by the bottle and take home. McDonalds doggedly protects the process their restaurants utilize to cut, cook and season their French-fries. William Wrigley was just as manic in keeping secret his technique for delivering powerfully flavored, long lasting, chewing gum.

Trade Secrets typically are not able to secure patent protections. The novelty of the Trade Secret is in the blending, chemistry or chronology utilized to deliver the finished product. If you have such a recipe you will want to keep this knowledge very near, as it can become very dear. If the public knew the formula for Coca-Cola, quite possibly there would be a lot of consumers keen to blend their own drink at home. Coke would not like that!

If your product has the potential and necessity to become a Trade Secret you will want to follow several very basic steps. First, write down every event related to the development of the formula. Keep a logbook with the data, dates and details of your work. As you finalize your development work memorialize all of the steps essential to delivering the finished product you wish to keep secret in a recipe or summary document. Then store in a very secure place (a safety deposit box, or safe) all of the work product and the recipe or formula.

The Trade Secret gains incredible asset value when your product becomes a market success. Selling a business built around a fully protected Trade Secret exponentially increases the value of the company. Coca-Cola, Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, Oil of Olay, Schlitz, Dom Perignon, Ben and Jerry’s and Estee Lauder’s Youth Dew are only a few examples of famous brands built around a Trade Secret.

A Trademark is important in developing brand awareness for a product. Use a Patent Attorney when approaching the highly specialized area of seeking Trademark protection. I have never seen an entrepreneur successfully navigate the very complex workings of the USPTO. I HAVE seen many attempts to handle the process, all resulting in complete failure.

The content of a Trademark can include a customized, identifying icon, stylized brand name and a branding statement. Nike uses the famous slash (icon) the Company’s name (recognizable stylized font) and “Just Do It!” (branding statement). Include all of the elements that the public will recognize in your Trademark application. 

Look around at local, regional, national and international companies and brands that you see every day. Pat’s Cheese Steaks in Philadelphia is a local business that has gained great fame and brand recognition and protects their brand with a trademark. It is a destination for visitors to Philly. Chanel, the French haute couture brand, is internationally revered and the classic “C” that adorns every unit of Chanel product is one of the most recognized brand icons in the world. Truly Nolen, the national pest removal service, trademarks the mouse ears seen on every piece of sales collateral, advertisement and service vehicle the Company uses.

Owning a Trademark confers an obligation to police and protect the assigned mark. The inclusion of ™ on every unit of product is essential. Again, consult an attorney. Trademarks can inadvertently become vacated and lost. 

Copyrights are utilized to protect intellectual property. Movie content, poetry, music, books and plays are copyrighted. We have worked with clients on a number of video and board games. We always copyright the rules and/or the play features of the game.

Recently, Dan Brown, the writer of the wildly successful book the “The Da Vinci Code”, was suited for plagiarism by the British authors of a book about the search for the Holy Grail. The search for the Holy Grail is central to the plot of the “The Da Vinci Code”. There are full library shelves devoted to the search for the mystical Holy Grail. And yet, during the run-up to the movie release of “The Da Vinci Code” a legal action involving this intellectual property was commenced. Brown and his publisher vigorously defended their rights under their Copyright protection. They won full vindication from the court.

Producers of intellectual content properties (movie studios, record labels, book publishers) are very hesitant to accept unsolicited proposals for review. “The Da Vinci Code” saga is the reason. Legal action is rife in the area of intellectual property. We all remember things that we saw, heard or experienced from the distant, but dim past. Regurgitating a variation of that experience may find its way to the written page. Voila, was this material plagiarized? 

Mattel and Hasbro will not review ANY outside toy submissions. Is it not coincidental that there has not been a breakthrough toy introduction in years from Hasbro or Mattel? This is one of the unfortunate byproducts of a litigious society, the limits placed on needed innovations. Protect your intellectual property with a Copyright.

I recommend to my clients, before spending a dime on a patent attorney, that they perform a cursory search at the USPTO.Gov web-site by providing all obvious key words applicable to their invention. If a number of patented products come up, and they are spot-on their idea, the item might not be a candidate for a filing. If the field seems open and clean, then I advise hiring the patent attorney to conduct a professional, thorough search. The in-depth search will confirm the potential for successfully obtaining patent protection.

Patents are the preferred style of protection for most inventors and entrepreneurs. Patents (utility) are very powerful agents of defense against predators, thieves and knock off artists. Not to be a boor, but, again, utilize the services of a patent attorney. I am always amazed and amused at how many people think they can successfully write, provide highly specific 3-D CAD art, file, handle USPTO objections and move the patent through the labyrinth of a Federal Government bureaucracy. Go Figure! They waste time and money, and usually negate any opportunity to have a re-filed patent successfully obtain a patent number. 

The Provisional Patent filing is basically a letter that is placed on file with the USPTO. The Provisional filing advises the USPTO of the description of the product you are attempting to develop. The letter has a one-year life cycle and must be extended with a formal patent filing (Utility or Design) or the product is vacated forever. 

We utilize the Provisional Patent as a fully legal way to state that a product in early stage development is Patent Pending. This filing is also very inexpensive relative to a design or utility patent. A Provisional Patent filing also enables the entrepreneur to have a one year time window to test and gauge market response to the invention. If reaction is positive, then it reinforces the necessity of continuing to devote assets to further development of the opportunity.

The Design Patent simply covers art features noted in the application. This is the weakest form of patent protection. A competitor only needs to change a design element, cosmetic feature or add an artisan variant to overcome a Design Patent. However, for products that have real commercial potential, but cannot overcome prior, existing product art to obtain a Utility Patent, the Design Patent offers one potentially important benefit: the option to keep a product suspended in ongoing Patent Pending status.

We have done this on a number of occasions. A simple amendment to the initial filing means that a bureaucrat at the USPTO must find the file, pick it up, insert the amended filing detail and re-log the filing. As a result the filing goes to the back of the line and we gain months more Patent Pending protection. 

Why go through all of this? When a product is in Patent pending mode it has ultimate protection. When a patent number is issued the clock starts ticking on the effective life of protection and details of the novelty of the patented product become public knowledge. Your product is obviated. It can be amazingly simple for the less than scrupulous knock off artist to engineer around your inventions unique features and benefits. 

By keeping a product in Patent pending limbo we keep the features shrouded from any public awareness. This often leads to a first to market advantage and competition is only aware that there is a Patent pending. The added time that the product obtains, to build and extend sales traction, and begin the branding process is exponentially more valuable than the legal fees required to keep adding elementary addenda to the Design filing. You want to be first to market, and have as much time as possible to stand-alone in a market. 

The Utility Patent is exceedingly valuable, both as a protective shield against competition and as a business asset. The invention that receives a Utility Patent number from the USPTO is potentially of interest to licensees, partners, investors and venture capital. Most patented products (Utility), however, never make it to market. We often see inventions that are novel, and thus patent possible, but not commercial, or needed, or beneficial. We all know a mad scientist or two, with endless designs, inventions and patents, none of which are ever going to be a market success.

The Utility Patent protects the novel features and benefits that the application describes in great detail. The patent attorney will narrate the unique aspects of your invention. They will also mention other patents near your space but painstakingly note the differences inherent to your invention. In addition, a great deal of effort will be devoted to creating 3-D Computer Assisted Design art that portrays your product from every possible angle and graphically depicts the uniqueness of your product.

Utility Patent filings rarely sail though the USPTO without being challenged. A competent patent attorney often anticipates the weakness in a filing and has a sheath of retorts ready to address the examiners concerns and questions. This re-directs the file back into the bureaucracy at USPTO. I tell my clients that they can expect up to an 18-month wait before receiving notice of the USPTO decision. However, on several complex filings, I have seen the process take up to six years.

Believe me, it is worth the work, the wait and the investment if a successful outcome from the USPTO is achieved. A Utility Patent conveys gravitas. The invention has stood up to the most stringent scrutiny and been accorded the most highly desired verdict: this invention has import.