Law and Magic Blog

Woman Arrested For DUI Tells Cops She's "Black Witch", Will "Hex" Them

Via The Wild Hunt and the Denver Channel comes a story about a woman pulled over by Eagle, Colorado, police officers, who suspected her of driving under the influence after she ended up on the wrong side of the road. When the cops pulled her over, ending up arresting and handcuffing her, she threatened to "hex" them, and told them that she was a "black witch." Now, even though "black witches" and Wiccans aren't the same folks, this kind of story makes for bad p.r. for the Wiccan community, methinks.

L&O: Criminal Intent's Magician's Special

The recent Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode about the vanishing magician was quite clever, IMHO. Titled "Vanishing Act", it featured Christopher Lloyd as The Great Carmine, a washed up magician, James Frain as Dean Holiday, an egotistical illusionist jealous of Miles Stone, a David Blaine type who winds up dead in middle of The Great Carmine's act, and Kristin Connolly as a vanishing beautiful assistant. The Naked Cowboy, who's embroiled in a real life lawsuit of his own, makes a cameo appearance. The episode brings together all sorts of familiar themes, including why a magician can't reveal the secret of his illusion, even to save himself from an accusation, and how to get that special vain someone to confess his guilt when you have only a hunch to go on. I could hear Carly Simon singing in my head.

Wiccan Stabs Self In Foot, Ends Run of Good Luck

The AP reports that a Wiccan celebrating a run of good luck at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lebanon, Indiana, ended her good fortune by stabbing herself in the foot with a sword. Oh, dear. Her fellow celebrants took her to a hospital, where the health care professionals worked their magic. Although the police did not charge the Wiccans, they did inform them that they were trespassing in the cemetery, since they were there after the place closed. Well, that was nice of the men and women in blue. And maybe also lucky. Here's more from Robert Annis of IndyStar.com.

The History of the Paranormal in France

I just purchased two interesting books by Nicole Edelman from Amazon France: Voyantes, guerisseuses et visionnaires en France 1785-1914 (Albin Michel) and Histoire de la voyance & du paranormal du XIIIIe siecle a nos jours (Seuil). The first translates roughly as Female Clairvoyants, Healers, and Seers in France from 1785-1914 and the second as History of Clairvoyance and of the Paranormal from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Neither has been translated into English as far as I can tell. The content is unusual, at least for English-speaking readers, so maybe some publisher will be tempted.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent's New Episode Features Vanishing Magician

Law & Order: Criminal Intent's upcoming episode (Sunday, July 20 at 10 pm, 9 Central time) features a storyline about a magician who vanishes during his act. While I'm not entirely certain what "ripped from the headlines" story inspired this episode, it might be one like Michael Patrick's, about which I blogged a while ago. Of course, the L&O: CI writers will dress up the script's original "RFTH" inspirations to avoid the usual right of publicity, invasion of privacy, and defamation concerns. Still, I'll be interested to see the episode, with guest stars Christopher Lloyd and James Frain.

Mindfreak

On the July 16 episode of Mindfreak (A&E), Criss Angel will perform "psychic surgery".  (10:30 EDT, 9:30 CDT). This episode is a repeat. The premiere of the 4th season is scheduled for July 23rd at 10 p.m., 9 Central time.

A Real Life Dumbledore?

Jim Piculas, a substitute teacher employed by the Pasco County (Florida) School District, had his employment  terminated abruptly. As far he can tell, he says, it was for performing a simple magic trick with a toothpick, which apparently led to accusations that he was a "wizard." The school system says other issues were involved, such as not following lesson plans, not accusations of "wizardry."

Of course, anyone who has ever been a sub knows how difficult keeping someone else's class under control is, and regular teachers often leave only basic instructions and simple lesson plans such as "watch a movie" or "have the class work on reports," for the sub. Students get bored easily. Any substitute wants to establish a connection with the students in order to maintain some kind of control over the classroom as well as a link with them in order to teach more effectively. Otherwise he or she is at risk of being told he or she doesn't have adequate skills in that area. Using a magic trick, if one has that training, might be just the ticket to keep students' attention and establish rapport. Note that I don't know if that's what was going here. I'm just speculating.

The local school employees' union doesn't represent substitute teachers so Mr. Piculas had no recourse there. The Colbert Report has had some fun with Mr. Piculas's plight, which probably isn't funny to him--he's now out of a job. Here's more local coverage of the story.

Suing Satan

In the interests of fun for a Friday, here's one of my favorite cases. Lawyers and law students will already be familiar with it.

________________________________________________________________________________________

UNITED STATES ex rel. Gerald MAYO v. SATAN AND HIS STAFF

United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, 54 F.R.D. 282, December 3, 1971


Gerald Mayo, pro se.

MEMORANDUM ORDER

Weber, District Judge.

Plaintiff, alleging jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. [Sec.] 241, 28 U.S.C. [Sec] 1343, and 42 U.S.C. [Sec.] 1983 prays for leave to proceed in forma pauperis. He alleges that Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of the plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in plaintiff's path and has caused plaintiff's downfall.

Plaintiff alleges that by reason of these acts Satan has deprived him of his constitutional rights.

We feel that the application to file and proceed in forma pauperis must be denied. Even if plaintiff's complaint reveals a prima facie recital of the infringement of the civil rights of a citizen of the United States, the Court has serious doubts that the complaint reveals a cause of action upon which relief can be granted by the court. We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district. The complaint contains no allegation of residence in this district. While the official records disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff. The defendant in that action was represented by the preeminent advocate of that day, and raised the defense that the plaintiff was a foreign prince with no standing to sue in an American Court. This defense was overcome by overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whether this would raise an estoppel in the present case we are unable to determine at this time.

If such action were to be allowed we would also face the question of whether it may be maintained as a class action. It appears to meet the requirements of Fed.R. of Civ.P. 23 that the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, there are questions of law and fact common to the class, and the claims of the representative party is typical of the claims of the class. We cannot now determine if the representative party will fairly protect the interests of the class.

We note that the plaintiff has failed to include with his complaint the required form of instructions for the United States Marshal for directions as to service of process.

For the foregoing reasons we must exercise our discretion to refuse the prayer of plaintiff to proceed in forma pauperis.

It is ordered that the complaint be given a miscellaneous docket number and leave to proceed in forma pauperis be denied.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Briefly stated, the judge points out that even if Mr. Mayo had a case against Satan, how would he haul the fellow into court? How could he explain to the U.S. Marshal where to find him? [And even if the U.S. Marshal and his/her staff could find him, how could they control him? We are, after all, talking about a supernatural being, and the federal agent in question here is not the character played by Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black]. In addition, is Mr. Mayo a good representative of the vast number of people who have a beef with Satan? That's a whole lot of angry, angry folks. Case dismissed.

In my humble opinion, Article III judges earn their salaries, just for being patient enough to wade through and take seriously complaints like this one.

 

Weird Stuff and Psychological Tests

Check out Richard Wiseman's "Quirkology" website here. It's linked to his new book Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things (Basic Books, 2007) and includes a chapter on lying and deception. The website has tests and interesting facts. I'm not certain if I'm convinced by some of Dr. Wiseman's evidence, but it's fun and food for thought. He's also the author, with Peter Lamont, of the wonderful Magic in Theory (University of Hertfordshire Press, 2005).

Law, Magic, and Jewish Thought

I disinterred Simon Singh's Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (Harper Perennial, 2005) from The Unread Pile of Books and was reading about the history of creation myths in the first chapter. Really interesting, particularly with regard to laws about speech and how they promoted or prevented scientific research. So I (naturally) went looking for more material regarding the law of speech and the law of magic in Greece, Rome, and Babylonia, among other places, and found these excerpts from Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought: Festscrift In Honor of Joseph Dan (published by J. C. B. Mohr, 2005). It's pricey, at $325, but contains these essays of interest: Philip S. Alexander, "The Talmudic Concept of Conjuring ('Ahizat `Einayim) and the Problem of the Definition of Magic (Kishuf)," on page 7 and Dan Ben-Amos, "On Demons," on page 27. Here's a link to some of the material.