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Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37628
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Author:  RCD [ Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

This is a Complicated case CSX insisted it dosen't own the bridge and wants nothing to do with it. They donated it to the city but the city never accepted. So CSX says they don't own it, the city claimed the same thing, so without an owner coming forward how can they charge him with theft?

Author:  Pegasuspinto [ Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Looks like it's completely gone now.

https://goo.gl/maps/rjydDir4my42

I assume those are the piers that held it up.

Author:  PaulWWoodring [ Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Sounds like everyone in a position of ownership or authority dropped the ball and this sharp operator slipped into the cracks like the slimy person he is and tried (maybe in the end succeeded) in cashing in. Sometimes having no scruples or morals pays.

Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Unbelievably, this saga continues:

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lak ... bced0.html

Quote:
His defense attorney, Sheldon B Nagelberg, argued last August the charges should be dropped over questions about who owns the bridge.

The judge's order states Nagelberg is arguing the grand jury wasn't informed there was a question about the bridge's true ownership. The judge ruled there is evidence the city owns the bridge and it is clear Morrison didn't.

Morrison said he asked city officials to allow him to remove the bridge at a public Board of Works meeting in the fall of 2014 and was told the city didn't own the bridge.

Morrison began demolition of it a few months later.

Author:  PaulWWoodring [ Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Basically Morrison is arguing that the lack of a firm "no" to him amounted to tacit permission. That is the argument of a five year old for doing something naughty.

Author:  WVNorthern [ Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

There's an old axiom that says "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission".

Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

I now firmly believe this guy is going to get away with it.

The reality is that CSX gave it to the City (or at least tried to), and neither the city nor CSX want to claim ownership of what now amounts to have been a completely abandoned structure, most likely for liability reasons (which, thanks to creosoted ties and steel ending up in the water, are VERY real liabilities now).

This is the moral equivalent of someone stealing and scrapping a derelict vintage car that was left abandoned for months in a bad neighborhood. The car's rightful owner knows the parking tickets, insurance violation fines, and cost of repair/restoration far exceeds any value to the car; the city would only recoup the cost of shoving it to a scrapper, which after towing and bureaucratic fees/costs is a loss anyway. The ONLY way to hit this guy is for the costs of theft of assets and/or resulting pollution, and it can be argued that his "clean-up efforts" (in the case of an abandoned car) really DID save the city money.

Of course, a car (which has a VIN and title) and a bridge are different in certain ways, but......

Author:  Steve A W [ Tue Nov 13, 2018 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

The Judge decided Morrison is to stand trial.
The Judge said it didn't matter who owned the bridge,
Morrison didn't.

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lak ... bced0.html


Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Update:
I more firmly than ever believe the SOB is gonna get away with this.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

The interesting approach would be to say "Suppose we make him pay $18,000 in restitution. Who's going to claim the money? Aha, so it's really yours, then....."

Author:  jayrod [ Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

I think it unlikely that he'll get off totally scot free. At the minimum, he'll like get dinged for lack of permits. And he has to pay his lawyer. All in all, I wonder if it was worth the hassle and expense.

Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

The final post to this thread????

Attachment:
doonesburyGuilty.gif
doonesburyGuilty.gif [ 23.47 KiB | Viewed 7563 times ]


https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/cri ... 4bfb9.html

Quote:
HAMMOND — A federal jury found a scrap metal dealer guilty Thursday of stealing a historic railroad bridge.

Kenneth Morrison, owner of T&K Metals in Whiting, was tried this week in U.S. District Court on an interstate theft charge that he and a crew of workers cut up a disused bridge built in 1910 for a succession of railroad lines, just north of downtown Hammond, and sold it to Illinois scrapyards for more than $14,000.

Jurors deliberated one hour. A sentencing date is set for March 21.

Morrison pleaded not guilty. He didn't take the witness stand in his own defense.

His defense attorney, Sheldon Nagelberg, told jurors Morrison believed the Monon Bridge to be abandoned property, since Hammond city officials couldn't give him a straight answer on who owned it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Powers argued Morrison knew full well the city owned the bridge, because he had applied unsuccessfully to the city in 1991 and again in 2014 for work permits to scrap it. "This wasn't a mistake," Powers told jurors.

Powers said the defendant lied to others to cover up his theft, claiming he bought the bridge from either the city or a railroad line that had never owned it.


More at the link, as usual.

Author:  Steve A W [ Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

I just finished reading the article and was going
to post it but Mr. Mitchel beat me to it.
Can't wait to see what he gets for it.
In the mean time, What's he going to scrap out to pay
his lawyer?





Author:  Trainlawyer [ Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

To quote the Jury Foreman in The Producers, "We find the Defendant(s) terribly guilty!."

GME
(Who will not take the appeal)

Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Mon May 20, 2019 9:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

"Oh, you GOTTA be #(*&%$!@ kidding me!!!!!!"

My verbatim, out-loud reaction to:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

Quote:
A Whiting man convicted of stealing a decommissioned Hammond railroad bridge is arguing that he did not receive a fair trial.

An attorney for Kenneth Morrison, 68, of Whiting, said a federal judge improperly denied an instruction to the jury that would have allowed them to consider a theory the bridge was abandoned and an owner was not deprived of any property when it was scrapped. Defense attorney Sheldon Nagelberg said Judge Phillip Simon should vacate Morrison’s conviction and order a new trial.


As usual, much more at the link.

Author:  Pegasuspinto [ Tue May 21, 2019 2:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Never Mind Stealing Rail--Now They're Stealing BRIDGES!

Classic lawyer trix. File extensions, injunctions, and motions and kick it down the road. This guy should be in jail NOW, but apparently he is not. They keep it up for a while longer and eventually he'll be too old and sick to put in jail.

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