rent a judge n.— «Q: What is reference judging? A: In California, it’s called “rent a judge,” a pejorative term. Here, about 15 years ago, we passed a statute that allowed parties to retain someone who has been approved by the...
hangaround n.— «One time, he recalled, he went along with a Hells Angels member, Randy Potts, who intended to fatally shoot a man who had beaten up a Hells Angels hangaround of the East End chapter—a hangaround is a person who is allowed...
digital chalking n.— «During a recent trial run, a city employee drove the Ford Explorer. Scanning parked cars and trucks, a method known as “digital chalking,” the cameras routed information to a computer. The next time the city vehicle...
bear hug n.— «It also included several dozen mentions of an unlikely introduction into the vernacular of white-collar crime: “Bear hug.” Fastow used the term to describe the promises Skilling made him that Enron would buy back...
ostrich defense n.— «The Enron Corp. trial opening Jan. 30 in Houston is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of the so-called idiot defense.…No chief executive “knows everything going on in his company,” Lay said in...
dummy defense n.— «The Enron Corp. trial opening Jan. 30 in Houston is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of the so-called idiot defense.…No chief executive “knows everything going on in his company,” Lay said in one...