A 2000 memo from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to gun maker Taurus International Manufacturing suggested that the government has reason to believe that too many Taurus guns were ending up in the hands of criminals.

        The New York Times reported on the memo, part of evidence gathered in a California lawsuit, Monday.

        Class-action bigwig Stan Chesley is representing Cincinnati in the city's lawsuit against the gun industry. That suit — stalled for two years — is back on track after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in June that the city can attempt to show the industry knows how its guns get into the hands of criminals and does nothing about it.

        “What that letter demonstrated, in my opinion, is that the ATF has approached the gun manufacturers to ask them to monitor their distribution practices, and the industry did nothing about it,” said Jean Geoppinger, an associate of Mr. Chesley's.

        A spokesman for an industry trade group said gun makers have nothing to hide.

        Legal eagle: We all know David Pepper as a councilman, a lawyer at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, and the son of retired Procter & Gamble chairman John Pepper.

        But would you believe he's also a nationally recognized expert on the history of jury nullification?

        The New York Times would.

        In a front-page story Sept. 22, reporter Adam Liptak saw fit to print Mr. Pepper's views on the increasingly controversial idea that juries ought to be able to acquit defendants if jurors believe the law is unjust.

        Mr. Pepper, who wrote on the history of jury nullification for the Case Western Reserve Law Review in 2000, claims that proponents of nullification have distorted its development in common law, and have ignored the less noble chapters in its history.

        While juries have used nullification to acquit those accused of harboring slaves, they have also refused to convict people accused of lynching black men, he told the Times.

        Mr. Pepper said the Times reporter was probably only the fifth person to read his obscure law review article.

        Pulling strings ... and trees: Parks director Willie Carden came dangerously close to suggesting that Mayor Charlie Luken was putting undue political pressure on the park board at the board's most recent meeting.

        Mr. Carden told board members that some “influential people” with “connections to the mayor's office” wanted the parks to cut down trees along the Ohio River in the East End.

        Mr. Luken said he was just doing constituent service for developer Jerry Imbus, who can't sell his $300,000 Eastern Avenue condos because their river views are blocked by overgrowth at the park-owned LeBlond Recreation Center.

        Mr. Carden denied that he was suggesting anything overtly political on the mayor's part. “But if I did, let me restate that. We've worked out a mutually agreeable solution, and we're all in concert,” he said. “My main concern was doing it so that it's environmentally friendly and we don't have erosion.”

        Job security: City Manager Valerie Lemmie celebrates six months on the job today, ending a probationary period of sorts. Under Article IV, Section 1 of the city charter she may still be removed from office at the will of the mayor and council, but as of today “she may demand written charges and the right to be heard thereon at a public meeting of the council.”

        She is reportedly shopping for a tax-abated East End condo (this one built by David Imboden, and with fantastic river views), but insists that she has to sell her $254,000 Dayton home first.

        City Hall reporter Gregory Korte can be reached at 768-8391 or e-mail gkorte@enquirer.com.

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