The Artful Jurist

It has been a while since the days when actor Sean Penn typically made the news as much for his bad-boy behavior as for his professional work.  But the two-time Oscar winner got into legal trouble again when he got into a tussle with a celebrity photographer.  And last week he pleaded no contest to a vandalism charge stemming from that incident in which Mr. Penn was videotaped kicking the photog.

Mr. Penn was sentenced to three years informal probation and 300 hours of community service, and he’s also been ordered to undergo 36 hours of anger management counseling.  But, even successfully completing that, it doesn’t necessarily put an end to the legal issues.  You see, that’s just the criminal case.  The photographer has a civil case against him still pending.