$54M Lost-Pants Trial Is a Stitch

THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM sees its share of strangeness rather regularly, but when a case like Pearson vs. Custom Cleaners comes along, even the most hardened legal eagle's likely to cock his or her head in bewilderment.

The case, as you've no doubt heard, stems from a complaint by District administrative judge Roy L. Pearson Jr. that the Custom Cleaners shop in Fort Lincoln lost his pants, part of a suit that cost him $1,100. So he's suing the shop's owners for $54 million. Seems reasonable, right?

Our colleague Emil Steiner at washingtonpost.com owns this story (and, given the big dollar amounts flying about, we wonder how much it cost him). He's liveblogging the trial, which is drawing ink both physical and digital from the press.

Among today's happenings: A 10-minute lecture on the geography of Fort Lincoln that defense counsel called "a monumental waste of time" and testimony from an elderly witness who made repeated references to Nazis.

Get all the details here.

» "OFF/beat: Pearson v. Custom Cleaners" [WaPo]
» "Judge Now Wants Just $54M From Cleaner" [AP via WaPo]