A computer check showing no matching DL for the owner of the car was reasonable suspicion for a stop. “Officer Zubak had reasonable suspicion, from the two driver's license searches alone, to stop the vehicle in order to resolve the uncertainty of Manzanares's driver's license status.” State v. Manzanares, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 168 (February 19, 2014).
Similarly, a restricted DL for the owner of a car seen 100 miles away from home is reasonable suspicion for a stop. State v. Donnan, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 170 (February 19, 2014).*
The evidence didn’t support the stop of defendnat’s car for being too noisy because of the officer’s mistake of law. “The record indicates Smith believed sound audible from a distance of greater than fifty feet created a violation of the ordinance, when in fact the sound must also have created a noise disturbance. The State has failed to provide any evidence the sound was sufficient to constitute a noise disturbance.” State v. Loots, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 153 (February 19, 2014).*
IA: A computer check showing no matching DL for the owner of the car was reasonable suspicion for a stop
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Deadlocked: The Sad State of Georgia's Death Penalty
That's the title of a four-part series on capital punishment in the latest issue of Creative Loafing Atlanta. On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments in the case that has effectively brought the state's death penalty to a halt....
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Did Charles Dunn Provoke the Attack?
The facts in the Charles Dunn case in Florida are pretty straightforward, and for the most part undisputed. The 47-year-old Dunn, a software developer, pulled into a Jacksonville gas station… read more →
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New York to Limit Use of Solitary Confinement
In court papers filed Wednesday, New York State agreed to limit the use of solitary confinement and issued the first set of sentencing guidelines to specify how it can be used. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the agreement makes New York's prison system the largest in the nation to prohibit the use of solitary confinement for prisoners younger than 18 years.
The guidelines will specify length of punishment allowed for different infractions and will prohibit correction officials from imposing solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure for pregnant inmates. The punishment will be limited to 30 days for those who are developmentally disabled.
Other states, including Colorado, Mississippi and Washington, have begun to investigate how to reduce the use of solitary confinement. Louisiana exoneree Damon Thibodeaux will be a witness at a hearing on solitary confinement before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights next week. Thibodeaux, who was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2012, served 15 years on death row in Louisiana's Angola prison for a murder that he didn't commit. Most of that time, he was confined to a six-by-nine cell for 23 hours a day, with only an hour of recreation in a penned enclosure.
Read more about the agreement in coverage from The New York Times.
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Activism in Texas
The Dallas Morning News has two posts dealing with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and it's upcoming annual meeting in Fort Worth this weekend.. "If you see a crowd at the courthouse Friday, it’s those anti-death penalty...
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Injury Crash US95 MP296
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer
DO NOT REPLY
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Idaho State Police
Regional Communication Center - North
615 W Wilbur Ave
Suite A
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83815
Please direct questions to the appropriate District Offices
District 1 (208) 209-8620 Fax (208) 209- 8618
District 2 (208) 799-5150
CASE # L14000170
--------------------- PRESS RELEASE -----------------------------
DATE: February 20, 2014 TIME: 06:20 LOCATION: Northbound US95 MP296
VEHICLE #1
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DRIVER: Susan H. Hund AGE: 54
ADDRESS: Craigmont, ID
INJURIES?: Yes
HOSPITAL TAKEN: St. Joseph Regional Medical Center
VEHICLE YEAR: 2003 VEHICLE MAKE: Ford VEHICLE MODEL: Taurus
WRECKER: Forest's Towing
SEATBELT WORN: Yes
INCIDENT NARRATIVE: Hund was northbound on US95 at milepost 296 when she came upon debris that was located in the roadway. Hund crossed the center line to avoid the debris and entered the southbound lane. She lost control of her vehicle and entered the ditch located below the southbound lane.
DSP INITIALS DM
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Two Men Jailed Since August of 2013 in Connection with Kidnapping, Rape to Have Number of Charges Dropped
In August, a jury was deadlocked in the trial of two men who allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman. Gary W. Sowa Jr. and Steven L. Jackson are accused of drugging a woman at the Dixie Motor Speedway in 2011 before kidnapping and sexually assaulting her. Sowa and Jackson have remained in jail since […]
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House of Cards Does Military Rape
Without giving anything away, the second season of the House of Cards has picked up on the issue du jour – military rape – and the writers are obviously basing their characters on real people. It is not a stretch, for example, to conclude that the pretty California congresswoman named Jackie Sharp was inspired by […]
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Why was a court hearing set in my DUI case?
You thought you were all done with your DUI case! Then you receive a Court date in the mail. What does it mean? Generally, it means you did not complete something (community service hours, alcohol/drug treatment, DUI Victims Panel, work...
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My Night In Solitary
The new Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections decided to stay the night....
The New York TImes
COLORADO
SPRINGS — AT 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 23, I was delivered to a Colorado state
penitentiary, where I was issued an inmate uniform and a mesh bag with
my toiletries and bedding. My arms were handcuffed behind my back, my
legs were shackled and I was deposited in
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PA essentially rejects Herring; arrest and search on recalled warrant void
Arrest on a recalled, and therefore expired, arrest warrant already served nine days earlier was void, despite the officer’s good faith. Since there is no good faith exception in Pennsylvania, the product of the arrest is invalid. Exclusion here would encourage government to keep its warrant files current. [This case essentially rejects SCOTUS's Herring.] Commonwealth v. Johnson, 2014 Pa. LEXIS 424 (February 18, 2014):
=> Read more!
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Short Wins - A Dog's Breakfast of Victories
It's a grab bag of victories in the federal circuits for last week. A few sentencing remands - including one based on a loss calculation in a health care fraud case - but the most interesting remand is in the First Circuit's opinion in United States v. Delgado-Marrero.
To the victories!
1. United States v. Delgado-Marrero, First Circuit: Delgado-Marrero and Rivera-Claudio were both convicted by a jury of drug and gun charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Delgado-Marrero was granted a new trial because the district court erred by excluding testimony of a defense witness. The First Circuit also found error with regard to Rivera-Claudio's sentence because the district court failed to properly instruct the jury that in answering a post-verdict special question regarding quantity of drugs, they needed to be sure of the quantity beyond a reasonable doubt.
Defense Attorneys: Rafael F. Castro-Lang, Linda Backiel
2. United States v. Johnson, Seventh Circuit: Appellant's sentence was vacated because a sentencing enhancement was incorrectly applied. Based on the victim's testimony at sentencing, Appellant had not committed a sex offense while in failure to register status, so that enhancement was improper.
3. United States v. Perry, Seventh Circuit: Appellant twice violated the terms of his supervised release. Based on the second violation, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Because the original conviction had a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of two years, the new sentence for five years' imprisonment was vacated and remanded.
4. United States v. Bankhead, Eighth Circuit: Appellant received a 180-month mandatory minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA") after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. His sentence was reversed and remanded because a predicate juvenile offense, which was used in determining sentence, did not qualify as an ACCA predicate offense.
5. United States v. Gonzalez-Monterroso, Ninth Circuit: Appellant's sentence was vacated and remanded. The district court erred in determining that Appellant's prior Delaware conviction for attempted rape in the fourth degree was a crime of violence warranting a 16-level sentencing enhancement. The Ninth Circuit determined that Delaware's statutory definition of "substantial step" criminalized more conduct than the generic federal statutory definition.
6. United States v. Popov, Ninth Circuit: Appellants were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud arising from the submission of fraudulent bills to Medicare. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's findings regarding the amount of loss, holding that evidence can be submitted to show that the amount billed to Medicare overestimates the actual loss amount.
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CA6: “[T]he warrant—although far from a model of careful drafting—satisfies the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment.”
The search warrant in this armed robbery case wasn’t proofread, reading the warrant “as a whole” it was clear what was sought, so the warrant was not general. “[T]he warrant—although far from a model of careful drafting—satisfies the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Anderson, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 3157, 2014 FED App. 0144N (6th Cir. February 19, 2014):
=> Read more!
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Can I Petition to Have Traffic Fines Reduced Even if the Case is Old?
Typically not. In Virginia you have several options if you have been found guilty of a traffic or misdemeanor offense. However, your options expire very quickly as time goes by. Your first option to try to have your fine reduced would be to file a motion to reopen the case. This option expires 60 days […]
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What Is The Penalty For Embezzlement in New York?
New York prosecutes Embezzlement according to the value or type of property that is alleged to have been stolen. The key element of embezzlement, versus other forms of theft, is that you have access to another person’s money or property, as with a cashier, bank teller, or corporate officer, but not ownership of that property. […]
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Does Mail Fraud Include Private Carriers Like UPS and FedEx?
Yes, Mail Fraud includes private carriers, not just the US Postal Service. Mail Fraud is a federal crime that’s usually charged with related fraud crimes, like Identity Theft, Credit Card Fraud, and similar crimes. Mail Fraud is one of the most commonly prosecuted federal crimes, and the penalties for conviction increased dramatically with the 2002 […]
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If you’re arrested in Columbus, Ohio for a repeat DUI, when is it wise to consider a mitigation or “damage control” strategy?
Our approach to defending Columbus drunk driving (DUI or OVI) cases, particularly where our client has one or more prior drunk driving convictions, is often two-fold: (1) aggressive litigation, and (2) meaningful mitigation. This blog post deals with the latter, mitigation. And when we discuss mitigation, we mean a strategy that focuses on “damage control” […]
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Woman Admits Bid Rigging at Foreclosure Auctions
Amy James, a Georgia real estate investor, pleaded guilty for her role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia. Felony charges were filed on December 19, 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta. According to court documents, from […]
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Susan’s Acceptance Speech at SELF Awards Ceremony
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2 Arrested and Charged with 86 Counts of Real Estate Fraud
Ismael Cancinos and Mercedes Alvarez have been arrested and charged with 86 felony counts of real estate fraud. Their arrest warrants were issued based upon an investigation into their alleged defrauding of 30 homeowners in Santa Barbara County, California, who were facing the foreclosure of their homes. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies apprehended Cancinos on […]
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More Pages to Explore .....
