This Week in the Court of Criminal Appeals
January 19, 2010
Trial Conviction Affirmed Prosecutor Top Charge
State v Young Beth Boswell-Hall Rape of child
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/TCCA/PDF/A01/State%20v%20Stephen%20Louis%20Young.pdf
State v Sweat Phil Morton Agg Robbery
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/TCCA/PDF/A01/State%20v%20Michael%20D%20Sweat.pdf
State v Riley TaKisha Fitzgerald Especially Agg Kidnapping
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/Tcca/PDF/A01/State%20v%20Tallie%20Riley.pdf
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Santa Rosa winery to pay $3 million to teen injured in DUI
A Santa Rosa winery has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Sebastopol man who was permanently disabled in an alcohol-related car crash in 2006.
A teen claimed he forgot his identification in his car. He was served 6-8 beers at a wedding reception, by his own admission. When he crashed while DUI, his passenger suffered severe brain damage. The 19 year old passenger will never be the same.
Read the full story at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091210/ARTICLES/912109888
A teen claimed he forgot his identification in his car. He was served 6-8 beers at a wedding reception, by his own admission. When he crashed while DUI, his passenger suffered severe brain damage. The 19 year old passenger will never be the same.
Read the full story at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091210/ARTICLES/912109888
Monday, January 18, 2010
HUffing and DUI
The Tennessee DA's will be sponsoring a bill in this Legislature to include "substances that impair" to alcohol and drugs as a basis for DUI. The bill is intended to make these cases easier to prosecute. As it is now, we will almost always have to call a toxicologist to prove that an impairing drug is an ingredient in the inhalant. Below is the lead to the story. Go to the link to see the video of this inhalant impaired driver.
A Kingsport woman allegedly told police she remembers huffing some computer dust remover Sunday evening in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Fort Henry Drive, but she blacked out and doesn't remember leaving or wrecking moments later.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9019864
A Kingsport woman allegedly told police she remembers huffing some computer dust remover Sunday evening in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Fort Henry Drive, but she blacked out and doesn't remember leaving or wrecking moments later.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9019864
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Prescription pills are everywhere!
Man allegedly stuffs teddy bear with pills
A man who allegedly admitted stuffing a teddy bear with a slew of prescription painkillers was arraigned on a federal complaint Friday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley arraigned Brian Andrew Fox on a drug-dealing charge and set a Jan. 19 preliminary hearing.
According to a complaint filed by Knox County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jeremiah Johnson, Fox admitted he hid 551 narcotic painkillers in a teddy bear.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Kelly Smith found the pill-stuffed bear in Fox's car after a drug-detecting dog alerted him to the presence of narcotics, the complaint stated.
Fox, who also faces felony drug charges in Lexington, Ky., is being held in jail pending a hearing.
From the Knoxville News Sentinel
Friday, January 15, 2010
Attorney General opinion
The A.G.'s office has issued an opinion that is perfectly consistent with previous materials we have issued concerning the forced blood change by the Legislature last year in Public Chapter 324.
The basic principles are:
1) Law enforcement must take blood in cases of vehicular homicide and DUI with injuries per 55-10-406 (f) and the driver may not refuse.
2) Drivers may not refuse testing per 55-10-406 (d) and case law in cases of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault.
3) Failure to obtain blood would be admissible in evidence, but may not qualify for a missing evidence instruction.
4) The use of reasonable force to obtain blood is permitted per State v Mason.
Read the opinion at: http://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/op/2010/op/op10-01.pdf
The basic principles are:
1) Law enforcement must take blood in cases of vehicular homicide and DUI with injuries per 55-10-406 (f) and the driver may not refuse.
2) Drivers may not refuse testing per 55-10-406 (d) and case law in cases of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault.
3) Failure to obtain blood would be admissible in evidence, but may not qualify for a missing evidence instruction.
4) The use of reasonable force to obtain blood is permitted per State v Mason.
Read the opinion at: http://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/op/2010/op/op10-01.pdf
Doc pleads guilty to for faking research
An Associated Press headline should send a chill down the spine of some of the so called DUI "expert witnesses" in the DUI arena. A few tend to cite their own research in Court and upon further review can't come up with the research.
Dr. Scott Reuben, of Springfield, Massachusetts was the chief of acute pain at Bay State Hospital. He will being doing 10 years in the pokey for faking or not doing research he cited in order to receive money from drug companies, who liked his research results.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Poking the public defender in the eye
State of Tennessee v. Tommy Holmes - W2008-00759-SC-R11-CD
Shelby County- We granted permission to appeal in this case to address whether the trial court erred in ruling that an indigent defendant forfeited his right to counsel at trial by telling his appointed lawyer, “I know how to get rid of you,” and, at a subsequent meeting, physically assaulting his lawyer by striking the lawyer’s eyeglasses with his finger. The defendant was tried by a jury pro se and convicted of aggravated rape. We hold that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, the trial court committed reversible error in ruling that the defendant had forfeited his right to appointed counsel at trial. While the defendant’s physical attack on his lawyer was serious misconduct, it did not rise to the level of “extremely serious misconduct” sufficient to warrant an immediate forfeiture. State v. Carruthers, 35 S.W.3d516, 548 (Tenn. 2000). Because the defendant was erroneously denied his fundamental constitutional right to counsel, we must reverse his conviction and remand this matter for appointment of new counsel and a new trial.
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/TSC/PDF/A01/SC%20State%20v%20Tommy%20Holmes%20OPN.pdf
Shelby County- We granted permission to appeal in this case to address whether the trial court erred in ruling that an indigent defendant forfeited his right to counsel at trial by telling his appointed lawyer, “I know how to get rid of you,” and, at a subsequent meeting, physically assaulting his lawyer by striking the lawyer’s eyeglasses with his finger. The defendant was tried by a jury pro se and convicted of aggravated rape. We hold that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, the trial court committed reversible error in ruling that the defendant had forfeited his right to appointed counsel at trial. While the defendant’s physical attack on his lawyer was serious misconduct, it did not rise to the level of “extremely serious misconduct” sufficient to warrant an immediate forfeiture. State v. Carruthers, 35 S.W.3d516, 548 (Tenn. 2000). Because the defendant was erroneously denied his fundamental constitutional right to counsel, we must reverse his conviction and remand this matter for appointment of new counsel and a new trial.
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/TSC/PDF/A01/SC%20State%20v%20Tommy%20Holmes%20OPN.pdf
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