By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 26, October 2017
Wilson v. Sheldon, No. 16-3981 (DONALD, Sutton, Thapar). In 1993, police found a woman unresponsive and bleeding from the head. A bloody, 110-pound boulder was lying near the body. The police collected evidence, including the boulder, and classified the case as a felonious-assault investigation. The woman later died from her injuries, but the police neglected to change the case’s classification to “homicide,” and therefore the evidence was destroyed after the statute of limitations for felonious assault ran. Over a decade… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 25, October 2017
In re Campbell, No. 17-3855 (Gibbons, McKeague) (per curiam) (Moore, dissenting). An Ohio prisoner sentenced to death filed a § 2254 habeas petition challenging Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. His petition was sent to the Sixth Circuit for initial review because the district court held that the petition was a successive habeas petition. The prisoner moved the Sixth Circuit to remand his petition to the district court. After reviewing the law and history relating to method-of-execution habeas challenges to death sentences,… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 23, October 2017
AuSable River Trading Post, LLC v. Dovetail Solutions, Inc., et al., No. 17-1283 (DONALD, Sutton, Thapar). The city of Tawas, Michigan, hosts an annual winter festival called “Perchville,” and has had a registered trademark for “Perchville” since 2003. The corporation that manages the city’s Chamber of Commerce sued an employee of AuSable to obtain an injunction against his unauthorized use of the term “Perchville” on t-shirts. The court granted an injunction against him, as well as “on those persons in… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 20, October 2017
U.S. v. Verwiebe, No. 16-2591 (SUTTON, Clay, Rogers) (Amended Opinion). This opinion amends the Court's September 17, 2017 opinion. In this amended opinion, the Court added to its discussion of whether assault resulting in serious bodily injury, 18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(6), is a “crime of violence” for purposes of satisfying the career-offender enhancement of Sentencing Guidelines § 4B1.1. The defendant had argued that crimes that require only a showing of “recklessness” cannot qualify as a crime of violence under U.S.… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 20, October 2017
Barbara Bays v. Montmorency County, Mich., et al., Nos. 16-2761/17-1215 (SUTTON, Clay, Rogers). The parents of a man who killed himself in jail after describing symptoms of a mental illness to a jail nurse filed a § 1983 suit against Montmorency County officials, alleging violations of the man’s Fourteenth Amendment right to sufficient treatment for a serious medical problem. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and the district court granted summary judgment to the County, and denied the plaintiffs’… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 16, October 2017
Flight Options, LLC, et al. v. Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters, Local 1108, et al., No. 17-3188 (THAPAR, Sutton, Donald). This is one of several appeals stemming out of a merger between Flight Operations and Flexjet. At issue in this appeal was how to integrate the pilots under one collective-bargaining agreement. The existing collective-bargaining agreement became “amendable” under the Railway Labor Act shortly after the airlines merged, allowing either party to propose broad changes affecting the pilots’ rates of pay and… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 12, October 2017
Stein, et al. v. hhgregg, Inc., et al.b, No. 16-3364 (MOORE, Sutton, White). Plaintiffs, current or former employees in hhgregg stores in Ohio, filed suit challenging hhggregg’s draw-on-commission policy. Under this policy, all retail sales employees are paid solely on the basis of commissions. However, in pay periods when an employee’s earned commissions fall below the minimum wage, he or she is paid a “draw” to meet the minimum-wage requirements. According to the plaintiffs’ amended complaint, employees who receive a… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 12, October 2017
Flannery | Georgalis were featured in a cleveland.com article. Read the full article here. The article provides, in part: "Their plan for the coming years is to build up their criminal defense and civil practice -- and eventually hire more staff -- by trading on the reputations they built in the federal prosecutor's office. Flannery worked there for three years and most recently handled white-collar prosecutions. Georgalis spent seven years there and most recently worked in the office's national security… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 11, October 2017
Flannery | Georgalis were featured in Crain's Cleveland Business Magazine. Read the full article here. Crain's writes: "Prior to landing their DOJ jobs, Georgalis, a native of Independence, worked at Jones Day, largely focusing on corporate internal investigations, while Flannery, who grew up in the Copley/Fairlawn area, cut his teeth at a midsize Maryland law firm, mostly representing individuals in white-collar criminal cases." "With résumés like that, punctuated by several years of combined experience as federal prosecutors, each could've pursued… Read more
By: Carrie Bennice / Date: 11, October 2017
U.S. v. Adams, No. 16-2786 (MOORE, White, Donald). A defendant who had been addicted to opiates for several decades tested positive for opiates several times while on supervised release. The district court ultimately revoked his supervised release and sentenced him to a below-Guidelines term of incarceration of eighteen months. The defendant appealed, arguing that the sentence was both procedurally and substantively unreasonable. The Sixth Circuit agreed, vacating the sentence and remanding for resentencing. The Court, relying on Circuit precedent, reiterated… Read more