Employment – Contract – Noncompete – IT Consultant 
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A U.S. District Court in Alexandria dismisses an information technology company’s lawsuit against a former consultant, who left plaintiff IT company and worked as a contractor for The Peace Corps, allegedly providing comparable IT services and systems maintenance, and who allegedly urged former coworkers to leave plaintiff’s company; however, the court denies a motion to [...]
Corporate – LLC – Derivative Action
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A plaintiff who owns a 2 percent share of a profitable Fairfield Inn Hotel in Chester, Va., who alleges that defendant fellow owners have conspired against her, defrauded her and taken over the management of the LLC, cannot sue individually on claims that belong to the company, and her suit for $1M in damages is [...]
Criminal – Sentencing – Crack Cocaine Amendments
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A Norfolk U.S. District Court denies defendant’s “Emergency Motion to Correct Sentence,” but will, on its own motion, reduce defendant’s sentence to the greater of either 106 months imprisonment or “time served”; and his modified sentence is proportional to the sentence imposed by this court’s order on the government’s Rule 35(b) motion.
Defendant’s motion presents the [...]
Criminal – Habeas Corpus – Ineffective Assistance – Guilty Plea – Cooperation
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A Norfolk federal judge rejects a federal prisoner’s motion for post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 based on a claim that defendant’s trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective because he failed to object to an unnoticed, upward variance in defendant’s sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.
Petitioner also contends his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective when he [...]
Criminal – Cell Phone – Cocaine Buy – Personal Use
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
Although buying cocaine on the street for personal use may only be a misdemeanor, defendant’s use of a cell phone to arrange the buy brought the transaction under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b), which covers use of a “communication facility” to commit felonies such as drug distribution; in upholding defendant’s conviction, the 4th Circuit takes the [...]
Criminal – Guilty Plea – Rule 11 Colloquy – Magistrate Authority
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
Although a drug defendant who wants to withdraw his guilty plea argues there is a distinction between a magistrate judge’s authority to conduct a Rule 11 plea colloquy and authority to accept the guilty plea, the 4th Circuit says the magistrate judge acted under statutory authority and district court supervision, and the guilty plea [...]
Civil Rights – Excessive Force – Taser – Protective Order Service
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A woman served with a protective order after she destroyed property at the office of her husband, a former deputy, and assaulted him and threw his belongings onto their front yard, can try her claim of excessive force against a defendant deputy who twice used a taser stun gun on her as she was transported [...]
Criminal – Mail & Wire Fraud – E-Bay Coin Auction – Sentencing
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
After the 4th Circuit vacated a Norfolk federal judge’s 12-month prison sentence for an E-Bay seller who defrauded coin buyers but who led a “spotless life” up to that point, the defendant seller had to settle for a 36-month sentence, and the 4th Circuit upholds.
The appellate court vacated the seller’s first sentence of 12 months [...]
Administrative – Black Lung Benefits – Subsequent Claim – Limitations
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
The 4th Circuit vacates an award of black lung benefits because the administrative law judge did not apply the three-year statute of limitations to this subsequent claim filed by the miner after his first claim for benefits.
Claimant filed his first claim on April 27, 1989, which was denied on Aug. 15, 1989, because the evidence [...]
Taxation – Tax Deficiency Notice – Limitations
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008
A taxpayer who was acquitted of certain tax crimes for the years 1981 through 1995, who then filed his returns and received a tax deficiency notice of nearly $2 million, cannot assert the bar of the statute of limitations under 26 U.S.C. § 6501(a), the 4th Circuit says.
The Tax Court did not err in finding [...]
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