4th Circuit revives harassment lawsuit

PSR ‘Facts’ Don’t Pass Muster for ACCA

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 29, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Roger L. Gregory

A district court committed plain error when it used the presentence report’s discussion of the circumstances surrounding defendant’s two prior violent-felony convictions to apply an Armed Career Criminal Act enhancement under 18 U.S.C. § 924 when sentencing defendant as a felon in possession of a firearm; the 4th Circuit vacates the sentence and remands for [...]

School CEO’s Fraud Conviction Reversed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 1, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Roger L. Gregory

The 4th Circuit reverses a Maryland school system’s chief executive officer’s convictions for honest-services fraud in connection with his involvement in securing two public contracts for school products and services, but affirms the CEO’s convictions for evidence-tampering and obstruction of justice and orders resentencing. The government concedes the district court erred when it instructed the [...]

Two Sentences for Supervised Release Violations

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 25, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Roger L. Gregory

A district court that revoked defendant’s supervised release for violation of certain conditions and imposed a 12-month sentence had continuing jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e) to impose a second 12-month prison sentence for violations of his supervised release that occurred after the first hearing; the 4th Circuit upholds defendant’s sentence. At the first hearing, [...]

Repeat Searches of Slate Quarry Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Roger L. Gregory, Search & Seizure

A Virginia slate quarry that was subjected to 25 warrantless inspections of its mining operations over a seven-month period under the state’s Mineral and Mine Safety Act and cited for 32 violations has no civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for illegal searches because neither the Act authorizing the searches nor conduct of [...]

Unvested Shares Not Wages for Fired Employee

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 9, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Employment, Judge Roger L. Gregory

Maryland’s Wage Payment and Collection Law is not a fundamental public policy of that state, and the 4th Circuit says plaintiff, a Maryland employee, may not avoid a New Jersey choice-of-law provision in her company’s long-term profit sharing plan in order to collect for unvested shares she earned under the plan prior to her termination. [...]

Sentence Enhancement for Obstruction Needs Findings

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 14, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Roger L. Gregory

In order to enhance a defendant’s sentence for obstruction of justice based on perjury, the 4th Circuit says the sentencing court must make findings to clearly establish a defendant gave false testimony on a material matter with willful intent to deceive, and because the court here failed to make the necessary findings, defendant’s enhanced sentence [...]

Illegal Entry May Have Tainted Consent

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 29, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Roger L. Gregory, Search & Seizure

Police who did not expect to find defendant at his girlfriend’s home entered the home illegally, but they had the girlfriend’s valid consent to search the home; however, the 4th Circuit remands the case to the district court to decide whether the taint from the initial illegal entry was dissipated by the girlfriend’s consent. This [...]

Forensic Evidence Not Enough to ID Robber

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 16, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Roger L. Gregory

The government’s circumstantial evidence linking defendant to a Subway restaurant robbery through cell phone calls and DNA on a Yankees cap is not sufficient to identify him as a perpetrator, as store employees’ only descriptions of the two robbers were that they were African-American and wore masks and bulky coats; the 4th Circuit affirms the [...]

City Employee Can Try Sexual Harassment Suit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 16, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Employment Discrimination, Judge Roger L. Gregory

A woman whose boss, head of a Baltimore aging agency, “forcibly kissed her, fondled her leg, propositioned her, asked sexually explicit questions, described sexual activities he wished to perform and then, after she spurned the advances and filed a harassment complaint, fired her,” stated claims for hostile environment, quid pro quo harassment and retaliation, and [...]