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Criminal: Request to withdraw guilty plea denied
Where the defendant argued the government’s failure to produce a complete copy of the warrant and affidavit influenced him to plead guilty and that its error was thus material, the court disagreed. The record showed the complete warrant would have made it more likely that he pleaded guilty.
Freedom of Information: District court wrongly dismissed FOIA suit
Where the district court held the lawsuit was moot because the government produced records during the pendency of the lawsuit, it erred. The plaintiff sought complete records, but the government’s production was heavily redacted.
Criminal: MS-13 members convicted for kidnapping and murder of two children
Where a jury convicted gang members for their roles in the kidnapping and murder of two children, the court rejected virtually all challenges to the verdicts and sentences.
Immigration: Substantial evidence supports denial of asylum application
Where substantial evidence supported the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision that the applicant’s membership in her immediate family and as a single Salvadoran women were not the reasons for her persecution, her asylum application was denied.
Constitutional: Facial challenge to Maryland internet advertising tax statute is reinstated
Where the Maryland General Assembly enacted a law that taxes the revenues companies produce by advertising on the internet, and restricted the ways that a resulting price increase can be communicated, the district court erred when it dismissed a facial challenge to the statute.
Appeals: Appeal waiver dooms appeal over resentence
Where the defendant challenged his resentencing, but his challenges fell within the scope of an appeal waiver in his original plea agreement, his appeal was dismissed.
Civil Procedure: Rule 23 trumps South Carolina’s ‘Door Closing Statute’
Where a South Carolina statute imposes requirements on certain class actions, it conflicts with Rule 23, and thus does not apply in federal court.
Civil Rights: Police had probable cause to arrest man
Where a jury indicted a man for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and felonious assault, that showed that officers had probable cause to arrest the man, defeating his claim for First Amendment retaliation.
Criminal: District court wrongly dismissed indictment
Where there is a complete absence of evidence that the officers acted with discriminatory purpose when they stopped the defendant, and because his equal protection claim requires clear evidence that he was stopped because he was Black, the district court erred when it dismissed the indictment.
Criminal: Man burns wife’s body after killing her
Where the defendant was charged with using a fire to commit a felony, after he killed his wife and burned her corpse, the district court erred when it refused to dismiss the use of fire charge. The predicate felony (interstate domestic violence) had come to an end before the fire.
Criminal: Sentencing enhancement applied to kidnapper
Where a man employed a gun to convey an imminent threat during the kidnapping of his estranged wife, he “used” a dangerous weapon in furtherance of the crime of kidnapping. As such, the district court did not err in applying a sentencing enhancement.
Immigration: BIA’s rejection of particular social group was deficient
Where the Board of Immigration Appeals made a conclusory judgment that the petitioner’s particular social group was “circular per se,” without conducting a fact-based, case-specific inquiry, it erred.
Verdicts & Settlements
- Fraud – Jury sides with couple in home construction case
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Triathlete suffered fractures after being struck by pickup truck
- Medical Malpractice- Nursing facility patient died after falling, suffering head injury
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Sales manager sustained multiple injuires in Virginia Beach collision
- Products Liability – Workplace accident results in amputation at the wrist
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Railroad worker injured in collision with tractor-trailer
- Workers’ Compensation – Worker sustains back injuries following fall, seeks PTD
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Intersection accident results in bodily injury, stroke
- Workers’ Compensation – Coal miner reaches deal for black lung disease disability
- Motor Vehicle Negligence – Driver dies after intersection accident with another vehicle
- Medical Malpractice – Jury sides with doctor on med/mal allegations
Opinion Digests
- Employment – City of Virginia Beach must pay fees and costs to prevailing Title VII plaintiff
- Contract – Lack of mutual assent dooms motion to enforce agreement
- Tort – Court refuses to reverse defamation verdict
- Criminal – Second motion for sentence reduction is denied
- Real Property – Commercial use of property violated Declaration of Covenants
- Employment – Professor’s race discrimination and work environment claims are dismissed
- Constitutional – Search of probationer’s house was unlawful
- Retirement – Class was wrongly certified in breach of fiduciary duty ERISA suit
- Negligence – Coach defeats student’s claim of gross negligence
- Criminal – Defendant convicted for knowingly submitting false immigration documents
- Prisons – District court did not err when it construed inmate’s pro se complaint
- Fraud – Defendants prevail on qui tam suit
