Judge Jean Harrison Clements

Oct 28, 2018

Follow up treatment for work accident denied

A Lowe’s employee who failed to produce evidence that the treatment he sought for crying spells was causally related to his work accident has his claim denied. Background Claimant suffered from epilepsy as a child and had a temporal lobectomy in 1994. In March 2013, while working at Lowe’s, claimant was injured when a cart […]

Jul 13, 2018

CAV: Fire changed marital residence from asset to deficiency

After a divorced couple’s former residence was significantly damaged by fire, the husband was entitled to reimbursements from the wife for his outlays to return to property to saleable condition. The trial court did not err in decreasing the wife’s retirement share cure the deficiency. Background Husband and Wife married in 1983 and separated in […]

Dec 14, 2017

Failure to Appear – Motion in Limine – Willfulness – Insufficient Evidence

Cosby v. Commonwealth (VLW No. 017-7-277, 13pp.) (Clements, J.) Record No. 1982-16-2. Appealed from the Circuit County of the City of Richmond. (Rupe, J.) Holding: Where the testimony of a detective that he saw the appellant-defendant in the courthouse about 20 minutes after his trial was set to begin and the defendant was entitled to […]

Jun 5, 2017

Court Erred in Figuring Father’s Income

In ruling on father’s petition to modify child support, the circuit court abused its discretion by averaging father’s income from a film production company for the past four years, instead of basing its calculation on father’s current income; however, the Court of Appeals upholds the trial court’s determination of the couple’s work-related child care expenses. […]

May 3, 2017

Mother Failed to File Appendix

The Court of Appeals affirms a change of custody to sole legal and primary physical custody of a couple’s two daughters to father, because mother did not provide a proper appendix; as appellant, mother was responsible for providing a complete record to the court. Although mother designated portions of the 2016 custody hearing transcript to […]

Apr 12, 2017

Court Could Restrict Child’s Golf Play

The Court of Appeals says a trial court did not err in awarding mother sole legal and physical custody of a couple’s daughter and in prohibiting the father from attending the child’s gymnastic practices and ordering the child not to play competitive golf for one year. The circuit court held that father disrupted the child’s […]

Nov 1, 2016

Faulty Affidavit Leads to Suppression

Evidence supporting a charge of methamphetamine manufacture is suppressed because the affidavit filed with the clerk’s office omitted a page with the investigator’s statements supporting the warrant and the commonwealth failed to file the affidavit within 30 days of the search, as required by Va. Code § 19.2-54; the Court of Appeals reverses denial of […]

May 30, 2016

Victim’s Pending Charges Not Brady Material

Information that defendant’s girlfriend, whom he allegedly assaulted and threatened with a gun, had pending charges against her in another jurisdiction, was not impeachment material under Brady v. Maryland, nor was it useful to show bias; the Court of Appeals upholds rejection of defendant’s Brady challenge and affirms his conviction for firearm possession as a […]

May 9, 2016

Unpublished Transfer Order Not Binding

The Court of Appeals does not have jurisdiction over an appeal of a trial court decision that appellant’s dog was a “dangerous dog” after the dog attacked another dog, and this appeal is transferred to the Supreme Court of Virginia pursuant to Va. Code § 8.01-677.1; although the Supreme Court earlier transferred a similar case […]

May 4, 2016

Prosecution Proved Value of Trailer Tongues

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s grand larceny conviction despite his claim that the evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the stolen trailer tongues had a value of $200 or more. The owner of the trailer tongues testified they were missing after defendant had done some yard work on her property on […]

Nov 11, 2015

Computer Images Were Not Child Porn

The Court of Appeals reverses defendant’s 45 convictions for possession of child pornography based on photographs found in the unallocated spaces of defendant’s desktop computer and laptop computer issued by the school district that employed him, and affirms nine child pornography convictions for photographs found in the recycle bin of the computer. The commonwealth concedes […]

Oct 26, 2015

Surveillance-Based Car Stop Upheld

A detective’s original tip from an informant that defendant was selling 20 to 40 pounds of marijuana a month from an out-of-state source, and surveillance of defendant for over a month, during which time he observed defendant engaging in hand-to-hand drug transactions and picking up passengers and suitcases at the airport, supported the detective’s reasonable […]