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| Written by Justin Levy | |
| On June 10, 2004, Appellant Alan Whitelaw pled guilty to federal bank fraud charges in the Southern District of Texas. Per an oral agreement between the Government and the appellant, the district court ruled that he could withdraw his guilty plea if the court did not order that his federal sentence run concurrently with a state sentence based on similar charges. | |
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| Written by Ezra Kuenzi | |
| In Rabo Agrifinance Inc. v. Terra XXI, Ltd., the appellants, Terra and “the Viegel entities,” appealed the district court’s ruling allowing their equipment to be sold at foreclosure and awarding attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs. Between 1997 and 1999 the appellee, Rabo Agrifinance, loaned the appellants approximately $1.8 million to conduct farm operations. As collateral, Rabo Agrifinance held a second lien on 5,600 acres of real property (the property was encumbered by a first lien of over $3 million), a second lien on irrigation equipment, and a first lien on additional farming equipment. | |
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| Written by Natalie Mahlberg | |
| Rebecca Ann Dale (Appellant) purchased a shiny 2006 Ford F150 pick-up truck from Gullo Ford Mercury of Conroe, Texas. In exchange for her “built Ford tough” F150, Appellant traded in her old vehicle with a negative equity of $4,760, which Ford paid off and included in the new vehicle’s total sale price. | |
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| Written by John Maniscalco | |
| Manuel Avila-Cortez (Appellant) appealed his sentence, complaining of reversible error committed by the district court, when he was not given his right to allocution prior to the pronouncing of his sentence. Appellant “pleaded guilty to one count of being an alien unlawfully found in the United States after having been previously denied admission, excluded, deported, or removed from the country, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b).” | |
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| Written by Steven Boening | |
| In United States v. Sylvester, Donald Sylvester, appellant, appealed his conviction of multiple murder and narcotics felonies. After a warrant was issued for appellant’s arrest, he voluntarily surrendered. The prosecutors told him that they would seek life imprisonment instead of capital punishment in return for a full confession that could be used against him at trial. | |
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| Written by Jason Jordan | |
| “Robbery. All 100s.” A lone man, dressed in a white hardhat, sunglasses, and a work shirt handed this message, written on a piece of notepaper, to a teller at the Citizens State Bank in Morton, Mississippi. After receiving $6,600 from the teller, the man quickly fled the bank, discarding his outfit nearby in an attempt to ensure the success of his caper. | |
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| Written by Todd Moody | |
| In Smith v. Am. Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus, the appellant, Aflac, sought review of a summary judgment motion granted in favor of the appellee, Angela Smith. Smith’s husband worked on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. A chartered helicopter service picked up Smith’s husband and other workers to transport them to the platform. | |
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| Written by Andrew Howell | |
| In United States v. Rhine, the appellant, Curtis Oneal Rhine appealed his sentence stemming from convictions for one count of possession with intent to distribute and one count of felon in possession of a firearm. Rhine was riding in the passenger seat of a car that was pulled over in Fort Worth, Texas and admitted to having smoked marijuana earlier that evening. A finding of multiple outstanding warrants led to his arrest and the discovery of two firearms under the seat in which he sat, as well as 1.89 grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine) hidden in his anal cavity. | |
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| Written by Jonathan Cone | |
| Hoog-Watson v. Guadalupe County involved a challenge to a summary judgment order entered against Suzanne Hoog-Watson. Hoog-Watson had filed an action in Federal district court against multiple defendants, including Elizabeth Murray-Kolb, County Attorney for Guadalupe County, Texas. Hoog-Watson kept several animals at her home. In 2005, some county officials grew suspicious that Hoog-Watson was unable to properly care for her animals. | |
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| Written by Christopher Jeansonne | |
| In United States v. Perez, the appellant, Joe Daniel Perez challenged his 120-month sentence resulting from his guilty plea for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On the night of Perez’s arrest, several witnesses observed Perez fire several rounds from a handgun into the air towards a crowd of people in downtown Corpus Christi. Police later arrested Perez and recovered a .38 special revolver from a car near where police arrested Perez. The revolver’s “[s]erial number appeared to be altered and partially obliterated, as if somebody had attempted to scratch the numbers off.” | |
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| Written by Jenny Parker | |
| In 1981, Julian Nieto Hernandez (Hernandez), a Mexican citizen and native, was admitted to the United States. In 1997, Hernandez was convicted of felony possession of marijuana under Texas state law. A year later, the Petitioner was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm under Texas law. | |
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| Written by Lynn Taylor | |
| In Manis v. Lawson, the defendant-appellant, Officer Douglass Zemlik (Zemlik), filed an interlocutory appeal on the district court’s ruling denying Zemlik’ s qualified immunity defense. Police Officer Zemlik responded to a call that a car was parked idling on the intersection’s railroad tracks. Da... | |
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| Written by Kaitlyn Cichowski | |
| In United States v. Young, appellant Norman Lamar Young appealed his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a) “for traveling in interstate commerce and knowingly failing to update his registration information as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).” Congress enacted SORNA to establish a “comprehensive national system for the registration of [sex] offenders.” SORNA requires sex offenders to register “in each jurisdiction in which they reside or work” and criminalizes the act of traveling in interstate commerce and knowingly failing to register or update a registration. | |
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| Written by Bryan Dotson | |
| In Fairley v. Hattiesburg, Miss., the appellants, the African-American residents (residents) of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sued the city alleging that the city’s 2004 redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. The residents alleged the redistricting plan placed the University of Southern Mississippi students living in the dormitories in the first ward and unnecessarily packed the black voters into wards two and five. In support of this claim, the residents advanced three redistricting plans, but only provided an illustrative plan in support of the proposed redistricting scheme that involved the exclusion of the dormitory college students. | |
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| Written by Daniel Durell | |
| In United States v. Rangel-Portillo, the appellant, Cipriano Rangel-Portillo appealed his conditional plea of guilty to the charge of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. Rangel-Portillo based his appeal on the grounds that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained as the result of an unconstitutional stop by United States Border Patrol Agent Victor Soliz. Rangel-Portillo was stopped near the Rio Grande City Wal-Mart, only 500 yards from the Texas/Mexico border, with three illegal aliens in the backseat. | |
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| Written by Margaret Tung | |
| Eight years ago, in a Dallas County state district court, Cecil Keith Hayes, appellant in this case, was preparing to defend himself on a charge of aggravated robbery. Of the jury panel that was finally selected, none of the members were African-American because the prosecution had used eight out of... | |
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| Written by Sarah Heep | |
| Appellant Rocky Self was indicted in the Eastern District of Texas for bank robbery (Count I), aiding and abetting bank robbery (Count III), carrying a firearm during a crime of violence (Count II), and aiding and abetting the carrying of a firearm during a crime of violence (Count IV). In exchange ... | |
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| Written by Calli Bailey | |
| The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code dictates the rules for producing, distributing, and selling alcoholic beverages within the State of Texas. Under the Code, Texas employs a three-tier structure for regulating alcohol sales. The three tiers include alcoholic beverage producers at the top, wholesale distributors in the middle, and alcohol retailers at the bottom. The producers sell their products to the wholesalers, and the wholesalers then turn and distribute these products to state-licensed retailers. Consumers can then purchase alcoholic beverages from these licensed retailers located within the state. | |
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| Written by Marianne Sanchez | |
| In United States v. Martinez-Rios, the defendant-appellant, Florentino Martinez-Rios, appealed his conviction of illegal reentry into the United States, asserting the violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. Martinez-Rios was one of three individuals hanging from the side of a train ... | |
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| Written by Katie Maxwell | |
| In United States v. Castillo, defendant-appellant Rafael Castillo-Estevez appealed the sixteen-level sentencing enhancement the district court imposed upon him resulting from his conviction for unlawful reentry. Defendant-appellant pled guilty after being charged under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b) with one count of being illegally present in the United States following deportation. In sentencing defendant-appellant, the district court considered multiple prior convictions for drug trafficking and enhanced his offense level pursuant to U.S.S.G § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(i)—resulting in 37 months imprisonment. | |
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| Written by Kate Cross | |
| In early 2000, Anthony Todd, appellee, was a chef aboard the M/V American Queen, a steamboat owned by the Delta Queen Steamboat Company (Delta Queen). While aboard the steamboat, tragedy struck and Todd was injured while the boat was cruising down the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Todd sued and won a judgment against Delta Queen in 2007, but due to insolvency, “Delta Queen has yet to satisfy this judgment.” | |
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| Written by Skyler Stuckey | |
| In In re Amy, at age eight or nine, “Amy,” (Petitioner) was photographed by an uncle in a series of sexually abusive poses that were later distributed to third parties. One of those third parties was Doyle Randall Paroline (Defendant) who pled guilty to a single count of possessing material involvin... | |
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| Written by Jennifer Wertz | |
| Convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), Jerrold Martin (Appellant) pled guilty to possession of at least fifty grams of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. The district court sentenced him to eighty-seven months. This sentence represented the bottom of the guidelines range for this offense. Appellant appealed his sentence to the Fifth Circuit, but before Appellant filed his appellate brief, the Sentencing Commission amended the guidelines applicable to his sentence. In particular, the Sentencing Commission reduced the difference between cocaine and crack sentences, and also made those changes retroactive. | |
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| Written by Kama Lawrence | |
| In United States v. Reagan, defendant-appellant Darren L. Reagan appealed his conviction of five counts of theft of public money as charged under 18 U.S.C. § 641. Appellant and his wife, Debra Kirvin, jointly owned residential property, and they leased that property to Debra’s mother, Leatha Krivin.... | |
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| Written by Jillian Gordon | |
| Appellee Richard Duane Davis owned and operated a Houston tax preparation business. He prepared the taxes of co-defendant Madison Lee Oden, who owned a several car dealerships in the Houston area, during the 1990’s and from 2000-2002. The IRS audited Oden in 1993, and determined that he had failed t... | |
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| Written by Kayla Childs | |
| In Good v. Curtis, Fred Curtis, Defendant-Appellant, filed an interlocutory appeal asserting qualified immunity against claims of Fourth and Fourteenth Constitutional Amendments violations. On June 15, 1983, Donald Wayne Good, Plaintiff-Appellee, was arrested on a bond forfeiture on a prior DWI char... | |
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| Written by Marisa Dunagan | |
| In United States v. Montes, Jason Montes and Margarito Armijo, defendants-appellants, were convicted of bank robbery, conspiring to commit bank robbery, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1). The robberies occurred in the Dallas area betw... | |
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| Written by John W. Ellis | |
| Illegal firearm—check. Lawful investigation—check. Probable cause—probably not. Warrant—who needs a warrant? In United States v. Rodriguez, the defendant-appellant, Pastor Rodriguez, appealed his conviction for possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun with an obliterated serial number in violati... | |
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| Written by Mallory Beagles | |
| On May 31, 2008, Maria Williams, appellant, was arrested in El Paso for violating 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1) by forcibly resisting or assaulting a federal officer. Military police officers arrived at Appellant’s home in response to a neighbor’s complaint of indecent exposure, and Appellant resisted the ... | |
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| Written by Brett Gardner | |
| On February 16, 2007, the Lauderdale County Sherriff’s office responded to a call claiming that David Earl Hughes, appellant in this case, had assaulted both his niece and her boyfriend with an axe and had driven away in a Nissan pickup truck in order to obtain a gun to kill them. Appellant was ev... | |
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| Written by Joshua Collins | |
| Austin, Texas, police officers arrested Christopher L. Alexander (Appellant) for possession of cocaine base. From jail, appellant made a telephone call to his father and directed him to remove three firearms that were located in appellant’s bedroom. Appellant asked his father to give at least one of... | |
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