by admin
on July 12, 2020
State v. Keith C. Henyard, 2020 WI App 51; case activity (including briefs)
The State charged Henyard with 8 crimes potentially leading to 157 years in prison. Commissioner Parise engaged Henyard in a colloquy, accepted his waiver of a preliminary hearing, and bound him over for trial. Parise left the bench and 5 months later sold his professional services to Henyard to get him a better deal. The majority denied Henyard’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim for lack of a prejudicial “actual conflict of interest.” Judge Reilly, in another Emperor’s New Clothes moment, dissented expressing concern about the integrity of a judiciary that obscures errors and shifts blame to defendants. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on July 12, 2020
State v. Brandon Daniel Mulvenna, 201AP2341-CR, 7/9/20, District 4 , (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Mulvenna wasn’t operating his motorcycle when an officer, responding to a call, arrived to find him trying to lift it while it was facing south on a northbound only roadway. Mulvenna had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech and smelled of alcohol. He refused field sobriety tests, so the officer cuffed him and placed him in the back of his squad car. The sole issue is whether the officer had probable cause for the arrest. The court of appeals answered “yes,” and noted some appellate rules violations. [continue reading…]
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State v. David M. Hay, 2020 WI App 35; case activity (including briefs)
Hay was pulled over in the early morning and blew a .032 on the PBT. He had several drunk-driving priors, so it would be illegal for him to drive with a BAC over .02. The officer never sought a warrant; instead he searched the car (though another officer on-scene could have done that), waited for another officer to show up to “sit” with the vehicle until a tow truck came, then headed to the hospital with Hay. Only then–about an hour after the initial stop–did the officer ask Hay whether he’d agree to a blood test. When Hay refused, the officer, in consultation with an ADA, decided the situation was exigent. The thinking was that given the low PBT result, further passage of time might reduce Hay’s BAC to .00 thus and make a blood test useless as evidence. So, the officer ordered a warrantless blood draw. Because there was only one phlebotomist in the hospital, that draw didn’t actually happen until 35 minutes had passed. Hay had no alcohol in his blood, but there was cocaine, so he was charged with the “restricted controlled substance” variety of OWI. He moved for suppression, the circuit court granted it, and the state appealed. [continue reading…]
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State v. Courtney C. Brown, 2020 WI 63, 7/3/20, affirming a published court of appeals opinion, 2017AP774-CR, case activity (including briefs)
“Supreme Court affirms wide discretion in traffic stops; dissent says implicit bias will go unchecked” That’s the JSOnline’s pithy description of SCOW’s 4-1 decision in this case. Also noteworthy, Justice R.G. Bradley filed a strident, bias-denying concurring opinion suggesting that court of appeals Judge Reilly should be disciplined for writing a strident, bias-acknowledging concurrence that dared to criticize two recent 4th Amendment decisions from SCOW. [continue reading…]
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Looking for a bit of law-related entertainment this holiday weekend? Then take a listen to this episode from the podcast series The Last Archive, featuring historian Jill Lepore. It’s about the origin of the Frye test. And how that may have led to Wonder Woman. No kidding.
Lepore has also written about Clarence Darrow, among many other things, in a book review which begins with events in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that led to his appearance in Winnebago County Circuit Court. No kidding!
Happy Fourth of July.
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On June 24, 2020, the court of appeals ordered publication of the following criminal law related cases:
State v. Tavodess Matthews, 2020 WI App 33 (motion to adjourn a probable cause hearing is a “preliminary contested matter” under judicial substitution statute)
State v. Adam W. Vice, 2020 WI App 34 (confession given after polygraph ordered suppressed)
State v. David M. Hay, 2020 WI App 35 (warrantless blood draw was unlawful; state failed to prove exigent circumstances)
State v. Troy R. Lasecki, 2020 WI App 36 (jury instruction and restitution errors lead to reversal in case against landlord charged with failing to return security deposits)
State ex rel. Jamie A. Coogan v. Steven R. Michek, 2020 WI App 37 (jail classification system doesn’t trump judge’s Huber order)
Eau Claire County DHS v. S.E., 2020 WI App 39 (amendment to continuing CHIPS TPR grounds applies to CHIPS orders issued before amendment took effect)
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State v. Dawn J. Levanduski, 2020 WI App 53; case activity (including briefs)
This published decision resolves an issue arguably left open by Birchfield v. North Dakota, 136 S. Ct. 2160 (2016). The court of appeals holds that when an officer reads Wisconsin’s “Informing the Accused” form to an OWI suspect, and she refuses a blood draw, her refusal can be used against her at her OWI trial. [continue reading…]
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The percentage of opinions that the court of appeals publishes is going down, down, down. That’s the subject of SCOWstats new post. One might suppose that the rule change allowing the citation of unpublished opinions is to blame, but the data does not support that conclusion. What’s really surprising is that SCOW publishes roughly the same number of opinions as the court of appeals. Does the court of appeals lacks confidence in the guidance it has to offer the bench, the bar, and litigants?
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