by admin
on March 24, 2022
State v. Eric D. Bourgeois, 2022 WI App 18; case activity (including briefs)
Police went looking for Bourgeois at a hotel because he might have been in possession of stolen handgun, he had PTSD, and he had a drug problem. At 2:00 a.m., despite a “do not disturb” sign, 3 officers tried to enter his room unannounced first using a key card and then a master key. Due to the chain lock, they could only peek through but they saw that Bourgeois alone and unarmed He declined to let them in and turned away. Claiming exigent circumstances, police busted through the hotel door. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 24, 2022
Victor Ortiz, Jr. v. Kevin A. Carr, 2022 WI App 16; case activity (including briefs)
Attorneys Jason Luczak and Jorge Fragoso of Gimbel, Reilly, Geurin & Brown generously took this case pro bono. And now Jorge offers this guest post on their defense win:
Prison inmate (and hero to institutionalized persons) Victor Ortiz filed a petition for writ of certiorari seeking to limit the percentage of his income diverted for the payment of restitution. He won. The court of appeals ordered the Department of Corrections to limit its withholdings to 25% of Ortiz’s wages, half of what the Department sought. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 23, 2022
State v. Mitchell D. Green, 2021AP267, 3/22/22, District 1 (not recommended for publication); petition for review granted, 6/22/22, reversed, 2023 WI 57 case activity (including briefs)
The state charged Green with crimes including child sex trafficking. The alleged victim testified that another man had trafficked her, but that Green had driven her a particular encounter where a client had spit in her mouth. After the state rested, the defense called Green’s cousin–his name was Cousin–who said that he’d been the one to drive the girl that night. Cousin said he’d done the driving for a third man, Delmar, who’d asked for a ride in exchange for gas money and then invited the alleged victim and another man along for the ride. Cousin said he remembered the incident because when he picked the alleged victim up after the encounter, she had mentioned the mouth-spitting. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 21, 2022
Jackson County DHHS v. K.M.G., 2021AP2159, 3/17/22, District 4 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Shortly after birth, V.J.T. was placed with a foster mom, a cousin of V.J.T.’s biological mother. Meanwhile, K.M.G., (the biological father) and T.T. (a biological grandfather) remained involved with V.J.T. The grandfather even wanted to be the child’s guardian, a result a child psychologist supported. The circuit court nevertheless, terminated the father’s parental rights when V.J.T. was 2. The court of appeals affirms mostly because V.J.T. had been with a foster mother since birth. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 14, 2022
State v. Dennis C. Strong, Jr., 2020AP1197-CR, District 3, 3/8/22 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
In a decision that provides a nice primer about using specific instances of a witness’s to attack the witness’s character for truthfulness § 906.08(2), the court of appeals holds the circuit court erroneously barred Strong from cross examining the complaining witness about a prior false statement she’d made to the police four months earlier in a different case. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 14, 2022
Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy has posted an essay on a recent federal district court decision regarding the legality of so-called “geofence” warrants, which involve law enforcement getting access to Google’s cell phone location data and using the data to advance a criminal investigation. Google apparently imposes its own sort of “warrant” requirement, and the basic questions in the case, United States v. Chatrie, involve whether the request for the data is a Fourth Amendment search at all, and whether Google’s warrant process comports with the Fourth Amendment. Kerr’s post is here.
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by admin
on March 11, 2022
State v. Michael Nelson, 2021AP1133-CR, 3/9/22, District 2 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity
Nelson, who values his right to bear arms, pled guilty to several crimes, including disorderly conduct and domestic violence. As a condition of his probation, he was barred from possessing firearms. Postconviction, he claimed that his trial lawyer incorrectly advised him that “pleading to disorderly conduct could result in a temporary rather than permanent loss of his gun rights” and that the trial court erred in denying him a hearing on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on March 10, 2022
Nancy Kindschy v. Brian Aish, 2022 WI App 17; case activity (including briefs), reversed by Kindschy v. Ash, 2024 WI 27.
Kindschy, a nurse practitioner at a Planned Parenthood clinic, obtained a harassment injunction against Aish, an anti-abortion protestor. On appeal, Aish argued that his conduct did not qualify as “harassment” as defined by §813.125. He also claimed that his conduct had a “legitimate purpose”–he has a right to proselytize, and he was only trying to force Kindschy to leave her employment and shut down Planned Parenthood. [continue reading…]
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