"An appeals court has affirmed an $11 million jury award related to a Minnesota crash that killed three people and resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of a driver.
Passenger Search Improper During a traffic stop, the defendant, a passenger, admitted to the officer that he had marijuana. The defendant consented to a pat search, but the officer more thoroughly searched the defendant’s pockets. The Court finds that in spite of justification to conduct a pat frisk, that the search into the defendant’s pockets […]
A commercial vehicle inspector was inspecting the defendant’s commercial vehicle at a weigh station and thought, but was unsure whether he smelled the odor of marijuana in the vehicle. The inspector had only smelled marijuana twice during his training 9 years earlier. A narcotics dog was called to the scene and alerted to drugs. The […]
A divided Minnesota Supreme Court today overturned a Court of Appeals ruling that using a drug-sniffing dog outside a person’s apartment without a warrant is a violation of Fourth Amendment rights. It was an apparent 3-to-2 vote. A divided Minnesota Supreme Court today overturned a Court of Appeals ruling that using a drug-sniffing dog outside […]
Vehicle Search – Backpack Police searched a motor vehicle for missing items stolen from a convenience store and all of the items that were believed to be missing were recovered. After the items were recovered, police searched a backpack found in the vehicle wherein drugs were found. The Court finds that the police lacked probable […]
Brent S. Schafer recently received advanced level training, from the American Association of Premier DUI Attorneys, on Unconstitutional Fees In DUI Cases. Brent received training on a recent Court of Appeals Decision in Tennessee that administrative fees charged on blood draws are unconstitutional and violate due process. Many areas of the Country have similar administrative […]
McLennan County, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against the country’s largest opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors. On Tuesday, county officials filed the lawsuit against Purdue, Johnson & Johnson, and a number of other pharmaceutical companies. As a result of the defendants marketing of the drugs, there have been a substantial number of overdose deaths across […]
Impeachment – Generic Felony Affirming defendant’s conviction of unlawful possession of a firearm, the Court finds no error in the District Court allowing the State to impeach the defendant with two felony convictions without referencing the nature of the felonies (sanitized convictions) with the same standard being applied to a prosecution witness. State v. Bares-Stewart […]
Inevitable Discovery Police had a warrant to search an individual’s home and when they entered the bedroom, the person who was the subject of the warrant and the defendant in this case were present. Methamphetamine was seen in the open and the defendant’s hands were on top of a purse that he had carried with […]
DataMaster Testing Affirming defendant’s conviction of DWI-alcohol concentration, the Court finds that the District Court is permitted to take judicial notice of the fact that the Commissioner of Public Safety has approved the DataMaster breath testing instrument for use by law enforcement. State v. Norgaard Urine Testing – Consent The defendant was asked if he […]
An audio recording has been released in a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of a man who was shot in court. The man, 25-year-old Siale Angilau, was facing racketeering charges in the U.S. District courthouse in Salt Lake City in April 2014. Another man, a former member of Salt Lake City’s Tongan Crip Gang, […]
