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Michigan Litigation Law Blog | Local Michigan and National Legal News Updates

Michigan Litigation and National Legal News.

Ottawa County man convicted of killing neighbor while she cleared snow

A jury found an Ottawa County man guilty of killing his neighbor while she was out clearing snow on their shared driveway.

Wendell Popejoy, 63, was taken into custody on Dec. 29, 2017. Popejoy's arrest came just a day after an Ottawa County search and rescue team discovered Sheila Bonge's body in the wooded area behind their homes in Crockery Township. Popejoy and Bonge, 59, had previous disputes over their shared space.

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Federal Judge dismisses Stormy Daniels defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump

In deciding in favor of the president, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero - who is also overseeing Daniels' pending lawsuit about her non-disclosure agreement - ruled that Trump's tweet "constitutes 'rhetorical hyperbole' normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States."

Otero noted that Daniels had "sought to publicly present herself as an adversary" to Trump, and that to deny him the ability to engage in responding to her allegations "would significantly hamper the office of the President."

"Any strongly-worded response by a president to another politician or public figure could constitute an action for defamation," Otero wrote in his opinion. "This would deprive the country of the ‘discourse’ common to the political process."

"Such a holding would violate the First Amendment," Otero ruled.

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Municipal Utilities Need to Be Smart When Implementing a Smart Meter Program

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (the “Seventh Circuit”) recently decided the case of Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville, 900 F.3d 521 (7th Cir. 2018). The suit brought by Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (“NSMA”) alleged that the collection of smart meter energy-consumption data by the City of Naperville, Illinois, (the “City”) constituted an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and should be prohibited. The Seventh Circuit made two important holdings in the case. First, it held that the collection of smart meter data is, in fact, a search under the Fourth Amendment. Second, it held that under the specific facts of the case, the City’s smart meter program constitutes a reasonable search and thus does not violate customers’ Fourth Amendment rights.

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Joseph GaleComment
Ohio Supreme Court upholds CSU police search that found marijuana candy

A 2015 Cleveland State University police search of a vehicle that led to the discovery of sealed envelopes containing 150 individually wrapped marijuana-infused candies is legal, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions from the trial court and the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that the evidence should be suppressed because the search was illegal.

Justice Terrence O'Donnell wrote the majority opinion.

Justices Sharon L. Kennedy, Judith French, Patrick Fischer and R. Patrick DeWine joined the opinion. First District Court of Appeals Judge Marilyn Zayas, sitting for Justice Mary DeGenaro, also joined the opinion.

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor concurred in judgment only, meaning she voted with the majority but she didn't sign on to the written opinion.

Background

CSU Officer Jeffrey Madej stopped a vehicle after noticing Edwin Vega turn left on a red light at East 18th  Street and Euclid Avenues. Madej noticed a strong smell of marijuana and asked Vega to leave the vehicle because he intended to search it, according to the ruling.

Madej found three cell phones, several raw marijuana buds, a small amount of "shake" marijuana, rolling papers, aerosol cans to change the scent in the air and an open package of fruit-flavored SweetStone candy - which is manufactured in Denver and contains cannabis, the ruling states.

Madej also found a partially opened U.S. Postal Service box with two Priority Mail envelopes.

Vega told him that they contained stickers. Madej didn't believe him. Vega wouldn't consent to Madej opening the envelopes, the ruling states.

Madej called his superior and other officers to determine whether he had probable cause to open the envelopes and get a drug-sniffing dog. He couldn't get the dog. Madej wrote Vega tickets for the illegal turn and marijuana possession, the ruling states.

"After explaining the tickets to Vega, Madej decided to open the sealed envelopes based on the odor of marijuana coming from the car and the discovery of three cell phones, the aerosol canisters, the large quantity of rolling papers, the marijuana buds, and the shake weed," the ruling said.

Inside one envelope were three large zip-close bags with 75 packages that said they contained marijuana-infused candy - the same SweetStone candy Vega had in his center console. Madej arrested Vega for drug trafficking. Later testing found the candy in both envelopes contained marijuana.

The stop lasted over an hour.

Vega's attorneys tried to suppress the candy as evidence, arguing Madej lacked probable cause to open them. He also argued the duration of the stop violated his constitutional rights.

In 2016, the trial court agreed with Vega, saying a marijuana smell from the car was not probable cause to open the envelopes since Vega's attorneys argued the envelopes didn't emit a cannabis scent.

The Eighth District Court of Appeals determined Madej had probable cause to  search the vehicle but not to open the envelopes. Madej should have released Vega after the misdemeanor tickets, the appellate court ruled.

Supreme Court

The high court considered the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures. But the court believed the search and seizure was reasonable based on the contraband found in other parts of the car.

The duration of the traffic stop was justified based on that probable cause, the court wrote. "After finding marijuana and other drug paraphernalia in Vega's car, Madej had probable cause to open the envelopes because it was reasonable to believe that they could contain marijuana," O'Donnell wrote in the ruling.

Marijuana possession and trafficking are crimes in Ohio.

The state's medical marijuana program will allow possession and use if a patient has one of 21 qualifying conditions. Edibles are permitted under the state's program. No marijuana is available yet and probably won't be until the beginning of next year.

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"Welfare Check" by Police Leads to Northern Michigan county agreeing to pay $250,000 as a result of a deadly standoff

A federal Court of Appeals judicial panel in 2015 said the failure to get a warrant could constitute a violation of Carlson's Fourth Amendment rights. The judges reversed an earlier ruling to dismiss the county from a lawsuit.

Police were called to Carlson's home in Karlin for a welfare check. Relatives told dispatchers he was suicidal and armed, and they feared he would provoke a shootout.

A standoff began that last 12 hours before a sharpshooter killed Carlson as he was pointing a rifle in the general direction of three deputies. He had been talking to the deputies in those moments.

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Drug charges reinstated for motorist driving hands-free

His attorney argued in Circuit Court that the evidence shouldn’t be used because police didn’t have probable cause to pull over the motorist.

Because it isn’t illegal to look at Snapchat while driving, Mountain’s attorney argued he hadn’t been violating the law and a Circuit Court judge agreed, tossing the case. However, the court of appeals disagreed.

"Although studying Snapchat is different than texting," the trooper's "common sense conclusion" was that Mountain was "violating a traffic law, thereby establishing adequate grounds for a traffic stop," the ruling said.

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Supreme Court keeps ban on Michigan straight-ticket voting

Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature voted to end straight-party voting in late 2015, but the option continued in 2016 amid a lawsuit alleging the change would disproportionately affect African-Americans. The U.S. Sixth Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision on Wednesday, said plaintiffs were unlikely to win their case and ordered the ban to take effect for the election in about three months.

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