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Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

CLAY, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs Golf Village North, LLC; Triangle Properties, Inc.; and the Golf Village Property Owners Association, Inc. (collectively, “Plaintiffs” or “Golf Village”) appeal the district court’s dismissal of their amended complaint against the City of Powell, Ohio, and its Director of Development, David Betz, sued in his official capacity (collectively, “Defendants” or “the City”). The amended complaint asserted takings and procedural due process claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as well as a trespass claim under state law. The district court dismissed the federal causes of action with prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state trespass claim, and entered judgment. We AFFIRM.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

The Petitioner, James Dominic Stevenson, was convicted by a jury of attempted first degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon after he shot his ex-girlfriend in her car in the presence of her child. His aggravated assault convictions were merged into the attempted first degree murder conviction, and he received an effective twenty-seven-year sentence. The Petitioner filed for post-conviction relief, asserting that he received ineffective assistance from his trial counsel, and his petition was denied after a hearing. On appeal, we affirm the denial of post-conviction relief.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

A Morgan County jury convicted Defendant Rodger Dale Prince (“Defendant Prince”) and Defendant Amanda Beaty (“Defendant Beaty”) of first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse and first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child neglect. Additionally, the jury convicted Defendant Beaty of aggravated child endangerment. The trial court imposed an effective life sentence with the possibility of parole for Defendant Prince’s convictions and an effective life sentence with the possibility of parole plus fifteen years for Defendant Beaty’s convictions. On appeal, the defendants assert that: (1) the trial court erred when it allowed the State to amend the indictment; (2) the evidence was insufficient to support their felony murder convictions; and (4) the trial court erred when it failed to grant a mistrial based upon improper testimony. Defendant Beaty also asserts that the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence instances of prior abuse. After review, we affirm the trial court’s judgments and remand for correction of the judgments consistent with this opinion.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

Aggrieved of his Madison County Circuit Court jury convictions of aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, the defendant, Brandon Deshun McAlister, appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the convicting evidence. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

A jury convicted the Defendant, Homer Alson Maddin, III, of four counts of aggravated rape in 2004, and the trial court sentenced him to concurrent terms of twenty-five years in confinement. After discovering in 2020 that it mistakenly marked the Defendant as a violent offender rather than a multiple rapist on the judgment forms in counts two through four, the trial court entered an order amending the judgment forms under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court failed to provide proper notice under Rule 36 and that his classification as a violent offender was not a clerical error. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 23, 2021

The Petitioner, Jeffrey Wayne Hughes, entered open guilty pleas to one count of theft of $250,000 or more, one count of theft of $10,000 or more but less than $60,000, and six counts of money laundering, and he received an effective twenty-seven-year sentence. He filed a petition for post-conviction relief, asserting that his pleas were involuntary because the aggregation of the theft offenses violated the prohibition on ex post facto laws and asserting that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The post-conviction court denied relief, and he appeals. We conclude that the Petitioner’s pleas were not involuntary because there was no ex post facto violation and that he has not established that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of relief.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 22, 2021

The Petitioner, Angela Montgomery, was convicted in the Rutherford County Circuit Court of six counts of rape of a child and received an effective sentence of forty years in confinement to be served at one hundred percent. After this court affirmed the Petitioner’s convictions, she filed a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming that she received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. The post-conviction court held an evidentiary hearing and granted relief. In this appeal by the State, the State contends for the first time that the post-conviction court lacked jurisdiction to consider the petition on its merits because the petition was untimely and that the post-conviction court incorrectly determined that the Petitioner received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties’ briefs, we conclude that the case should be remanded to the post-conviction court to afford the Petitioner an opportunity to show whether the limitations period for filing the petition should be tolled based on due process concerns. Accordingly,thecaseisremandedtothepost-convictioncourtforanevidentiary hearing on that issue.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 22, 2021

The Petitioner, Carl Prince, appeals the summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. After review, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 22, 2021

SUTTON, Chief Judge. Santosuossos is an Italian restaurant in Medina, Ohio. The COVID-19 pandemic was not good for the restaurant’s business or for that matter most hospitality services. First came an understandable reluctance by patrons to enter enclosed public spaces such as restaurants. Then came the State of Ohio’s order to suspend all in-person dining operations at restaurants to slow the spread of the virus. Through it all, Santosuossos lost considerable revenue and understandably blamed the pandemic and shut-down order for its economic woes. The owner of the restaurant sued its insurer, Acuity Insurance Company, for coverage under its commercial property insurance policy, which covers business interruption “caused by direct physical loss of or damage to property.” R.7-7 at 29. The district court granted Acuity’s motion to dismiss, reasoning that the policy did not cover this kind of peril. We agree and affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 22, 2021

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Brian Devereux suffered a major stroke during or around the period of his custody by Knox County for misdemeanor first-time DUI. Corrections officers were in and out of the holding cell where he sat motionless for several hours but did not provide medical attention until it was too late to mitigate the stroke’s effects. Devereux and his wife, Renee Devereux,1 sued the officers and Knox County. They brought federal civil rights claims as well as negligence claims under the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act, which waives sovereign immunity for certain claims, but not those arising from “civil rights.” After years of litigation, the district court dismissed all of Devereux’s claims against the officers as well as his civil rights claims against Knox County. It then declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the TGTLA claims and dismissed them without prejudice, allowing Devereux to refile them in state court. Knox County objects, arguing that the district court should have retained jurisdiction and determined that the TGTLA’s “civil rights exception” necessarily barred Devereux’s negligence claims. The parties also move to certify a question about the civil rights exception’s timing and scope to the Tennessee Supreme Court. We VACATE the district court’s 2018 order denying Knox County’s first motion to dismiss only as to its rationale regarding the TGTLA negligence claim and VACATE the portion of the district court’s order of September 11, 2019, that relied on that vacated part of the district court’s 2018 order, AFFIRM its judgment in all other respects, and DENY the parties’ joint motion to certify.


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