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Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. On February 12, 2018, law enforcement officials in Rutherford County, Tennessee, executed “Operation Candy Crush.” Officials raided certain stores within the county selling legal cannabidiol (“CBD”) products and arrested their owners. The seventeen store owners alleged that law enforcement violated their constitutional rights to be free from false arrest, unlawful seizure, and unlawful prosecution, as well as their right to equal protection. They also alleged a civil conspiracy to violate those rights. In support of their complaint, the plaintiffs attached documents revealing communications between law enforcement officials leading up to Operation Candy Crush in which officials expressed doubts about the CBD products’ purported illegality and concerns regarding the planned arrests and raids. The defendants moved to dismiss the claims pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), claiming absolute and qualified immunity. The district court denied their motions.

District Attorney Jennings Jones and Assistant District Attorney John Zimmerman claim they are entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity or qualified immunity for their alleged misconduct during the investigation of the plaintiffs’ CBD products. Mike Fitzhugh, the Rutherford County Sheriff, similarly claims he is entitled to quasi-judicial absolute immunity and qualified immunity for his actions related to the investigation and arrests of the plaintiffs. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court’s denial of absolute and qualified immunity to Jones and Zimmerman, affirm the denial of quasi-judicial and qualified immunity to Fitzhugh for his alleged Fourth Amendment violations, and reverse the denial of qualified immunity to Fitzhugh with respect to the plaintiffs’ equal protection claim.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

In 2014, a Hickman County jury convicted the Petitioner, Robert G. Thornton, Jr., of two counts of rape, and the trial court merged his convictions and sentenced him to twelve years of incarceration. The Petitioner appealed his convictions to this court, and we affirmed the judgments. State v. Robert G. Thornton, Jr., No. M2015-01895-CCA-R3- CD, 2017 WL 2704123 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Nashville, June 22, 2017), no perm. app. filed. The Petitioner then filed a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel, which the post-conviction court denied after a hearing. We affirm the post-conviction court’s judgment.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

The Defendant, Johnny James Parrish, was convicted by a Greene County Criminal Court Jury of two counts of aggravated assault, a Class C felony, for which he is serving an effective fifteen-year sentence as a Range III, persistent offender. See T.C.A. § 39-13- 102(a)(1) (2014) (subsequently amended). On appeal, he contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, (2) the State made an inadequate election of offenses, (3) the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial based upon the victim’s not having been sequestered before he testified, (4) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Evidence 404(b) regarding a prior bad act of the Defendant toward the victim, and (5) he is entitled to a new trial due to cumulative errors. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

The Defendants, Derrick Darnell Moore and Demichael Tyrone Moore, were convicted by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of first degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-202 (2018) (first degree murder); 39-13-403 (2018) (especially aggravated robbery). Defendant Derrick Moore was also convicted of criminally negligent homicide, which the trial court merged into the felony murder conviction. See id. § 39-13-212 (2018) (criminally negligent homicide). Defendant Demichael Moore was also convicted of second degree murder, which the trial court likewise merged into the felony murder conviction. See id. § 39-13-210 (2018) (second degree murder). The trial court sentenced Defendant Derrick Moore to concurrent terms of life imprisonment for felony murder and twenty years for especially aggravated robbery. The trial court sentenced Defendant Demichael Moore to consecutive terms of life imprisonment for felony murder and thirty-two years for especially aggravated robbery. On appeal, the Defendants contend that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support their convictions, (2) the trial court violated the rules of evidence and their confrontation rights by admitting as substantive evidence a recording of a conversation in which the Defendants were implicated in the offenses, and (3) the State engaged in prosecutorial misconduct during its rebuttal closing argument. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

Ashley Carver, Movant, appeals from the summary dismissal of her Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 motion to correct what she claims is a clerical error concerning pretrial jail credits. In a one sentence order, the trial court summarily dismissed the “Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence” without making any findings. Because this was a Rule 36 motion to correct an alleged clerical error, not a Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 motion to correct an illegal sentence, we vacate the order dismissing the motion and remand for further consideration by the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 15, 2020

The Defendant, Kurt Douglas Brown, was convicted by a Campbell County Criminal Court jury of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a Class C felony. See T.C.A. § 39-17-1307 (2014) (subsequently amended). The trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range II offender to eight years’ confinement. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred (1) by admitting as evidence the 9-1-1 recording and his previous voluntary manslaughter conviction and (2) by determining that his previous aggravated assault conviction was a crime of violence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 14, 2020

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. Shawn Olney, a police officer assigned to a middle school, heard from the school’s principal that a student, T.R., had told the principal that she had been contemplating suicide for about a month. Based on that report, Olney took T.R. to a nearby hospital for a mental evaluation. T.R.’s father, Donald Machan, claims that Olney violated his and T.R.’s constitutional rights in doing so. On appeal, Machan now concedes what he disputed in the district court: that T.R. had indeed told her principal that she had been contemplating suicide—as a video from the hospital visit makes clear. We hold that Olney was entitled to summary judgment on Machan’s claims, and reverse the district court’s decision to the contrary.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 14, 2020

LARSEN, Circuit Judge. Enchant Christmas Light Maze & Market Ltd. (“Enchant”) sought a preliminary injunction against Glowco, LLC and its operator Chris Stacey, and against Exhibau US, LLC and its operator Patrick Wallain (collectively “Glowco”). Enchant sought to enjoin Glowco from further infringing Enchant’s copyrights in a number of holiday light sculptures. The district court denied Enchant’s request. Enchant appealed and, for the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 14, 2020

The non-biological parent of a child born by artificial insemination to a woman with whom the non-biological parent had maintained a long term relationship and who had lived with the child, holding herself out as one of the child’s parents, filed a petition to establish her parentage of the child and to set a parenting schedule; the petition was dismissed on the basis that she lacked standing; the trial court also awarded the petitioner visitation with the child. Upon our review, we affirm the dismissal of the petition and vacate the order setting visitation.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 14, 2020

This is a healthcare liability action. In her medical authorizations, the plaintiff left blank lines as to who was authorized to receive the patient’s records from the medical providers and others receiving notice. The defendants claimed that the authorizations were not HIPAA1-compliant, as required by Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-26- 121(a)(2)(E). The plaintiff responded that by construing the pre-suit notice packet materials as one cohesive document, all of the elements required by the statute are present and that the defendants had at their disposal all of the information necessary to obtain the patient’s medical records. The plaintiff further asserted that the failure of the defendants to attempt to obtain the records precludes any demonstration of prejudice to them. The trial court determined that the plaintiff’s statutory notice failed to substantially comply with the requirements of Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-26-121. The plaintiff appeals. We affirm.


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