Judge Steven Sword on Friday granted a request for a new judge from Allison Burchett, former wife of Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, in a criminal case where she is accused of stalking and cyber attacks against her boyfriend’s estranged wife. Sword said local judges’ connections to Burchett’s former husband could create a conflict of interest, WBIR reports.

A $10 million lawsuit was filed Thursday against a Hamilton County bus driver charged with the 2015 rape of a teenage student, the Times Free Press reports. The teen’s guardians are seeking the amount in punitive and compensatory damages and have requested a jury trial.

Former TBA President Jim Emison will speak on his upcoming book, “Elbert Williams First to Die,” tomorrow to Leo Bearman Inns of Court at the University Club of Memphis, 1346 Central Ave. The book focuses on the unsolved 1940 murder of Williams, a NAACP member, in Brownsville. The event begins at 6 p.m. For more information, contact iabdullah@regionalonehealth.org.

Assistant Public Defender Barbara Sidelnik is challenging the constitutionality of an injunction filed against a Memphis man charged with associating with gang members. The Commercial Appeal reports Earnest Williams was served an injunction that bars members of two gangs from associating with each other in public inside a court-ordered "safety zone.” Sidelnik argues the injunction, which is punishable by 30 days in jail, is vague.

WATE reports eight former Pilot employees charged with fraud and witness tampering filed a motion to delay their April trial due to the “complex nature of the case.” Indictments against the employees, including the company’s former president, claim the employees were involved in a multi-million-dollar fuel rebate scheme. A status conference for the trial is scheduled tomorrow.

The U.S. Supreme Court today reversed an Alabama court’s refusal to recognize a lesbian mother’s adoption that she and her partner had been granted in Georgia. The Alabama Supreme Court in September ruled a Georgia court had mistakenly granted a woman custody of three children following her split from her partner. The nation’s Supreme Court said Alabama’s decision ignored a long-standing precedent that state courts must recognize rulings by courts in other states. Read more from USA Today.

In 2005, the petitioner pled guilty as a career offender to two counts of facilitation of first degree murder, a Class A felony, and he was sentenced to serve an effective sentence of sixty years in prison. On May 22, 2015, the petitioner filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus, asserting that the trial court lacked jurisdiction because, while his crimes took place in Hancock County, his guilty pleas were entered in Greene County. The trial court dismissed the petition, and the petitioner appeals.

The defendant, Bruce Lee Robinson, pled guilty in 1999 to first degree felony murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2015, he filed a motion pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1, claiming that his sentence was illegal. The trial court disagreed, dismissing the motion after concluding that it did not present a colorable claim. We agree and affirm the dismissal of the motion, pursuant to Rule 20, Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

In 1997, the defendant, Ivan Charles Marable, pled guilty to burglary and two charges of possession of a controlled substance. He claims that, although the offenses were committed serially, with the second and third committed while he was on bond, he pled to concurrent three-year sentences. He does not dispute that these sentences have expired. Now an inmate in a federal penitentiary, he filed a motion pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 to correct his alleged illegal sentences and to award jail credits.

Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said he will not run for the Eighth District Congressional seat, The Commercial Appeal reports. The seat is being left open by the retirement of Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn. "I have my own re-election to run and have pulled my petition to run for re-election to the state Senate," Norris said. He is seeking a fifth four-year term. At least eight Republicans have announced they will run for Fincher’s seat, including state Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, and former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff.