Two Ooltewah High School coaches and the athletic director will be charged in connection with the OHS basketball rape case, The Chattanoogan reports. District Attorney Neal Pinkston, who filed the complaint earlier today, said that none of the men notified the Department of Children's Services or law enforcement after the incident happened, which is required under state law. "Additionally, we are investigating allegations of an ingrained culture of violence among the football and basketball teams at OHS reaching back several years,” the district attorney’s office said.

The defendant, Patrick Gaia, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court?s order declaring him a motor vehicle habitual offender (“MVHO”), arguing that the trial court erred by entering a default judgment where the State failed to comply with the terms of the MVHO statute and Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure for service of process. Because the record reflects that neither the State nor the trial court complied with the necessary procedural requirements, we vacate the judgment declaring the defendant an MVHO.

The Petitioner, Michael Davis, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court?s denial of his petition for a writ of error coram nobis regarding his 2013 conviction for second degree murder and his resulting sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The coram nobis court denied relief on the grounds that the purported evidence was not newly discovered and that it was cumulative to evidence presented at the trial. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the court erred by denying relief. We affirm the judgment of the coram nobis court.

The Petitioner, Ernest Willard Dodd, appeals as of right from the Warren County Circuit Court?s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, wherein he challenged his convictions for initiating a process intended to result in the manufacture of methamphetamine and attempt to promote the manufacture of methamphetamine.

The Defendant, Joe Clark Mitchell, was convicted in 1986 of two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated rape, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, arson, and first degree burglary and received an effective sentence of three consecutive life sentences plus thirteen years. In 2015, the Defendant filed a motion for correction of the sentences pursuant to Tennessee Criminal Procedure Rule 36.1 contending that his life without the possibly of parole sentences were illegal because such sentences did not exist at the time of the offenses.

The Defendant, Lloyd Arlan Jones, appeals as of right from his jury conviction for domestic assault. The Defendant contends that the trial court erred by admitting several hearsay statements into evidence and by declining to charge domestic assault by extremely offensive or provocative physical contact as a lesser-included offense of domestic assault by causing bodily injury. Furthermore, he submits that the cumulative result of these errors entitles him to a new trial. Following our review, we discern no error and affirm the trial court?s judgment.

An opinion piece published in The Tennessean highlights how the relationship between public defenders and the community is helping to reduce incarceration in Tennessee. “Participatory defense is about helping community members partner with public defenders to ensure the accused is understood as more than just a case file and bolstering the defense team, in order to prevent and reduce incarceration,” said co-authors Raj Jayadev, of SV De-Bug, and Dawn Deaner, the Metropolitan Public Defender for Nashville-Davidson County.

The state of Kentucky was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.1 million to lawyers who successfully challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, The National Law Journal reports. Lawyers for the plaintiffs originally requested an enhancement of 75 percent on top of the $1.1 million due to the “difficulty and significance of the case." Judge Charles Simpson III denied the enhancement. "The lodestar calculation already accounts for the attorneys’ skill, experience, labor, and success,” Simpson said. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is currently attempting to unseal information in an effort to determine how much the state will pay attorneys who represented opponents to Tennessee's same-sex marriage law.

State Sens. Steven Dickerson, R-Nashville, and Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, are working on separate legislation that would allow women 18 or older to obtain contraceptives from pharmacists in addition to physicians, who currently write prescriptions for birth control. “We need to make sure that contraception purchased over the counter doesn’t in any way undermine insurance coverage,” Dickerson said. Read more from The Tennessean. 

The Nashville Post reports Vince Verna will serve as CEO for Counsel on Call, an on-demand legal services company. Verna, who replaces founder Jane Allen, previously worked as vice president of strategic accounts and project solution sales for Experis North America. "We have brought in someone with the kind of experience and market savvy to take us to the next level," Allen said.