The Appellant, Antonio L. Nelson, pled nolo contendere in the Cheatham County Circuit Court to aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, aggravated rape, and two counts of theft of property valued over $1,000 but less than $10,000. The trial court sentenced the Appellant to a total effective sentence of forty years. On appeal, the Appellant challenges the length of the individual sentences imposed by the trial court and the trial court?s imposition of consecutive sentencing. Upon review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The Petitioner, Ryan Robert Haase, filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Marshall County Circuit Court, alleging that his counsel were ineffective for failing to advise him correctly on his range classification and that as a result, he chose to reject a plea agreement and proceed to trial. The post-conviction court denied the petition, and the Petitioner appeals. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Washington Post reports the state of North Carolina and the Justice Department filed dueling lawsuits over a state law that bans transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates. The suits come five days after the Justice Department sent a letter to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory asking the state to abandon the law. The Justice Department said the law violates civil rights, while the state contends the law is not discriminatory.  

The state Supreme Court today reversed a Court of Appeals decision concerning the cleanup of a landfill that has been discharging pollutants into a Maury County lake. ACC, LLC sought approval in Davidson County Chancery Court for a four-year plan to remove waste causing pollution from its landfill site. Starlink Logistics Inc. contested the plan to remove the waste, arguing the discharge of pollutants from the landfill site onto its property would continue during the removal of the waste. Following a failure to reach an agreement in Chancery Court, the Tennessee Solid Waste Disposal Control Board approved the plan. The Court of Appeals reversed the Board’s decision, saying the board failed to fully consider the other options discussed at the hearing. In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee, the Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeals misapplied the appropriate standard for reviewing decisions of administrative agencies.

The Tennessee Supreme Court adopted an amendment to further clarify disciplinary measures when an attorney receives judicial diversion for a criminal offense. After a period of accepting public comments, the court added the amendment to Rule 9, section 22 of the Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court, which includes, “…Judicial diversion shall not foreclose the initiation, investigation or prosecution of disciplinary action on the basis of the conduct constituting the diverted criminal offense(s).”

Rutherford County reached a $340,000 settlement with Virgil Gammon, a former Rutherford County deputy chief who claimed he was terminated for “whistleblower activities” regarding the sheriff’s office. Gammon, who is running for sheriff in 2018, reported to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation about Sheriff Robert Arnold's alleged involvement with making money off the sale of electronic cigarettes to inmates. Read more from the Daily News Journal. 

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced on Friday that Tennessee reached a $784.6 million settlement with Wyeth, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. The settlement will resolve allegations that Wyeth knowingly underpaid rebates owed under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program for the sales of Protonix Oral and Protonix IV between 2001 and 2006. Tennessee will receive an estimated $30.4 million under the settlement.  

Earn six CLE credits while learning about the business and legal impacts of the developing alcohol industry in Tennessee. The Legal Pitfalls of Operating a Vineyard, Distillery and Brewery in the 21st Century will be held June 2, 8:30 a.m. – 4:45 p.m., at the Tennessee Bar Center in Nashville. Lunch will be provided. 

After its closure, a Class II landfill continued to discharge contaminants into a creek that flowed into a lake located on adjoining property. Following years of investigations and multiple failed remedial measures, the landfill owner and the state agency with authority to direct landfill cleanup operations agreed that the most feasible, practical, and effective way to abate the discharge was for the landfill owner to divert water from entering the landfill and, over a four-year period, to remove and relocate the landfill waste.