The Defendant, Paul Tracy Bailes, appeals from the Hamilton County Criminal Court’s probation revocation of the fourteen-year split-confinement sentence he received for his guilty-pleaded convictions for forgery, two counts of theft of property, and two counts of attempted possession of methamphetamine for resale. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in revoking his probation, rather than permitting him to participate in the mental health court program. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

A pro se petitioner seeks accelerated interlocutory review of an order denying a motion for recusal. Because the filing does not comply with Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 10B, we dismiss the appeal.

For the week of May 29, 2023 - June 2, 2023

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Darrin VanPelt tried to escape while under arrest. So Officer Aaron Layne tackled him and physically tried to lift him up. Now, VanPelt claims that he was tackled and then lifted and dropped in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment, concluding Officer Layne was entitled to qualified immunity. We affirm. 

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. In 1996, nine-year-old Jacqueline Beard left her mother’s watchful gaze to pick blackberries. William Glenn Rogers made sure she never returned. After stalking Jackie for days, he kidnapped, raped, and murdered her. Then he disposed of her body in the woods, where hunters found her remains four months later.

At trial, a jury found Rogers guilty and sentenced him to death. Since then, Rogers has spent more than two decades challenging his conviction and sentence. In a thoughtful and exhaustive opinion, Chief Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied Rogers’s federal habeas petition. We affirm.

This is the second appeal of this case. It concerns an employee who asserted she suffered from noise-induced hearing loss caused by exposure to loud machinery over the course of thirty-three years of employment, which ended in 2016. The employer, in denying her claim, asserted the employee knew or reasonably should have known she had a work-related hearing loss, at the latest, when she was diagnosed in 2019 and that she failed to give proper notice of her alleged injury and failed to file her claim timely. Following a compensation hearing, the trial court found the employee’s notice of injury was timely and that her claim was not barred by the statute of limitations, and it awarded permanent partial disability benefits, medical benefits made reasonably necessary by the employee’s work-related hearing loss, and discretionary costs. In the first appeal, the employer challenged the trial court’s determination that the employee had given timely notice of her alleged work injury. We concluded the employee had not provided timely notice, but we remanded the case for the trial court to make additional findings of fact regarding whether the employee had offered a reasonable excuse for her failure to give proper notice and whether the employer had suffered any prejudice caused by the lack of notice. In a subsequent compensation order, the trial court determined the employee had offered no reasonable excuse for her late notice but that the employer had likewise offered no evidence that it was prejudiced by the lack of timely notice. It therefore reiterated its original award in favor of the employee. The employer has appealed again. Upon careful review of the record, statutory language, and relevant precedent, we reverse the trial court’s order and certify the reversed order as final.

Chattanooga lawyer Justin B. Faith has been appointed as the State Membership Chair for Tennessee by American Bar Association (ABA) President Deborah Enix-Ross. Faith will work with bar leaders and delegates to promote ABA membership growth and engagement in Tennessee. Faith practices civil business litigation and estate litigation at Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott & Cannon PLLC  and currently serves in the Tennessee Bar Association’s House of Delegates and on the TBA Young Lawyers Division Board. For more information, or if you have any questions about ABA membership, email Faith or call him at 423-756-5171.

A lawyer for Texas billionaire and Republican donor Harlan Crow has offered to meet with Senate Judiciary Committee staff to discuss his ties to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Reuters reports. Last month, Crow rejected the committee's request to detail gifts he or his companies have made to Thomas. In a six-page letter released Tuesday, Crow's lawyer said he does not think the committee has the power to request information from Crow but “we respect the Senate Judiciary Committee's important role in formulating legislation concerning our federal courts system, and would welcome a discussion with your staff."

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Tuesday that three of four men who say they were wrongly arrested by the Memphis Police Department in late May have had their charges dropped, reported the Commercial Appeal. Brothers Jamil Ibrahim, Moamen Saad Hijaz, Ibrahim Mahmoud and Salim Ibrahim were arrested May 27. Hijaz, Mahmoud and Salim Ibrahim were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct while Jamil Ibrahim was charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault on a first responder. Mulroy said the charges against Jamil Ibrahim could be dropped in the future and that an internal investigation is underway into "the way the various police officers involved handled that incident."

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled 11-4 on Tuesday that the government cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from possessing guns reported Reuters. The decision stems from a 2020 lawsuit by Pennsylvania man, Bryan Range, who was barred under federal law from possessing a gun after pleading guilty to welfare fraud. He claimed the prohibition violated his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Range pleaded guilty in 1995 to committing welfare fraud in Pennsylvania in order to obtain $2,458 of food stamps, a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years' imprisonment. He was sentenced to three years of probation.