Recently in Criminal Law Category

It was in Sidney Brown’s house where officers found cocaine, a Beretta pistol, and $4,700 in cash. An anonymous informant notified the police of seeing cocaine at Brown’s house and a search warrant was subsequently issued. Brown was convicted of drug related crimes. He appealed.

Sixth circuit criminal law attorneys should be aware of a recent court of appeals opinion clarifying what is sufficient informant information to create probable cause for a search warrant application. Evidently, a simple anonymous tip will do.

"Shake and Bake," also known as the "One Pot Method," is a procedure for manufacturing methamphetamine. This new meth-making method combines all of the ingredients into a single bottle (such as a Gatorade bottle). The meth maker shakes the bottle, burps out the excess pressure, and hopes that it doesn't explode into a ball of flames.

An informant in Calhoun County witnessed an associate of Lonnie Hodge, Ms. Freeze, using this method. The same informant also told the police officers that Hodge showed him a pipe bomb and a black rifle that the defendant allegedly referred to as an AK-47.

From the court's description of Kevin Daws, you'd think he was Omar from "The Wire." On a cold winter evening in rural Henderson County, Tennessee, Daws broke into an acquaintance's house by jamming a shotgun barrel through the window, then robbed that person at gunpoint. He then went to another acquaintance's house and tried to stash his shotgun there. Both acquaintances were greeted with death threats if they contacted the police.

Of course, both did contact the police. One of the responding officers had been a prison guard while Daws served time for robbing a gas station attendant at gunpoint. Both officers were aware of an incident in which Daws was reported to have discharged a firearm in his front yard. He also had other unspecified weapons violations.

Like we said, Omar.

Charles Kinison, Jr. is an alleged pedophile. We say “alleged” because he is innocent until proven guilty. That being said, if the facts contained in this opinion are true, it’s only a matter of time.

And he almost got away with it.

Kinison allegedly collected and viewed images and videos of child porn. He told his girlfriend, via text message, that he wanted the two of them to join a group that adopted children for the purposes of sexual abuse. He also proposed that they babysit a child in order to produce porn (to prove their “cred” with the pedo crowd) and texted her vivid descriptions of the disgusting acts he was witnessing on his computer.

When Connie Mathews allegedly failed to pay her Portable on Demand Storage (PODS) bill, the company auctioned off the contents of her container and used the proceeds to pay the bill. Her belongings were reportedly worth over $300,000. PODS received approximately one percent of that amount.

Mathews was peeved, so she did what any disgruntled storage customer would do: She slapped PODS with a $2 million RICO claim. Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit explained that a RICO suit isn't the best revenge.

If you are the officers in this situation, what do you do? The Sixth Circuit's Judge Sutton, in a light-hearted opinion, suggested using Google Maps -- sorry, but there's no street view for either address -- or checking to see which side of the street had odd-numbered houses.

Jesse Unruh, the legendary former Speaker of the California General Assembly, said, "If you can't eat their[lobbyists'] food, drink their booze, ... take their money and then vote against them, you've got no business being [in politics]." Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton counters that federal anti-corruption statutes — one of which prohibits an official from accepting things of value "in return for" official acts — should be a politician's guide.

Since the courts get the final say on whether a politician goes to jail for corruption, maybe people should listen to Judge Sutton (if not Jesse Unruh).

Steven Perry, a former judge for an Ohio Court of Common Pleas, might have been better off heeding such advice.

The facts of Rodrigo Macias-Farias’ case read like a comedy of errors. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency stopped a semi-trailer full of 1,600 pounds of marijuana and surveilled it as it was dropped off. Despite continuing surveillance, the drugs were somehow smuggled off of the truck anyway.

Later, the DEA pressured one of Macias-Farias’ alleged accomplices, Sean Lacefield, who then flipped and helped set up a drug buy at a Louisville Rite Aid. Unfortunately, the DEA agents got lost and missed that transaction as well. Lacefield provided information on one of the cars involved however, which was later apprehended with 100 pounds of marijuana in the trunk.

Ever see a bulldozer's tires? They're big. You can't score those at Wal-Mart. In fact, only three companies in the United States make those behemoths: Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone. Why the lack of competition? Making steel-reinforced tires is a major pain, apparently.

A Chinese state-owned company wanted to get in on the action. (Some of their fellow countrymen already beat them to it, apparently.) Wyko is an American company that provides parts for tire-manufacturing machines to Goodyear and others. Goodyear had their own secretive process for making the big tires.

It's not often that we get to say "Duh" to a court opinion but the ruling in this case seemed pretty obvious from the beginning.

The Stricker Family called 911 to request help for their overdosing son. The mother, Susan Stricker, was unable to tell the dispatcher what her son had taken. When the paramedics arrived, per department policy, they waited for police to arrive and secure the scene before entering. A local officer radioed ahead and told the dispatcher that he had previously arrested two heroin-addicted occupants of the house.