Opinions Aug. 9, 2021

The following 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals opinions were posted after IL deadline on Friday.

USA v. Bryant Love
20-2131, 20-2297
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division. Judge Philip Simon.

Criminal. Reverses and remands the Indiana Northern District Court’s ruling that only two of Bryant Love’s three prior offenses amounted as predicates under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Finds Love’s 2015 Indiana Class D battery resulting in bodily injury counts as an ACCA predicate and orders for his resentencing on multiple drug counts and a felon-in-possession count.

United States of America v. Edwin Calligan
20-1817
Appeal from the U.S. District Court from the Northern District of Indiana, Fort Wayne Division. Judge Holly A. Brady.
Criminal. Affirms Edwin Calligan’s conviction and 17-and-a-half year sentence for possessing a firearm as a felon, importing a controlled substance, and attempting to distribute a controlled substance. Upholds the denial of Calligan’s two motions to suppress the evidence. Agreed the probable cause presented by Department of Homeland Security agent Jonathan Goehring was enough to support the search even though he presented false information on both the warrant and the return warrant that a controlled delivery of drugs had been made and the drugs were recovered. Finds Calligan’s argument lacks merit that Goehring knowing made false, material statements to get the warrant and the agent’s misstatement on the return warrant is evidence of his intent to deceive the lower court.

Opinions Aug. 4, 2021

Indiana Court of Appeals

Randy Pate v. State of Indiana
21A-CR-287
Criminal. Reverses the denial of Randy Pate’s motion to depose the alleged victim in his case for four counts of felony child molesting. Finds the Indiana Child Deposition Statute is a procedural statute that impermissibly conflicts with the Indiana Trial Courts. Remands for further proceedings.

Atta Belle Helman and Larry Dwayne Helman v. Barnett’s Bail Bonds, Inc., Tadd S. Martin, Daniel S. Foster, Michael C. Thomas, and Lexington National Insurance Corporation
20A-CT-1526
Civil tort. Affirms the jury verdict in favor of Barnett’s Bail Bonds Inc., Tadd S. Martin, Daniel S. Foster, Michael C. Thomas and Lexington National Insurance Corporation on Atta Belle and Larry Dwayne Helman’s complaint for negligence, intentional torts and vicarious liability. Finds the Helman’s have waived their challenge to the Kosciusko Circuit Court’s admission of evidence. Also finds the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to give the Helmans’ proffered jury instruction or when it submitted verdict forms to the jury

In the Matter of the Adoption of O.W., D.J. v. M.H. (mem. dec.)
21A-AD-00271
Adoption. Affirms the grant of stepmother M.H.’s petition for adoption of father D.J.’s minor child, O.W. Finds the trial court did not err when it concluded that Father’s consent was not required for the adoption. Also finds that the evidence shows that Father has been unable to maintain stable employment, has voluntarily stopped taking medication for his schizophrenia, and has lived a life of drug abuse and crime any time he was not incarcerated.

David Owen Ditmore, Jr. v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
21A-CR-00283
Criminal. Affirms David Ditmore’s aggregate four-year sentence to be served consecutive to one another, and consecutive to the sentence previously ordered, for his convictions of Level 6 felony escape and Level 6 felony failure to return to a lawful detention center. Finds Ditmore’s claims are waived and his sentence is not inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

State of Indiana v. Rashad Deandru Wells (mem. dec.)
21A-CR-00089
Criminal. Affirms the LaPorte Superior Court’s grant of Rashad Deandru Wells’s motion to depose alleged child victim. Finds the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting Wells’s petition for deposition.