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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana Supreme Court justices declined to hear 21 cases of out 22 petitions for transfer last week, agreeing to hear just one case concerning a man’s lookalike drug-related conviction in a search and seizure dispute.
The high court heard arguments in the case of Michael D. Johnson v. State of Indiana, 20S-CR-655, in which the Indiana Court of Appeals previously reversed for Michael Johnson. In granting transfer and ruling, the high court found insufficient evidence to of a Fourth Amendment violation.
Johnson, who was attempting to sell drugs at the Anderson casino in 2015, was subsequently brought to an interview room and given a pat-down search that revealed white powdery substance in his pocket. Johnson was convicted of Level 5 felony dealing in a lookalike substance and the COA reversed before the divided Supreme Court’s opinion affirming the conviction.
However, the justices declined to hear dozens of other cases, including Thomas R. Ysursa and Becker, Hoerner, Thompson & Ysursa, P.C. v. Frontier Professional Baseball, Inc., 20A-CT-49.
In that case, the COA affirmed a ruling that denied a motion to dismiss brought by Thomas Ysursa, a Belleville, Illinois, attorney who worked as general counsel for Frontier Professional Baseball. Frontier, who has one Indiana team in Evansville, sued Ysursa and other out-of-state attorneys after a Kokomo franchise deal fell through. The high court was not unanimous in declining to hear the case, however, with Justice Geoffrey Slaughter voting to grant petition to transfer.
A full list of transfer decisions for the week ending Dec. 4 can be found here.
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