R.R. Donnelly loses appeal over shipping pallet taxes
A company’s purchase of shipping pallets is subject to Indiana use tax according to a ruling of the Indiana Tax Court issued Thursday.
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Prisoner’s Zantac lawsuit gives federal judges heartburn
An Indiana inmate’s lawsuit claiming prison staff showed deliberate indifference in denying him Zantac to treat a known esophageal reflux condition erupted in a war of words between two 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges.
COA upholds human trafficking conviction
The Indiana Court of Appeals took a plain reading of state statute to counter a defendant’s argument that the state had to prove intent in order to sustain a conviction of attempted promotion of human trafficking.
Doctor who appealed attorney fees award now owes more
A northern Indiana doctor who lost a jury trial after he left a practice and started his own, and was ordered to pay damages and his former practice’s attorney fees, now may be on the hook for even greater costs.
Rehearing upholds drug conviction resulting from traffic stop
An Indianapolis man who got a second bite at the apple could not convince the Indiana Court of Appeals his traffic stop lasted too long.
Identification of defendant via phone calls and texts upheld by COA
A Grant County man argued threatening phone calls could not be linked to him, but he was unable to overcome the testimony by people who knew the sound of his voice.
Fogle attorney: Jared taking responsibility for ‘deplorable behavior’
The attorney for Jared Fogle said the former Subway pitchman was accepting responsibility for “his deplorable behavior” as he agreed Wednesday in federal court to plead guilty to paying for sex acts with minors and receiving child pornography.
Unpaid student loan splits 7th Circuit
A 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel has split with each judge writing a separate opinion about a lawsuit brought by a student who defaulted on her school loans and then sued when the lending agency tacked on collection costs.
Columbus landowner loses appeal of subdivision denial
The city of Columbus Plan Commission did not abdicate its authority to a resident’s neighbors when it denied an application to subdivide a piece of property into three lots of about one acre apiece.
Jailhouse calls to girlfriend urging sex with son properly admitted
A jailed man’s 15 phone calls with his girlfriend urging her to have sex with her learning-disabled son to show he wasn’t gay were properly admitted as evidence that led to his conviction of conspiracy to commit child molesting.
Fogle to plead guilty to sex acts with minors, child porn
Longtime Subway pitchman Jared Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography that he knew had been secretly produced by the former director of his charitable foundation.
Denial of disability benefits premature, 7th Circuit rules
An Indiana man who sustained long-lasting brain injuries after he was struck in the head with a barstool was improperly denied total Social Security disability benefits, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
Court of Appeals affirms man’s domestic battery conviction
Evidence from a forensic nurse was not improperly admitted in the trial of a man who was convicted of felony domestic battery against his girlfriend of 20 years.
TV’s ‘Shift’ suspect got shaft, but rights weren’t violated
A man who was wrongly arrested and charged with murder by Indianapolis police whose investigation was being documented for the reality TV series “The Shift” lost his appeal in a civil rights lawsuit against police.
Judge’s sanction in gun IP suit decries ‘peevishness’
An intellectual property lawsuit between gunmakers “has grown into a Dickensian monstrosity,” a federal judge wrote Friday, criticizing parties for “peevishness.”
Supreme Court rejects Think Tank trade secret appeal
A divided Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a northwest Indiana software company that unsuccessfully sued former employees it claimed divulged trade secrets to a competitor.
7th Circuit not convinced by inmate’s double jeopardy argument
A convicted sex offender who did not have the requisite certificate of appealability was still able to present his constitutional claims, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found no grounds to overturn his conviction and sentence.
Reversal: Ex-DOC worker wins appeal in bid to marry inmate
A former contract worker who quit her job at an Indiana prison after her sexual relationship with an inmate was discovered was wrongly denied permission to marry him, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
Mom loses appeal against Planned Parenthood
A mom who sued Planned Parenthood after her 17-year-old daughter used another person’s ID and posed as an 18-year-old to get an abortion has no private cause of action to enforce abortion statutes. Planned Parenthood also owed no duty to the mother under the circumstances, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
Technology erases need for ‘ancient document’ rule
A longstanding yet rarely invoked federal rule of evidence allowed the admission of an “ancient document” if it was more than 20 years old and appeared to be authentic. However, in an age when decades-old information is easily accessible electronically, a review committee has concluded the exception could be abused.