Case Summaries

Criminal Law & Procedure

[05/13] US v. Bucci
Conviction for drug- and firearm-related offenses, as well as, witness tampering and making false statements to the Drug Enforcement Administration, is affirmed over claims of error regarding: 1) deficient trial counsel performance in violation of Sixth Amendment; 2) a denial of a motion to sever; 3) alleged structural error by the district court in closing the courtroom to the public on two occasions; 4) whether the district court permitted a constructive amendment of the indictment; 5) the sufficiency of the evidence; 6) erroneous jury instructions; 7) Sixth Amendment violation in the court's application of sentencing guidelines; and 8) a ruling allowing the government to redact portions of the recording and transcript of a conversation over a request for inclusion for impeachment purposes.

[05/13] US v. Rodriguez
Conviction and sentence drug- and firearm-related offenses is vacated in part and remanded where: 1) with regards to a brandishing firearms conviction, the record was devoid of any indication that defendant or his co-conspirator displayed firearms for the purpose of intimidating other persons; 2) the government conceded that a life sentence imposed on defendant's conspiracy to use firearms in furtherance of drug conspiracy exceeded the statutory maximum sentence for that conviction; and 3) the district court plainly erred in imposing multiple consecutive sentences for two acts of firearm possession arising from the same predicate drug conspiracy.

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Family Law

[05/12] In re Marriage of Holtemann
In a dispute about the legal effect of a spousal property transmutation agreement executed during marriage, judgment finding the underlying agreement effectuated a transmutation of husband's separate property into community property is affirmed where: 1) the unambiguous language in the parties' agreement evinced that the husband intended to, and did transmute his separate property; 2) nothing in the record suggested that the husband was misinformed or misled in light of the requisite express, unequivocal declarations of transmutations; and 3) his arguments for disparate treatment of his express declarations of transmutation based on his lack of separate counsel were unavailing, as he was fully advised of the consequences of failing to secure separate counsel, yet chose to proceed.

[05/09] Baran v. Beaty
In a case involving a mother who removed her minor son from Australia, denial of father's petition for return of the minor pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act of 1988 is affirmed where: 1) based on evidence of the father's propensity for violence, the district court did not err in concluding that returning the minor to Australia would expose him to a grave risk of psychological harm; and 2) because the court was not presented with any proposed undertakings that could ameliorate the risk of harm to the child under the circumstances presented, the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petition for return.

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