Hallcy v. State, 2007 OK CR 2 (February 15, 2007):  Searches & Seizures; Pat Downs:  Hallcy was convicted of Possession of CDS (Crack) at a bench trial before Judge Richard G. Van Dyck in Grady County.  Chickasha police officers stopped a car in which Hallcy was a passenger.  The car had been reported stolen.  Hallcy and the female driver were ordered out of the car and Hallcy was frisked for weapons.  The officer felt a pill bottle in Hallcy's pocket and seized it.  Hallcy said the bottle was not his.  The officer testified that at no time did he believe the pill bottle was a weapon.  The bottle contained crack cocaine.  Hallcy filed a motion to suppress and Judge Van Dyck denied the motion.  On appeal, Hallcy challenged the pat-down frisk and seizure of the pill bottle because it was not, nor could reasonably be thought to have been, a weapon.  HELD:  the search and seizure was lawful under the "plain feel" doctrine.  This opinion is particularly odious because it seems to rest almost exclusively upon the officer's training and experience that it is "common" for people to hide drugs in pill bottles in their pockets.  All judges either concurred or specially concurred.  This is quite a shame because this case would have been a very good vehicle for construing the Oklahoma Constitution to provide greater protection to citizens than the Fourth Amendment.     


Tenth Circuit

United States v. Willis, No. 06-6009 (10th Cir., February 16, 2007) (Published):  Federal Sentencing Guidelines:  Willis worked for a debt collection agency in Oklahoma City which used Accurint.com (a web site owned by Lexis-Nexis).  Willis allowed his drug dealer to access Accurint to obtain personal identity information of various persons in the database.  The drug dealer and his friends used the information to commit identity theft crimes and Willis was indicted and convicted by jury of aiding and abetting the accessing without authorization of a protected computer and obtaining information therefrom.  The Court affirmed his conviction over his claims of insufficient evidence and refusal to give his jury an instruction that in order to convict, the jury must find that Willis knowingly and intentionally aided another in obtaining information worth more than $5,000 or that it was foreseeable.  However, the panel vacated the sentence and remanded for further fact-finding on the issue of the scope of criminal activity that Willis agreed to jointly undertake.  Willis was subjected to a two-level enhancement because the offense involved using a means of identification to produce or obtain any other means of identification.  But, the evidence was clear that Willis allowed access to Accurint because he thought the drug dealer was getting information on persons who owed money, not to obtain information to commit identity theft.


United States Supreme Court

No new cases.


Other Cases of Note

Williams, et al. v. Morgan, No. 06-11892 (11th Cir., February 14, 2007):  This is the case arising out of Alabama's prohibition of the commercial distribution of devices "primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."  That's right, the great state of Alabama has outlawed vibrators.  In this opinion, issued on Valentine's Day, the Eleventh Circuit held that "public morality" remains a sufficient rational basis to uphold the prohibition.  Wow.  I'm not sure which is more repugnant, the State of Alabama for enacting such a law or the Eleventh Circuit for letting the state get away with it.  I thought at one time that we lived in a free country.  


HERE is a link to a "Sex Crimes" Blog that contains some good documents filed in the Western District by Tony Lacy of the Federal Public Defender's Office challenging the Adam Walsh Act.  Also on the site is the order by Judge Miles-LaGrange rejecting the challenges.  Tony's motion to dismiss is pretty good if you have a similar issue and need to preserve the record with a motion.  HERE is the Government's response brief.


Victories

"Send lawyers, guns and money, the shit has hit the fan."
--Warren Zevon, "Lawyers, Guns and Money" (song) (1978)



JEFF COE won a jury trial in Caddo County in a Trafficking case where the client had two priors.  Al Hoch reported on the OCDLA listserv that the jury sent a note asking to read a statement to the Defendant before the verdict, telling him he needed to make better decisions in his life.  Looks like he made a pretty good decision to get Jeff as his lawyer! 

ROYCE A. HOBBS, Stillwater, took his show on the road to Garfield County where he represented a client charged with Aggravated Manufacturing (Meth) in what he was told was the largest manufacturing case in Garfield County.  The lab was cooking when the police arrived.  Police made the arrest first then sought permission to search without reading Miranda.  Royce moved to suppress the fruits of the search based upon Schorr v. State, 499 P.2d 450 (Okl.Cr.1972) and McGregor v. State, 885 P.2d 1366 (Okl.Cr.1994).  Newly elected Judge Tom Newby considered this and, in light of the State's inability to contest either the facts or the law (the State essentially conceded the point), he granted the motion to suppress.  Tremendous victory by Royce and courageous decision to follow the law by Judge Newby!

MICHAEL JOHNSON, OKC, won an acquittal last Wednesday in Oklahoma County for a client charged with First Degree Murder and Shooting with Intent to Kill in connection with a December 2004 shooting at Quail Springs Mall.  According to The Oklahoman, this was a drug-related shooting with other defendants yet to be tried.  Very good work, Mike!


Hearsay

INVESTIGATOR OPENING:  The Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender's Office in OKC is accepting applications for investigators.  A cover letter with full resume, references, and writing samples should be sent to:  Federal Public Defender, 215 Dean A. McGee, Suite 109, Oklahoma City, OK  73102.  Applications must be tendered on or before MARCH 15, 2007.

SCALIA'S DAUGHTER CATCHES A DUI:  Justice Scalia's 45-year-old daughter was arrested for DUI and Child Endangerment.  A tawdry item, for sure, but still worth reporting, I think.  The article also stated that Scalia has nine kids.


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