(California Court of Appeal) - Appeal dismissed. The trial court’s order was a preliminary eligibility determination and was not appealable under Penal Code section 1238.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. A sentence following a guilty plea for illegal reentry was proper because assault-family violence qualifies as a crime of violence and is therefore an aggravated felony.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Affirmed. Facebook evidence and cellphone data were properly admitted in the conviction of a man for stealing firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer.

(California Court of Appeal) - Vacated in part. Defendant was convicted of multiple lewd acts upon a child. Defendant argued that the evidence did not support part of the conviction and his sentence is unconstitutional. The appeals court agreed that the evidence supported only two lewd acts on each victim and that his sentence was unconstitutionally excessive.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Vacated and remanded. A two-level enhancement of the sentence in the case of a man convicted on marijuana charges was not supported by the evidence.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. Even if an attorney's failure to object to a question about his immigration status during a murder trial had been ineffectual assistance it was not prejudicial.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirmed conviction. Remanded for sentencing. Defendant was convicted of several crimes including kidnapping with intent to commit a sex offense. The trial court found certain sentence enhancement applied. The appeals court affirmed the judgment, but found several sentencing errors.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Reversed. The panel held that, in the context of the restitution statute, “period of incarceration” does not include pretrial detention. The district court’s order to seize funds in the defendant’s inmate trust account is reversed.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirmed. A motion to correct a 1996 sentence as a career offender was not timely because the motion asserts a right not recognized in caselaw.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Affirmed. Different charges involved in a nested set of charges were divisible and a jury could find the accused guilty of the underlying Hobbs Act robberies.

(California Court of Appeal) - Reversed and remand for new trial. Defendant is a sexually violent predator who is currently receiving treatment at a state mental hospital. He challenged the court order denying his petition to be placed in a conditional release program on the grounds that he was denied a fair trial. The appeals court agreed stating that the prosecutor interfered with Defendant’s right to testify and the trial court erroneously refused to admit his release plan into evidence. The appeals court held that a fair trial is a fundamental right.

(California Court of Appeal) - Appeal dismissed. Defendant pled no contest to identity theft. She was sentenced to county jail and the court imposed various fees and assessments. Defendant challenged the fees and assessments but claimed no error at trial or at the time of sentencing as required by Penal Code 1237.2. Therefore, the appeal must be dismissed

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed, remanded for resentencing. Because defendant’s letter describing his allegiance to the Islamic State was never translated or otherwise communicated to his wife, the marital communication privilege does not apply.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Finding the crime described in Article 129 of South Korea’s Criminal Code fits squarely within the definition of “bribing a public official” from 18 U.S.C. Section 1956, the indictment was sufficient and there was no instructional error.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. The application of two sentencing enhancements in the case of a person who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud was not a procedural error.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. A Texas bank robbery was properly considered a crime of violence and it was a second or subsequent offense in relation to an attempt made two days earlier.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirmed. Defendant was convicted of vehicular manslaughter. Defendant challenged the judgment contending that the jury received confusing and conflicting instructions. The appeals court held that if any error occurred it was harmless.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed in part, vacated in part. Defendant challenged his conviction for using firearms in the commission of violent crimes. Because categorizing crimes of violence cannot be done on a case-by-case basis, the defendant’s charge for using firearms in the commission of a robbery is vacated.

(WV Supreme Court of Appeals) - No. 18-0408

(WV Supreme Court of Appeals) - No. 18-0653

South Maroubra SLSC are confident of a top performance at the NSW Inflatable Rescue Boat championships this weekend after ranking well and winning gold on their home beach.

FOUR years ago, Olivia Mitchell joined her first soccer team. Now the 12 year old is set to represent NSW in the national primary schools competition.

SYDNEY is about to welcome the return of Odorama — a scratch and sniff movie experience that has to be smelled to be believed.

NORTH Sydney mayor Jilly Gibson has made an astonishing claim that councillors had a pact to drive her to a nervous breakdown adding that there was “an evil feeling within” the council.

(United States Third Circuit) - Sentence for conviction of securities fraud, 15 U.S.C. section 78j(b), and tax evasion, 26 U.S.C. section 7201, is affirmed where: 1) despite defendant's failure to register as such, he was an 'investment adviser,' as defined by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. section 80b-2(a)(11), and the District Court therefore properly applied the investment advisor enhancement under U.S.S.G. section 2B1.1(b)(19)(A)(iii); 2) the Government did not breach the plea agreement; and 3) the sentence is not substantively unreasonable.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Conviction for conspiracy and obstruction of justice resulting from earnings mismanagement, improper accounting related to the sale and lease back of homes, and the deletion of emails following a grand jury subpoena is affirmed where: 1) the district court's exclusion of certain evidence related to why defendant deleted emails was not in error; 2) the district court did not err is denying defendant's motion for a mistrial on evidentiary and trial conduct grounds; and 3) the district court's method of determining the loss amount from defendant's fraud was correct.

(United States First Circuit) - Conviction for bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. section 1344 is affirmed where defendant was aware that Countrywide Bank, FSB was involved in approving the loan he sought to obtain through fraud, and so possessed the specific intent to defraud a financial institution required by the statute.

(United States Second Circuit) - In a case in which defendant was found liable for securities laws violations sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. sections 77e, 77q(a), section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. section 78j(b), and Rule 10b-5 there under, 17 C.F.R. section 240.10b-5, in connection with false opinion letters defendant wrote or approved to enable impermissible public offerings of unregistered shares of stock of defendant, the district court's grant of summary judgment to the SEC is affirmed over defendant's principal contention that the district court erred in ruling that there was no genuine issue to be tried as to his knowledge of the falsity of the letters.

(United States Supreme Court) - In a case involving the tipper and tippee liability provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 10b-5, defendant's conviction of federal securities-fraud crimes for trading on inside information he received from a friend and relative-by-marriage, is affirmed where: 1) the Ninth Circuit properly applied Dirks v. SEC, 463 U.S. 646, to affirm defendant's conviction; and 2) under Dirks, the jury could infer that the tipper here personally benefited from making a gift of confidential information to a trading relative.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a criminal action, the district court's grant in part of defendant's motion is affirmed where evidence of uncharged transactions are not evidence of 'other' crimes under Rule 404(b), but rather evidence of a scheme to defraud that is the first element of wire fraud.

(United States Second Circuit) - Sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to defrauding investors in a sham diamond company are vacated and remanded where the district court erred in applying sentencing enhancements for (1) receiving gross receipts in excess of $1 million from a financial institution under U.S.S.G. section 2B1.1(b)(A); and (2) for abusing a position of trust pursuant to U.S.S.G. section 3B1.3. Conviction otherwise affirmed.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Convictions arising from the capitalization and operation of real estate development business are affirmed where there is not a reversible plain error. The jury instruction error in this case was not 'clear and obvious' because it was not clearly required by precedent, and the error did not affect the outcome of the proceedings.

(California Court of Appeal) - In the People's appeal pursuant to Penal Code section 1238(a)(1), challenging the trial court's order to set aside certain counts of charges against defendant for using false statements in the offer or sale of a security, Corp. Code sections 25401, 25540(b), after defendant persuaded an acquaintance to invest in a real estate development opportunity in Idaho in return for a promissory note, the terms of which were amended and extended several times but never realized, the trial court's order is affirmed where the promissory notes offered for the investment in the real estate development scheme were not securities within the meaning of the Corporate Securities Law.