Add caption State v. Webster, 2017 VT 98 By Elizabeth Kruska You’ll likely remember this case from when it happened several years ago. (Very) Briefly, Mr. Webster and his wife had some problems in their marriage, including Mr. Webster having a long-term extramarital relationship with another woman. Mr. Webster and his wife argued a lot, including the day of this incident. They drove in separate cars and ended up in a public parking lot, where…

In re Von Turkovich Mr. Von Turkovich had an issue before the Labor Relations Board. He filed a grievance, and the other party filed a motion to dismiss. The motion to dismiss was granted, and Mr. Von Turkovich wanted to appeal the dismissal. But he filed too late and wanted more time to file. The Labor Relations Board denied the request as untimely. He appealed, and SCOV affirmed. That’s the tl;dr version. The slightly longer…

A cool photo that has nothing to do withwithdrawing a guilty plea. State v. Stewart Criminal cases can be resolved in a number of ways. A defendant could choose to have a trial in his or her case and let a jury (or in some cases, a judge) decide whether the defendant is guilty. Far more likely is that the case resolves with the defendant pleading guilty to a charge. This happens for a lot…

A bit of a reversal. Try It Again This one needs another look. Miles Dow was convicted of various charges after a trial and was sentenced. While under sentence he filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging various grounds. Then his petition took some interesting turns, and long story short, SCOV reversed an appeal, making it more possible that his case will get another look. It is very common for people under sentence to file…

Remember “telephone”?  State v. Larkin, 2018 VT 16 By Elizabeth Kruska I like evidence. I like the Rules of Evidence. I even like the hearsay rules, which puts me in a distinct category of “big nerds who like the hearsay rules.” We have fun parties. In a trial, generally the jury doesn’t get to hear about a defendant or witness’s prior criminal record. I say “generally” because one of the best things about the Rules…

Here’s a short entry order from last summer, and a short entry order from this fall. It’s a reciprocal discipline two-fer.  We’ve seen a few cases about reciprocal discipline in the last couple years. It goes like this. Attorneys are licensed by the state to practice law. This is true in every state in the country. Attorneys have conduct rules to follow, and a big reason for many of the rules is to ensure the…

Bag it. Tag it. Can a police officer peek into your garage window looking for evidence of a crime? It depends.  At 4am on Thanksgiving morning in 2017, a sleeping Hinesburg resident was rudely awakened by a gunshot near his house. He looked outside and saw a dark truck with running lights on top. The Game Warden responded to the scene but couldn’t find anything in the dark. He returned at 7am to investigate and…