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Published on: April 13, 2022

Life sentence imposed for enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity upheld as reasonable

Romeo Sanchez was charged in a seven-count indictment involving sex crimes against minors. Specifically, his charges included two counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity; two counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to produce child pornography; two counts of possessing child pornography and one count of having committed a felony offense involving a minor while already a registered sex offender. He was convicted after a jury trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, plus a consecutive ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for committing the crime while he was a registered sex offender.

His appeal focused on the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained from his two cell phones. An investigation determined that a fourteen-year-old was having a sexual relationship with Sanchez, 29, and she was using her phone for sexually explicit communications with Sanchez. Detectives from the Cape Coral Police Department went to Sanchez’s house with a warrant to seize his phone. Sanchez came out to speak with the Detectives and while speaking with the agents about the warrant for his phone, his parents came home. One of the detectives proposed that his parents get the phone because they knew where the phone was located. That detective said the mother agreed to get the phone and with that he accompanied the mother inside the house to get the phone. He left after retrieving the phone and a search of the phone revealed incriminating evidence.

A few months after the seizure of phone one, Sanchez was arrested at his place of work. In the process he tried to conceal another phone, which detectives seized. That phone showed that Sanchez was having sexually explicit communications with another fourteen-year-old girl, who investigators learned he was involved in illegal activity.

Published on: March 28, 2022

No violation of the Fourth Amendment by not immediately releasing a suspect after learning of possible exculpatory evidence

by The Swartz Law Firm

Vivianne Washington was arrested in the investigation of a brutal murder of an elderly woman at her home in Meriwether County, Georgia after assailants invaded her home, attacked her, and set her on fire. Before she died, she named her assailants as several black males and an African American female. Officer Hugh Howard of the Meriwether County Sheriff’s Office investigating the crime received a tip from a farm employee suggesting that he interview Cortavious Heard. Heard was a former farm employee who was on probation for another crime. After Heard was picked up he eventually admitted to his involvement in the home invasion. While interviewing suspect Heard, officer Howard received a tip that came into the Meriwether Sheriff’s Department from an informant that identified Washington as someone the informant heard was involved in this. The informant sent a photograph of Washington. When Howard received it, he told Heard about the tip and showed Heard Washington’s photograph. Heard identified it as the woman who was involved in the home invasion. After obtaining more information about Washington and confirming that the information came from a reliable source, an arrest warrant was issued for Washington. She was arrested at work about 5:00 p.m. Continue reading

Published on: January 12, 2022

Hotel franchise not liable to victims of sex trafficking for conduct that took place at hotels

by The Swartz Law Firm

Four Plaintiffs identified in their lawsuit as Jane Does filed a lawsuit under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) alleging they were victims of conspicuous and open sex trafficking that occurred at hotels managed by hotel franchisors Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, and Microtel Inn & Suites (MISF). The Plaintiffs argued the franchises should be liable under the TVPRA for benefiting financially in a venture which they knew or should have known involved sex trafficking at the Defendants’ hotels. Two of these companies, Wyndham and MISF, are franchisors that license its brand to the Microtel Inn & Suites in Atlanta, Georgia. Choice Hotels International is a franchisor that licenses its brand to the Suburban Extended Stay in Chamblee, Georgia.

Published on: December 24, 2021

No protection under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act for protesters who damaged property at a U.S. Naval submarine base.

by The Swartz Law Firm

Clare Grady, Carmen Trotta, and Martha Hennessy are members of the Plowshares Movement, a Roman Catholic protest and activism group opposed to nuclear weapons. On April 4, 2018, they and others surreptitiously and illegally entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Marys, Georgia, to engage in protest of nuclear weapons by engaging in what they referred to as symbolic disarmament. What they did was more destructive. They spray painted numerous anti-nuclear and religious messages on the sidewalk and on monuments, poured donated blood from the movement’s members on the door of a building and the sidewalk, hammered on a decommissioned missile display, placed crime scene tape around the base, removed signage and part of a monument, and cut through wiring and fencing to enter a highly secured area and display banners protesting nuclear weapons.

Published on: December 15, 2021

A civilian cannot be held liable for a false arrest or excessive force claim for briefly assisted a law enforcement officer with an arrest

by The Swartz Law Firm

Charles was arrested by a Dawson County Sheriff’s deputy on an outstanding warrant after he was found inside a car that the deputy had pulled over for speeding. Charles resisted his arrest for over five minutes and the deputy succeeded in subduing Charles with the aid of a civilian bystander and a second deputy. Charles was convicted of felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer in a Georgia state court.

He sued the two deputies and the civilian in federal court under section 1983 alleging excessive force under Georgia state law and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. His claim against the civilian was that the deputy and the civilian conspired to violate his right to be free of excessive force.

Published on: December 2, 2021

Trial judge dismissed fraud charges against two for lack of evidence but court of appeals saw it differently

by The Swartz Law Firm

Five co-defendants including Matthew Wheeler were charged in federal court with wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§1341 and 1349 for their involvement in a telemarketing scheme to defraud stock investors. Following an eight-week trial the jury found each defendant guilty on all counts. However, post-trial, the federal trial judge granted the judgments of acquittal based on insufficient evidence as to two defendants, Wheeler and Long. The three convicted defendants appealed their convictions while the government appealed the acquittal judgments.

The codefendants were charged with substantive mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. It alleged that the defendants played various roles in a telemarking scheme that tricked investors into making stock purchases and misappropriated their money while operating out of two phone rooms. Certain codefendants worked as salespeople using an alias. Others had the role of managers, instructing salespersons on how to pitch a stock. Others played the role a loaders, who would play the role of high-level executives pushing the buyer to purchase “institutional” shares. Both phone rooms used and prepared written materials to aid their pitches to investors which contained inaccurate information but also included exaggerations and fabrications. Using the press releases and scripts, salespeople made false representations to potential investors, stating they were paid only in company stock, did not work for commissions, and that important businesspeople or celebrities were involved in the company they were pitching.

Published on: November 30, 2021

Cheerleaders who kneeled during the national anthem lose free speech lawsuit

by The Swartz Law Firm

In protest of police brutality against African Americans, quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the pregame national anthem. Kaepernick’s kneeling encouraged other athletes around the country to kneel as well. A year later a group of African American cheerleaders at Kennesaw State University, a public university in Georgia, followed that trend by kneeling in protest during their pre-game national anthem.

In reaction to the cheerleaders’ kneeling, the president of KSU, Samuel Olens, decided to prohibit the cheerleaders from kneeling. After conferring with Georgia state legislator Earl Ehrhart, the KSU Athletic Director, and the County Sheriff Neil Warren, Olens announced the “tunnel rule”. The cheerleaders would not be allowed on the field during the anthem but would instead remain in the stadium’s tunnel. Olens authorized the athletic director to announce the implementation of this new policy. After the first game that the tunnel rule was enforced, the amount of pressure and protests from students, faculty, the press, and the Board of Regents, forced Olens to announce that the tunnel rule would be abolished, and the cheerleaders would again be permitted to take the field before presentation of the national anthem.

Published on: November 24, 2021

Appeals court upholds lawsuit against Sheriff for detaining the wrong person

by The Swartz Law Firm

A deputy from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office pulled over Sosa while driving. After checking his name in the computer system and finding an outstanding warrant for a David Sosa, Sosa explained that he had been mistakenly arrested four years earlier for the same warrant. He told the deputy about the differences between himself and the real Sosa who was wanted. The deputy arrested him anyway, and he spent three days in jail before the sheriff’s office acknowledged he was not the wanted Sosa and released him.

Sosa filed a lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 against the Martin County Sheriff’s Department alleging a violation of his Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights by falsely arresting him and for detaining him longer than he should have been detained. He made a claim pursuant to Monell that the Sheriff failed to institute policies and train deputies to prevent these types of things from happening. The trial court dismissed the case for failure to state a claim.

Published on: November 15, 2021

Property owner’s lawsuit against Sheriff in Alabama for property loss fails

by The Swartz Law Firm

Mr. Spencer sued Sheriff Jonathan Benison pursuant to 42 U.S.C §1983 claiming a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights against deprivation of property and liberty rights. He alleged that Benison ordered him to remove traffic cones and vehicles that were preventing Spencer’s neighbor from completing construction on an easement that Spencer alleged encroached on his property. Spencer claimed that by ordering him to remove these obstructions, the Sheriff deprived him of property without due process and that Benison conspired with others to take and use his property without due process or compensation.

Spencer’s dispute began after an entity called Belle Mere Properties purchased a parcel of real estate from Spencer which contained an easement of 25 feet on either side of the existing power line for the purpose of egress and ingress. Belle Mere then leased the property to a bingo hall. Soon after Spencer and Belle Mere began disputing over the boundaries of the easement when Belle Mere decided to expand a previously constructed roadway running through the easement. After Spencer made several calls to the police claiming that a bulldozer was trespassing, Benison responded to the scene and found that Spencer had placed cones and vehicles blocking construction which backed up traffic on U.S. Highway 11.

Published on: November 11, 2021

Today We Honor Our Veterans

by The Swartz Law Firm

Veterans Day is a day set aside to honor and give thanks to veterans who gave service to the protection and preservation of our great country. On this Veterans Day I would like to honor the service of two heroic veterans who served this country in World War II. Lt. Joseph Milton Swartz and Lt. Emil Kantor both served together in the U. S. 15^th Army Air Force, 460th Bomb Group from 1944 through 1945. The 460th was stationed on a hastily built air base known as Spinazzola in southern Italy with crude and makeshift living quarters for the servicemen. Pilot Emil Kantor and flight navigator Milton Swartz along with their crew flew the B-24 bomber “Liberator” on thirty-five sorties (missions) over Nazi German occupied territory. Their missions took them over the dangerous skies of Nazi occupied Europe, facing death form flak, enemy fights, and accidents. Each time these brave men entered their plane, they did not know what danger they faced, and always knew that like many of their fellow servicemen there was a chance they would not return home. Thankfully, they both did.

On one noteworthy mission flown on September 13, 1944, theirs was one of 20 planes from the 460^th that participated in bombing the I.G. Farben synthetic oil and rubber plant located in Oswiecim, Poland. What they did not know was this plant was located only a few miles from the Auschwitz concentration camp. A small cluster of bombs intended for the plant fell instead on the Auschwitz Camp, giving the detainees a temporary and false hope that the Allied bombers were there to destroy the camp.

Fortunately, stories of their heroism in their many missions over those dangerous skies has been preserved and beautifully told in the book, Emil’s Story – Memoir of a WW II Bomber Pilot written by Linda Audrey Kantor.