The Wisconsin State Bar has issued a new ethics opinion on working remotely, which we’ve all been doing to some degree during the pandemic. Practicing law from home or a location outside Wisconsin implicates several ethical duties–for example, the duty to maintain the confidentiality of client information and duty to supervise staff and junior lawyers. There’s also the issue of whether a Wisconsin lawyer may practice Wisconsin law from say California when s/he isn’t licensed in California.  Click here…
Continue Reading New ethics opinion on lawyers working remotely

State v. James A. Jones, 2019AP224, 225, 226-CR, 2/17/21, District 3;(recommended for publication) case activity (including briefs)
Sometimes friends or relatives post bail so that a loved one charged with a crime can be released. This published decision holds that when charges are dismissed and read in at sentencing, and the court doesn’t order restitution on those charges, the bond money must be returned to the payors. This rule applies even to global plea deals where the defendant…
Continue Reading Defense win on return of bond funds and restitution for dismissed and read in charges

State v. Omar S. Coria-Granados, 2019AP1989-CR, District 4, 2/11/21 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs)
In this child sexual assault the circuit court denied the state’s motions to admit other-acts evidence under § 904.04(2) and to allow the use of an audiovisual statement of a complainant under § 908.08. In a long (39 page) decision addressing the multiple legal questions and fact specific issues, the court of appeals reverses the circuit court’s other-acts order but…
Continue Reading Court of appeals addresses pretrial rulings on other acts, use of audiovisual recording

State v. Alfonso C. Loayza, 2021 WI 11, 2/11/21, reversing a per curiam decision of the court of appeals; case activity (including briefs)
The supreme court unanimously holds that the state proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Loayza was convicted of OWI in California in 1990, making his current Wisconsin offense a eighth offense.
A certified copy of the judgment of conviction in the 1990 case would have clinched the matter, but the state didn’t offer…
Continue Reading SCOW: Inferences from incomplete records sufficient to prove prior OWI conviction

Waupaca County v. K.E.K., 2021 WI 9, 2/9/21, affirming an unpublished COA opinion, 2018AP1887; case activity
Waupaca County sought to extend Kate’s initial commitment for one year. The County’s examiner and witnesses agreed that she had not been dangerous during her initial commitment. She had taken her medication and was doing really well. She even agreed to take medication going forward, provided that it was not the one that had caused horrible side effects because it made…
Continue Reading SCOW upholds constitutionality of Ch. 51 recommitment statute

State v. Brian L. Halverson, 2021 WI 7, affirming a published court of appeals opinion, 2018AP858CR; case activity (including briefs)
Halverson was interrogated over the phone by a police officer while he was in jail on an unrelated matter. Wisconsin courts once treated incarceration as per se Miranda custody, believing that was the law SCOTUS had established. But Howes v. Fields, 565 U.S. 499 (2012), held that it’s not. Halverson argued the Wisconsin Supreme Court should…
Continue Reading SCOW holds imprisonment isn’t necessarily Miranda custody

State v. Westley D. Whitaker, 2020AP29-CR, 2/4/21, District 4, (recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs)
This appeal raises a hot-button issue likely to interest SCOW. Just last year an investigative journalist reported that Amish communities do not report sexual assaults of children to social workers or police. Parents and church elders strive to address the problem themselves. (NPR story). That’s what happened in Whitaker’s case. He repeatedly sexually assaulted his younger sisters then stopped when…
Continue Reading Appeals court affirms sentence aimed at deterring Amish from covering up child sexual assault

State v. Kendell Marcel White, 2020AP588-CR, District 1, 2/2/21 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
In the course of a traffic stop based on a bad parking job, excessively tinted windows, and no visible plates, police searched the car and found a concealed weapon. The court of appeals holds the search was unreasonable under the totality of the circumstances.
White, who was in the driver’s seat, told police he owned the car and that there…
Continue Reading Defense win: Search of car during traffic stop was unreasonable

State v. Gregory F. Atwater, 2019AP1977-CR, District 4, 2/4/2021 (recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs)
The circuit court denied Atwater’s request to have trial counsel testify at a Machner hearing by telephone rather than in person, as trial counsel had moved out of state and returning to testify would be onerous and logistically difficult. The court then denied Atwater’s postconviction motion because he couldn’t get trial counsel to the hearing and couldn’t prevail without trial counsel’s testimony.
Continue Reading Defense win: Circuit court failed to properly exercise discretion in denying defense request for remote testimony