DISCLAIMER:  The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
                        as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
153496P.pdf   03/28/2017  United States  v.  Krystal Wallace
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  15-3496
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock   
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Wollman, Circuit Judge, and Wright, District Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. The evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for assaulting a VA police officer with her car; no error in excluding a video of a statement defendant made to a VA investigator shortly after the incident as it was cumulative to her own testimony at trial; the district court did not err in determining the degree of the officer's injury; no error in applying Guidelines Sec. 2A2.2 for aggravated assault rather than Guidelines Sec. 2A2.4 for obstructing an officer; no error in applying a six-level official victim enhancement under Sec. 3A1.2(c)(1), or a six-level enhancement under Guidelines Sec. 2A2.2(b)(3)(E); 48-month sentence imposed after a 140-month downward variance was not substantively unreasonable. 161643P.pdf 03/28/2017 Gary Thompson v. Andy Shock U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-1643 U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Wollman, Circuit Judge, and Wright, District Judge] Civil case - Civil rights. The district court applied the incorrect test for determining that the defendant Sheriff was entitled to qualified immunity in his individual capacity on plaintiff's claim he was improperly discharged for supporting the Sheriff's opponent, and the claim is remanded for further analysis of the claim under the Elrod-Branti line of cases which apply when the constitutional right at issue involved "joining, working for or contributing to the political party and candidates of [the employee's choice]; the district court did not err in granting the defendant Sheriff summary judgment on plaintiff's claims against him in his official capacity because under Arkansas law and the policies promoted by the County, the Sheriff did not act as the final policymaker in the employment decisions of his department because the decisions were subject to review by the quorum court. 162047U.pdf 03/28/2017 United States v. Charles Naylor, II U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-2047 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City
[UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Riley, Wollman and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. Missouri's second-degree burglary statute is divisible and the court will apply the modified categorical approach to determine whether defendant's convictions pursuant to Mo. Rev. Stat. Section 569.170(1) match the generic description of burglary; documents in the case show his crimes involved burglary of buildings, and the convictions did qualify as predicate felonies for purposes of Armed Career Criminal Act sentencing. Judge Kelly, concurring. 162672U.pdf 03/28/2017 United States v. Joshua Preston U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-2672 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City
[UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Riley, Gruender and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. In determining whether defendant's Texas burglary convictions were predicate felonies for Armed Career Criminal Act sentencing, the district court erred in looking beyond the fact of conviction to the specific actions underlying the offenses (defendant pleaded guilty to a lesser offense than was charged) and thereby exceeded the scope of the modified categorical approach; remanded for resentencing; on remand the district court should apply the modified categorical approach to determine which alternative element of Texas Penal Code Ann. Section 29.02 was the basis for the conviction and whether a conviction under that alternative element constitutes a crime of violence under the residual clause of Guidelines Sec. 4B1.2(a)(2). 163866U.pdf 03/28/2017 Randal Mauderer v. Iowa Attorney General's Office U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-3866 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines
[UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Wollman, Bowman and Loken, Circuit Judge] Prisoner case - Prisoner civil rights. Dismissal affirmed without comment.