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.
161192P.pdf   08/04/2017  Anna Wealot  v.  Alvin Brooks
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-1192
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City   
[PUBLISHED] [Riley, Author, with Wollman and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging defendant police officers used excessive force when they shot and killed Waylon Wealot, the district court erred in determining no rational jury could find the police officers' actions unreasonable based on the "rapidly-evolving circumstances" with which they were presented; there were genuine issues of fact as to whether the officers could have seen Waylon discard his weapon as they pursued him and whether his hands were in the air when he turned to face the officers; as a result, the district court erred in granting the officers summary judgment on the excessive force claim; in light of this decision, the court restores for the district court's further consideration the claims against the Chief of Police and the board of police commissioners; there was insufficient evidence for a rational jury to conclude the officers acted with malice or bad faith, and the district court did not err in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's state law wrongful death claim. Judge Wollman, concurring. 162157P.pdf 08/04/2017 United States v. Roman Hellems U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-2157 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines
[PUBLISHED] [Shepherd, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Fenner, District Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law. Defendant never agreed to stipulate that he was a felon in this felon in possession of a firearm case, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the name and nature of his prior convictions; the government may introduce evidence of multiple prior felony convictions and is not limited to admitting just one; any error in admitting evidence of a third handgun where there was no charge relating to its possession was harmless; a district court's decision to remove a recalcitrant defendant is reviewed for an abuse of discretion and, under the facts here, the court did not abuse its discretion by removing defendant and conducting the trial and sentencing in absentia. 163191P.pdf 08/04/2017 United States v. Taylor McHatten U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 16-3191 U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Waterloo
[PUBLISHED] [Shepherd, Author, with Wollman and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. Where defendant appealed the district court's decision to make her federal sentence consecutive to any time which might be imposed in a pending state criminal matter, the dismissal of the state criminal case rendered the appeal moot, and it is dismissed. 171232U.pdf 08/04/2017 United States v. Terrence Hawkins U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 17-1232 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Jefferson City
[UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Colloton, Murphy and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. Defendant did not object to a search in his revocation proceedings, and the issue is waived; the sentence imposed upon the revocation of defendant's supervised release was not substantively unreasonable.