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COA: Breathalyzer certificate is not testimonial

For the first time since the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2009 ruling that found a defendant had a Sixth Amendment
right to confront the analysts who prepared lab certificates certifying the defendant had cocaine, the Indiana Court of Appeals
ruled that a trial court did not violate the defendant’s right to confrontation by allowing the inspection certificate
for a breathalyzer into evidence, even though the certifier of the equipment did not testify at trial.

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Justices vacate transfer grant, reinstate COA ruling

The Indiana Supreme Court has decided to not consider a case that justices had granted transfer on late last year, reinstating
a lower appellate court’s ruling that a trial judge had abused her discretion in admitting a blood test in a drunken
driving case.

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Court rejects stale trash evidence argument

The Indiana Court of Appeals has rejected an argument that evidence found in a trash search was stale because no other garbage
had been collected in the past two weeks and that seized material could have been too old.

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Debate swirls around citations, use of the NFP

Envision a world in which lawyers successfully defended a client on what all parties thought was a significant legal issue,
but future attorneys couldn’t use that case result to help persuade judges in their litigation.

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Sexually violent predator petitions must be refiled

The status as a sexually violent predator for two inmates stands for now, but the Indiana Court of Appeals directed the men
to refile their motions to remove that status pursuant to the recently amended statute dealing with this issue.

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COA upholds 125-year child-molesting sentence

In upholding multiple child-molesting convictions and a 125-year sentence, the Indiana Court of Appeals has rejected a woman’s
argument about why her penalty should be reduced based in part on the very young ages of the victims.

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Court: Police shouldn’t have made traffic stop

An appellate decision today in a drunk-driving traffic stop case out of Fort Wayne illustrates how a lack of knowledge about
a particular road’s layout can derail the prosecution of someone who may have been intoxicated behind the wheel.

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COA affirms resisting police conviction

The Indiana Court of Appeals was hesitant to rely on an Indiana Supreme Court case’s definition of “forcibly
resist” because that language doesn’t appear to adequately describe the meaning of the phrase as it has been recently
applied.

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Mom may be liable for daughter’s accident

The Indiana Court of Appeals judges agreed that a mother may possibly be liable for her daughter’s accident in which
she struck a pedestrian with her car after drinking and talking on her cell phone at the time of the accident. The judges
didn’t completely agree as to why the mother may be liable.

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Opinion rules on 2 issues of first impression

The Indiana Court of Appeals was faced with two issues of first impression in one opinion – the meaning of Indiana Code
Section 27-9-3-34(d) and whether a party is entitled to a jury trial for disputes concerning claims in liquidation proceedings.

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Majority upholds violent sexual predator finding

An Indiana Court of Appeals panel disagreed as to whether the failure of a defendant’s counsel to press for the statutory
requirement for a hearing on a sexually violent predator finding was a procedural default that waived the appellate court’s
consideration of the issue.

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Judges affirm juvenile placement in DOC

The Indiana Court of Appeals was sympathetic to a teen’s request to not be placed in the Department of Correction, but
it noted that all other remedies for his rehabilitation had been exhausted in his home county.

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COA: Judge should have recused himself

The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with a defendant that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel because his
attorney should have filed a motion for change of judge. The sentencing judge had worked as a prosecutor in the early stages
of the defendant’s case 10 years earlier.

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Judges reverse, reinstate sex-offender conviction

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a man’s conviction of failing to register as a sex offender based on a lack of
evidence showing the man had a connection to Indiana 90 days after his last registration. The appellate court did reinstate
a vacated conviction for failing to notify law enforcement of his move within 72 hours.

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Pro se defendant must be advised of rights

The requirement to advise a defendant of the dangers of self-representation and the benefit of counsel applies equally regardless
of whether a pro se defendant is choosing to plead guilty or go to trial, the Indiana Court of Appeals decided today.

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Court rules on sex offender status decisions

Tackling the issue of who determines whether a convicted sex offender is considered a “sexually violent predator,”
the Indiana Court of Appeals today issued the latest ruling in a line of cases about the state’s sex offender registry
and how convicts’ names are removed.

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Judges rule on child molesting statute of limitations

Addressing an issue that’s been litigated back and forth on appeal for more than 20 years, the Indiana Court of Appeals decided today that a statute of limitations on felony child molesting begins running once the actions stop and the victim is no longer being prevented from telling authorities.

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