Browning Law News Blog

On June 6th, there was a DUI crash that killed 11 year of Niomi James and 13 year old Jayla Parler and injured two others in Alabama. James Halsell, former NASA space shuttle commander and pilot, has been charged with reckless murder and the families of the children who were killed have filed wrongful death lawsuits in Tuscaloosa County and federal court. One of the injured passengers, Pernell James, told authorities that he was driving on US 82 when a car driving at a high speed stuck his car from the rear and sent it tumbling across the road. The girls were ejected from the vehicle. Halsell said that he thought he was on Interstate 20/59, and not US 82 during the crash. The officer who arrived on scene said that Halsell appeared very intoxicated and tried to take a vehicle of someone who stopped to offer help. Halsell told the officers that he had had three glasses of wine and stayed at a hotel in Tuscaloosa. They found an empty wine bottle and an empty package of sleeping pills.

Track star, Melissa Farrington, says that she was forced to leave school after she reported abuse from her athlete boyfriend. She claims that she was harassed and discriminated by the school's athletic department, so she is suing the University of Nebraska- Lincoln for violating the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Farrington said that the athletic department retaliated against her by canceling her scholarship after she reported domestic abuse by her boyfriend. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including domestic violence, in all schools that receive federal money. UNL could lose federal funding if it is found that they violated the law. Farrington's lawsuit states that an athletic department employee informed the university in March 2015 that she was assaulted by a male student athlete she was dating, then university officials interviewed her, and confirmed the assault. She did not feel protected by the employees of the athletic department,

North Idaho attorney Joanna McFarland argued that using a drug dog at a traffic stop is overreaching and illegal, and that her client should have been released after police officers cleared him of driving under the influence. Lewiston police detained Michael Parkins while waiting for a drug dog to pursue another investigation even though they had no reasonable suspicion that Parkins had any controlled substances on him. When the drug dog arrived to the scene, he alerted police of possible drugs in the car. They found two ounces of methamphetamine in a nylon bag in Parkins' pants. Comments from Allen :  In jurisdictions all over the country, patrol officers are stopping drivers for one crime as a pretext for searching for drugs.  I see this almost every week in my practice in Idaho.  Why Idaho in particular?  Idaho has not legalized the use of marijuana, while that drug has been decriminalized to one degree or another in nearby Montana, California, Oregon and Washington.  Patrol