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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KIMBERLY SUE SMITH, Defendant-Appellant. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Michigan at Marquette.
No. 04-00022—R. Allan Edgar, District Judge.
Argued: February 5, 2008
Decided and Filed: February 19, 2008
Before: MARTIN and SUTTON, Circuit Judges; OBERDORFER, District Judge.
SUTTON, Circuit Judge. Kimberly Smith challenges her 72-month sentence, which arose from a series of frauds she committed while leading an American Red Cross chapter in the months after September 11th. We affirm.
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BILLY ROLAND PHILLIPS, Defendant-Appellant. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Kentucky at London.
No. 05-00066—Karen K. Caldwell, District Judge.
Submitted: September 17, 2007
Decided and Filed: February 19, 2008
Before: MOORE and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges; GRAHAM, District Judge.
GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Defendant Billy Roland Phillips pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), and was sentenced to a term of 30 months of incarceration. Phillips appeals his sentence, arguing that the district court engaged in impermissible fact-finding at sentencing in contravention of the Sixth Amendment, the district court erred in finding that firearms possessed by Phillips constituted relevant conduct under U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, and his sentence is procedurally unreasonable. We disagree and affirm.
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AMANDA HAWKINS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ANHEUSER-BUSCH, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Ohio at Columbus.
No. 05-00688—Gregory L. Frost, District Judge.
Argued: October 30, 2007
Decided and Filed: February 19, 2008
Before: DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; EDMUNDS, District Judge.
RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Four female employees of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. appeal from a grant of summary judgment in favor of the brewery in this sex-discrimination and retaliation case. Three of the employees—Jackie Cunningham, Amanda Hawkins, and Cherri Hill—allege that sexual harassment by a coworker, Bill Robinson, created a hostile work environment in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 4112. Hill and the fourth employee, Kathryn Jackson, also claim that the brewery is liable for Robinson’s acts of retaliation.
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Anheuser-Busch on the discrimination claims after finding that (1) the women failed to make a showing that the alleged conduct was sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment, and (2) no reasonable juror could conclude that Anheuser-Busch knew or should have known of the harassment, or that it failed to take prompt and appropriate corrective action. As to the retaliation claims, the court dismissed them on the grounds that (1) this circuit has not previously recognized a claim for coworker retaliation, and (2) Hill and Jackson failed to allege conduct by Anheuser- Busch that rose to the level of an adverse employment action.
For the reasons set for below, we AFFIRM the district court’s grant of summary judgment as to Hawkins’s hostile-work-environment claim and Jackson’s retaliation claim, but we REVERSE the grant of summary judgment as to Cunningham’s and Hill’s hostile-work-environment claims and Hill’s retaliation claim and REMAND the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MICHAEL WHEATON, Defendant-Appellant. |
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Ohio at Youngstown.
No. 05-00412—Christopher A. Boyko, District Judge.
Argued: January 29, 2008
Decided and Filed: February 19, 2008
Before: GUY, GILMAN, and McKEAGUE, Circuit Judges.
RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Michael Wheaton was convicted by a jury on one count of conspiring to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and of possessing the drug with the intent to distribute. He filed a motion for a new trial, alleging that a juror’s use of a laptop computer in the jury room to obtain extrinsic evidence had undermined the integrity of the verdict. The district court denied Wheaton’s motion, concluding that the interests of justice did not require a new trial because the information acquired by the juror had no effect on the jury’s deliberations. Wheaton renews this claim on appeal, and also raises a number of other alleged trial errors that were not included in his motion for a new trial.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court, pursuant to USSG § 2D1.1(b)(1), added two levels to Wheaton’s base offense level for the possession of a firearm. The court also increased Wheaton’s criminal history points under USSG § 4A1.1(e), finding that Wheaton had participated in the charged conspiracy less than two years after being released from custody for another crime. After calculating the advisory Guidelines range to be 235 to 293 months’ imprisonment and noting that the statutory maximum was 240 months of imprisonment, the court sentenced Wheaton to 235 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release.
Wheaton appeals both his conviction and his sentence. He challenges (1) the district court’s failure to grant him a new trial based on juror misconduct, (2) instructions given to the jury about the credibility of certain witnesses, (3) the admission of a photograph of the firearm in question that was found near the location of his arrest, (4) the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, (5) the procedural reasonableness of his sentence, including the district court’s calculation of the Guidelines range, (6) the substantive reasonableness of his sentence, and (7) the fundamental fairness of his trial based on cumulative error. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.