8 results for 'judge:"Gill"'.
J. Gill finds the circuit court in 2019 properly convicted defendant of two counts of first-degree murder after law enforcement used saliva from an envelope he gave them to match his DNA to DNA collected from semen at the scene of an unsolved double murder and sexual assault from 1976. Although defendant's DNA was collected as part of a "ruse" concocted by law enforcement involving a fake survey the circuit court referred to as a "complete fabrication" designed to collect his DNA after he became a suspect based on DNA analysis, defendant's challenge to the surreptitious collection of his DNA fails because he voluntarily and with consent handed the envelope containing his saliva to law enforcement. Defendant's motion to suppress was properly denied, and his judgment of conviction stands. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 2022AP000882-CR, Categories: Dna, Evidence, Murder
J. Gill finds the lower court improperly dismissed a tenant's claims for damages and attorney fees associated with an allegedly illegal eviction. A tenant was served with a five-day eviction notice by a landlord during a period when evictions were prohibited due to Covid-19. While the landlord eventually moved to dismiss its claim, the tenant’s counterclaims moved forward, but were dismissed on grounds that the Wisconsin Consumer Act did not apply to residential leases. But the instant court finds it does apply, as a residential lease is a consumer transaction, with the tenant as the customer. The matter is remanded to determine attorney fees owed to tenant’s counsel and to determine the amount of damages to be awarded to the tenant. Reversed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 2022AP182, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Damages, Attorney Fees
J. Gill finds the circuit court properly decided that the insurance company is obligated to defend and indemnify the insureds in a lawsuit from a man whose leg was crushed in a crash while he was a passenger on a UTV operated by the insureds' son on a frozen lake near the insureds' second home. An exception to an exclusion in the insureds' homeowner's insurance policy offering coverage for lawsuits stemming from bodily injuries caused by "the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of a UTV 'which is' used to service an insured's residence" is ambiguous and can be constructed in more than one reasonable way, and the facts in the complaint fit one of the circumstances under which coverage would be triggered. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 2022AP000742, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Gill finds the circuit court improperly denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence of marijuana discovered from searches police conducted of her car with a canine during a traffic stop for not having a front license plate and a passenger not wearing a seat belt. The searches of defendant's car, which occurred when a canine being led around the outside of the car was allowed to twice enter defendant's open driver's side door, both count as "searches" under the Fourth Amendment, and they constitute unlawful searches because the officers did not get a warrant and no exception to the warrant requirement was at play. Whether or not the standard adopted by some jurisdictions creating an exception to the warrant requirement if a canine instinctively extends a search into someone's car exists and is recognized in Wisconsin, such an "instinct exception" will not be adopted in this case because the officer handling the canine "implicitly encouraged" it to enter defendant's car. The circuit court's judgment of conviction is reversed and the case is remanded for the circuit court to grant defendant's motion to suppress. Reversed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 2020AP001813-CR, Categories: Constitution, Drug Offender, Search
J. Gill finds the police violated defendant's Fourth Amendment rights when they encouraged a canine unit to twice enter the open driver's side door of defendant's car without a warrant while the canine was sniffing around the outside of the car during a traffic stop. Despite the state's arguments, the so-called "instinct exception" to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement adopted by other jurisdictions for canines that instinctively search inside a vehicle without direction would not apply to defendant's case even if the exception were recognized in Wisconsin. Defendant's judgment of conviction for marijuana and paraphernalia possession is reversed, and the case is remanded so the circuit court can grant her motion to suppress. Reversed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 2020AP001813-CR, Categories: Constitution, Drug Offender, Search
Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for Free
J. Gill finds the circuit court properly affirmed the administrative law judge's decision reversing the natural resources department's issuance of a wetland individual permit to the manufacturing company related to the construction of a new golf course that would require discharging dredged or fill material into more than three acres of wetlands. The relevant Wisconsin statutes require the department to consider the entire "proposed project" beyond just the effects on the specific impacted wetlands, which necessarily includes secondary impacts on wetland functional values such as the value of bird habitats and "scenic beauty," water quality and other net environmental impacts. There is also substantial evidence that the department did not have sufficient information to determine the overall adverse impacts of the project at the time it issued the permit, and it is also concluded that the administrative law judge did not require the department to make quantitative findings about secondary impacts of the project. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 2021AP001187, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment
J. Gill finds the circuit court properly ruled in favor of the trust in its civil action challenging the town's decision that the trust's property was not exempt from property taxes. The circuit court properly applied de novo review and not certiorari review when considering the trust's challenge including new evidence that was not presented to the town or its assessor, and the circuit court correctly ruled that the trust had met its burden to show its property should be tax exempt, denied the town's motion for summary judgment and granted summary judgment to the trust. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 2022AP000185, Categories: Property, Tax
[Consolidated] J. Gill finds the circuit court improperly denied defendant's motions to dismiss 17 felony bail jumping charges he faced in his consolidated cases across at least three counties. In part because defendant's alleged bail jumping offenses were committed after he had been released from jail and re-arrested on a bench warrant but before he had returned to court, he no longer technically qualified as "having been released from custody" under Wisconsin's bail statutes, as a bench warrant being issued is among the types of court actions establishing that a defendant is no longer "released from custody." The circuit court's non-final orders are overturned and the case is remanded to dismiss the 17 bail jumping counts. Reversed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 2022AP000658-CR, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Bail, Obstruction