The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
MoreTORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . Appellant Pierre Azor ("Appellant") appeals the district court's denials of his motions for suppression and severance, and claims that his sentence of thirty-six months of imprisonment is substantively unreasonable. After review, we find that the district court properly denied his motion to suppress and did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to sever. Additionally, Appellant's sentence is substantively reasonable. Seeing no reason to vacate Appellant'...
BARRON , Circuit Judge . Neil West was convicted of four federal offenses in connection with his role in the commission of two bank robberies that occurred in Maine. He received a prison sentence of 175 months. He now contends that all four convictions must be vacated due to errors that the District Court made at trial, although he only makes substantive arguments regarding two of those convictions. We affirm. I. On November 30, 2016, in the United States District Court for the District...
SELYA , Circuit Judge . Following his conviction for a drug-trafficking offense, defendant-appellant Jean Tony Valbrun assigns error to certain of the district court's evidentiary rulings and to a jury instruction. Finding his asseverational array unpersuasive, we affirm his conviction. I. BACKGROUND This case is one of several arising out of the activities of a sprawling drug-distribution ring operating in Maine. As such, it implicates one of many spokes radiating from the hub of a...
BARRON , Circuit Judge . James Patterson appeals his federal convictions, and resulting sentence, for five counts of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2113(a). He argues that his convictions must be vacated because the District Court erred in denying his motions for (1) a hearing pursuant to Franks v. Delaware , 438 U.S. 154 , 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), regarding warrants that were issued to install Global Positioning System ("GPS") tracking devices; (2) the...
NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST'S FEDERAL REPORTER PER CURIAM . After careful consideration of the oral arguments of counsel, the record, and the briefs, we affirm on de novo review the district court's decision to deny habeas corpus relief for substantially the same reasons stated by the district court. See 28 U.S.C. 2254(d). 1. Sufficiency of the Evidence Charlene Connors contends that the Commonwealth did not provide sufficient evidence to the jury to establish her "specific intent to...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . This case arises from the efforts of Allco Renewable Energy Limited ("Allco") to enforce section 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act ("PURPA"), 16 U.S.C. 824a-3, against Massachusetts Electric Company d/b/a National Grid ("National Grid"). The district court dismissed Allco's claim against National Grid because section 210 does not provide a private right of action against utility companies (such as National Grid). The district court was...
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . Puerto Rico Telephone Company, Inc., (PRTC) sought permission from the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) to offer internet protocol television service to the residents of Puerto Rico. At the time, San Juan Cable LLC, doing business as "OneLink," provided cable television service to residents of several municipalities in Puerto Rico, including San Juan. Not eager to face competition, OneLink petitioned the TRB and other government officials and...
LYNCH , Circuit Judge . This is an appeal from entry of summary judgment in favor of the Town of Hull in a civil rights action brought by a Hull police officer. Scott Saunders, a decade-long veteran of the Town of Hull Police Department, was passed over for a promotion in November 2014. He alleges that the Town of Hull and its then Police Chief, Richard Billings, intentionally let his application lapse, and did not promote him, in retaliation for exposing Chief Billings's professional...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . Central to this case is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ("FBI" or "government") use of software that it terms a Network Investigative Technique ("NIT"). The FBI used the NIT pursuant to a warrant it obtained from a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia (the "NIT warrant"). The FBI installed the NIT on Playpen, a child pornography website it had taken over and was operating out of Virginia. The NIT attached itself to anything that was...
NOT FOR PUBLICATION PER CURIAM . Appellant-defendant Harry Parsons appeals from the 54-month sentence imposed upon resentencing, which represented an upward variance from the non-career offender guideline sentencing range (GSR) of 37-46 months. Parsons challenges the sentence as procedurally and substantively unreasonable. We grant the government's motion for summary disposition. At Parsons' original sentencing, the court determined (over Parsons' objection) that the career offender...
LIPEZ , Circuit Judge . Plaintiff-appellant Mark Reenstierna, a real estate appraiser, was the subject of a disciplinary hearing before the New Hampshire Real Estate Appraisal Board ("the Board"). In that hearing, the Board considered as evidence a report on Reenstierna's work written at the Board's request by defendant-appellee Kenneth Currier. After convincing the Board to reconsider an earlier unfavorable decision and dismiss the grievance charges, Reenstierna sued Currier, accusing him...
LYNCH , Circuit Judge . Karim Davis challenges his 151-month prison sentence on appeal, after he pled guilty in 2016 to drug crimes, arguing that the district court erred in (1) sentencing him as a career offender based on his prior drug convictions under N.Y. Penal Law 110 and 220.31; and (2) applying the criminal-livelihood enhancement under U.S.S.G. 2D1.1(b)(15)(E). There was no error, and we affirm his sentence. I. After indictment in 2015, Karim Davis pled guilty in August 2016...
BARRON , Circuit Judge . These consolidated appeals concern a lawsuit that involves a number of claims arising under, respectively, federal copyright law, state tort law, and Massachusetts's catch-all consumer protection statute, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A ("chapter 93A"). The defendant in the suit is Xcentric Ventures, LLC ("Xcentric"), which operates a website, the RipoffReport.com ("Ripoff Report"). The named plaintiffs are Richard Goren ("Goren"), a Massachusetts attorney; Small Justice...
HOWARD , Chief Judge . Richard Weed, a securities lawyer, wrote false opinion letters so that his two co-conspirators could sell stock to the public in a "pump and dump" scheme. 1 In connection with this conduct, he was convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit both. Following the jury's guilty verdict, Weed moved for a judgment of acquittal. He argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions, relying on a novel interpretation of a particular...
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . Following an eleven-day jury trial and verdict, the district court entered judgment against Hylas Yachts, LLC and in favor of plaintiffs Nelson Sharp and his LLC, Destiny Yachts, in the amount of $663,774 plus interest and costs, on account of numerous defects in a brand-new yacht that Hylas custom built and sold to plaintiffs. Both sides appeal. For the following reasons, neither side persuades us to upset the judgment. I. Background To frame the principal...
THOMPSON , Circuit Judge . PREFACE Sometime on or around March 22, 2014 — all dates here are in that year, by the way — Shayne Parker committed two legal no-nos: he possessed 50 rounds of 38-caliber ammo while being a convicted felon, and he transported a SCCY Model CXP 9-mm pistol into his state of residence without a license. Or so a federal grand jury in Massachusetts alleged in an indictment charging him with violating 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) and (a)(3). Parker pleaded not guilty. But a...
SELYA , Circuit Judge . Following a protracted investigation of drug-trafficking in and around Lewiston, Maine, spearheaded by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a federal grand jury handed up an indictment naming defendant-appellant Romelly Dastinot and eleven codefendants. The indictment charged Dastinot with, inter alia, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, see 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), 846, and conspiracy to commit money...
SELYA , Circuit Judge . Defendant-appellant Dimitry Gordon strives to persuade us that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress wiretap evidence and/or in refusing to hold one or more evidentiary hearings in connection therewith. We are not convinced and, therefore, we affirm the challenged orders (that is, the order denying the motion to suppress and the orders denying the two requests for evidentiary hearings). I. BACKGROUND Around September of 2012, a joint task force...
PER CURIAM . On July 5, 2017, this court's opinion issued affirming the district court's decision granting petitioner George H. Bennett's motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2255. See Bennett v. United States , 868 F.3d 1 , 2017 WL 2857620 (2017). On July 11, 2017, respondent-appellant filed a "Notice of Death," informing this court that Bennett had died on June 30, 2017, before the opinion issued. Respondent-appellant filed a motion for the withdrawal of the July 5, 2017 opinion. Counsel for...
THOMPSON , Circuit Judge . The defendant, Damien Corbett, raises three issues in this appeal from his conviction of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone and oxymorphone. Corbett first argues that the government's evidence was insufficient. Somewhat relatedly, he contends that the district court committed plain error in its response to a question from the jury. Finally, he asserts that the court erred in imposing a sentencing enhancement for the use or...
