Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206 OPINION COOK, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-Appellants RPM, Inc. ("RPM") and its two subsidiaries, Bondex International, Inc. ("Bondex") and Republic Powdered Metals, Inc. ("New Republic"), seek coverage from multiple insurance companies, Appellees, for Appellants' settlement and defense costs related to thousands of asbestos-exposure products-liability lawsuits that began in 1981. Many of the underlying asbestos claims allegedly arise from consumers' exposure...
OPINION HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Brett Ruhlman appeals the district-court order denying his petition for habeas corpus, challenging his Ohio state-court sentence on ex-post-facto and due-process grounds. We AFFIRM. BACKGROUND On April 28, 2004, Ruhlman was indicted on one count of rape, a first-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code ("O.R.C.") 2907.02(A)(1)(b), for acts committed against an 11-year-old girl; a jury convicted him of the lesser-included offense of attempted rape,...
OPINION ROGERS, Circuit Judge. When Donald and Elizabeth Molosky paid off their home mortgage early, they were charged a $30 "payoff statement fee" and a $14 "recording fee" in connection with the prepayment. They sued in federal court challenging the imposition of these fees as violations of the mortgage contract, of various Michigan laws, and of the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The district court dismissed the suit in its entirety on the grounds that all of the...
OPINION JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Antonio Rodriguez appeals the district court's sentence imposed under the career offender guideline. He argues that the district court should not have counted as predicate offenses any of the Ohio felony convictions listed in the Presentence Report (PSR). We conclude that Rodriguez's felony conviction in Ohio for aggravated assault qualifies as a crime of violence under the career offender guideline. We also conclude that Rodriguez may not collaterally...
OPINION COOK, Circuit Judge. Federal prisoner Jay Schmeltz appeals his conviction for falsifying a document in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1519, alleging that the structure of his indictment was duplicitous and that the district court's failure to provide the jury with a specific unanimity instruction violated his right to a unanimous verdict. Finding no error, we affirm. I. On May 30, 2004, doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital discharged Carlton Benton, releasing him into the custody of two...
OPINION SUTTON, Circuit Judge. Leonard Overmyer pled guilty to transporting child pornography and received an 87-month prison sentence. The district court addressed all of Overmyer's arguments for a lower sentence and reasonably imposed a bottom-of-the-guidelines sentence. We affirm. I. In 2008, an Internet service provider reported several transfers of suspected child pornography. Investigators traced the files to an automobile-parts manufacturer in Kentwood, Michigan. An internal...
Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206 OPINION KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. Herbert Nixon sent six threatening letters to the federal district judge who had sentenced him to prison for fraudulent use of an unauthorized credit card. The unsigned letters demanded money and threatened the judge's life. One of them contained a white-powder substance, which was later determined to be a harmless artificial sweetener. Nixon pled guilty to committing a hoax involving a biological weapon, in violation of 18...
OPINION RALPH B. GUY, JR., Circuit Judge. Defendant Ronald Kelsor appeals following his conviction on all twenty-two counts arising out of his involvement in the distribution of heroin over a four-year period in and around Columbus, Ohio. The district court sentenced defendant to a mandatory minimum term of life imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 grams of heroin, and imposed concurrent sentences for all but two of the other...
OPINION McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Brandon Gregory Robinson appeals the district court's denial of his petition for habeas corpus, in which he asserts a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. We AFFIRM. I. Background This case arose from a 911 call placed on September 28, 2004, which reported shots fired from a yellow vehicle at 56 Elmhurst in Highland Park, Michigan. Based on this dispatch, police officers apprehended Petitioner and recovered...
OPINION S. THOMAS ANDERSON, District Judge. Randy Louis Massey entered a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy to manufacture, possess and distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 324 months. Massey argues on appeal that the sentence was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. Because the district court's sentence was reasonable, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. I. BACKGROUND A. Factual Background On March 1,...
OPINION BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. The history of this case, recited in United States v. Oaks, 554 F.3d 1087 , 1088 (6th Cir.2009), is as follows: Defendant Jerry Ray Oaks pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and the district court in the Eastern District of Tennessee sentenced him to 120 months of incarceration and five years of supervised release, entering the judgment on August 9, 2006. He appealed his sentence, in the first instance, challenging, in...
OPINION JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Regina Provenzano seeks reversal of the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendant LCI Holdings, Inc. Provenzano contends LCI discriminated against her based on her age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., and the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act ("ELCRA"), Mich. Comp. Laws 37.2101 et seq. Although the district court misapplied the prima facie analysis...
OPINION BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. Vincent Wynn appeals the district court's judgment of conviction and sentence and its order denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Wynn pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1956. The district court denied Wynn's motion to withdraw his guilty plea and sentenced him to sixty-three months in prison. On appeal, Wynn argues that the district court erred by refusing to allow him to withdraw...
OPINION KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff-Appellee Dassault Systemes, SA ("Dassault") filed suit against Defendant-Appellant Keith Childress, d.b.a. Practical Catia Training ("Childress"), seeking damages for copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, and Michigan Consumer Protection Act violations arising from Childress's allegedly unauthorized use of Dassault's name and software licenses to operate a for-profit training course. Upon final judgment for Dassault,...
OPINION GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Paul Lowe appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the Ohio Supreme Court unreasonably applied federal law as clearly established by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 , 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003), when it upheld his incest conviction for engaging in sexual conduct with his stepdaughter. We disagree and therefore affirm. I. Lowe was charged with one count of...
OPINION BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. This is a wrongful discharge case. Lynn A. Morrison was terminated from her job as a medical sales representative by her employer, B. Braun Medical Inc. Morrison filed a complaint alleging that B. Braun had wrongfully discharged her in violation of Michigan's public policy because of her refusal to unlawfully promote non-approved uses of medical products and to violate anti-kickback laws. The case was tried to a jury. The district court denied a...
OPINION BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. On July 8, 2009, a grand jury returned a twenty-six-count indictment charging Michael Keller with an array of offenses. Keller entered a plea agreement with the Government on January 28, 2010. The Government breached the agreement by arguing for a longer sentence than provided by the agreement. Keller was sentenced to 168 months' imprisonment. Keller appeals, arguing that (1) the Government's breach of the plea agreement requires this Court to...
OPINION RALPH B. GUY, JR., Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Ron Westmoreland, a firefighter, appeals from the entry of summary judgment in favor of his employer, the City of Bay Village and its Mayor Deborah L. Sutherland, with respect to his claim that he was unlawfully disciplined in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment rights. See 42 U.S.C. 1983. The district court found that plaintiff's speech was not protected by the First Amendment because, although he had spoken as a...
OPINION SUTTON, Circuit Judge. Angered by an aggressive search of her home by federal agents, Kia Maxwell filed several Bivens claims and a 1985 civil-conspiracy claim against the agents. The claims went to a jury, and Maxwell won some and lost some. Maxwell challenges some components of the verdict and a few of the district court's rulings. We affirm. I. On October 18, 2007, two Secret Service agents staked out Kia Maxwell's home in Sterling Heights, Michigan, hoping to execute an...
OPINION BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. Robert M. Sills, a federal prisoner, appeals through counsel his 2009 conviction, following a jury trial, of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 136 months of imprisonment. He argues on appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, and that the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument in referencing his failure to testify and improperly vouching for evidence...
