Daily Briefs

State Supreme Court re-appoints Ludden to Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions


The Michigan Supreme Court has re-appointed C. Thomas Ludden to a second consecutive three-year term on the Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions.

The Committee is composed of attorneys and judges whose duty is to ensure that the Model Civil Jury Instructions are concise, understandable, conversational, unslanted, and not argumentative. The Committee has authority to amend or repeal existing instructions and, when appropriate, adopt new instructions, although the instructions do not have the force and effect of a court rule. This appointment will expire on December 31, 2021.

Ludden is the head of the appellate practice group at Lipson Neilson P.C. He regularly argues before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Michigan Court of Appeals and has also appeared in the
United States and Michigan Supreme Courts.   Ludden also has extensive trial experience in federal district courts.

 

Michigan’s medical chief to stand trial  on Flint charges


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s chief medical executive will stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and other charges in a criminal investigation of the Flint water crisis.

Dr. Eden Wells on Friday learned of the decision by Judge William Crawford II. Wells is a member of Gov. Rick Snyder’s Cabinet.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged Wells last year with obstruction of justice and lying to the police. He later added the manslaughter charge.

Five other people have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter tied to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area. Schuette says key officials knew about a spike in Legionnaires’ but waited too long to tell the public.

Some experts have blamed the outbreak on the use of the Flint River for municipal water. Legionnaires’ is a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water.

 

Court rejects  appeal in slaying of  14-year-old along trail


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan appeals court again has rejected an appeal from a man convicted in the 2014 slaying of 14-year-old girl along a trail in suburban Detroit.

James VanCallis argued that he had ineffective legal representation, but WDIV-TV reports the Michigan Court of Appeals in an opinion issued last week said his counsel’s strategy was sound.
April Millsap was found dead in 2014 along the Macomb Orchard Trail in Armada, where she had been walking her dog.

VanCallis, now 36, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in April’s killing and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. An earlier appeal was denied in January. VanCallis’ lawyer had argued that there was no DNA evidence linking VanCallis to the crime.
 

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