PORTLAND — A Lewiston man sentenced to 14 months in prison following a brawl with law enforcement appealed to the state’s highest court to overturn that decision on the grounds that police wrongly attacked him first. A lawyer for Nicholas Begin told justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday morning that inflammatory police testimony […]
maine supreme court
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Supreme Court splits opinions on hiring outside counsel for the state
PORTLAND — Gov. Paul LePage and Maine Attorney General Janet Mills each won a small victory Tuesday when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion on one question about the hiring of outside counsel to represent the state in legal matters but refused to consider the other. LePage posed the two questions in January: […]
advertisement
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Senate approves Maine supreme court justice’s nomination to federal bench
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 75-20 to confirm Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Jon Levy’s nomination to serve as a federal judge in Maine. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine praised Levy’s accomplishments, including his years as a judge and a private attorney, and his advocacy for legal help for […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Supreme Court dismisses state’s appeal of prisoner’s lawsuit
PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has dismissed the state’s appeal of a lower court decision that may affect how solitary confinement is used in Maine prisons. Diane Sleek, attorney for the Maine Department of Corrections, said Thursday that last week’s decision by Maine’s high court simply dismissed the appeal without giving definitive guidelines […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Supreme Court rules there’s a difference between cooking meth and drug trafficking
PORTLAND — In January 2012, police found an Augusta area man in the process of boiling a chemical substance while in possession of the illegal drug cookbook “Uncle Fester’s Synthetic Manual,” as well as many of the products and glassware necessary to create methamphetamines. But because Aaron Lowden, then 41, hadn’t successfully concocted any of […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Supreme Court allows transgender student to use girls’ restroom
PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision that banned a transgender child from using the girls’ bathroom in Orono schools. In a 5-1 decision, the justices said that Superior Court Justice William Anderson erred when he ruled in favor of what is now Riverside RSU 26. “Our opinion […]
Posted inOxford Hills
Lowe confession is ruled inadmissable in manslaughter case
PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a lower court decision suppressing the confession of Kristina Lowe, who is charged with two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Rebecca Mason and Logan Dam last year. Last December, active retired Justice Robert W. Clifford partially granted a motion to suppress statements made by Lowe, 19, of West Paris, […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Supreme Court upholds conviction in triple killing
PORTLAND — The Maine supreme court has upheld murder convictions for a 23-year-old man whose lawyer said he was “played” by a skilled law enforcement officer during an interrogation. The defense contended Thayne Ormsby’s remark that “I’m going to have to plead the fifth on that one” should have been enough for the detective to […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Caroline Glassman, 1st woman to serve on Maine supreme court, dies
PORTLAND — Caroline Duby Glassman, who rose to become the first woman on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court after starting her climb to the top of the male-dominated legal profession during the 1950s, has died. She was 90. A role model for women in Maine’s legal profession, Glassman was appointed to the state’s highest court […]