Tag Archives: U.S. District Court

Live Blog: Ostling vs. Bainbridge Island, May 14

CASE BACKGROUND: Opening statements are expected today in the civil case accusing Bainbridge police officers of violating a 43-year-old mentally ill man’s civil rights when an officer shot and killed him in October 2010.

Lawyers for the estate and parents of Douglas Ostling, shot by police at his Springridge Drive home, are prepared to argue police violated his civil rights by going to his room without a search warrant, shooting him, and then refusing to allow his family to check on him.

The case is before U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton and is expected to last around two weeks.

Ostling suffered from mental illness and called 911 Oct. 26, 2010, making incoherent statements. Details of the encounter are disputed: police said Ostling was armed with an ax. He was shot in the leg and bled to death in his room.

Jury selection has been completed in Judge Leighton’s court. Opening statements will follow at 1:30 p.m.

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Federal sentencing of former Kitsap cop delayed

Roy Alloway, the former drug detective targeted in a federal gun selling probe, won’t be sentenced in federal court just yet. 

Alloway, a longtime Bremerton police officer, pleaded guilty in October to unlawful dealing in firearms and filing a false income tax return (both felonies) in  U.S. District Court.

He was to be sentenced Jan. 20 but the case has been delayed, according to Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle. He’s now set for sentencing Feb. 23.

The South Kitsap resident, 56, worked inside both the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement team and the Bremerton Police’s Special Operations Group. He was especially well known for his marijuana enforcement efforts.

He ran into trouble, the feds say, purchasing nearly 400 guns from three different federally licensed firearms dealers between January 2005 and November 2010. He sold pistols to undercover ATF agents at gun shows without the proper licenses. Federal prosecutors believe he did so to make a profit.

I’ll keep you posted on the case.

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Medical Marijuana Case Working its Way up the Judicial Ladder … in Michigan

Turns out Washington’s not the only state where issues over medical marijuana are being litigated. The American Civil Liberties Union earlier this month filed an appeal to a federal judge’s decision to throw out a Michigan case of a medical marijuana patient fired from Wal-Mart for his use of the drug.

In January, we covered our state supreme court’s hearing on a similar case in which a woman was fired from Teletech in East Bremerton for using medical marijuana to relieve migraine headaches. The woman is authorized under law to use medical marijuana.

She sued; her case was thrown out at the county and court of appeals level and it was taken for review by the state’s highest court. We are still awaiting their opinion.

Here’s the press release from the ACLU:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The American Civil Liberties Union today said it will appeal a decision by a federal judge to dismiss its lawsuit filed in June against Wal-Mart and the manager of its Battle Creek, Michigan store for wrongfully firing an employee for using medical marijuana in accordance with state law. The patient, Joseph Casias, used marijuana to treat the painful symptoms of an inoperable brain tumor and cancer.

Michigan voters in 2008 passed the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which provides protection for the medical use of marijuana under state law. But in a 20-page ruling today, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Jonker said the law doesn’t mandate that businesses like Wal-Mart make accommodations for employees like Casias, the Battle Creek, Michigan Wal-Mart’s 2008 Associate of the Year who was fired from his job at the store for testing positive for marijuana, despite being legally registered to use the drug. In accordance with the law, Casias never ingested marijuana while at work and never worked while under the influence of marijuana.

The ACLU will appeal today’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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