High court to hear oral arguments for six cases in April

Listen to this article

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in six cases in April, including a case involving a pre-sentencing assessment and another involving a decade-old liability suit concerning lead paint.

The six cases hail from Brown, Dodge, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Marathon and Milwaukee counties, according to a news release. The justices are scheduled to hear three of them on April 5: State v. Eric Loomis, Dennis Dufour v. Progressive Classic Insurance Co. and Yasmine Clark v. American Cyanamid Co.

State v. Loomis, which the court will hear at 9:45 a.m., is a criminal case in which the justices will examine when a court may rely on a pre-sentencing assessment called Correctional Offender Management Profiling when handing down a sentence.

Then at 10:45 a.m. the same day, the justices will hear oral arguments in Dufour v. Progressive, which concerns a dispute over insurance coverage in a motorcycle accident.

The last oral argument the justices will hear on April 5 will be in the case of Clark v. American Cyanamid, which stems from a 2006 negligence lawsuit filed against several manufacturers of lead paint.

In April 7, the high court will hear oral arguments in State v. Timothy Finley Jr., City of Eau Claire v. Melissa Booth and State v. Rory McKellips.

In State v. Finley, the justices will examine the remedy available to a defendant who pleads no contest and is misinformed about the maximum penalty  that could be imposed. The justices will hear oral arguments on the case starting at 9:45 a.m.

The court will then hear oral arguments at 10:45 a.m. in the case of City of Eau Claire v. Booth, which involves a woman’s drunken-driving convictions. The justices will consider whether a municipality can pursue a drunken-driving citation if the defendant can also be criminally charged  and whether a  circuit court can enter a  first-offense drunken-driving judgement if the defendant has a previous out-of-state OWI conviction.

The final case for which the court will hear oral arguments on April 7 is State v. McKellips, which involves a high school basketball coach convicted of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime as well as a obstructing an officer. The justices will examine whether the statute under which McKellips was charged applied to the case and whether it was unconstitutionally overbroad.

The oral arguments scheduled for both days will take place in the Supreme Court Hearing Room, 231 East, State Capitol. Follow @erikastrebel