CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
LEON BURNETT HENSLEY,
Defendant-Appellant. |
No. 23-5318 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
No. 3:21-cr-00112-1—Eli J. Richardson, District Judge.
Argued: March 20, 2024
Decided and Filed: August 7, 2024
Before: KETHLEDGE, BUSH, and READLER, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Leon Hensley surreptitiously recorded minors
using the bathroom. He pleaded guilty to 25 counts of production and attempted production of
child pornography. The district court sentenced him to 293 months of confinement. On appeal,
Hensley alleges two sentencing errors: (1) the district court impermissibly double counted when
calculating his offense level; and (2) the district court misunderstood its discretion to depart from
the Guidelines. Seeing no error on either front, we affirm. |
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT |
JANE DOE,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY,
Defendant-Appellee. |
No. 22-6012 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Lexington.
No. 5:15-cv-00296—Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, District Judge.
Argued: October 19, 2023
Decided and Filed: August 7, 2024
Before: BATCHELDER, GRIFFIN, and BLOOMEKATZ, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
BLOOMEKATZ, Circuit Judge. The University of Kentucky held not one, not two, not
three, but four student conduct hearings after Jane Doe reported that a student raped her in her
dorm room on campus. Each of the first three resulted in expulsions or long-term suspensions for
the accused, but the University’s appeals board overturned each determination for procedural
deficiencies. After the third reversal, Doe filed a Title IX lawsuit against the University for its
actions in response to the rape. Then, in the fourth hearing—nearly two-and-a-half years after
Doe first reported the rape—the hearing panel flipped and ruled against her. Doe now claims
that the University mishandled her fourth hearing in retaliation for her lawsuit. The University
moved for summary judgment and the district court granted the motion, concluding that Doe
could not state a prima facie case of retaliation under Title IX. Because the district court’s
decision rests on several legal errors and the record shows that a reasonable juror could find Doe
established a prima facie case, we reverse and remand. |
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
YANJUN XU,
Defendant-Appellant. |
No. 22-4020 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati.
No. 1:18-cr-00043-1—Timothy S. Black, District Judge.
Argued: February 1, 2024
Decided and Filed: July 24, 2024*
Before: BATCHELDER, STRANCH, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
UNSEALED OPINION
_________________________
DAVIS, Circuit Judge. Yanjun Xu, a Chinese citizen and member of China’s Ministry of
State Security (an intelligence organization), was convicted of conspiracy to commit economic
espionage and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from multiple aviation companies over a five-year
period. Xu was also convicted of attempted economic espionage by theft or fraud and attempted
theft of composite fan-blade technology from GE Aviation. Xu was sentenced to a combined
240 months’ imprisonment. On appeal, Xu seeks to have the judgment vacated and the case
remanded to the district court for a new trial. He argues that the district court erred in failing to
dismiss Counts 1 and 2 in the indictment as duplicitous, and that the district court abused its
discretion in admitting expert testimony in violation of Federal Rule of Evidence 704(b). In the
alternative, Xu seeks to have his sentence vacated, arguing that it was both procedurally and
substantively unreasonable. We affirm the district court’s judgment. |
|