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Plea to a traffic ticket not collateral estoppel in a federal criminal case

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant's plea to a traffic charge is not collateral estoppel to bar him from contesting the stop in a federal criminal case. The § 1983 case law, including Heck, does not apply in a criminal case. United States v. Delano, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19820 (N.D. Ohio March 3, 2008): In its initial ruling, this Court collaterally estopped Defendant Delano from asserting that he did not commit the traffic violations. The prosecution's brief asserts that this was proper, and Bies v. Bagley's ruling on collateral estoppel does not govern this case. In Bies, the Sixth Circuit found that "collateral estoppel may only be used by the accused." Bies, 2008 WL 507818 at *13. The United States argues that the Bies decision cited cases that had ruled that collateral estoppel could not be used against a defendant when it would estop a defendant from contesting an element of the defense...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).