Friday, October 11, 2013

The Published Opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley in the Steubenville Civil Rights Case Thorne v. City of Steubenville Officer John Lelles, et al

http://www.leagle.com/decision/20061223463FSupp2d760_11143

This link provides the U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio 34 page opinion which strongly favored the young plaintiff  Mr. Danny Thorne, Jr. in this significant civil rights police civil rights case filed by Attorney Richard Olivito against the City of Steubenville in 2005/6.

The opinion provided a clear victory against summary judgment which was sought by the City and its Officers 'large insurer municipal defense law firm's efforts to have the case dismissed early.

The experienced and highly noted District Court Judge of Columbus' US Courts, wrote and filed an opinion that closely followed the arguments of the plaintiff and supported the idea that the officers did NOT have any probable cause to enter the Thorne's residence without a warrant and that the claims presented by the Thorne's lead counsel, Richard A. Olivito inside his original complaint filed in January of 2005, were in fact both supported by the facts and were capable of overcoming any defense motion for summary judgment.

This well written, lengthy published opinion was substantially and materially upheld on appeal by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, a year and half later.  The plaintiffs won this litigation on every single major individual officer liability claim.

Every single legal brief deposition and responsive motion and other original pleadings in this case was done and developed by lead counsel Richard A. Olivito.  

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Kimble Case Sixth Circuit Published Opinion is Becoming a Cited Case In Other Federal Matters: Supreme Court Exxon Case cites the same

The Sixth Circuit Opinion on the national media covered lawsuit and police
misconduct incident is now available on line and thru various sources on
the internet.

The published opinion 439 F3d. 331 2006, demonstrates how a solo lawyer under tremendous
pressure from the local regional bar association of Mahoning County, a federal district
court and a large insurance industry defense firm with close ties to State Supreme
Court Chief Justice Tom Moyers won and won significiantly on the law and thru
old fashioned hard work and critical legal reasoning which won the day at
a leve that is far and above the cronyism that is so common at lower level
state and district courts in the Northern District of Ohio.

The Kimble opinion clearly demonstrates the Attorney Olivito, six months
prior to his state supreme court suspension which was a so thinly veiled
attack on his law license and reputation derived from the locale where this
national televised and high profile police misconduct federal claim arose
directed by both a Greek police chief and a greek federal judge from
Youngstown Ohio won the day for the client with his solo efforts
by strongly overcoming a Weston Hurd novel argument that attempted
to use and maniuplate the procedural case's history at the district court
in Youngstown.

The opinion which is turning up in several post Kimble matters has also been recently cited by the U.S. Supreme Court for its reasoning and legal effect.

The case is available on several links and is available on line at the links listed
at the side bar in this blog at Kimble v. Hoso.

It represents a clear triumph of the individual and the solo plaintiff and solo plaintiff
trial counsel over much greater odds, including a powerful local police and city interests
as well as politicized law officials and even a questionable judicial officer named
Peter Economus who is a Clinton appointee from the 1990's.

This high profile case is very interesting for several reasons but among them is the
the interesting interplay between politics and law and even what and whose interests
do when they meet at one district court level but yet are prevented at the highest court levels where actual legal reasoning and independent judicial decision making become the basis for a geniune independent legal outcome and decision, free from personal lawyer bias and insurance industry influence.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Olivto and Kimble Achieve a Solid Settlement and Realize Another Important Victory

Kimble's Case Settles For Significant Amount

Recently, the Lyndal Kimble civil rights excessive force claim settled as the trial date
loomed. The reports indicate the case settled as high as any case ever settled in regards
to the City of Warren's past civil rights case settlements.

Northern District Court Judge Economus has insisted apparently on encouraging the parties to settle the claim instead of having the same proceed to trial where the national media would have probably appeared and covered the outcome due to the high profile nature of the case's amature video which made national news four years ago when the incident occured in the summer of 2003.

This is a progressive outcome for the clients and the issues. It demonstrates the underlying
civil rights case, despite the subsequent criminal conviction of Mr. Kimble was both serious and
substantive as I had orginally believed and many others in the legal community arount the region and the nation understood.

Olivito was quoted as stating in light of the settlement on a case he orginally filed in early 2004 and he successfully defended throught the original stages in both the district court and
at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, winning a critical case's defense challenge at the Court of Appeals in early 2006 against seroius odds and despite his own professional challenges and attacks which were derived from inside the Mahoning County Bar Association
in the same period.

"I would hope this case's solid settlement represents an acknowledgement by the City of Warren officials and officers that they did not escape without a finding of actual liability in some regard for the acts of their officers in relation to this high profile incident. It ought to put others on notice that such conduct can be successfully litigated against where important and fundamental american civil liberties are at stake, even where the clieint is sometimes not as
normative as many would appear"

"I truly take some encouragement that the children of Mr, Kimble who witnessed the original seroius incident will have something come to them from the city which allowed this kind of conduct to occur against a resident and citizen of the midwestern eastern Ohio city where Olivito took the case from in the summer of 2003."

Olivito and Kimble appeared in the summer of 2003 on Good Morning America, O'Reilley Factor and MSNBC and Fox's Rita Cosby and other national news media shows in light of the
serious video taped incident and later Mr. Olivito used this incident to help bring about a U.S. Justice Department review of the standards and pattern and practices of the Warren Police Department in the latter part of 2004 and 2005 to the present.

"This case is a true landmark case for Warren and eastern Ohio due to the high profile nature of what was viewed by millions as improper and unacceptable polie conduct against an arrestee who otherwise was not seriously resisting nor in any way assaultive against these officers.
Its ultimate purpose was to help numerous others in this region to realize that this type of conduct is both actionable and capable of review inside a federal courtroom and is unacceptable and it ought not be kept in the dark nor under wraps by the present midwest american legal system in our modern era."

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Legal Briefs of Attorney Richard Olivito Wins at Sixth Circuit

Lyndal Kimble's hard fought civil rights case against the three Warren Police officers who beat him in front of his minor children and wife and neighbors on a bright sunny day in June of summer of 2003 has won a critical appeal by the briefing of Attorney Richard A. Olivito.

As a result, the case will be able to continue on inside the Northern District Court of Ohio in Youngstown where it has recently won yet another subsequent legal victory, post the Sixth Circuit decision in the original District Court this year, after more briefing was done with the efforts of Attorney Bill Hinant Jr of South Carolina built upon that which attorney Richard Olivito had originally created for the basis of a significant legal victory for Kimble earlier at the Sixth Circuit.

The case is a critical civil rights constitutional case which related video tape
made national television news and sparked a series of constitutional claims
against the city and brought about a Department of Justice investigation
and review of the City of Warren, Ohio's police department and officials.

The case has been in litigation since early 2004 but was subjected to a lengthy
delay as a result of the defense firm of Weston Hurd taking an interlocutory
appeal to the Sixth Circuit in an attempt by the City to dismiss the case
without discovery or having a trial on the merits.

The case became one of the most controversial and highly covered legal cases in the Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune chronicle's history.

It also made national print media when the video tape was shown live on GMA
and related cable news stations nationwide. The Cleveland Scene Magazine also
did a cover story called the "Blue Mob", early in 2004
, featuring Kimble and Olivito, after this case and others began to take on a life of their own inside Cleveland media market

The case contained a video tape which was made by friends of kimble on the
saturday afternoon which shows the excessive force that was employed against
Mr. Kimble as he pulled his car into his front yard on Kennilworth Avenue
in Warren's distressed neighborhood, on a bright sunny early afternoon.

The police claim that Lyndal did not use a turn signal and this is why they
pulled into his driveway and then proceeded to pull him from the car and then proceeded to
punch, kick, body slam and use mace and a metalic object against him repeatedly

ABC news Good Morning America and Fox's Bill O'Reilley both played the
video tape for a national audience in early July of 2003,
the same summer
Bush was declaring victory in Iraq.

This significant milestone at the Sixth Circuit, done on the briefs written exclusively
by Mr. Olivito, represents a clear victory for the solo litigation efforts of both
Mr. Olivito and his client Lyndal Kimble.