The case concerned a father's appeal of the dismissal of his motion to modify child custody in Kentucky after his ex-wife moved their son to Colorado. The trial court had ruled that Kentucky lost jurisdiction under the UCCJEA because the child no longer had significant connections to the state. The Court of Appeals vacated the order and remanded, reasoning that the trial court failed to apply the mandatory factors under KRS 403.834 for declining jurisdiction and erred in finding no significant connections given the father's ongoing residence and the child's visits in Kentucky.
In Lisle v. Commonwealth, the defendant was convicted of fourth-degree assault, third offense, violation of a domestic violence order, and being a persistent felony offender after an incident in which he assaulted his girlfriend. The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the conviction for fourth-degree assault as a third offense, finding that the Commonwealth failed to present sufficient evidence proving that the two prior assault convictions involved family members or members of an unmarried couple as required by KRS 508.032. The court affirmed the underlying convictions for fourth-degree assault and violation of the DVO, however, and remanded those matters for sentencing, while noting that the statute allows a jury or judge to treat the third-offense charge as a misdemeanor even when the prior convictions are established. The decision turned on the requirement that the prior convictions be treated as elements of the offense that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than mere sentencing factors.
In Nelson v. Nelson, Gary Nelson appealed a Hopkins Family Court order requiring him to pay $729 per month in support for his adult daughter Ashley, who has developmental disabilities and works only part-time. The court affirmed the order, finding that Ashley qualifies as a wholly dependent person under KRS 405.020(2) due to permanent physical and mental impairments that prevent her from living independently or supporting herself. Although the parties' divorce settlement had limited Gary's obligation to $150 per month during periods of unemployment, the court held that the agreement did not control because anticipated Social Security benefits were denied and Ashley's need for support had not changed. The family court's factual determination of dependency was supported by substantial evidence from medical records, psychological evaluations, and testimony, and thus was not clearly erroneous.
The case involved Charles Allen's appeal from his conviction in Ohio Circuit Court on eleven counts of first-degree sexual abuse, for which he was sentenced to eleven years in prison, based on allegations that he repeatedly abused his stepdaughter over several years beginning when she was thirteen. Allen raised multiple claims of error, including that the trial court should have struck a prospective juror for cause due to the juror's personal history of sexual abuse by his father, that the Commonwealth improperly bolstered witness testimony, that the multiple charges violated double jeopardy, and that evidence of prior bad acts was improperly admitted. The Court of Appeals of Kentucky affirmed the conviction and sentence, holding that the trial court correctly denied Allen's motions on all grounds, including the juror challenge, because the juror affirmed his ability to decide the case impartially based on the evidence. A separate opinion disagreed on the juror issue, arguing that precedent required reversal because the failure to strike the juror for cause deprived Allen of a peremptory challenge.
In Johnson v. Commonwealth, the defendant appealed his convictions for first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and first-degree persistent felony offender status, along with an order forfeiting cash seized during a search of his hotel room. The court affirmed the trafficking and paraphernalia convictions and the forfeiture but reversed the PFO conviction and remanded for resentencing. The PFO reversal rested on the conclusion that Johnson's prior Florida offenses did not qualify under KRS 532.080 because they involved withheld adjudication and did not impose a sentence of one year or more of imprisonment. The court found the evidence sufficient for the drug convictions based on the officers' testimony and Johnson's admissions, and upheld the forfeiture because the cash was in close proximity to the drugs with denominations matching typical crack sales, creating a presumption that the defendant did not rebut by clear and convincing evidence.