State v. Lavalleur

Summary

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Curtis H. Lavalleur’s second plea in bar asserting that retrial would violate double jeopardy. The court held that the appeal concerned future evidentiary rulings not subject to review at that stage, and that the law-of-the-case doctrine foreclosed reconsideration of whether retrial on the attempted first degree sexual assault charge implicated double jeopardy.

Holdings

1. The overruling of a motion in limine is not a final ruling on the admissibility of evidence and does not present a reviewable question on this appeal from denial of a plea in bar.
2. The second amended information did not place Lavalleur at risk of double jeopardy because it was identical to the attempted first degree sexual assault charge for which he had previously been convicted and whose retrial had already been held constitutionally permissible.
3. The law-of-the-case doctrine precluded reconsideration of the substantially identical double-jeopardy issue because Lavalleur presented no materially and substantially different facts.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the second amended information placed Lavalleur at risk of a second prosecution or other violation of the federal or Nebraska constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy.
2. Whether the district court's preliminary ruling on Lavalleur's motion in limine was reviewable on the appeal from denial of the plea in bar.
3. Whether the law-of-the-case doctrine barred reconsideration of the prior determination that retrial on the attempted first degree sexual assault charge was constitutionally permissible.

Disposition

affirmed