SmartBrief
0
Confirm favorite deletion?
Criminal Law Keyed to Osler
United States v. Coss
Citation:
677 F. 3d 278 (6th Cir. 2012)Only StudyBuddy Pro offers the complete Case Brief Anatomy*
Access the most important case brief elements for optimal case understanding.
*Case Brief Anatomy includes: Brief Prologue, Complete Case Brief, Brief Epilogue
- The Brief Prologue provides necessary case brief introductory information and includes:
- Topic: Identifies the topic of law and where this case fits within your course outline.
- Parties: Identifies the cast of characters involved in the case.
- Procedural Posture & History: Shares the case history with how lower courts have ruled on the matter.
- Case Key Terms, Acts, Doctrines, etc.: A case specific Legal Term Dictionary.
- Case Doctrines, Acts, Statutes, Amendments and Treatises: Identifies and Defines Legal Authority used in this case.
- The Case Brief is the complete case summarized and authored in the traditional Law School I.R.A.C. format. The Pro case brief includes:
- Brief Facts: A Synopsis of the Facts of the case.
- Rule of Law: Identifies the Legal Principle the Court used in deciding the case.
- Facts: What are the factual circumstances that gave rise to the civil or criminal case? What is the relationship of the Parties that are involved in the case. Review the Facts of this case here:
Defendant met John Stamos on a vacation in Florida in 2004 at a night club for those over 18-year-old, though the defendant was only 17 years-old. Defendant gave Stamos her phone number and the next day Stamos invited her and a friend to a guided tour of Walt Disney World. They also attended a party at Stamos’s hotel room after where there was alcohol and illegal drugs used. Pictures of Stamos and the defendant were taken and Stamos gave the defendant his email address before the end of his trip. The two emailed for five or six years back and forth and Stamos characterized their relationship as friends. Defendant flew to Chicago to visit him once as well.
In 2008 the defendant started dating Scott Sippola and the two created a plan to obtain money from Stamos in exchange for the photos. They created two fake people to correspond with Stamos, “Jessica T.” and “Brian L.” First, in September of 2009, they created an email address for “Jessica T.” and emailed Stamos from it claiming that he got her pregnant from a sexual encounter they had on vacation. Stamos’s lawyer responded to “Jessica T.” with a cease and desist letter and no further emails came from the “Jessica T.” account.
Second in October of 2009, Cosss emailed Stamos that somebody named “Brian L.” alleged that he had bad photos of Stamos from a party in Florida from 2004, and that if he was not paid for them, it he would sell the photos to tabloids. Coss asked Stamos for his help in resolving the matter. Coss then suggested that Stamos deal with “Brian” by himself. By the time “Brian” began email correspondance with Stamos, his lawyer had the FBI involved and the agency advised Stamos’s communication from that point forward. They settled on $680,000 for the photographs and that they would meet in a private airport outside Marquette, Michigan to exchange the cash. The defendant and Sippola were arrested near the scene of the exchange site. They were both charged and convicted with extortion and using threats to injure reputation in order to extort money.
- Issue(s): Lists the Questions of Law that are raised by the Facts of the case.
- Holding: Shares the Court's answer to the legal questions raised in the issue.
- Concurring / Dissenting Opinions: Includes valuable concurring or dissenting opinions and their key points.
- Reasoning and Analysis: Identifies the chain of argument(s) which led the judges to rule as they did.
- The Brief Prologue closes the case brief with important forward-looking discussion and includes:
- Policy: Identifies the Policy if any that has been established by the case.
- Court Direction: Shares where the Court went from here for this case.
Topic Resources
Topic Videos 
9m 29s
7m 17s
