Volume 155 — North Eastern Reporter, Third Series

CRIMINAL LAW - guilty plea kidnapping felonious assault tampering with evidence ineffective assistance of counsel failure to file motion to suppress consent lawful occupant can invite officer into dwelling despite co-occupant's objection and absence consenting co-occupant's absence from dwelling does not vitiate consent allegedly invalid protective sweep nothing seized merger each crime had separate animus no ineffective assistance felony sentencing consecutive sentences no error.

oil company adopted orphan well on landowner's property under the terms of the oil and gas lease affiliated company registered well after primary term expired, but registration with ODNR was not a lease requirement well produced in paying quantities court stopped base period when lawsuit was filed initial swabbing to reopen well was not an operating expense subsequent production by swabbing did not require imputed swab rig rental rate where no rental was charged by affiliated company labor rate earned by oil company's employees was an operating expense.

Trial court's dismissal for lack of jurisdiction was proper. Statute requires appeal of administrative appeal of zoning board to be filed in county where the principal office of the board is located.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW/CIVIL – TAX – MUNICIPAL: The trial court erred in declaring the city's excise tax on outdoor advertising signs, or billboards, unconstitutional under the First Amendment and entering a permanent injunction against the city's enforcement of the tax: the tax applies regardless of the message displayed and does not threaten to suppress the expression of certain viewpoints billboard operators are different from more traditional press mediums like news organizations in that billboard operators themselves seldom display their own content and the tax does not single out a particular group of billboard operators to bear the burden of the tax. The trial court correctly determined that the city's prohibition on communications between outdoor advertising hosts and their customers regarding the city's excise tax violated the First Amendment: the city's prohibition on communication between the outdoor advertising hosts and their customers is broader than necessary to achieve the city's interest in ensuring that the billboard tax remains an excise tax and not a sales tax therefore, the city's prohibition fails the intermediate-scrutiny review for government restriction of commercial speech laid out in Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Pub. Serv. Comm., 447 U.S. 557, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980).