Criminal Law

“The best answer, when dealing with the cops, is to just say no.”

Live For Live Music – a website that reports on many live music happenings and issues – has a great interview with the “Festival Lawyer”, Cameron Bowman. Bowman talks about how festival-goers can protect their rights, but his advice is pretty much applicable to everyone. L4LM: It sounds like the best answer, when dealing with …

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Reason # 20 To Fight Your DC Misdemeanor Drug Charge: The DMV Will Revoke Your License After Conviction

There are many consequences to a drug conviction, some well-known and others not obvious until you face it. One little-known consequence of a drug conviction in DC is that the DC Department of Motor Vehicles will automatically revoke your driver’s license. DC Code § 50-1403.02 requires the DMV to revoke DC driving privileges for any adult …

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It’s A Far Cry From Pointing Out Inconsistent Police Stories To Proving Misconduct

The lesson from the jury was clear: while they believed that there were too many discrepancies and inconsistencies in the police officers’ stories to convict our client of evidence tampering (whew! one felony avoided), they couldn’t go the rest of the way to believing that the police officers planted drugs on the defendant (damn, a …

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DEA Chemists: In Drug Cases, Sometimes They Just Make It Up

I have written before how in criminal drug prosecutions, the government analyst should be cross-examined  and their case file and other information should be requested to prepare a defense case. A colleague sent me a great example of this effort paying off. A chemist at the DEA Mid-Atlantic Laboratory wrote in a report that three samples …

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Who Cares Whether Urine Scores Are Reliable? DC Still Prosecuting Per Se Urine DUI Cases.

Even though everyone in the DC government, from the DC Council to the prosecutors at the Office of the Attorney General, knows that alcohol in the urine has a “loose correlation” to intoxication, that urinalysis is unreliable, people are still regularly prosecuted and convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) base on their urine scores. Back …

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To the Permanent Resident Pleading Guilty to Drug Offense and Counting on Cancellation of Removal: Don’t

I was consulted on a case the other day where a person had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession (of something that’s not marijuana) over his lawyer’s warnings that it make him removable. The judge also (post-Padilla) made sure that the person knew that there could be immigration consequences. But all the person could hear was …

To the Permanent Resident Pleading Guilty to Drug Offense and Counting on Cancellation of Removal: Don’t Read More »

Special Counsel’s Questionable Testimony in Support of DC’s Draconian Liquid PCP Possession Penalties

Unlike every other drug you can (illegally) possess in the District, the D.C. Council has made possession of any amount of liquid PCP a felony punishable by up to 3 years and/or $3000 fine.* In part, this was because the D.C. Council felt that PCP is a more dangerous drug than other so-called “hard drugs,” …

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