In Florida, you can commit the crime of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon if you use your car to hit someone else’s car when they are inside it. For example, if you use your car to hit someone… The post Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon and Cars appeared first on Chapman Criminal Defense Firm.
Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon and Cars
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Marijuana Tourism and Texas: The Lesson of Jacob Lavoro
As marijuana product lines flourish and recreational marijuana is legalized in nearby Colorado, what does it mean to Dallas? Serious charges in you’re caught with pot in any form: Texas law has not changed. Today, nineteen year old Jacob Lavoro and his family got some great news: the Williamson County District Attorney decided to drop the 1st Degree felony drug charges that were filed against Lavoro. The national news coverage of the two-count indictment against the teenager over some hemp oil brownies may have influenced things here. The petition presented to the prosecution, with over 243,000 signatures on it in support of Jacob Lavoro not facing such a draconian punishment probably had a little sway, too. A batch of brownies with a dash of hemp oil have a 19 year old Texas boy facing 20 years incarceration from a 2nd Degree felony charge. The Saga of Texas Teen Jacob Lavoro and His Homemade Pot Brownies Down in Round Rock (which is just north of Austin), back in April,…
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"Rebellion: The Courts of Appeals' Latest Anti-Booker Backlash"
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Million Dollar Marijuana Operation Discovered in Countryside Home
A Tennessee power company's investigation into a neighborhood's power shortage issues led to a large drug bust in the Tennessee countryside. Beneath the average looking countryside home was a million dollar "pot cave". Marijuana was being grown in buckets, with an elaborate water and light system in place to maintain the plants, according to secretsofthefed.com. (Read the story here.) A secret entrance through the garage led to a cave that went back 50 yards into the hills the house was built against. The entrance was protected by a steel door, which was operated by a hydraulic motor. The men that were running the marijuana operation had spliced into power lines, and stole an estimated $61,000 worth of electricity. In, Florida, this drug bust would have led to Grand Theft and Trafficking in Cannabis charges, among other things. Florida law calls for minimum sentences that apply in Trafficking cases, with three years being the lowest minimum that…
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Hartford Man Faces Felony ‘Super-drunk’ Driving Charges After Crashing into Ditch
On Sunday, August 24, 31-year-old Juan Benavidez of Hartford was arrested for driving while under the influence after he crashed his vehicle into a ditch, according to news reports at Mlive.com. The accident took place near CR 681 on 72nd Avenue at approximately 3:20 in the afternoon. An off-duty Hartford police officer called the accident in, and deputies were dispatched to the scene. No other vehicles were involved in the crash, and Benavidez was the only person in his vehicle. A release issued by the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office stated that Benavidez was traveling at a high rate of speed in a southbound direction when he attempted to turn east on 72nd Avenue and ended up in a ditch on the north side. News reports indicate that Benavidez’s blood alcohol level upon being administered a breathalyzer test was more than three times the state’s legal limit of .08 percent. In Michigan, anyone with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of higher than .17 may be…
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News Scan
Habitual Felon to be Charged with Multiple Murders: A California man with a lengthy criminal past has been arrested and is expected to be charged later today with several counts of murder. The Associated Press reports that 34-year-old Alexander Hernandez is believed to be responsible for killing four people and wounding several others over five days across Los Angeles County. Hernandez has already been charged with one count of capital murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of animal cruelty, and is expected to be charged with three more counts of first-degree murder. If found guilty, Hernandez faces a possible death sentence. Convicted Murderer Kills Again: Authorities in Missouri say that an inmate has died from injuries he sustained at the hands of his cellmate, a convicted murderer. The Associated Press reports that 35-year-old Mark Melton was assaulted in his cell earlier this month and eventually died from his injuries…
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Ohio Hiker Sexually Assaulted at Highbanks Metro Park in Lewis Center
Approximately three weeks ago, an 18-year-old male hiker was walking at the Highbanks Metro Park in Lewis Center, OH when he was sexually assaulted by an unknown male. The victim claimed that as he was walking, the suspect attempted to encourage him to walk off the trail north of an overlook deck area that was approximately 75 feet away. When the victim became fearful, he began moving away from the suspect, who then pushed him to the ground and assaulted him, according to NBC4. Kevin Savage, Captain at the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters that the park was fairly crowded at the time the assault occurred, which was around 4:30 in the afternoon. The victim told authorities that the suspect is of Indian descent, had a slight accent, and was wearing black running shorts and a white t-shirt with black vertical stripes. He also described the man as having salt-and-pepper hair, a goatee, and nearly six feet tall, thought to be middle-aged. A composite sketch of…
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Article About Former Penn State President Raises Issues Concerning Independent Investigative Reports and Role of Corporate Counsel
The New York Times Magazine several weeks ago published a lengthy, largely sympathetic article about Graham Spanier, the former Penn State president (Sokolove, "The Shadow of the Valley"), see here, who is awaiting trial on charges of perjury and other...
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An OpEd by Erwin Chemerinsky
"How the Supreme Court Protects Bad Cops," is Erwin Chemerinsky's OpEd in the New York Times. He's the dean of the UC-Irvine School of Law. In recent years, the court has made it very difficult, and often impossible, to hold...
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Louisiana Exoneree Seeks Compensation
Nearly three years ago, Michael Williams was exonerated of second-degree murder in Louisiana. According to the American Lawyer, Williams is now seeking compensation from New Orleans and the state for the more than 15 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit. In 1996, a young woman was stabbed to death and then dumped onto a road. A single eyewitness testified that he had seen Williams and the victim arguing in Williams' car on the night of the crime, and that he saw Williams push the victim's body out of his car and onto the street. The eyewitness - whose testimony served as the primary evidence that led to Williams being convicted and sentenced to life in prison - recanted in 2009. Lawyers at Innocence Project New Orleans took on Williams' case and through investigation were able to prove that police had actually talked to another witness of the crime, but never shared that additional information with the defense. The American Lawyer reports…
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SEC Issues Consumer Bulletin
The Securities Exchange Commission Office of Investor Education has issued a recent bulletin concerning financial advisors. The SEC and FINRA have been under a great deal of pressure. Both Congress and consumer groups are looking for evildoers. So, the politically easy reaction is to attack financial advisors. Financial advisors are regulated and their records are kept into primary locations. One is the industry‘s secure reporting system and the other one is open to the public. The one open to the public is Broker Check. It is easily available online to the public. The Broker Check report includes a list of the broker’s registrations, his/her licenses, previous employment, customer disputes, and any disciplinary actions. Any accusations of professional misconduct are readily available online. The investment advisor public disclosure website has more background information. Information can also be obtained from state regulatory agencies. Most states have their…
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Are The Police Allowed To Lie?
Most people have heard the rumor that if you ask an undercover cop if they are a police officer they must tell you. This is simply not true. Police are allowed to lie to you. Police officers can lie to people during an investigation. They can lie about being an undercover cop, they can lie about information they have (or don’t have) on you. Cops can lie about what other suspects said. For example, a police officer can tell a suspect that their friend admitted to everything when in fact the friend confessed nothing at all. Cops can lie to you to get information out of you. For example, they can say “If you give us information about your drug dealer, we won’t charge you for drug possession.” They may be telling the truth, but legally they can lie to you. Police are allowed to lie to suspects or people they are questioning because it makes their job much more efficient. If an officer makes a suspect believe that someone implicated that person in a…
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California appeals court reaffirms the legality of retail medical marijuana sales
Although California passed the first modern medical marijuana law in 1996 and saw the first wave of medical marijuana dispensaries, the legal status of dispensaries in the state is still somewhat unsettled. While government officials in places like Oakland have backed large scale retail outlets, in other parts of the...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/Ye6Lf4pj0Lg" height="1" width="1"/>
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The Illinois Appellate Court
The best evidence rule applies only when a party seeks to prove the contents of a writing. It has no application where a party seeks to prove a fact which has an existence independently of any writing, and this is true even though a writing exists evidencing that fact. 'The real reason for the rule,' says it 'shows why it has come to be generally accepted that only documents, or things bearing writing, can be within the purview of the rule. In the first place, it is in the terms and construction of language that the special risk of error lies. In the second place, it is chiefly in respect to language that slight inaccuracies are likely to be of important legal consequence. A mistake, for example, in counting the number of bushels in a bin of wheat can hardly lead to serious consequences, but a mistake in a few letters of an ordinary deed may represent it as giving to Jones instead of to Jonas or as giving five hundred instead of four hundred acres.' In a…
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Sex Offenders of the State of New York
This is a proceeding wherein the petitioner, DK, petitions for an order and judgment, pursuant to CPLR 7801-7806, annulling and vacating the 25 January 2011 final determination of respondent Board of Examiners of Criminal Sex Offenders of the State of New York on the grounds the determination was arbitrary and capricious, was affected by error of law and involved an abuse of discretion. The court dismisses the petition. The petitioner claims that his Florida nolo contendere plea to the crime of indecent assault under former Fla Stat § 800.04[3] for which the court withheld adjudication and entered an order of supervision placing petitioner on sexual offender probation for four years, does not constitute a conviction for purposes of the Sex Offender Registration Act and that, as such, the Board erred in determining that petitioner was required to register under SORA. The undisputed facts enumerate that by an April 1998 Information, the State of Florida charged, on…
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What If I Am Not Happy With My Criminal Defense Attorney?
If you are facing criminal charges from an OVI all the way up to Rape or Murder you need to be comfortable with the work that your criminal defense attorney is doing for you. If you are not comfortable it might be time to make a switch. Understand, criminal cases are often incredibly stressful and confusing for people who have never been through them before. Make sure that the tension you are feeling is grounded in specifics before giving another attorney a call. Once you are ready to make the leap to another attorney do your research. Use objective websites such as AVVO.com or Google.com. These websites are free to use and can give you an objective picture of how your current attorney, or even new attorney, stack up against others. If you have questions feel free to give us a call at (440) 471-7811. The call is completely confidential and has absolutely no obligation. We will take you through the steps necessary to talk to a new attorney and if we agree to take your…
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What Happens After Your First OVI Court Hearing?
Many people never had to go through the criminal justice system before and can feel a bit lost with everything that happens. On top of that sometimes attorneys just assume everyone understands the process. After you have been charged, given a ticket or indicted, you are required to show up for your first hearing (unless your attorney can have you excused from it) commonly known as an arraignment. At this hearing as you may know you simply show up and plea not guilty. From there your case is going to be set for what is called a pretrial hearing. At this hearing the prosecutor and your attorney will meet to discuss your case. Often documents, evidence, called discovery are exchanged. This hearing is important from the point of view that it is your attorney’s first chance to obtain evidence and discuss the matter with the prosecutor. After this your case may be set for another pretrial, a suppression hearing, or even trial. Call me at (440) 471-7811. My name is Joe…
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In the 11th Circuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruling in Fults v. GDCP Warden is available in Adobe .pdf format. "Racist Revelation Will not Lead to Habeas Relief," is by Deshayla Strachan for Courthouse News Service. former juror's comment...
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The Myth of a Kinder, Gentler Execution
That's the title of commentary at Philadelphia public radio station WHYY-FM NewsWorks. It's by Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University. Did Joseph Wood suffer when he was executed in Arizona last month? Some witnesses...
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A Potential Volunteer in Pennsylvania
The Allentown Morning Call reports, "Will Michael Ballard go ahead with wish to be executed?" by Riley Yates. To Northampton County's top prosecutor, mass murderer Michael Eric Ballard is a "mad dog" and a "poster boy" for the death penalty....
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