A string of assaults (beard cuttings) in several Amish communities in Ohio gave rise to prosecution under Section 2 the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. A jury convicted all of the men charged with this hate crime. On appeal, the appellate court reversed...
Proven Trial Attorney
Handling The Toughest Cases
Year: 2015
Drug-Sniffing Dogs & Traffic Stops
Police officers may need a search warrant if they want to deploy a drug-sniffing dog on your car. Prior to Rodriguez v. United States, the law was unclear about how long an officer can wait before deploying a drug-sniffing dog on a stopped motor vehicle. For example,...
Free Speech and Facebook: Reasonable Versus Subjective Intent
The Supreme Court made it harder (than it was before) to prosecute people for threats made on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. A Pennsylvania man was convicted of threatening another person over interstate lines (under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c)). This was the first...
Never Consent to a Search! But Even If You Did, That Search May Still Be Invalid
If an officer asks if he can search your property (your car, your house, your pockets), it means that he knows that he doesn’t have legal cause to conduct that search. Therefore, the only thing that may lay between you and your arrest is your response to the officer’s...
Evolving Expungement Law in Ohio
Not long ago, the law in Ohio said that if you were convicted of a single DUI offense at any point in your life, you were ineligible to seal any criminal offense(s) on your record, even if that offense was totally unrelated to your DUI case. Thankfully, the...
Happy Hour and Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device (BAIID)
Happy Hour is officially back in Illinois. Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that allows the return of happy hour alcoholic drink specials. Happy hour drink specials have been banned under Illinois law since 1989. The original ban was instituted to prevent...
Charged with DUI? Drunk or Sober, There Is Still Hope
Many people think that because they were in fact drunk (or high) at the time of their DUI arrest, that there is no hope for their case. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Even if you are intoxicated, the police cannot violate your constitutional rights or their...
Don’t Give Police “Your Side of the Story” Without Talking to a Lawyer First
When they’re investigating a crime, police will often induce a suspect into making incriminating statements by telling them that they simply want to hear “your side of the story.” People often fall for this trap, thinking that by cooperating and giving the police...
Federal Charges for Big-Time Drug Smugglers
The U.S. Attorney in Cleveland recently announced charges against eight men accused of smuggling “large amounts” of drugs from Mexico to the U.S. These particular entrepreneurs were captured as a result of an investigation by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task...
Charges: Petty Offenses, Misdemeanors and Felonies
Most people I encounter appreciate the seriousness of a felony charge and understand that a felony conviction may result in prison time. However, many people do not understand the difference between a pretty offense and a misdemeanor. Can I go to jail? How much is...