Posted on November 18, 2021 in Criminal Defense

In a recent drug case in Virginia, the court denied the defendant’s appeal for possession of heroin. Originally, the defendant had been found guilty after overdosing on drugs in his hotel room. On appeal, the defendant argued that the officer who found the drugs violated his right to privacy by unlawfully searching through his nightstand. Additionally, he argued that because of recent changes to Virginia law, he should not be convicted if officers only found the drugs while they were providing emergency medical care. The court disagreed, ultimately denying the defendant’s appeal.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, an officer was dispatched to a motel room in Virginia in response to an anonymous caller claiming they saw an unresponsive male in the room. When the officer arrived, she announced her presence and entered the room, finding the defendant on the floor. He was unconscious, pale, sweating, and breathing heavily. The officer believed the defendant to be suffering from a drug overdose, so she called emergency medics, who quickly arrived and began treating the defendant. In the meantime, the officer began searching the hotel room for evidence of drug use.

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 Posted on November 10, 2021 in Criminal Defense

Federal courts do not have the jurisdiction to try any alleged crime committed in the United States. For a United States District Court to entertain criminal charges against a defendant, there must be a valid statutory or constitutional basis for the federal court to exercise jurisdiction over the charge. Because of these restrictions on federal jurisdiction, laws have been creatively passed by the U.S. Congress to expand federal jurisdiction over alleged criminal conduct. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2341–2353, colloquially known as the Hobbs Act, is one such statute.

The Hobbs Act allows federal courts to take jurisdiction over crimes of robbery or extortion that disrupt interstate commerce, as the federal government has control over interstate commerce under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. A federal appellate court recently heard a defendant’s appeal of several Hobbes act convictions.

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 Posted on October 31, 2021 in Criminal Defense

Recently, an appellate court in Virginia affirmed a DUI conviction against a defendant who was determined to be the driver at the time of the crash. The court found that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to conclude that the defendant was the driver.

The Facts of the Case

The defendant was driving a car and was involved in a single-car accident that resulted in her co-worker, who was riding in the car at the time, being ejected from the car. A witness observed the crash while at a red light, called 911, and assisted at the scene. Officers arrived at the scene and observed the defendant with glassy eyes, slurred speech, and emitting a strong odor of alcohol. The defendant admitted to drinking alcohol that evening, and after field sobriety tests were conducted on the defendant, she was arrested for DUI. During a hearing, the officer was cross-examined and stated that he could not recall the defendant’s exact answer to his question of whether the defendant was the driver of the vehicle. The officer admitted that it could have been possible that the other officers on the scene had told him that the defendant was the driver of the vehicle, which may have been the reason why his notes did not reflect the fact that he asked the defendant who had been driving.

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 Posted on October 24, 2021 in Criminal Defense

In a recent opinion in a Virginia drug case, the court granted the Commonwealth’s request for a new verdict. Originally, a lower court had suppressed incriminating evidence found in the defendant’s car, maintaining that the evidence should not be used because the officer’s decision to conduct the traffic stop was unjustified. The Commonwealth appealed, pointing to an agreement the defendant had signed a few months prior to the traffic stop in which he waived all rights against unreasonable searches from police officers. The court ultimately saw the agreement as valid, deciding to allow the incriminating evidence to be brought in against the defendant.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was driving in Virginia when an officer stopped him, citing the reason for the stop as a defective brake light. After having stopped the defendant, the officer searched the vehicle and found heroin in the car. Based on this evidence, the defendant was later indicted for possession of a controlled substance.

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 Posted on October 11, 2021 in Criminal Defense

Recently, a Virginia appellate court affirmed a conviction against a defendant who was found guilty of robbery. The court held that the conviction of robbery was appropriate given that there was a sufficient basis for finding that intimidation was involved in the robbery.

The Facts of the Case

According to the court’s opinion, the defendant entered a bank, passed the teller a note, and uttered that “this is a robbery.” When the teller asked her to repeat what she said, the defendant said, “Give me all the money; this is a robbery.” During her testimony, the teller stated that she was in shock and that the bank policy requires that if someone utters the word “robbery,” the teller must comply with their demands. The teller handed the defendant all the money and set off an alarm. The teller testified that at the time, she was not sure what the defendant’s intentions were, was not sure if the defendant would hurt her, and was thinking about a recent incident where four tellers at a bank were shot and killed during a robbery. After the robbery incident, the teller immediately began to cry and shake.

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 Posted on September 23, 2021 in Criminal Defense

Recently, a Virginia appellate court affirmed convictions against a defendant who had been found guilty of credit card fraud and embezzlement. The court found that the guilty verdict was appropriate, even though the defendant argued in her appeal that there was not sufficient evidence to support a finding of guilt. In the opinion, the court wrote that the evidence was not lacking and that it provided enough details to support convictions for seven counts of credit card fraud and four counts of embezzlement.

The Facts of the Case

According to the court’s opinion, the defendant worked as a caretaker for a woman who suffered from physical incapacities and memory loss. The defendant came to the woman’s home several times a week starting in 2015 and assisted with housecleaning, grocery shopping, and other errands. Eventually, it came to Adult Protective Service’s attention that the woman’s two credit cards were consistently showing much higher balances than they had shown before the defendant was hired. One credit card, for example, that had a balance of approximately $3,000 in 2014, had increased to a $46,000 balance by the end of 2017. The extra charges revolved around purchases that the woman herself had no memory of making: there were charges, for example, for car repairs, jewelry, children’s clothing, lingerie, alcohol, and tattoos. At trial, the woman insisted she had not made the extra purchases shown on her credit cards.

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 Posted on September 18, 2021 in Criminal Defense

In December 2018, President Trump signed the First Step Act into law with the goal of improving criminal justice outcomes, reducing the size of the prison population, and building mechanisms that would also make sure to maintain public safety. The Act represents the culmination of years of bi-partisan pressure for criminal justice reform. In practice, the Act allows certain inmates to be released from prison earlier than anticipated, depending on the nature of their offense and the Act’s published Sentencing Guidelines.

One result of the First Step Act is that it makes it easier for criminal defendants convicted of possession of crack cocaine to serve shorter sentences. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which had major implications for defendants charged with possession of cocaine – that is, while it used to be the case that people faced much longer sentences for possessing crack cocaine than for possessing the same amount of powder cocaine, today, the difference in the sentences is much smaller.

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 Posted on September 16, 2021 in Criminal Defense

In a recent opinion from a Virginia court involving unlawful filming during sexual activity, the defendant’s request for the court to reconsider his guilty verdict was denied. The defendant was found guilty of one count of unlawful creation of images. He appealed based on insufficient evidence showing he was guilty, countering that his girlfriend at the time was voluntarily nude and exposed, therefore forfeiting her right to privacy. The appellate court denied the appeal because it found that the defendant’s girlfriend could, in fact, reasonably expect privacy from being recorded during sexual activity.

The Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant and his girlfriend were in a relationship between 2017 and the end of 2019. Throughout the relationship, the defendant often recorded himself and his girlfriend while they were having sex. The videos took place in the defendant’s bedroom and focused specifically on his girlfriend’s body. At trial, the defendant’s girlfriend testified that she did not know about the recordings and that she had not consented to being recorded. Part of her evidence at trial included a video of a Skype recording in which she and the defendant engaged in sexual conversations and activity. The defendant’s girlfriend repeatedly expressed concern that the conversation was being recorded. Even though the appellant was, in fact, recording the conversation at the time, he lied and told her he was not.

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 Posted on September 09, 2021 in Criminal Defense

A Virginia man accused of driving under the influence (DUI) recently appealed his conviction in front of the Court of Appeals. The man argued that the lower court erred in finding that his appeal was not timely. He argued that although Virginia Code § 16.1-132 requires notice of appeals to be filed within ten days of the conviction, the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic tolled this requirement. However, in response, the Commonwealth contended, among other things, that the defendant waived his argument because he did not raise the issue in the circuit court. This case exemplifies the importance of abiding by the strict procedural and statutory laws surrounding Virginia DUI cases.

In this case, the court convicted the defendant in March 2020 and sentenced him to 60 days in jail, a fine, probation, and an alcohol program. The same day, in response to the pandemic, the Supreme Court suspended all court proceedings. In June 2020, the defendant filed an appeal of his conviction; however, the court entered a notice denying the appeal, citing the ten-day notice deadline. On appeal, the defendant contends that the ruling was inappropriate because of the Supreme Court’s emergency order.

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 Posted on August 31, 2021 in Criminal Defense

Police and prosecutors often cite and prosecute defendants for various crimes in response to conduct that they see as inappropriate or unlawful. Occasionally, prosecutors will seek convictions for a crime that contains elements not met by the defendant’s conduct. Juries are not perfect and prosecutors can be persuasive, sometimes obtaining convictions for crimes that are wholly unsupported by the evidence presented at trial. The Virginia Court of Appeals recently reversed the conviction of a woman who was found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, finding that the elements of the crime were not actually proven by prosecutors at her trial.

The defendant in the recently heard case is a woman whose daughter called 911 from the backseat of the defendant’s car while being driven home. The daughter reported that her mother was driving erratically and that she was scared. Police arrived at the defendant’s house after she had made it home without incident, and performed field sobriety tests. The defendant was found to have a small amount of an anti-anxiety medication in her system, which she was legally prescribed. Police arrested the woman and charged her with DUI and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. At trial, the defendant was convicted only of the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

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