Category Archives: Criminal Defense
When Testifying is Dangerous: The Witness Protection Program
The U.S. Marshals have been charged with operating the federal Witness Protection Program in order to provide new identities to individuals who face the possibility of retribution when testifying against organized crime groups like the Mafia, for example, who terrorize communities and are involved in significantly violent crimes. The government understands that cooperation can… Read More »
Help! I’ve Just Been Charged with a Felony!
If you’ve been charged with a crime and arrested, you are no doubt feeling alarmed. What’s next for you? Should you cooperate with police to demonstrate your innocence? Should you do whatever it takes to get out of custody? No and no! If you are facing felony charges, your first steps have a monumental… Read More »
The Use of Deadly Force by Federal Officers
Numerous federal agencies are tasked with protecting the public. They include the FBI, ATF, DEA, and Federal Marshals. And while they do put a lot of bad actors away, they have been responsible for more than 150 fatalities and 80 injuries in a period of just five years. That leads to questions about just… Read More »
Police Transparency a Must
If you think of police as part of the community, you realize that there is a social contract that requires trust of law enforcement among community members. How is such trust achieved? Many experts believe the key is in transparency. Practical Implications More than four in ten Americans report a declining perception of police… Read More »
Justice vs. Black Box Technologies
More and more these days, law enforcement depends on artificial intelligence (AI) in the pursuit of criminals or in making determinations on how to move forward with investigations, or even with how to determine the best punishments for convicted individuals. What’s also more common is the fact that AI algorithms are increasingly complex and/or… Read More »
Can I Live Stream a Police Interaction?
We’ve all seen countless videos of police manhandling citizens who were allegedly involved in criminal activity. Such chronicles, generally recorded by concerned bystanders, have alerted the public to the unnecessary use of force by officers across the country. Beyond simply videotaping arrests and other police interactions with the public, is it legal to actually… Read More »
A Trend That’s Dangerous: Swatting
A recent trend is raising alarm bells among citizens and police alike: swatting. According to the FBI Las Vegas Field Office, swatting is actually a type of harassment that involves deceiving providers of emergency services so that they send special response teams to an address under the impression that an emergency is under way…. Read More »
Double Jeopardy
The Fifth Amendment has a clause protecting against being prosecuted a second time following an acquittal or a plea bargain for a crime, or, essentially, more than one punishment for the same offense. But there is a caveat here: state and federal governments may, indeed, prosecute separately for the same crime, and even two… Read More »
Resisting Arrest in Nevada
When the police determine that you need to go to jail and you don’t agree, your first instinct may be to resist their efforts. There may be 100 good reasons you think the cops are out of line, but none of them give you the right to fight back against officers who are trying… Read More »
Defending Vehicular Manslaughter or Homicide Charges in Nevada
Vehicular homicide: it’s a horrendous crime on so many levels. It means that as the person charged with the crime, you are responsible for someone’s death. No, you didn’t intend for things to turn out this way—maybe you were behaving stupidly, and things got out of control. But someone is now dead, and the… Read More »
