Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney
Fairfax Criminal Lawyer / Virginia DUI Attorney- Highly-Rated
Pursuing Your Best Defense Since 1991
Jon Katz interviews live today on BBC TV and BBC radio
BBC interviewed me today 1:30pm EDT at its Washington, D.C., television studio, for TV Channel 1’s South East Today, about Briton Christopher Tappin’s extradition and armaments prosecution, now that he is scheduled to be taken soon to the United States by extradition order. BBC Radio Kent interviews...
Don’t hold your breath to see any expansion of Miranda
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), must be kept sacrosanct, so that law enforcement will properly advise suspects in custody of their right to remain silent, and honor that right, so that the Fifth Amendment has real meaning in assuring that one not be...
Winning a DWI trial after keeping out the breath test result
If given a choice between having my client’s drunk driving case prosecuted in Virginia or Maryland, ordinarily I would choose Maryland. In the Maryland counties where I practice most often, including Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Howard, ordinarily, absent such unusual circumstances as a bad accident...
Winning a DWI trial by suppressing the arrest
Sometimes criminal defendants win their cases by getting the evidence suppressed. That is how I won a recent DWI case. Where I practice, judges, not juries, decide evidentiary issues over suppressing stops, searches, seizures, arrests and statements to the police, although juries may be instructed...
Winning a DWI on a 0.09 BAC result
Recently I met with a potential client charged with drunk driving. When I was addressing some of his case defenses with him, he replied: “I am guilty, so why should I be pleading not guilty?” Why, indeed. Because the prosecution alone has the burden of...
4th Cir.: Only the four corners of the court record may be used to make a crime of moral turpitude determination for immigration purposes
When a criminal defense lawyer consults with a qualified immigration lawyer conversant with adverse immigration consequences from criminal convictions, expect to hear the immigration lawyers’ analysis include risks from crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies. Praised be the majority on the Fourth Circuit panel...
Fourth Circuit affirms suppression of fruits of the poisonous tree
Prosecutors often will try to overcome bad searches by claiming such factors as inevitable discovery, and intervening events that cure any taint. Praised be the Fourth Circuit recently, 2-1, for not buying the prosecutor’s arguments over an unconstitutional stop of a car, without which the cops would...
Assault trial victory is benefitted by Virginia’s one-party taping law
Assault trials are a unique challenge to win for the defense, as I have learned after having defended a few hundred of them. For simple assault, sometimes they are most often winnable in a “he said-she said” testimonial situation with no witnesses and no pictures...
Fourth Circuit reverses for on-the-street peek and entry into arrestee’s underwear
Bill of Rights (from the public domain) Praised be the two-judge majority that today reversed a drug conviction, finding that the police on-the-street peek into an arrestee’s underwear — and subsequent cutting off the string attaching a bag of cocaine to his penis — amounted...
Using the First Amendment Against the Criminalization of Free Expression
Beware when a judge sees the First Amendment’s free speech clause as a hindrance to judicial administration, perhaps emphasizing that the First Amendment is not absolute and does not protect the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater. (As it turns out, a Supreme...