Criminal Defense

Plea negotiations are a vital part of criminal defense. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that ideally no innocent person will plead guilty, no contest / nolo contendere, or Alford, and that people who committed crimes should not automatically deviate from pleading not guilty. In...

Mutual combat (MC) is among the possible defenses against a Virginia assault charge. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the best defense against an assault charge is to keep one's arms and legs to oneself to avoid an assault prosecution in the first...

Assaulting police officers in Virginia has for the longest time been a Class 6 felony jailable for a mandatory minimum of six months in jail. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I regret that proposals thus far to ameliorate this harshness have not yet come to...

Exploiting the absence of essential prosecution witnesses is essenital for the accused. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that such absence does not always mean victory, because sometimes the witness shows up after all, sometimes the prosecutor finds a workable alternative witness or peace...

Fairfax felony pleas will be rejected by the second Circuit Court judge if the duplicate deal was rejected by the original judge. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I share with you the following announcement in the September 9, 2025, county bar association (FCBA) emailed announcement...

Canines for odor can be Virginia criminal defendants' worst nightmare. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I am beside myself in disappointment that the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a drug dog search finding methamphetamine and cocaine in the sunglasses compartment of an automobile, even though...

Drug dog sniffs -- and all canine searches (for instance also for weapons and contraband -- need to be challenged by criminal defendants found with contraband as a result of such sniffs. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the federal Supreme Court enunciated...

Scour search warrant applications for arguing the absence of probable cause to permit their issuance. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that winning drug defenses and numerous other defenses often heavily depends on getting the evidence suppressed on Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Amendment Constitutional...

Judicial interference is all too common in too many trials. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I see the risk or actuality of a prosecutor in robes, when judges start asking too many quesitons of witnesses before the jury, coach prosecutors on how to overcome their...

Attempts are not mere preparation, no matter how ugly are the allegations in the proseution. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I thank the Virginia Court of Appeals for making that clear, even in the face of reprehensible allegations that led to an attempted incest conviction,...