Criminal Defense

Virginia abduction law (VA law) underlines how humorless is the commonwealth's body of criminal law. As a Fairfax crininal lawyer, I know that a judge will not have any sympathy with any argument that the commonly understood meaning of abduction is forcibly bringing a person...

Defending against Virginia prosecutions is my profession, and is about protecting the Constitution's Bill of Rights, mainly the Fourth Amendment right against unlawful police searches, seizures and arrests; the Fifth Amendment's assurances that a criminal suspect's affirmative assertion of silence not be used against him...

Hearsay evidence faces more lax standards for admissibility than at a Virginia criminal trial. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I regret this state of affairs, but it is a reality that must be reckoned with. This is among the reasons that Virginia criminal defendants should...

Suppression hearings are a vital part of Virginia DUI and criminal defense. As a Fairfax DUI lawyer / criminal attorney, I have won many trials at the stage where I argue that the police unlawfully stopped or arrested my client, either without reasonable articulable suspicion...

Bluff-free Virginia criminal defense is what you need when charged with alleged DUI / driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, or a misdemeanor or felony offense. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I know that my clients deserve nothing less than such an approach...

Evidence suppression arguments are critical to Virginia preliminary hearings (which cover felony cases) and for all Virginia misdemeanor and felony trials. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I had thought this was a given for preliminary hearings, but in the last few months, a Fairfax District...

Victims rights (VR) must not be permitted to trample Virginia criminal defendants' rights. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that they should not even be called Virginia victims (VV's) -- versus alleged VV's or complainants -- before a conviction takes place. I further know...

Virginia Circuit Court judges must articulate the reason for their denying bond / bail / pretrial release to a criminal defendant, for the reasons addressed below. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I have experienced District Court judges who do not state those reasons. Their reasoning...

Virginia prosecutors not your friends when you are a criminal defense lawyer. Anyone who tells you otherwise is offering a bill of goods to be avoided like the plague. Even the Fairfax commonwealth's attorney's office and other Northern Virginia prosecutor's offices claiming a progressive bent...

Fairfax diversion is a pilot program called Taking Root, that was announced in April 2022 by county commonwealth's attorney Steve Descano, with this news release. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I have looked for but not found many details about this program outside the foregoing...