Criminal Defense

Alexander Michael Edwards in 2016 was convicted in Campbell County, Virginia, Circuit Court for malicious wounding for the non-consensual tattooing of two minors, and for conspiring to murder them to avoid their testimony against him at trial. The elements of malicious wounding under the Virginia...

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution limits police authority to stop, seize, and search people and their property. Sadly, the United States Supreme Court over the decades has limited the strength of the Fourth Amendment in numerous ways, including the horrendous Terry v....

Being a judge is a privilege with awesome responsibility and power. Once a judge stops seeing judging as a privilege, it is time for the judge to hang up the judicial robes. Judging can be exhausting work. The criminal and civil lawsuits do not stop...

Virginia is far behind the medical marijuana states that have made marijuana possession and use lawful for numerous medical ailments. Virginia law limits legal marijuana medicinal use (only in the form of cannabidiol oil ("CBD oil") and THC-A oil) to epilepsy, and pursuant to a...

Using police drug sniffing dogs is fraught with unreliability. as further addressed here, here, and here. Despite this unreliability, Virginia law poses substantial hurdles to a criminal defendant's obtaining by a records subpoena data about the training and performance of the case's drug dog. Fortunately...

What should a person do when a police officer orders the suspect to hand the cop an item (other than ordering a driver to hand over one's driver's license and registration) or to empty one's pockets? If complied with, that order amounts to a search...

In 2004, the United States Supreme Court bitterly divided 5-4 (with a plurality of three justices and a concurrence of two more justices) in declining to apply the Exclusionary Rule to evidence obtained by police through voluntary but un-Mirandized admissions about the location of contraband....

Yesterday, the Virginia Court of Appeals confirmed that a parent transporting a child while under the influence of alcohol is not automatically in violation of the felony child endangerment statute, Va. Code § 18.2-371.1(B)(1). Instead: "Policing the line between the ever present 'possibility' of serious...

Motions and other key procedures are part of the essential bread and butter for criminal defense. If a jury convicts for a felony or Class 1 misdemeanor, the jury will recommend a sentence, only permitted to recommend active jail time and/or an active fine amount....

Virginia criminal defense is not only about preparing for trials and challenging the existence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that mastery of criminal procedure and well-executed procedure is part of the toolkit for winning defense.