Fourth Amendment

Geofence search warrants can get you Fourth Amendment Constitutional search protections. As a Fairfax criminal defense lawyer, I know that to be so from the five-justice majority opinion in Chatrie v. United States, ___ U.S. ___ (June 29, 2026), which includes a spirited dissent by three...

Hunch seizures do not satisfy the federal Constitution's Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I welcome the Virginia Court of Appeals' opinion (albeit unpublished) reversing the conviction of Marquis Donte Chisholm, Jr., for possession of a firearm by...

Departing the sight of police sometimes permits an arrest, at least when coupled by more than mere flight. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the federal Supreme Court in April 2026 found Fourth Amendment-permissible reasonable suspicion for a police officer to stop a...

Running from police can give them among the basket of reasons that amount to permitting them to at least temporarily detain you. Devon Lamar Washington v. Commonwealth of Virginia, ___ Va. App. ___ (April 14, 2026) As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that if...

Excessively long police stops may (or may not) be your ticket to a better result in your Virginia criminal prosecution. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that "Traffic stops are analogous to investigatory Terry stops. Rodriguez v. United States, 575 U.S. 348, 354 (2015)....

Plain sight is the delight of police and the bane of a criminal suspect. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I was not surprised to read that Joseph Blake Widgeon's lost his challenge to his car search that followed a law enforcement officer's (LEO's) seeing an...

Drug scheduling and Virginia sentencing defense are key things to consider when fighting your controlled substance prosecution, whether that be for allegations of  possession / use, dealing, or manufacturing. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I have successfully defended hundreds of people accused of controlled substance...

Citizen's arrests (CA's) are permitted to a certain extent by Virginia appellate caselaw. As a Fairrax criminal lawyer, I know that a police officer without jurisdiction to act as a police officer generally is empowered by Virginia appellate caselaw to detain and arrest people the...

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...

Police tactics are many for extracting confessions from criminal suspects, consenting to searches by law enforcement officers (LEO), and agreeing to engage in field sobriety testing (FSTs or SFSTs) for Virginia DUI investigations. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know you have a Fifth and...