Fourth Amendment

Unlawful police seizure under the Constitution's Fourth Amendmentprecludes an otherwise vountary search from being voluntary. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I know that many judges will disagree with when a seizure has taken place. Fortunately, we have Virginia and federal appellate court opinions to provide...

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...

Privacy protection of our home property is limited for all police movements that do not have them enter our houses. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that appellate court decisions for decades have chipped away at our Fourth Amendment rights regarding searches and seizures...

Virginia criminal rights need to be asserted by suspects and the accused. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that when defendants waive their rights, they should not give up, but instead their defense will need to include working to reverse and blunt the adverse...

Virginia high crime are presence at nighttime are two factors that might increase your risk of being police-frisked for weapons, now that the Virginia Court of Appeals this week okayed such factors to be considered in evaluating the legality of such a patdown. As a...

Virginia cops and other police nationwide are aware of the concept of a community caretaking function, which they and prosecutors try to use in the absence of any other possible justifiable grounds for searching and seizing people and their property, and for entering their homes....

Drug court judges repeatedly hear police justify stops, frisks, searches and arrests of criminal suspects based on their purported "knowledge, training and experience" and behavior consistent with criminal activity. As a Fairfax criminal defense lawyer, I know that police have no superhuman cognition. I also...

Police seizure under the Fourth Amendment happens when police apply any touching or force with intent to restrain the person Police seizure (PS) is critical to determining whether a law enforcement officer’s (LEO) encounter with a criminal suspect required probable cause to believe that the...

Collective knowledge doctrine can be a hurdle to Virginia criminal defendants seeking to suppress evidence Collective knowledge doctrine (CKD) was addressed this month by the Virginia Court of Appeals in denying a drug felony appeal. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that this doctrine...