Fourth Amendment

Incriminating evidence can abound in a lawbreaker's abandoned garbage. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that police can be like vultures waiting for drug suspects and subjects of DNA-related criminal investigations to dispose of their trash on the street or anywhere else where police...

Home visits by poiice are common. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the Fourth Amendment limits the time, place and manner of those visits. For starters, the Fourth Amendment requires police to have probable cause to believe the existence of relevant criminal activity...

Anonymous tips are often the bread and butter of police officers investigating crime, particularly alleged crimes involving illegal drugs, weapons, and assault running from simple battery to murder. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I often rolls my eyes at political reactionaries lambasting the United States...

LEO -- law enforcement officers -- home searches can only lawfully take place with a valid search warrant, sufficient consent from an authorized person, or (infrequently) exigent circumstances. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that police search caselaw is not as friendly to criminal...

Inventory searches of impounded cars are impermissible if they do not follow previously-implemented and Constitutional inventory procedures. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I am delighted that the Virginia Court of Appeals this month reversed a firearm conviction, where a handgun was found without probable cause under...

Violating a green light by waiting six seconds led to Richard Duane Joyce, Jr.'s traffic stop and subsequent conviction for DUI. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I see the appellate court's affirmance of Joyce's conviction -- Joyce v. Virginia, __ Va. App. __ (April 14,...

Searching homes is not permitted by police under the Fourth Amendment without a search warrant, consent of a resident, or exigent circumstances. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that one present occupant's objection to such an otherwise consensual search trumps the consent of the...

Beating a DWI prosecution can stem from such approaches as convincing the judge that the traffic stop or arrest did not pass Fourth Amendment Constitutional muster, and convincing the factfinder(s) that the prosecutor has failed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. One of my...

Special need is sometimes used by police to try to justify stopping people when they do not have probable cause nor individualized reasonable articulable suspicion to stop, frisk or search a person for evidence of criminal activity. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I am disheartened...

Tire chalking is a common way for police or other parking ticketers to monitor whether a vehicle has overstayed the maximum duration for a parking space. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer I know that any incursion of government employees onto one's property might implicate the...