New York

Published on: August 8, 2012

Defendant Contends Pat Down Was Illegal

by Stephen Bilkis

Police officers are required to operate under strict adherence to the laws of the state. That means that every time that a police officer comes in contact with a citizen, they are required to operate under certain rules. A New York Criminal Lawyer said these rules are mandated in the United States Constitution, state laws, federal laws, local ordinances, and case law. In order to determine if the officers have overstepped their authority under the law, it is often critical that a defendant hire a good criminal attorney to represent their side.

The rules of search and seizure and admissibility of evidence can be very complicated and they are often argued in a court of law. A New York Criminal Lawyer said each case is different, and each case requires that the persons who are affected by the conduct of police officers on the street are well represented. One case that illustrates this issue occurred in New York on May 14, 1985.

Two patrol officers were patrolling the area of Eighth Avenue around 136th street. It was in the early morning hours of about 2:30 a.m. when they were flagged down by a well- dressed man who was standing beside the road. When they talked to him, he told them that he had been leaving a bar in the area when he noticed a man in front of the bar with a pistol tucked down the front of his pants. The man described the pistol as a small revolver that was commonly referred to as a snub nose. He stated that it was black in color and was in the front of the man’s pants. The complainant was especially concerned because he was afraid that the man was considering a hate crime against the homosexual population in the area. The bar that he had been in front of was a bar that catered to the homosexual population. A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said the complainant advised that he had followed the man and his companion as they left the area of the bar hoping to flag down a police officer to have him checked out. He described the man with the gun as a short black male in a white t-shirt and dark blue jeans. He stated that he was in the company of a man in a darker shirt with light blue jeans.

Published on: August 7, 2012

Defendant Charged with Third Degree Rape

by Stephen Bilkis

Incidents of rape and sexual assault cases involve many different laws. Each case is reviewed in relationship to how it addresses each element of each law. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the most appropriate law or multiple laws are then charged by the prosecution. In some case, a charge is reduced to a lesser included offense because the jury or prosecutor decides that the lesser included offense if more appropriate to the actions of the charged offender. One case of this type occurred in 2008.

On May 21, 2008, a man was charged with rape. He was convicted after a jury trial on May 28, 2008 of third-degree rape, which is detailed under New York Penal Law § 130.25(3). This charge was determined by how the victim expressed her lack of consent to the sexual assault. This victim apparently never stated the actual term “no,” but rather testified that she had been crying the entire time and stating that she just wanted to go home. The court concluded that any reasonable person observing this situation would conclude that the victim was not consenting to the act. The defense maintained that he did not consider her actions to be a refusal because she never actually stated that she did not want to have sex with him. The court evaluated the totality of the evidence which included the fact that this was his second or third offense of sexual assault.

They also reviewed the fact that the offender forced the woman into his apartment against her will and used threats of physical injury to prevent her from leaving. The court determined that when viewed in their entirety, the circumstances surrounding this assault clearly contained all of the necessary elements to be considered a rape. Because of this, the offender’s request to have his conviction overturned was denied.

Published on: August 7, 2012

Defendant Contends Unlawful Stop and Frisk

by Stephen Bilkis

Police patrol officers encounter a wide variety of calls for service. Some of these calls are hazardous some are humorous. Some of these calls are somewhere in between the two. That was the case when two seasoned patrol officers in New York responded to a radio call in the early morning hours on August 4, 1979. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the radio operator advised the officers that an anonymous call had come in to the radio call center regarding an Hispanic male with an afro style haircut wearing light blue pants and a light shirt. The description involved his height which was listed as five foot ten inches tall. The caller advised that the subject was concealing a handgun inside a white shirt that he was carrying.

The officers responded to the location and observed several persons at that location, but none of them fit the description that was provided by the radio operator. They began to check the area and noticed the defendant walking on Amsterdam Avenue. He was wearing a light short sleeved shirt and was carrying a white shirt in his right hand. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the shirt that had been described in the radio transmission was a t-shirt, but this subject had on a banlon shirt. The officers determined that it would be accurate to assume that someone observing him from a distance would think that the shirt was a t-shirt. They observed the subject walk up 95th street and stop in front of a building. He walked up the first three steps and began to open the door with his left hand. He was having difficulty with the door, so he set down the white shirt that the informant had stated concealed the gun.

One of the police officers came up beside him and put his hand over the shirt on the ground so that the defendant would not be able to pick it up. He stated that as soon as he placed his hand on the shirt, he could feel that it concealed some type of handgun. The defendant began to struggle with the officer. Both officers were in uniform when the second officer approached with his firearm out. He ordered the man to stop fighting and not to move. The officers discovered that the white shirt contained a .22 caliber handgun. The subject was placed under arrest and was transported to the jail. He filed a motion to suppress the evidence of the gun.

Published on: August 4, 2012

Defendant Set Up in Sting Operation

by Stephen Bilkis

When police officers make an arrest, it is important that they do so in the proper jurisdiction. The case must then be presented to the Grand Jury if it is a felony. A New York Criminal Lawyer said hat Grand Jury must be in the correct venue to draw an indictment. If it is not, then the case is not legal. One such case was served as a motion from a defendant on June 5, 2005. The defendant claimed that the indictment against him needed to be dismissed because the crime had not occurred in New York County.

The police detective contends that over a period of several weeks, he had telephone conversations with a confidential informant. This informant provided him with information that the defendant and several of his friends had a plan to rob some drug dealers. He stated that the group planned to stockpile some weapons (possession of a weapon) and create a robbing gang. This gang would target drug dealers and rob them of their drugs and cash. The informant contacted the police department. The police detective told the informant to give this robbing gang bad information about a non-existent drug dealer who had 60 kilos of cocaine and a large amount of money. The gang began to make their plans. The detective told the informant that the address that he was to give to the gang was an address in the Bronx. The defendant and his accomplices were arrested and indicted. They maintained that none of the telephone conversations that were the crux of the case occurred in New York County. Because they did not occur in New York County, the state could not prosecute the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and the numerous other charges that the gang was indicted on.

The prosecutor makes the argument that the intended target was an address in the Bronx which was in New York county. The prosecutor contends that the intended target would make the case venue New York County. The Supreme Court disagreed. A Long Island Criminal Lawyer said they made several disparaging remarks directed at the prosecutor and at the detectives involved in this case. They contend that the detective did not ascertain the jurisdiction that he or the confidential informant were in at the time that the phone calls were made. Since the jurisdictional issues cannot be formulated based on the locations of each party to the calls, then the court is not able to establish venue for the hearings. They contend that the argument that would apply the jurisdictional issue to the proposed target location is not realistic. The court contends that the crime took place at the location in which one or both of the parties to the telephone conversation were located at the time of the conversation. If the jurisdiction cannot be determined, then the case is not able to continue.

Published on: August 1, 2012

Defense Moves to Supress Evidence

by Stephen Bilkis

A detective led a police team that was investigating the deaths of a two man. The bodies of the two victims were discovered in the bathroom of the other man’s apartment. Both men had been bound with duct tape and shot through the head. A New Criminal Lawyer said when the detective and his colleague went to the apartment, they smelled a strong odor of marijuana and observed marijuana residue. The police later discovered that the other man had been a low-level drug dealer.

A witness, who claimed to have been a close friend of the other victim undergone interview with the detective, during their discussions, the witness stated that he knew the victim and they had been friends for fifteen years. The witness also stated that the victim had been a marijuana dealer with regular clientele. He also revealed that he had been present in the victim’s apartment when the victim sold between a half-pound and a pound of marijuana to another man. The witness also asserts that the victim had also been well acquainted with his client, whom he sold the pound of marijuana. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the witness further states that the victim told him about a shipment of 30 to 50 pounds of marijuana and had some out-of-town buyers for it. The victim was nervous about so large a shipment and his client was present when the victim mentioned the prospective sale to the witness.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the police utilized the information from the witness to obtain a photograph of the victim’s client. They put the photograph into a computer-generated photo array which they showed the witness. The witness identified the person pictured in the photograph as the client who purchased the marijuana from the victim. The police also obtained a number of addresses of locations that were linked to the client. A New York Drug Possessionhttp://http://www.newyorkcriminallawyer24-7.com/lawyer-attorney-1732528.html Lawyer said another detective informed the head detective that the victim’s client had a reputation for robbing drug dealers. At about 7:00 pm that same day, the detectives visited one of the apartments in the hope of finding the victim’s client.

Published on: July 31, 2012

Teenager Charged with Cocaine Possession

by Stephen Bilkis

On January 23, 1990 a police detective was looking through a one-way mirror at the passengers lined-up waiting for a bus to go to Virginia. The detective noticed a girl who looked no more than 13 years old lined up all by herself without a parent or guardian travelling with her. The detective also noticed that she had a bulge underneath her zipped-up coat.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said aware that some drug dealers used teenagers as drug mules to bring drugs across through state lines, and fearing that the teenager may be a runaway, the detective approached her and talked to her.

The detective sat behind her on the bus. The detective asked her first if she didn’t mind speaking to her and she assented. He asked her if she was travelling alone, how old she was and where she was headed. The girl confirmed that she was travelling alone and that she was on her way to visit family in Norfolk. She also claimed that she was 18 years old.

Published on: July 27, 2012

Defendant Seeking Funds from Sale of a Home

by Stephen Bilkis

The plaintiff in the case is Joachim Harris. The defendants in the case are Chandra M. Young, et al. The case is being heard in the New York State Supreme Court. The Honorable Melvin S. Barasch is the justice hearing the case.

Case Facts and Background

The action in this case comes from the sale of a real property that was owned by the plaintiff. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the property is located at 176 Malta Street in the city of Brooklyn. The plaintiff sold the property to defendant Michael Greene on the 24th of August, 2001. The price was $255,000. The plaintiff states that he was defrauded by the plaintiffs as they withheld all but $180,000 from the sale of the home.

Published on: July 26, 2012

Defendant Requests Sanctions

by Stephen Bilkis

The plaintiffs in this matter are Avivith and William Oppenheim. The defendants in the case are Mark Stumer, Joseph Viscuso, Mojo-Stumer Associates Architects, P.C. and d/b/a Mojo-Stumer Associates. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court of the state of New York located in New York County. Judge Charles Edward Ramos is hearing the case.

Case Background

A New York Criminal Lawyer said thttp://www.newyorkcriminallawyer24-7.com/he plaintiffs, the Oppenheim’s made a RICO claim against the defendants based on mail and wire fraud. These claims were in connection with renovations that were being done on their apartment. This claim has been dismissed. The Oppenheim’s then made a similar claim against the defendants in a first amended complaint. This complaint was also dismissed.

Published on: July 24, 2012

Defendant Receives Mid-Trial Publicity

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

Defendant has a history of being arrested under different names.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said that on 12 August 1972, defendant was arrested for possession of burglar’s tools while on a fire escape. He gave a name, name-one, with a date of birth of 30 December 1946 and an address of 180 Saratoga Avenue in Kings County.

Published on: July 23, 2012

Defendant Appeals Sentencing

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

Defendant was employed as an assistant comptroller of a Hospital. Allegedly, a New York Criminal Lawyer said the defendant was depositing checks payable to his employer in his own checking account. Thus, he was charged with five counts of grand larceny in the second degree. An audit by the Hospital revealed, and defendant admitted, that during the period from 1967 to 1972, such defalcations amounted to approximately $68,000.

According to defendant’s memorandum, and not controverted by the prosecution, the defendant was advised between his arraignment on 27 January 1976, and his plea of guilty on 24 February 1976, that if he made satisfactory restitution to his employer’s insurance carrier he would be allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor in satisfaction of the indictment.