Queens

Published on: April 5, 2012

Domestic Violence Cases are Difficult, Particularly Where Children are Involved

by Stephen Bilkis

In July 1996, after a prior order of protection expired, plaintiff obtained a second order of protection against her former boyfriend in Bronx Criminal Court. She delivered the order to the Domestic Violence Unit at her local police precinct and asked that it be served on her former boyfriend. At that time, plaintiff met two officers, the individuals assigned to the unit. Plaintiff later received a telephone call from one of the officers confirming that her former boyfriend had been served with the court order.

According to plaintiff, about a week later, her former boyfriend telephoned her at around 5:00 PM on a Friday evening and threatened to kill her. The former boyfriend had made various threats in the past — threats that prompted plaintiff to secure an order of protection — but plaintiff viewed this threat as an escalation of his hostility because he had not previously threatened to kill her. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the plaintiff immediately left her apartment with her two young sons, planning to go to her grandmother’s house in the Bronx. On the way to her car, however, she stopped at a payphone and contacted the Domestic Violence Unit to alert the police to the latest threat by her former boyfriend. She contended that she spoke with one of the officers, who told her that she should return to her apartment and that the police would arrest her former boyfriend immediately.

After speaking to one of the officers, plaintiff returned to her apartment with her children where she remained for the rest of the evening. She did not hear from the police that evening, nor did she contact the precinct to inquire whether her former boyfriend had been located or arrested. The night passed without incident. A Queens Criminal Lawyer said the following day, a Saturday, plaintiff and her children remained in their apartment most of the day. At about 10:45 PM that evening, plaintiff stepped out of the apartment and into the hallway of her building intending to take out the garbage when she was confronted by her former boyfriend brandishing a gun. He ushered her back into the apartment doorway and shot her two or three times injuring her face and arm. The two children witnessed the shooting but were not physically harmed. The former boyfriend then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

Published on: February 23, 2012

Court Decides Unusual Sex Crimes Case

by Stephen Bilkis

It may be common for anyone of us to hear or watch rape cases in the news but we never realize how hard it is to handle with the right legal procedurures. One case that was very complicated to assess and it involved three men as the ones who are making an appeal. The ones that were mentioned in the proceedings were Michael De Vito, Theodore Buckley and Gary Mandel. In rape cases like this one, the mental background and reliability of the one who is complaining is very important.

The alleged victim was contacted via phone by Mandel for a good number of times last April 4, 1975. It appears that their houses are just several blocks apart and that Mandel invited her to his house to discuss a fresh course at the Brooklyn College. She went to his house and after a short conversation at the kitchen, she was given a glass of water which she consumed but made her too dizzy to still hold consciousness. According to a New York Criminal Lawyer, the next thing she knew, she was already in the basement struggling against Mandel. Then came the other two, De Vito and Buckley, to the basement through a back door and with that the worst sexual things happened.

The victim running away half naked when she finally saw the opportunity. She hid in some bushes and wait till the alleged suspects left. She ran and knocked into another home which was owned by Lila and Murray Raber. The three denied all these and said that what happened was with the consent of the victim. They claim that she only reported and filed a complaint out of utmost humiliation she suffered from during the sexual activity when water balloons burst inside her bra.

Published on: February 19, 2012

Court Decides Whether Defendant Will Attend Sex Offender Program

by Stephen Bilkis

Sex crime violators are very rampant these days according to a New York Criminal Lawyer who once gathered surveys and studies about it. The factors that led to this are way too many to mention but what is important is that there are solutions and programs provided to help even the offenders to pay for what they have done or be treated if it was found out to be some kind of mental sickness. This is the same as the case here of Gonzalo Gonzales. He was fighting for his ability to complete the specific sex offender program set for him.

Based on the facts presented, it was last April 24, 2006 when the counselors from the correction program asked him to sign a form stating that he refused to take the said treatment which means failure of acknowledging his responsibility for the crime he was accused of. According to Gonzalez, he did not sign it for he never denied that responsibility for what he has done. He was very certain of himself that he did comply with the program.

The counselor Groge Pundy is responsible for screening and interviewing the sex offender program candidates. According to him who was further interviewed by Queens Criminal Lawyer, Gonzales did not take the program while still being in New York and under the custody of the state’s correctional services. One of the main requirements for the program is that the offender must be responsible to pay what’s due for the crimes he has done. If in the screening process alone, the responsibility is denied, then this just means refusal to enter the program as well.

Published on: February 17, 2012

Court Rules of Complex Drug Possession Case

by Stephen Bilkis

According to a New York Drug Crime Lawyer , a 33-year old man was indicted by a jury and charged with marijua posssession. Court records showed that the defendant was a second felony offender but not a violent offender. During the course of plea negotiations, the defendant was offered by the State a plea to a B felony in satisfaction of the indictment with a minimum sentence of four and a half years to nine years in state prison. Prior to defendant’s plea, the New York State Legislature passed the Drug Law Reform Act, which was signed into law in 2004.

The People took the plea with a minimum sentence but the sole issue in contention is, what is the minimum state prison sentence now allowed by law given the passage of the new law.

A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said that the defense attorney argued that the newly enacted DLRA should be applied retroactively and authorized not only a plea to a B felony reduction from an A-I felony but also the appropriate sentence should be a three and a half year determinate prison term with postrelease supervision set by the court at a determinate time of the minimum of one and a half years to a maximum of three years.

Published on: February 16, 2012

Court Decides Drug Case where Weapons were Involved

by Stephen Bilkis

A 44-year old man was convicted, following a jury trial, of various crimes stemming from a shootout during which two innocent bystanders were injured. The defendant thereafter was sentenced as a second felony offender to an aggregate term of 30 years in prison with five years of post-release supervision. The defendant appealed his conviction.

A New York Drug Crime Lawyer explained that prior to trial, evidence was introduced showing that the defendant has been convicted with drug crimes, based on guilty pleas, and the other man involved in the shoot-out has been convicted with crack cocaine possession, with the intent to sell. Following the shootout, the other man involved in the shootout was again found in possession of crack cocaine, leading to several drug-related crimes.

The prosecution argued that the prior conviction was probative of the defendant’s intent to act in concert with the other man to constructively possess and sell the cocaine; the State also sought to introduce evidence of the defendant’s alleged gang affiliation and other prior drug dealing and gun possession charges as additional evidence of intent and motive.

Published on: February 16, 2012

Admissibility of Evidence Challenged in Sex Crimes Case

by Stephen Bilkis

Francis McCann was charged with one count each of first degree sodomy, first degree robbery, first degree sexual abuse and two counts of criminal weapon possession in the fourth degree. The crimes allegedly occurred on June 13, 1976 but Mr. McCann was not indicted until January 24, 1980.

A New York Sex Crime Lawyer explained that Mr. McCann’s criminal trial for the robbery and sex crimes charges began in September 1980. The proceeding ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. The primary piece of evidence presented by the prosecution was the victim’s identification of Mr. McCann.

At the second trial, Mr. McCann hired a new criminal defense lawyer. His attorney filed a request with the prosecution to produce certain evidence based on a police reported prepared by Detective Stanley E. Carpenter, who worked in the Queens Sex Crimes Unit at the time. According to the detective’s report, the person who committed the robbery and sex offenses cut his hand during a struggle. The report stated that there were blood stains around the area where the attack occurred as well as on the victim’s pants.

Published on: January 25, 2012

Bank Robbers Arrested

by Stephen Bilkis

Two alleged bank robbers have been arrested, claimed a New York Criminal Lawyer. While police and FBI spokespeople have had few public comments yet, the two robbers are believed to be behind other recent bank robberies in a different district this month.

The arrests are part of a joint law enforcement investigation that included officers and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF), and officers from various state and local police departments. Both bank robberies had similar methods of operation (MO), that included what appeared to be a pipe bomb left at each location, that later proved to be fake.

The suspects are being called the ‘copycat robbers’ as they were copying a robber from another series of bank robberies that had occurred in the area that also used fake bombs while pulling off heists, a Queens Criminal Lawyer was told. The particular bandit the crime duo was mimicking was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison just last month for his crimes.

Published on: January 14, 2012

City Official Resigns After Controversial Arrest for DWI

by Stephen Bilkis

A city official stepped down from his position early Tuesday morning following his arrest earlier this month on DWI charges in a borough of New Jersey. His resignation was made official in the form of a letter to the mayor.

The former official faces not only the charges of driving while intoxicated, but a police report obtained by a New York Criminal Lawyer allege that the 67-year-old man also asked officers at the scene of his DWI to reduce his charges. He reportedly asked officers on the scene to speak with their superiors when they failed to recognize who he was.

Copies of the letter, were sent to the other council members, along with the township’s clerk, manager, and attorney. In the letter, the man said he enjoyed not only his service with the council, but also “working to provide the highest level of public service to the residents of the community.”

Published on: January 8, 2012

DWI Probable Cause of Back-to-Back Wrecks in California

by Stephen Bilkis

A 27-year-old man rammed his vehicle into the back of another on an interstate in Riverside, California, then went on to drive the wrong way down the freeway, eventually getting into a head-on collision with another vehicle, California Highway Patrol officials said. The driver is suspected of a possible DWI.

The driver suffered a number of major injuries. He was trapped in the wreckage of his vehicle until emergency crews could finally extract him and take him to a hospital. An officer told a New York Criminal Lawyer that investigators would seek drunken driving charges from the driver.

It all began at 1:59 a.m. on the morning of April 2011, when the suspect was driving his vehicle at around 100 mph going south, authorities revealed. His first crash was into the back of a vehicle being driven by a 63-year-old man.

Published on: November 19, 2011

LeBron’s Mother Arrested for Battery in Miami

by Stephen Bilkis

The mother of LeBron James, major star of the Miami Heat, was arrested on charges of assault, battery and disorderly intoxication. A contentious encounter with a valet at a Miami Beach hotel ended with the arrest.

The 43-year-old woman was arrested because she reportedly struck a valet around 5 a.m. in the morning, Miami Beach police told Long Island Criminal Attorneys.

Sources revealed, the woman requested her vehicle from the valet, who brought it to the valet ramp, where it was left running for 30 minutes as James’s mother talked to other hotel patrons. After that, the valet turned off the car and gave the keys to the valet cashier.