Articles Posted in Queens

On February 1986, there was a gathering of people in the apartment of a woman. The woman requested a man to bring to that event several glassine bags of a white powdery substance which the state asserts was heroin. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said that some time during the course of the evening the substance was injected into the body of the woman and her boyfriend. The next day, the substance was injected by two other men to their own body. One of the men took 11 envelopes after agreeing to help the man sell the substance. At about 4:00 p.m. that day, the woman became ill and died of causes apparently unrelated to the case and an investigation was conducted.

As a result of a search of the apartment, several items were seized including a piece of mirror with white powder residue, a box found in the medicine cabinet containing a black shoe lace, syringe, hypodermic needle and bottle cap cooker, an empty bottle cap found in the medicine cabinet, a syringe and needle found in a dresser drawer, and a plastic bag containing white powder which was found in a kitchen drawer. A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said after testing by a forensic scientist, only the bottle cap cooker tested positive for the presence of narcotics. The forensic scientist who performed the autopsy of the woman’s body found the presence of substances including quinine but no traces of the presence of either heroin or morphine.

The man and his companion were indicted for three counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and two counts of criminal injection of a narcotic drug. A Nassau County Drug Possession Lawyer said the man’s motions for severance were denied and a joint trial was held wherein the other man chose not to testify but the man testified on his own behalf.

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In this case, the Appellants were charged with informations of robbery and convicted of grand larceny. Since the informations contained no allegation of the value of the stolen property, the court reversed the conviction and remanded the case for entry of judgments of petit larceny only.

A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said during the trial of the case, the evidence showed that the value of the property taken was over $100. The judge instructed the jury on robbery and the lesser included offenses of grand larceny and petit larceny. Immediately after the jury retired, the appellants objected to the charge of grand larceny.

In the case of Brown v. State, Fla.1968, 206 So.2d 377, lesser offenses were divided into four categories:

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The complainant brought this action to recover damages for injuries he claims to have suffered as a result of being knocked down as he attempted to board a bus operated by the accused. At the time of jury selection, the complainant moved to preclude the accused from offering evidence of or in any way calling the jury’s attention to the facts of the complainant’s incontestable past use of heroin and his current participation in a methadone treatment program. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said at the jury coordinating part, the judge determined that the accused would be precluded from any reference to the complainant’s current use of methadone or his participation in the treatment program. He reserved to the trial judge the issue of whether the complainant’s past use of heroin was admissible in the liability phase of the trial.

Following jury selection and prior to opening, the court granted the balance of the complainant’s motion and precluded the accused from mentioning or offering any evidence of the complainant’s past use of heroin. Given that there is a paucity of reported case law regarding the admissibility of such evidence in civil proceedings, the court files the decision to memorialize its opinion.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the motion does not question whether a complainant’s use of heroin is admissible in the damages phase of a civil trial where the jury is assessing a variety of health and life issues relating to the complainant, such as life expectancy. In that context, with an appropriate foundation, testimony regarding the complainant’s heroin use would surely be admissible. Nor is it about whether the complainant was under the influence of heroin at the time of the accident so that his powers of perception or recollection might actually have been impaired by his heroin habit; nor whether the complainant was under the influence of heroin at the time of his testimony. The use of heroin by the complainant in those circumstances would be admissible even in the liability phase to impeach his credibility as a witness. Indeed, in all of those situations, proof of heroin use and addiction even by extrinsic evidence would be proper. The lone issue decided by the court on the branch of the motion reserved to it was whether the complainant’s past use of heroin was admissible as an act of moral depravity offered only to attack his credibility as a witness.

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The defendant’s convictions arose from a series of drug transactions which began when a certain person contacted another person and informed the latter that he had heroin for sale. The former was unaware that the latter was a confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). A New York Criminal Lawyer said the parties and co-defendant agreed that the former would sell the informant 25 ounces of heroin for $6,000 per ounce. While the co-defendant was in Mexico he ran into the defendant who offered to drive him to Texas. He agreed and the two men drove to the border. As they approached the border the co-defendant told the defendant that he wished to walk across the border and would meet the defendant on the United States side. The defendant drove the vehicle across the border while co-defendant walked across carrying the one gram sample of heroin.

A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said that, the defendant and his co-defendant drove to the informant’s apartment where they met the informant and an Agent outside the apartment. The defendant and the Agent remained outside in their respective vehicles while co-defendant and the informant went inside. When the two men left the apartment the Agent saw co-defendant hand informant a piece of paper later found to contain .12 grams of heroin. The informant gave the paper to the Agent. Co-defendant, the informant and the Agent then discussed the purchase of a test ounce and the full 25 ounce shipment. The defendant drove the co-defendant to another apartment where he met with the certain John doe while the defendant remained outside in the vehicle.

Later that evening co-defendant and the informant took one ounce of heroin to the Agent’s motel room and sold it to him for $5,000 cash. Co-defendant returned to Mexico where he processed the remaining ounces of heroin. The defendant came into the apartment while this processing was being done. A Nassau County Drug Possession Lawyer said the next morning co-defendant secreted heroin in the stereo speaker of his vehicle. After doing so he asked the defendant for help in replacing the screws. The two men then drove to the informant’s apartment in the United States. While en route into town co-defendant advised the defendant that what he was doing was not honest and that he should not get involved in similar “deals”. When co-defendant and the defendant arrived at the informant’s apartment the defendant carried the heroin into the apartment. Later the three men left for the Agent’s motel with the defendant driving. Co-defendant, believing they were being followed, directed the defendant to return to the informant’s apartment. Co-defendant and the informant then drove to the Agent’s motel to deliver the heroin and the defendant left. Co-defendant was arrested as he delivered the heroin to the Agent. Defendant was arrested near Hidalgo, Texas.

On this proceeding, the state presented evidence about a pharmacologist who was a member of a conspiracy to procure heroin. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the pharmacologist and his accomplices were guilty of attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance based on a series of events that commenced in the state. Even if the jury found him guilty of both the crime, on appeal, he challenges the state’s exercise of territorial jurisdiction over the second offense only.

The evidence revealed that the leader of the conspiracy was a man. Through a wiretap surveillance of the telephone line to the leader’s residence, the law enforcement authorities discovered that the leader was raising $120,000 to pay a courier fee to obtain a large quantity of heroin to the state. The intercepted conversations cryptically identified the various players in the proposed drug exchange. The state theorized that the pharmacologist’s role in the project was to test the purity of the heroin.

The leader and another individual discussed the pharmacologist’s availability for the project. Upon receiving a telephone call advising that the pharmacologist had been located. Thereafter, a woman used the leader’s telephone to make airline reservations for three men to fly at 8:00 p.m. that evening and all of them were under the same surnames. The law enforcement authorities observed the pharmacologist together with two other men aboard the flight. At the request of an investigator, a state’s troop followed the activities of the three men. After registering at the airport’s hotel under aliases, they were seen entering and leaving each other’s rooms during the next 24 hours.

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In this drug offense case, defendant was found in his apartment with 6¼ grams of heroin about twenty to thirty minutes after a package containing 13 grams of heroin was delivered by mail to his apartment. Customs and postal inspectors had discovered the heroin in the package when it had arrived in the country at San Francisco. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said the package was mailed from Thailand and addressed to defendant’s residence in Daytona Beach, Florida. The postal authorities arranged a controlled delivery of the package to defendant’s residence.

A Jacksonville Heroin Possession Lawyer said that, about twenty to thirty minutes after this controlled delivery had taken place, four officials, one a postal inspector, and another a customs agent, and the other two, Daytona Beach police detectives, entered defendant’s apartment under a valid search warrant. They found defendant in a bedroom with 6¼ grams of heroin on a coffee table in front of him. They conducted a search to find the remaining heroin. During this search, they found thirty packets of heroin, each wrapped in aluminum foil and containing a mixture which included approximately one milligram of heroin, in a drawer of a dresser in a bedroom across the hall from the room where defendant had been found. It was established at trial that these “dime bags” small packets wrapped in aluminum foil containing about one milligram of heroin are commonly used in passing heroin on the streets. The authorities also found some butts of marijuana cigarettes in the same bedroom drawer. While the authorities were searching the apartment, defendant remarked to them, referring to the thirty “dime bags”, “I bet you didn’t think I could package it up that quick”.

A Jacksonville Intent to Distribute Lawyer said that, the indictment charged possession with intent to distribute only the 6¼ grams found on the coffee table. The Government relied upon the 30 “dime bags” to prove that defendant had the requisite intent to distribute. A New York Criminal Lawyer said its theory was that the heroin found in packages suitable for street distribution indicated that defendant was a dealer in heroin; that he had received the 13-gram package delivered in the mail for the purpose of selling or distributing most or all of the 13-gram quantity; and that he therefore intended to distribute the 6¼ gram quantity found on the coffee table.

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A man was convicted of having committed the crime of criminal possession of a weapon in 1993 and he was sentenced to serve one year in jail. In 1995, the same man pleaded guilty to a charge of federal racketeering and conspiracy. He served a prison term of six years.

In September 2003, the man was arrested by police officers who had been tailing and conducting surveillance on him. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said he was seen selling one bag of heroin to another man. When he was arrested, the police officers frisked him and found eighteen other bags of heroin in the pocket of his jacket. He was charged with criminal heroin possession in the third degree. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to a maximum prison term of twenty years and a minimum prison term of ten years.

He appealed but his appeal was denied after two years. In the meantime, the man had finished serving six years of his minimum prison term of ten years. While he was serving his prison term, the legislature of New York passed the Drug Reform Law. A New York Criminal Lawyer his new law aimed to reduce the prison sentences of low-level drug offenders by allowing them to apply for resentencing. If approved, they will be resentenced to a lower sentence provided that when the convicted felon applies for resentencing, he is currently in the custody of the Department of Corrections as he is serving a prison sentence; he was convicted of a Class B felony which was committed before the law was made effective; and the man was not convicted of another crime within the last ten years.

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On August 2006, a detective recovered a loaded handgun and approximately 300 small glassine and zip lock bags which were later tested and found to contain a total of 1/8 oz + 0.2 grains of heroin and 1/8 oz + 4.5 grains of cocaine from a woman’s bedroom. An individual who does not live in the apartment and who was not named as an opponent was arrested at the scene. The woman was later arrested at the apartment when she arrived home from work.

a New York Criminal Lawyer said the woman testified that she was a working single mother of two children, who were 10 and 12 years old at the time. During the summer, her sister generally watched her children when she went to work. When her sister was unavailable to see her children, the woman had to ask her neighbors to watch her children during working hours. The man was one of the neighbors who lived with his mother in the same building.

The woman testified that the man did not live in her apartment, that he did not have keys to her apartment and that he watched her children approximately six or seven times during that summer.

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When people have contacts that are strong in other countries, they can sometimes become confused about how to handle family law situations so that they are in compliance with the laws of New York. New York is well known for being a hub for many different cultures. Many people from other countries use New York as a port of entry into the United States. However, a New York Drug Crime Lawyer said many people who immigrate to the United States to find work or a better life maintain the ties that they had in their home country. It can be easier for them in many cases to continue to rely on the legal system that they grew up with and understand in their home country. What they do not realize is that if they have become residents of New York, then they will have to comply with the laws of the state of New York in order to ensure that they are in compliance with the legal system here.

In 1901, a man from Havana, Cuba met and married a woman in New York. They established a home and a family in New York. On January 11, 1934, the pair decided to separate. The wife was granted custody of the children and she was awarded alimony and child support. The separation was conducted pursuant to the laws of New York. The case was handled by the Supreme Court of Bronx County in New York State. In 1955, the husband died and the wife discovered that in 1934, the husband had gone to Cuba and obtained a foreign divorce decree. She did not know then or at the time of his death that he had gotten a divorce. She was not served and she was not present in the court. She did not have any representative present in the court. After the divorce was obtained, she was never notified that the husband had gotten a divorce.

When he died, she discovered that he had obtained a divorce and she was not included as a person who was family in his estate. She filed an appeal in probate court to be given the status of his wife in the probate of his estate. A New York Criminal Lawyer he contends that she never knew that he had obtained a divorce. She further contends that the foreign divorce was not legal because they were both living in the Bronx in New York at the time that her husband had divorced her in Cuba. A Nassau Drug Possession Lawyer said she maintains that it was an illegal action for her husband to appeal to a court with no jurisdiction over the couple to obtain a divorce. She points out that they had lived in the Bronx for more than thirty years at the time that he obtained a divorce in Cuba. he filed a motion with the court for a summary judgment in her favor determining that for the purposes of inheritance in his estate, that she should be considered his widow with all of the legal privileges that widowhood would entail.

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