New York

Published on: December 31, 2012

Probable Cause Questioned in Drug Crime

by Stephen Bilkis

A police officer was on patrol in her cruiser. She noticed a pick-up truck which was swerving and crossing over the solid yellow line dividing the two lanes onto the opposite lane. Then the pick-up truck swerved sharply back to its lane. The police officer then put on her siren and emergency lights and pulled the pick-up truck over.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said when the police officer pulled the pick-up truck over, she went to talk to the driver. She noticed that the driver’s eyes were glassy and red. She noted the smell of alcohol on his breath and the smell of alcohol coming from the interior of the truck. The man’s speech was slurred and he walked unsteadily. She conducted field sobriety test by asking the driver of the pick-up truck to stand on one leg. He dropped his other leg and could not stand on one leg. The officer asked the driver to also walk a straight line heel-to-toe and he could not do that, either.

The man admitted to the police officer that he’d drunk alcohol earlier that evening but he also said that he had already eaten and so he didn’t think that he was that drunk and was on his way home to sleep it off anyway. He also volunteered to the police officer that he had taken suboxone, a step-down drug from heroin addiction.

Published on: December 30, 2012

Defendant Claims Due Process Rights Violated in Drug Charge

by Stephen Bilkis

The police in Brooklyn suspected that a drug repacking business was carried out in an apartment building by the members of one family. They wrote down all the facts they have so far gathered about the heroin-repacking business in an affidavit and they applied for a search warrant. The judge granted them a search warrant and twelve officers formed a raiding party that would serve the search warrant.

When the police arrived at the ground floor of the building, a man was coming out. A New York Criminal Lawyer said when the police announced their presence, the man slammed the front door of the apartment building in the policemen’s faces. He then climbed the stairs to the second floor apartment screaming.

The police used a battering ram to enter the building and they used the same battering ram to gain access to the apartment since the apartment door had been locked and no one was answering the door.

Published on: December 29, 2012

Defendant Charged with Manslaughter in Heroin Case

by Stephen Bilkis

The defendant, is twenty-two years of age, an admitted heroin user and, in all probability, an addict. At the time of this occurrence, he was living in an apartment over a bar located on Jericho Turnpike, Smithtown, New York. On September 9, 1971, at approximately 8:00 p.m., the victim was a young girl of nineteen years of age, visited him at his apartment. The defendant observed that she was under the influence of drugs. She was high on ‘downs’, and, as a matter of fact, ‘she could not walk or talk straight’. They talked for a while and then she fell asleep on the bed. He then left the room and went out at about 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. to purchase some pizza in a restaurant.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said when he returned, he found the young girl trying to inject heroin into her arm with a hypodermic syringe and needle. She was apparently having difficulty, and he then proceeded to assist her, and actually injected the heroin (heroin possession) into her arm. They then had some food and she went back to sleep. She was lying on the bed in a semiconscious condition. Shortly thereafter she started to regurgitate, and he placed her on the floor. He watched television for a while and then went to sleep.

Shortly thereafter his roommate requested of the defendant that he accompany the roommate’s girlfriend home. He did so and returned between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. and found the victim still on the floor sleeping. Defendant then went to bed and shortly thereafter he heard the victim make a ‘gurgling noise’. He then applied mouth to mouth resuscitation and was unable to revive her.

Published on: December 28, 2012

Court Decides Whether Prior DUI Convictions are Allowed as Evidence

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts of the Case:

On 11 October 1988, the petitioner was charged in the circuit court with three traffic-related offenses. One of the charges was for DUI (DWI) in violation of the Florida Statutes, to wit: that any person who is convicted of a fourth or subsequent DUI violation is guilty of a felony of the third degree. However, the information filed charging the petitioner made no mention of any specific prior DUI convictions, nor did the state before trial provide the petitioner any details of the alleged prior convictions. At arraignment, petitioner moved to dismiss or to transfer the matter to the county court, contending that because the information did not inform him of what specific prior offenses he allegedly committed, the information did not adequately charge the felony, and therefore the circuit court had no jurisdiction. The circuit court denied the motion. Consequently, the jury found petitioner guilty of DUI. A New York Criminal Lawyer said after denying the petitioner’s renewed motion to dismiss, the court immediately adjudicated petitioner guilty of third-degree felony DUI and sentenced him to four and one-half years’ imprisonment. Thereafter, the district court reversed on the ground that the felony prosecution in circuit court was improper because the information merely charged petitioner, in effect, with three misdemeanors. The district court expressed conflict with a prior court ruling which held that the state need not allege the prior DUI convictions in the charging document because of possible prejudice to the accused in the event the prior convictions were brought to the jury’s attention.

The Issue of the Case:

Published on: December 27, 2012

Court Discusses Public Policy Regard Drug Treatment Programs

by Stephen Bilkis

Plaintiff 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 defendant which was traveling on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. At the time of jury selection, the plaintiff moved in limine to preclude the defendant from offering evidence of or in any way calling the jury’s attention to the facts of the plaintiff’s incontestable past use of heroin ( and his current participation in a methadone treatment program.

Following jury selection and prior to opening, the court granted the balance of the plaintiff’s motion and precluded the defendant from mentioning or offering any evidence of the plaintiffs past use of heroin (heroin possession). 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.

First, it is important to recognize what is not presented on the motion. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the motion does not question whether a plaintiff’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 plaintiff, such as life expectancy. In that context, with an appropriate foundation, testimony regarding the plaintiffs heroin use would surely be admissible. Nor is it about whether the plaintiff 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 plaintiff was under the influence of heroin at the time of his testimony. The use of heroin by the plaintiff 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. (See, e.g., People v Freeland, 36 NY2d 518, 525 [1975].) The lone issue decided by this court on the branch of the motion reserved to it was whether the plaintiff’s past use of heroin was admissible as an act of moral turpitude offered only to attack his credibility as a witness.

Published on: December 25, 2012

Defendants Claim Court Erred in Sentencing

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts of the Case:

A building containing offices and retail establishments was broken into and burglarized. Moments after the silent alarm system went off, the appellants, along with a third person, were found inside including various tools that were apparently used in the burglary. Consequently, appellants were charged and convicted of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, viz: grand larceny, petit larceny and possession of burglary tools. They were each sentenced to fifteen years for the breaking and entering conviction, 60 days in the county jail for the petit larceny, and five years for the possession of burglary tools, the latter to run consecutive to the former concurrent sentences.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the appellants now ask the court for a reversal of their convictions and sentences and argues that the evidence presented was insufficient to support the conviction of breaking and entering with intent to commit grand larceny; that the trial court erred in disallowing the testimony of an alleged material witness; and that the trial court erred in imposing three separate sentences for the three offenses inasmuch as the petit larceny and possession of burglary tools were but facets or phases of the breaking and entering with intent to commit grand larceny.

Published on: December 24, 2012

Court Discusses Application of Harmless Error Rule in Theft Case

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts of the Case:

Petitioners were charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, to-wit: grand larceny. At a jury trial, petitioners requested an instruction on breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor, petit larceny, but this request was denied. Thereafter, the jury found the petitioners guilty as charged and the criminal court sentenced each of them to fifteen (15) years. On appeal, the District Court of Appeal, Second District, affirmed the guilty verdict holding that the proof of guilt was overwhelming and that any error committed by the court’s refusal of the requested instruction on the alleged lesser offense was harmless.

The case is now before the court for certiorari.

Published on: December 23, 2012

Court Discusses the Elements of Burglary

by Stephen Bilkis

A man entered a home in Dade County, Florida. A New York Criminal Lawyer said he did this in the middle of the night without the knowledge and consent of the two people who lived in the premises, a brother and a sister. The man ransacked the house and took away with him a color television set. He was later apprehended by the police.

Charges of larceny and burglary were brought against him. The larceny charge was brought for the taking of the television while the charge of burglary was charged for breaking and entering into the house owned by another person for the purpose of committing a crime.

The criminal information filed against him alleged that sometime on May 9, 1976 in Dade County, the man unlawfully entered the house owned by VA, the owner and custodian of the home with intent to commit the offense of petit larceny.

Published on: December 22, 2012

Court Upholds Possession with Intent to Distribute Charges

by Stephen Bilkis

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). The parties and co-defendant agreed that the former would sell the informant 25 ounces of heroin for $6,000 per ounce (Drug Possession). 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 Criminal 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. 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.

Published on: December 22, 2012

Defendant Charged with Two Crimes from Single Conversion of Money

by Stephen Bilkis

In this criminal case, appellant, was charged by information with robbery under section 812.13(2), Florida Statutes (1981) (Count I), and with grand theft, second degree, under section 812.014, Florida Statutes (1981) (Count II). The facts adduced at trial indicated that appellant and two other males had shopped lift a convenience store in Orlando by force, carrying away a cash register (valued at $250) which contained less than $50 in cash. The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts, and appellant was subsequently adjudicated guilty of both robbery and grand theft, second degree. An Orlando Criminal Lawyer said that, the trial court sentenced appellant only on the robbery count, presumably on the authority of the extant rule at that time.

An New York Criminal Lawyer said that, appellant raises three points on appeal: the trial court’s denial of proffered impeachment evidence, the trial court’s denial of a motion for new trial based on newly discovered evidence, and a claim of double jeopardy in regard to the dual convictions.

The issue in this case is whether appellant’s appeal that he raises in his three points should be granted.