New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

Published on: May 15, 2012

Defendants Argue Search and Seizure Unlawful

by Stephen Bilkis

The manager of a gas station was sitting in between the two gas pumps on the night of August 10, 1977. As he was sitting there, two men came to the station on foot asking him if he fixed tires at the gas station. The manager looked at the two men and something about them made him nervous. He talked with the men but he activated the transmitter in his pants pocket. The transmitter in his pocket set off a silent alarm in the sales office and the alarm dialed the number of the police station and played a pre-recorded message that the gas station was being robbed.

In the meantime, after the man activated the transmitter, his suspicions were confirmed for the two men announced that they were holding up the gas station. A Nassau County DWI Lawyer said they threatened to blow up the manager’s head off, telling him that they had a gun. They emptied the manager’s pockets and took $35. They also took the transmitter. They asked him what it was for but the manager didn’t answer. Again the armed men threatened to blow the manager’s head off.

They took him inside the sales office and they emptied the cash register of all the money. Then they took off on foot toward Taft Avenue. About six minutes after the manager had triggered the transmitter alarm, a cop came driving up. He had heard from the radio dispatch that a robber was in progress at the gas station and he responded as he was near.

Published on: May 15, 2012

Court Discusses Criminal Solicitation

by Stephen Bilkis

The accused parties filed motions to dismiss the charges against them of criminal solicitation on the ground that there exists some jurisdictional or legal impediment to their conviction and on the ground that the accusatory instruments are defective. The Court grants the motions to dismiss the charges of criminal solicitation.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said all of the accused were arrested on various streets in the City of Rochester allegedly attempting to buy small amounts of marijuana. The place has become known as open-air drug markets where marijuana, cocaine and heroin can be purchased on the streets. In some areas cocaine possession and heroin possession with intent to sell are rampant. Those who live and work in those areas have become frustrated at the misuse of their neighborhoods for drug activity, that activity bringing with it increased public safety concerns for themselves and their families. The potential for violence in connection with the open-air drug trafficking was illustrated and underscored with the murder of a resident of the surrounding suburb of Penfield, New York. He was shot to death while reportedly attempting to purchase marijuana in one of the open-air drug markets.

In response to the public safety concerns of the neighborhoods, and in direct response to the murder, the City of Rochester Police Department began to station undercover police officers on the various streets with reputations for being open-air drug markets (drug possession). The officers then arrested individuals who approached them attempting to buy marijuana and other drugs. In the cases before the Court, all of the accused were charged with criminal solicitation in the fifth degree, a violation punishable by a maximum of 15 days in jail. The information alleges either that the accused were soliciting the officers to sell them marijuana, or were attempting to buy a marijuana-type substance or fake marijuana.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Court Decides if Property Owner can be Held Liable for Crime

by Stephen Bilkis

On 17 April 2006, the victim, age 17, was in a backyard located at Farmers Boulevard, Hollis, New York visiting with his friend. Defendant was the owner of the premises.

At approximately 1:50 p.m., while the victim and his friend were working on a car in the backyard, the victim was fatally shot by a gunman who approached them. A New York DWI Lawyer said when the police arrived on the scene, the victim was still conscious and told the police that he was shot by someone who came up and shot him from the adjoining yard.

Thereafter, the victim was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital where he was operated for his gunshot wound. However, at 8:26 a.m. the next morning, he died, never regaining consciousness.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Cab Driver Charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon

by Stephen Bilkis

A cab driver was caught with a loaded .22 caliber revolver while in his taxicab on February 24, 1978. The District Attorney convened a Grand Jury to deliberate on whether or not to issue an indictment against the cab driver.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the District Attorney accused the cab driver of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree (a Class D felony) when he possessed a loaded firearm and his possession does not take place in his home or place of business.

When the District Attorney gave the Grand Jury instructions, he did not inform the Grand Jury that there is an exception to the crime of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree: that if the man possessed the loaded weapon in his place of business, he can be charged with a lesser offense of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree which is a misdemeanor.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Court Decides Constitutionality of Seizure Law

by Stephen Bilkis

In the fall of 2005, residents of the six-story Housing Authority apartment building complained to the Police Department’s Housing Bureau about criminal law violations, trespassing in the building, crack possession and drug sales occurring in the building’s lobby. The police officer’s superiors in the Bureau passed on the complaint to him, and he thereafter performed daily vertical patrols of the building. During the fall and winter, he participated in ten to fifteen trespass or narcotics arrests in the building, most in the lobby. The prevalent illegal activity was not curtailed until early March.

A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said on the night of February 14, 2006, the police officer and his partner entered the building in plainclothes, their guns holstered but their shields displayed, to conduct a vertical patrol on their own initiative. As the officers entered the well-lit lobby, the accused, whom the police officer did not recognize, was standing by the lobby elevator, about ten feet from the officers and face-to-face with them, conversing with a man. The police officer could not hear what was being said.

The officer announced that they were the police. The man said something to the accused, and the accused fled towards a stairwell leading from the lobby to the upper stories of the building. The officers ran after him, calling them out to stop. As the accused ran up the stairs, between the ground and second stories, the officer, trailing shortly behind, saw the accused throw or drop several small green baggies. A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said the police officer recognized them from his training and past arrests to be characteristic crack-cocaine packaging, and believed they contained crack-cocaine. The officer called the accused to stop but he kept running.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Court Decides Murder Case

by Stephen Bilkis

A former employee of a bodega came in just as the manager was closing shop. The former employee had a loaded pistol and pointed it at the manager. He cocked it and ordered him to open the safe or he’ll blow his brains out. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the former employee was accompanied by another man and they both forced the manager back into the office.

The former employee heard footsteps in the store so he gave the gun to the other man and told him to guard the manager. The former employee espied the manager’s wife. He grabbed her and pushed her inside the office when they heard a gun go off. When the former employee heard the shot, he dragged the manager’s wife into the office. The manager wrestled with the other man and the gun went off.

Both men tried to flee through the back entrance; they dragged the manager’s wife and forced her to open the door. They were unable to unlock all the doors so the men used a bolt cutter to shatter the locks.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Court Modifies Defendant’s Sentence

by Stephen Bilkis

The man was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, in particular of possession of a narcotic drug with the intent to sell and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, in particular of knowing and unlawful cocaine possession with 500 milligrams or more. The man moved to cover up the physical evidence recovered upon his arrest. After the suppression hearing, the trial court denied the man’s motion. A Sandoval hearing was also held at which the man sought to cover up his nine prior drug crime convictions.

Consequently, the man proceeded to trial but did not testify. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the evidence adduced at the trial established that the arresting officer saw the man twice, reaching into a brown paper bag and drop vials into an unidentified woman’s outstretched hand. The officer, who observed the man from a distance, also testified that it appeared to him as if the man were counting out the number of vials he was depositing into the woman’s hand. As the officer approached the man, the woman fled and the man was arrested. The brown paper bag, which contained thirty-one vials, was recovered from the man. Upon analysis of the contents of the vials by police chemists it was concluded that the vials contained 1,591 milligrams of cocaine. The jury acquitted the man of the possession with intent to sell count but convicted him of the fifth degree possession count.

The legislature had decided that persons who illegally possess larger quantities of controlled substances should be punished more severely. The conduct is more repugnant and presents a greater threat to society because drug possession is not a strict liability crime, however, an individual is not deserving of enhanced punishment unless he or she is aware that the amount possessed is greater. A purpose of the knowledge requirement is to avoid over penalizing someone who unwittingly possesses a larger amount of the controlled substance than anticipated.

Published on: May 13, 2012

Court Listens To Violent Robbery Case

by Stephen Bilkis

One day a woman and her husband parked their automobile alongside a river. While picnicking in their car, two men in a light blue vehicle drove up beside them. One of the men exited their car, approached the couple’s vehicle, pointed a shotgun on the husband’s head and demanded money. The other individual, who wears a mask, approached the woman. The man opened the car’s door, grabbed the woman’s purse and pulled her out the vehicle.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the unmasked assailant then approached the woman and shot her in the face. The assailant left the scene and the woman eventually returned to their vehicle. The police and an ambulance arrived and brought the woman to the hospital for treatment.

A police investigation of the shooting proceeded. The police, however, failed to recover any physical evidence from the scene. A single latent fingerprint was recovered from the victims’ car and subsequent analysis revealed that the print matched neither that of the victims nor of the attackers. The video surveillance of the area revealed images of a light blue vehicle approaches the couple’s car and later departed. Consequently, the woman initially gave a description of her attacker.

Published on: May 12, 2012

Court Charges Accomplice with Robbery

by Stephen Bilkis

A man met some friends one afternoon and drove with them in his car to another friend’s house. There they all spent the night. The next morning, two of his friends asked him to drive them to an address in Queens where he was going to see a man about a job. The friend who owned the car agreed to drive his two friends to Queens.

During the drive to Queens, the driver/owner of the car observed and saw one of his friends in possession of a gun. He dropped off his two friends. Before drove away, one of his friends came back to the car, showed him the gun and told him that they were planning to rob the house. The driver/owner of the car drove away.

A few minutes after he drove away, he was accosted by police officers on the road just a short distance from the address where he dropped them off. He was asked by the police officers who stopped him if he knew the two men he dropped off. He said he knew them. He admitted that he had dropped them off. What he did not admit was that he knew that they had planned to rob the house where he dropped them off. He never told the police that he saw one of his friends in possession of a gun.

Published on: May 12, 2012

Defendant Charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon

by Stephen Bilkis

Two plainclothes police officers were sitting in an unmarked car which was parked near a high crime area just outside a bar. For the past two weeks prior to the incident, there had been hold-ups in the neighborhood. They noticed a car with African-American males in it slow down in front of the bar and stop their car briefly. A New York Criminal Lawyer said they looked around and all three occupants of the car stared at the bar.

The police officer followed the car. The car stopped at a stop sign. And the car went again and slowed down in front of another bar. They briefly paused in front of the bar and all the males stared at the bar. Then they went on their way. The police car still followed them for half a block and then the police officer stopped the car.

The police officer asked for the license and registration. The driver of the car got out of the car and tried to explain to the police officer that he had forgotten his wallet in the house. The other two passengers in the car bent down over their seats. The other two men didn’t have any IDs either.