New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

Published on: May 11, 2012

Court Convicts Man of Robbery

by Stephen Bilkis

A man was charged with robbery in the first degree and related offenses. The man then filed a motion seeking various forms of pretrial relief. His motion for court inspection of the grand jury minutes is granted and his motion for release of the grand jury minutes is denied.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the evidence presented to the grand jury revealed that the man entered a pharmacy wearing what the witness described as a bandana over the lower part of the face and a baseball hat. The said man displayed and clicked what a looked like gun to the store clerk and demanded to fill the bag with money. The clerk obeyed the demand and the robber fled from the store with the money. Six days after the incident, the clerk identified the man in a police-arranged lineup.

Consequently, the arresting detective was also presented to the grand jury. The detective testified to a statement made by the man after his arrest in which the man admitted that he had entered the pharmacy on the date of the crime wearing a handkerchief over his face. The man further stated that he showed a gun to the clerk behind the counter, clicked it and demanded for money. The man also stated that after receiving the money he fled. With respect to the gun, the man stated it was a small 380, black in color and there were no bullets inside.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Discusses Felony Murder Rule

by Stephen Bilkis

On October 4, 1975 a man and a woman went inside a boutique. The woman tried on dresses but did not buy any. While the woman was trying on dresses, her boyfriend asked the boutique owner if he could use her bathroom. The man observed that there was a big window in the bathroom that faced a back alley.

Three days later, the lovers parked their car in the back alley with the trunk of their car facing the back window of the bathroom. The woman stayed near their car while her boyfriend entered the store and took clothing items and gave them to his girlfriend who stashed the clothes in the trunk.

A police officer on routine patrol passed through on his cruiser down the back alley and saw the woman; he saw clothes being pushed out of the widow, and the woman stashing the clothes in the trunk. He called for back-up and he saw the woman hide behind the car. The police officer approached and talked to the woman and asked her what she was doing. The police officer did not immediately place her under arrest.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Discusses Probable Cause in Drug Possession Case

by Stephen Bilkis

The police officers of the 32nd precinct in New York City were assigned to conduct surveillance over the corner of 128th Street and 8th Avenue because this was known as a high-drug crime area. A New York Criminal Lawyer said many arrests for cocaine possession and heroin possession have been made at this corner.

One police officer saw perched atop a condemned building, holding binoculars and observing the goings on at the street corner. His partner was near the street corner, waiting for a signal from his partner on the rooftop.

At 1:30 pm of February 26, 1977, the police officer on the rooftop saw one man at the corner. Most passersby hurry on by but that man stayed put. He kept having brief conversations with those who come by him but those people moved on. The man stayed. The officer observed the man for forty-five minutes.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Decides if it Will Accept Independent Evidence

by Stephen Bilkis

Police officers were assigned to conduct surveillance of an apartment in Brooklyn on suspicion of sale and possession of heroin. The police observed the apartment from 11 am to 1:30 pm of October 22, 1971 before one occupant (the first man) of the apartment came out. Forty-five minutes after that a second man knocked on the apartment door and spoke with the man who opened the door. A New York DWI Lawyer said the second man entered the apartment. An hour later, the second man came out of the apartment accompanied by the owner of the apartment.. The police arrested these two men.

When the police were approaching the apartment, the man who first left the apartment came back. The police arrested him as he got off the elevator. The police knocked at the door and a fourth man answered the door. The police entered the apartment and found a woman lying naked on the bed under the blankets.

On the kitchen table, the police found one thousand three hundred plastic sachets. A New York DWI Lawyer said they also found two huge plastic bags with white powder; a big plastic bag contained capsules. They found a scale, three boxes of cellophane, and a box of rubber bands.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Rules on Warrantless Search for Drugs

by Stephen Bilkis

Many people believe that juvenile drug issues are a modern problem. However, history demonstrates that these are problems have been consistent throughout the history of the United States. One case from 1963, demonstrates that juvenile drug dealers were a problem in New York even then.

On July 19, 1963 at around 1830 hours, an off duty juvenile corrections officer was in a location to observe the corner of 14th Street and 31st Avenue in New York, Queens County. He observed a teenager around fifteen years of age at that corner. A New York Drug Crime Lawyer said the teen appeared intoxicated and walked with an unsteady gait. He watched the boy for a moment and observed a second youth approach him. The second boy put a one-dollar bill on top of a mail collection box. The first boy took the bill off of the box and slipped the other boy something from his hand. The other boy turned and left. The corrections officer did not see what had been in the boy’s hand. He watched the boy turn and go into a corner market. Again, he followed behind. Once inside the store, he kept the boy under surveillance for several minutes.

After a while, he approached the boy and asked him if he could frisk down his outer clothing. The boy complied and the officer felt two pill bottles in the front right pants pocket of his clothing. That was the pocket that the boy had removed whatever he had passed to the other boy from. The boy removed two pill bottles that did not have any labels. The boy told the officer that one of the bottles contained Doriden and the other contained barbiturates. A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said that Doriden was a pharmaceutical name for an opiate that was popular in the 1960’s as a mood lifter. The boy voluntarily stated at that point that he had been selling the drugs on the corner when the correctional officer saw him. The correctional officer arrested the boy and he was transported to juvenile detention.

Published on: May 10, 2012

In Gambing Case, Court Determines Each Bet as a Individual Offense

by Stephen Bilkis

There is a good deal of specific legality, which is involved in cases of gambling or racketeering. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the fact that a person is engaged in a criminal enterprise must be proven. In order for a case to be considered a criminal enterprise, the person must have committed three or more acts that constitute separate and distinct crimes that relate to the same enterprise. The crimes must be separate and able to be tried an convicted on their own without being a drawn out version of just one crime. A crime is not a criminal enterprise if it just takes a long time to commit the one crime. In gambling or numbers operations, it can sometimes be difficult to show that the gambling operation is actually a criminal enterprise.

In one case from 1997, the court arrested several subjects and charged them with conspiracy and operating a criminal enterprise in Queens County. The police alleged that the gambling operation was started around August 15, 1996 and continued until the arrests of the subjects on November 7, 1997. The indictment charged that the defendants in the case were all members of a notorious gambling organized crime ring that was run by the Conigliaro family. The police brought forth evidence that demonstrated that the enterprise was organized in Queens, Kings, and Richmond Counties in the state of New York. It showed that there was a bookmaker, who was in control of ensuring that the operation ran smoothly. There was a controller, who handled the daily business of the enterprise and all of the accounting details. There were several clerks who took the betting information by phone and had runners meet with the bettors each week to settle the accounts.

The defense maintained that the organization could not be convicted for operating a criminal enterprise because their crimes were gambling only. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the pattern of illegal gambling activity was documented from November 1988 to July of 1991. The legislators maintained that illegal enterprises were specifically considered in the written statute to include “syndicated gambling.” The question of law was whether these actions constituted on criminal purpose and objective or not. If it is one purpose and objective, then the case cannot be a criminal enterprise because there has to be three distinct acts.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Policeman Charged with Recieving a Bribe

by Stephen Bilkis

Police operated sting operations can be set up for many different reasons. Most of the time, they are set up like drag net to catch everyone that they can in a determined crime and location. However, sometimes, a sting operation can be set up in order to trap one person whose actions are so abhorrent to the public definition that to allow their conduct to continue would be a breach of justice. A New York Criminal Lawyer said that is usually the case when a public servant who has been entrusted with the well-being of the society goes astray and violates that sacred public trust.

When a police officer violates that public trust, the case is even more important to the other police officers whose names have been sullied by the dishonor that another person has placed on their positions. In August of 1994, the police in Queens County received information from an informant that a police officer was engaging in illegal activities. The police department decided to set up a sting in order to catch this criminal police officer in the act. They arranged for an officer that the criminal officer did not know to pose as a drug dealer. This undercover officer was assigned to approach the suspected officer with a deal to protect a felony shipment of drug money for the undercover officer who was posing as a drug dealer. The two officers met and surveillance officers were taping the encounter. A deal was struck for the criminal police officer to work for the drug dealer to ensure that the drug money was transported safely. The police officer was arrested and charged with a bribery for public service in the third degree, receiving reward for official misconduct in the second degree, official misconduct, and computer trespass.

The defendant appealed his conviction on the grounds that he would not have considered the offense if it had not been created and sold to him so effectively. While this allegation may sound like entrapment, it falls just short of entrapment in that the officers conducting the sting were acting on a tip from an informant. They did not simply single this officer out in an arbitrary manner to tempt him into committing a crime. The officer contends that it is exactly what they did. He claims that he was innocent of any crime until the sting operation seduced him into committing the crime.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Decides Larceny Case

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

On 7 December 2001, defendant and two acquaintances approached a man as he was walking with his friends in Queens, New York. Defendant held out his hand and that man, believing that the stranger was attempting to greet him, returned the gesture by slapping him “five.” A New York Criminal Lawyer said the defendant told the man, however, that he did not want a greeting; he made clear that he wanted the man’s compact disc player. Defendant snatched the player out of the man’s hand, walked away and allegedly began listening to the “Busta Rhymes” CD in the disc player.

The man followed defendant, repeatedly asking for his disc player back, at which time one of defendant’s acquaintances, codefendant, approached the man and told him to “run his pockets”, meaning, to give co-defendant his money. The man told co-defendant he did not have any money and then turned to continue following defendant, whereupon co-defendant repeatedly punched the man from behind, causing a laceration on the ear.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Robbery Defendant Claims Circumstantial Evidence

by Stephen Bilkis

The accused man and his accomplice as well as the two female complainants boarded a subway train at 125th Street. Once on the train, the accused man and his accomplice sat down near, although not immediately beside, each other and engaged in a conversation.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said that thereafter, the accomplice began to verbally harass the complainants. The accused man did not join in and in fact eventually moved by himself to a different subway car. When the train arrived at Zerega Avenue, the complainants got off followed by the accused man’s accomplice. It was shortly after leaving the train that the complainants were accosted on the subway platform by the accomplice and robbed of various possessions at knifepoint. One of the complainants testified that while the accomplice relieved her and her companion of their possessions, the accused, who had apparently also exited the train at Zarega Avenue, stood some 65 to 75 feet away; he was situated at the top of the stairwell providing access to and from the platform. While the first complainant at first claimed to have observed the accused glancing alternately down the stairs and in the direction of the ongoing robbery, she later stated that the accused was simply standing at the top of the stairs–that she could not see his face and that she did not witness any communication between the accused and the accomplice while the robbery was in progress.

Once the robbery was complete, the accomplice joined the accused and the two fled the station together. A short time later, when they were apprehended in the vicinity of the station, the accomplice was still in possession of the items taken from the complainants; the accused, on the other hand, had no stolen property and disclaimed any relationship with the accomplice, stating that he don’t know the guy and he was just asking him for directions.

Published on: May 9, 2012

Attorney Involved in Death of Young Girl

by Stephen Bilkis

On the night of March 12, 1976, an attorney was at the home of an 18-year-old girlfriend of his. He was known to use heroin. He had offered the girl’s brother some in the past. The girl’s brother later testified in court that on this night, he went to his sister’s room and knocked. She did not answer her door and it was locked. He left and returned later. He again knocked on the bedroom door of his sister. This time the door was opened by the attorney. The brother could see his sister in the bed gasping for air and breathing heavily. The boy asked if she was OK and was advised by the attorney that she was just coming down from some depressants. A New York DWI Lawyer said the attorney told the girl’s brother that she would be OK in the morning. The boy went in to check on her and the attorney grabbed his briefcase and left in a hurried fashion.

The girl passed out and the brother left her in her room because the attorney had said that she would be all right. The attorney went to the home of a different friend and was in an agitated state. He informed the group of friends that was gathered there that he had injected the girl with a small amount of heroin in her buttocks. He said that he panicked when she passed out and ran out of the house. The following morning, the brother found his sister dead.

Several months later, the attorney was arrested in connection with the girl’s death. A New York DWI Lawyer said he was indicted and convicted of manslaughter in the second degree, and criminal injection of a narcotic drug. He had been charged with criminally negligent homicide as well, but he was acquitted on that charge. He filed an appeal. The defendant maintains that the prosecution did not have sufficient evidence to corroborate the information that they had obtained from the civilian witnesses that he had confessed to. He maintains that if the prosecution does not have sufficient evidence to prove the case, then there should be no conviction based solely on statements that he may have made to third parties after the event.