Articles Posted in Criminal Law

Let’s face it. It is scary.

Suddenly you are confronted by law enforcement and the police are asking you questions in tones which suggest that they suspect you of doing something illegal.

You are shaky and they are calm. They are in control.

By now, you have no doubt heard of the continuing saga of Jeremiah Oliver. He is the 5-year-old boy from Fitchburg who has been discovered missing. The criminal investigations into the child continue to date.

Recently, the Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) has been ridiculed because of its handling of young Mr. Oliver and his family.

As you know, my legal career has been spent in the criminal justice system. Over the last several years, however, it has become necessary to represent clients in their dealings with DCF. As I have mentioned from time to time, I have found DCF to be, in a word, a nightmare.

Hello and happy new year!

Well, Christmas 2013 has come to an end and 2013 is history. Many folks have found rather interesting ways to celebrate, both in and out of the Commonwealth

Take 52-year-old John Barsell of Middleborough for example. He begins 2014 with two counts of attempted murder and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He’s being held on $50,000 bail at the Plymouth County jail as of Saturday night. Barsell is said to have had an argument with two other men on Christmas morning. The subject matter of the tiff?

In Fall River, another prosecutorial shoe dropped in the ever-expanding Aaron Hernandez case(s).

This time, the criminal justice spotlight fell on the fiancée of the former New England Patriots tight end.

The charge? That she lied to the prosecution.

23-year-old Isaiah Murphy of Dedham (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is in a great deal of trouble. His alleged crimes in two robberies may well bring him the blame for many more.

You may have noticed over the past months that there had been a rash of robberies at various Dunkin’ Donuts shops in the Commonwealth. Well, the Defendant has been arrested for allegedly robbing a particular Canton Dunkin’ Donuts twice (on June 30th and July 24th). Now, the former Dunkin’ ex-employee is being considered for responsibility for more than a dozen other Dunkin’ robberies

While the Defendant has not yet been charged with the other robberies, there was no stopping the Commonwealth from arguing the suspicion at today’s bail hearing.

We continue on the subject matter that Attorney Sam’s Take was

discussing this past Thursday. Namely, the exercising of your Constitutional rights when law enforcement is pretending that said rights do not really exist

Last week, we discussed a case in which a number of young folks apparently felt that police officers who responded to a loud party were going too far. According to the Commonwealth, these 20-ish people (hereinafter referred to collectively as the “Defendants”) ended up verbally and physically assaulting the officers. Let’s put aside what the Defendants say they were doing for the moment. Clearly, they were not simply agreeing with the officers and quietly complying with the officers’ demands. It brought us to the question of what one is to do when law enforcement is trying to, in your opinion, “go too far”.

We have been discussing search and seizure cases and issues. Yesterday, we discussed the necessity of an expectation of privacy in order for the rules against unreasonable search and seizure to be applied.

This was the central issue in a case we discussed last week in which a federal officer left federal property to investigate a driver. The court found that the federal officer did not violate any expectation of privacy simply because he left federal property.

It is worth noting, by the way, that different places in which there is an expectation of privacy differ in the level of that expectation. For example, your automobile has less of an expectation of privacy than your home. The backseat of your car, clearly visible to the outside world, has less of an expectation then your trunk.

We have been discussing the Somerville High School rape case and, in particular, the charges and bail issues which have now faced the one defendant who is facing charges as an adult. The case has already brought up issues which are faced by many Massachusetts criminal defendants in such cases.

This Boston criminal attorney has handled many such cases and I can tell you that defendants and their families are often shocked when it comes to what they find in the system. This unawareness of the system being one of the things I am trying to address in this blog, let’s discuss them.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Rape, Media, Joint-Enterprise And Bail

As has been discussed many times in Attorney Sam’s Take, there are certain situations in the Commonwealth’s criminal justice system wherein one does not enjoy all the rights regularly given, or at least promised, to a criminal defendant. An example of such a situation is when you are on Massachusetts probation.

There are various instances in which a criminal defendant is on probation. Many people do not realize that, while a case is pending, and the defendant is released on bail or without bail, that defendant is on a sort of probation. That probationary status could even have special conditions which the defendant, still presumed innocent, has to adhere to lest he go to jail while the matter is pending.

Even in cases in which there are no special conditions, a criminal defendant is warned that should he be charged with another crime while released, he may be held for months in custody without any bail.

I’ll bet you thought the police had enough to do with solving Massachusetts crimes concerning violence, guns, drugs and the like. Sometimes, when conducting these criminal investigations, the police go undercover to ferret out the “bad guys”. They are out to solve crimes that actually take place.

At least, that is how this Boston criminal lawyer had always heard it to be. It turns out I was wrong.

It turns out that law enforcement must have more time, energy and resources on their hands than I thought they did.