Are You Innocent of a Criminal Charge?

As a criminal defense lawyer, I represent a lot of people who I honestly believe are innocent, and not guilty of any crime. Many people are surprised to hear that, but it is absolutely true. It is entirely possible to get arrested and accused of a crime in a situation that is a mixup or a misunderstanding, and should never have happened.

Some of my proudest moments as a criminal defense lawyer come when I am able to correct an injustice, right a wrong, and help a person out of a tough situation that was absolutely not their fault.

Don’t get me wrong, we certainly have many clients –  maybe most, who make real mistakes. And I will fight just as hard for those people. Everyone deserves an outstanding legal defense. Everyone deserves a second chance, and someone on their side when they are up against the power of the government to put you in jail. Fighting for them mean fighting for everyone, and making sure the system is fair and accountable.

Common Criminal Charges Where the Person Accused Is Falsely Accused or Not Guilty.

Here are some charges I’ve defended, and situations where someone gets arrested and they don’t deserve to be convicted:

Leaving the scene of an accident: You can be charged with a crime of hit and run even if you think you did everything right, but didn’t exchange paperwork property.

Shoplifting: Shoplifting charges happen sometimes because of an innocent mistake. If you were having a fight or in an emotional or confused state, you may have left the store thinking that you paid for the item.

Domestic Assault: Anytime the police get involved in a domestic case, if there is any threat or evidence of violence, it is almost certain that someone is getting arrested.  Police procedure dictates that any indication of domestic violence needs a response. They can’t afford to let anything go, and later have something tragic occur. So they frequently end up arrested someone over virtually nothing, or even arresting the wrong person.

Drug Distribution: Simple possession of marijuana is decriminalized and only results in a fine. However, police can still charge felony distribution based on fairly thin “evidence” that you could be selling. If you have a scale, or some baggies, or too much cash on you, they may try to accuse you of being a drug dealer. Even if you have less than an ounce of marijuana for personal consumption. 

False firearms ID card: Massachusetts has some fairly strict gun laws. You can be charged with a crime for any clerical error on a gun license application, even if you recently moved, or live in several places.

Negligent Operation of a Motor Vehicle: Negligent operation, or reckless driving, is a judgment call by the police officer on the scene or an accident or a stop. But sometimes an accident is just an accident and not a crime.

Driving on a Suspended License: If you moved, or were not properly notified of a suspension, you might not know that your driver’s license had been suspended. While not knowing is not considered a legitimate defense, it is very possible for the Registry to screw up, and other situations where someone is genuinely shocked to learn about a suspension, and would not have been driving, or would have fixed the problem had they known.

Any there are countless more examples. Someone can be unfairly charged with any crime.

Why do Cops Arrest Innocent People?

There are lots of reasons why this happens. Incomplete information, mistakes, certain rules, and bad decisions.

But it absolutely happens. After all, if everyone who got arrested was automatically guilty, there would be no need for lawyers or judges.

People can be arrested because the police officer basically didn’t like the person, and the officer didn’t think he was being treated with respect. Any disorderly conduct charge is purely a judgment call, and is often based on how difficult a person was to the officer, and not really about any legitimate criminal act.

In assault cases, particularly domestic assaults, if someone was threatened or if someone is injured, and then someone is getting arrested. And it may not be the right person, but it is the police officer’s job to defuse the situation and make sure it doesn’t escalate. What really happened gets sorted out later.

While I have great respect for the difficult work that the police do everyday, the fact is that everyone makes mistakes. And mistakes by the police can have very serious consequences for the person involved.

How I Help People Who are Unfairly Accused of a Crime

The best thing I can do for anyone accused of any crime is to make the charge go away. But even in the best of circumstances, with the weakest facts and the most clearly unfair charges, it can take quite a bit of effort and legal wrangling to get things fixed. Here are some of the ways I can do that.

Beat the case at a clerk magistrate’s hearing. If you’ve received a summons to a clerks hearing, that is often the very best time to make a charge go away. In fact, if we win the clerk’s hearing, it basically means there was never a criminal charge.  Some cases are simply bad and should not go forward. A clerk’s hearing is to determine if there is sufficient probable cause to go forward and issue a formal criminal complaint. Unfortunately, that is not always a high standard, and in some cases, a complaint is likely to be issued, and we’ll have to win in court. But if the facts are marginal, I can sometimes get the clerk to agree that it is simply not in the interest of justice to move forward on a thin case against someone who has never been in trouble with the law before.

Motion to Dismiss: If a criminal complaint is issued, and you are arraigned on a charge, there can still be opportunities to dismiss the case in front of a judge. Sometimes the original clerk is just not that cooperative or sympathetic to the facts, but a judge may more easily see that the facts of the case don’t justify a criminal prosecution.

Motion to Suppress: Motions are generally about police procedural and legal mistakes, and sometimes those police mistakes are the source of the cops jumping to the wrong conclusion about the facts. If the evidence gets suppressed, the case goes away.

Are You Unfairly Accused of a Crime in Massachusetts?

The bottom line is that criminal defense is about helping people. That’s what I do every day in court.

If you are in a difficult criminal legal situation, please call me and I’ll let you know what I can to help.