New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

Published on: December 7, 2011

Tennessee Couple Accused of Stealing From Church

by Stephen Bilkis

The one place where money and all other things should be sacred was not so, recently. A Massachusetts couple has been accused of stealing from the First Presbyterian Church in Tennessee in January, alleges a charge. The couple were both acting suspicious and were questioned when they left the church. When the man became rude is when the police were called.

The couple was leaving the church and the man had his coat draped in an unorderly and funny fashion. A woman who was a member of the church spotted the young couple acting weird and questioned what they were holding. The man swore at her and took off out of the church. The police were then alerted, reported a source.

The police took a report from the church and went to look for the couple. It only took a matter of a few minutes before each one was found in a separate location in the town, said the police. They were driving a truck that had been stolen the week before from a New Jersey address. The jug they stole contained a small donation to a charity. The couple faces multiple charges of grand larceny, lying to investigators, lying to police and a few other charges are pending. The male of the couple, who is only 19 years old, is also wanted on other drug and theft charges in other states. A date for their preliminary hearing has not been set.

Published on: December 7, 2011

Political Activist Charged With Threats,

by Stephen Bilkis

Just hours after Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot, a Massachusetts man made threatening emails to a Florida Representative. The man who made the threat says he is a political activist and was arrested for the threatening emails he had sent. The email contained a message to stop legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants entering Florida’s work places, reported a newspaper. He was also suspected of stalking.

Besides threats, the email was riddled with spelling and grammar errors. The report says the man who made the threats used a public access computer within a coffee store. The coffee store was only a few blocks from the man’s house. Using tracking, police were able to trace the emails to the man and his house. Once police confronted the man, he admitted to sending the email to the Representative. He was upset over the legislation because it may affect some of his family members.

The Representative used to be a law enforcement agent before he became involved in politics, so he knew to report the threat right away. It was unclear to sources if the email was sent in correlation to the shooting in Arizona or if it happened to be a coincidence at the timing. The man who made the threats is still being held in jail on $450,000 bail. His charges include corruption by threat and threatening to do bodily harm. The charges are all felonies and could land him a lengthy jail sentence if convicted next month.

Published on: December 6, 2011

Man receives five years of probation for driving drunk

by Stephen Bilkis

A 70-year-old man who killed a 57-year-old woman will most likely not see jail time as long as he does not violate the five years of formal probation he was sentenced to, the judge in the case said.

The man did not even have a traffic ticket before the struck the women, who was a Walnut Creek attorney, a reporter was told.

The accident occurred on a summer night. That summer night the man had drinks with a friend at three restaurants before heading home. On the way there, around 6:30 p.m., he hit a median, blew a tire, and continued on his way. His car hit the curb three more times before the second tire blew. He then jumped the curb and ran over the victim, who was taking a walk through the neighborhood. The woman had tried to run to get out of the way of the car but was struck 14 feet from the curb, reported a source.

Published on: December 5, 2011

Ex-Qwest CEO Says That He Will Not Pay for His Lawyer’s Underwear

by Stephen Bilkis

On Wednesday, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Qwest Communications, filed a lawsuit that alleges the lawyers who represented him during his insider-trading case overbilled him, a newspaper has learned. The legal malpractice lawsuit was filed in state Superior Court in Newark, NJ, seeks punitive and compensatory damages totaling $25 million plus attorney’s fees.

The former CEO is currently located at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, serving a 70-month sentence for using insider information as a basis for selling $52 million in stock in his former employer, the source was told. An appeals court also ordered him to pay a $19 million fine and to forfeit close to $45 million. His conviction was in 2007.

The former CEO’s current attorney has also informed the source that thanks to the law firm named in the suits failure to follow even the most “basic litigation procedures,” his client received not only strict fines, but also a lengthier prison sentence than what was necessary. The attorney also stated that due to these failures, the trial judge barred the defense’s sole expert witness. He also added that the case is sad, since his client not only received inadequate representation during his trial, but he was also overbilled in the process.

Published on: December 5, 2011

Judge orders Feds to find representation for two immigrants with mental disabilities

by Stephen Bilkis

The ACLU is celebrating a small, yet exciting victory today after a judged reached the decision that two mentally challenged immigrants, both of whom are up for deportation and unable to function at a level competent enough to represent themselves, will be given legal representation so that they may have a chance to have their case heard, stated a spokesperson.

Immigration courts are not the same as criminal courts, reports the source. In a criminal court, the federal government will provide a defense attorney to someone who does not have one, but the law, at this time, does not hold true for immigration courts to be required to do so. But in the case of two mentally disabled immigrants, a judge has ruled that they must be given representation by the federal government pending their trial.

Both men are suffering from serious mental illness and there is no way that they would receive any kind of fair trial in immigrations court if they do not have some kind of legal representative to speak for them, said the expert. One of the men functions at the level of a small child, unable to do simple tasks or communicate effectively. The other man is schizophrenic and not competent enough to make statements on his own behalf. The ACLU maintains that detained immigrants with mental disabilities are routinely denied their basic constitutional rights in situations like these where they cannot speak for themselves.

Published on: December 4, 2011

DUI convictions invariably come back to haunt you

by Stephen Bilkis

Most people respect the law and don’t drink and drive. People who decide to take chances with other people’s lives will undoubtedly be better off if they are ticketed, but a DWI conviction is no walk in the park, either. Aside from the immediate risks of losing one’s driver’s license or having to take substance abuse classes, face a fine and even jail time, the DUI will invariably come back to haunt you in the future, according to a study.

Old DUI’s don’t just disappear, they often show up on your record when applying for a job or a routine credit check. In the case of one Florida woman who was fighting to become head of the state Republican Party, her old DWAI conviction may have cost her an election. The fact is, even if you were not convicted of a crime, the charge alone can scare off potential employers and those influential in making decisions on your behalf.

The key to avoiding all of this hassle and potential headache, believes the expert, is to just stay sober in the first place if you know that you will be getting behind the wheel. Law enforcement is continually making the punishments for driving under the influence more stringent in an effort to curb drunk driving and save lives. If having a good time with alcohol before you drive might make your life miserable later on, then just say no.

Published on: December 4, 2011

There’s nothing sadder than a mother maltreating her own children

by Stephen Bilkis

There’s nothing sadder than a mother maltreating her own children. This case is about a mother who inspite of having four children already, still didn’t have the maternal instinct to care for her kids. She has two kids from her first partner and twins with a man reported to have been physically and emotionally abusing her.

It was determined by the court and by the Social Welfare Department that the mother has actually sexually abused her eldest son. The court and the Social Welfare Officers are trying to establish if the mother’s behaviour is a result of domestic violence that was brought about by the father of the twins.

The mother has gone through a lot of counselling and therapy. She has also undergone sexual offender therapy because of what she has done to her eldest son. This is very disturbing because this is not a common case. It is not every day that we hear that mothers are involved in sex crimes against their son or daughter. She had actually completed all of the seminars, counselling and therapies except for the sex offender therapy. The reason for this is she refused to admit what she had done.

Published on: December 3, 2011

Supreme Court denies overturned conviction for ex-felon

by Stephen Bilkis

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal that would have overturned a conviction of a Washington state man. The man is an ex felon who was appealing a law that would send him back to prison for several months.

The man was pulled over by police in 2005. They told a reporter that they suspected that he was selling cocaine. Police also realized he was wearing a vest. If police suspect a person is breaking the law, they have the right to pull an individual over.

The court rejected his appeal over a federal law banning convicted felonies from having body armor. This also includes bulletproof vests. A 7-2 decision by the Court to not review the case determined that they would not intervene with the decision for the man to be sentenced to 18 months in prison. They decided to stick with the original verdict. Drug possession was certainly the contention of the law enforcement group.

Published on: December 2, 2011

Tax Shelter Case in St. Louis

by Stephen Bilkis

A St. Louis attorney is involved in a federal lawsuit after being investigated by Federal Agents after questions arose regarding some tax shelters managed by the lawyer. Tax shelters are a very common, legal way to prevent the government from taxing a sum of money. They are frequently associated with charitable giving and grant-making organizations. They are, unfortunately, common methods for large-scale tax evasion, a practice which the federal government has been actively attempting to curtail in recent years.

The attorney was sued by several former clients for malpractice claims a source. In the suit, which was filed last year and decided in August, they claimed that they had no knowledge of the ongoing investigation against the attorney in St. Louis, that they had been misinformed about the potential ramifications of their investments, and that they had not knowingly invested in an illegal tax shelter. The judge in the case (which is now in the appeals process) ruled that the plaintiffs were eligible to be reimbursed by the lawyer for penalties and interest, as well as damages stemming from their alleged association with a criminal tax shelter- a total amount of $165,000. This would most likely be called a white collar crime.

In spite of this past litigation, the lawyer has remained in good standing with the Missouri Bar Association, and has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. One prominent expert stated that while it was not unusual for a defendant facing pending litigation to refrain from admitting guilt, the Missouri Bar’s response did raise important questions.

Published on: December 1, 2011

Immigration Detention System Shows Ugly Flaws in North Carolina

by Stephen Bilkis

A 30-year-old immigrant, married to an American woman, with a very young son, was arrested on September 28, 2009, taken from his family home in Durham, North Carolina, a New York Criminal Lawyer reported.

“I was scared, but in the back of my mind, I just felt that everything would eventually be OK because I was a citizen and he was married to me,” said the immigrant’s wife. She is a mental health therapist, born and raised in the United States.

It’s been more than a year and a half and every request for release on bond has been denied, thanks to two misdemeanor drug possession charges from 1998. The authorities feel these charges make him a flight risk, which means he stays in prison until they make a final decision, according to a Bronx Criminal Lawyer.