Your Shield Against Criminal Prosecution
I was scheduled to begin a trial today in Suffolk Superior Court, which never happened. My client, a woman, had been charged with Trafficking Over 200 grams of Heroin, a Drug Crime which carries a minimum-mandatory sentence of 15 years in state prison. As insurmountable as the charge might sound, my client actually had an extremely strong defense. The government…
As a follow-up to my June 4, 2010 post on the Boston Criminal Lawyers Blog, Stephen Woodard, who had escaped from a Suffolk County Sheriff’s van, surrendered this past Monday in Charlestown, Massachusetts. You may recall that Woodard escaped from the Sheriff’s van on foot last Friday and then stole a Department of Public Works vehicle that had the keys…
Executing a Search Warrant this past week, the Boston Police Department netted the seizure of almost 1 ton of marijuana, divided into 40 bales, from a Dorchester, Massachusetts apartment, resulting in Edgar Gonzalez being arraigned on Trafficking charges. Call it a stroke of luck, however… The Boston Police, along with the Massachusetts State Police and FBI, were executing the Search…
Joseph F. Cruz, 28, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was arrested on May 3rd for allegedly selling Oxycodone pills at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree. Braintree Police Detectives allege that they had received complaints that Cruz was selling drugs out of his apartment. After an undercover surveillance operation was established, Braintree Police observed Cruz exit his apartment and drive to the…
In the recent case of Commonwealth v. Jorge Vasquez, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently overturned the conviction of the defendant, who had been tried and convicted of Possession of Cocaine, as well as Distribution of Cocaine. Despite his criminal defense lawyer’s failing to object at trial to the admission of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory Certificates of Drug Analysis,…
If you don’t remember the name Luigi Epifania, it’s because he was known around Boston as the “Cat Killer”. In 2008, Epifania was found guilty of strangling and stomping a cat to death, putting it in a bag, lighting it on fire and then throwing it into an apartment building. At the time when that case arose, he was awaiting…
A drug investigation by the West Roxbury Boston Police Drug Control Unit, relying on information provided by a ‘confidential informant’ about drugs being sold at BK’s Pub at 4272 Washington Street in Boston’s Roslindale section resulted in the arrest of two people. Alexander Perez-Figueroa, of Dorchester, and Elsa M. Parrilla, also of Dorchester, were both arrested and each charged with…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently reversed the conviction of a man who had been convicted in 2004 for the crime of Trafficking Cocaine of over 28 grams. In the case of Commonwealth v. Mario M. Perez, the Supreme Judicial Court reversed the jury’s guilty finding on the grounds that the defendant’s Sixth Amendment Right to Confrontation was violated by…
A defendant who was convicted for the gun crimes of Carrying a Firearm Without a License and Carrying a Loaded Firearm recently had his convictions overturned because the admission of the Ballistics Certificate, without live expert testimony, violated his Right to Confrontation under the 6th Amendment of the United States Constitution. At his criminal jury trial in the District Court,…