Drug arrests are posted in media outlets throughout Massachusetts several times every day. The basis for these arrests is often the representation that surveillance of suspected drug dealers was conducted for weeks or months. Usually the suspects are driving cars. The cars are followed by the police and ultimately an…
Over the past several years a trend has developed enabling law enforcement to obtain search warrants for homes based on anonymous tips. Tipsters using apps that connect to local police departments provide information that the cops otherwise would not have had. The application is downloaded to smartphones and has several…
Drug crimes arrests are made every day in Massachusetts and in virtually all cities and towns. No municipality is immune to the current drug problems plaguing this state. Newspaper articles of arrests and drug busts flood the internet daily in support of this statement. What many articles do not make…
About six months ago the Massachusetts Legislature passed a law raising the age for adult prosecutions from seventeen to eighteen. The law had prospective application. There is however one school of thought that this law applies to cases that were pending at the time the law went into effect. Thus,…
Police and district attorneys in Massachusetts have a tendency to charge people with crimes that are much more severe than the crime that they believe was actually committed. They are not supposed to do this. They are supposed to charge people solely for the crime they truly believe was perpetrated.…
Massachusetts Restraining Order Attorney Our Attorney successfully vacates Harassment Prevention Order [258E Order] in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courtt. The plaintiff and the defendant were former roommates. The defendant moved out of the apartment to a location down the street. The plaintiff claimed that she was in fear of harassment…
Once again I wake up and grab the local Lawrence, Massachusetts newspaper and read about another heroin bust. This one involved an investigation spanning Lawrence, Haverhill and Methuen, Massachusetts. The arrests were made after a brief investigation into local heroin use following several local overdoses, some fatal. The first thing…
First degree murder in Massachusetts can be proved by the district attorney through one of three theories. One is by deliberate premeditation. To prevail under this theory the prosecution must show an intent to kill and that the decision to do so followed a period of reflection. The second way…
In almost every case involving child pornography prosecutors in Massachusetts are faced with what should be a difficult decision: to charge possession of child pornography or to charge distribution of child pornography. Let’s look at some common facts. Rarely, if ever is a defendant caught with one image or a…
In 2012 the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Miller v. Alabama, 132 S.Ct. 2455 (2012). There, two fourteen year olds were convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole, a mandatory sentence under their state law sentencing schemes. The Supreme Court held that sentencing laws that…