Articles Tagged with Criminal Lawyer

IMG_1293-768x1024 Airports are high security environments with strict rules enforced through law enforcement, federal agents, TSA checkpoints, drug-sniffing dogs, US Marshals aboard flights, and more. Being arrested at an airport is overwhelming, scary, and often times, completely unexpected. However, the consequences of these arrest can be serious and long-lasting. An arrest at an airport could lead to detention by law enforcement, criminal charges, and the need to retain legal representation.

If you are arrested at an airport, you may be taken into custody and transported to a detention center or police station where you will be held and processed until further legal proceedings. However, this does not always happen at the airport – you may leave the airport and later have a warrant issued for your arrest. In that case, you would still need to turn yourself in for processing with law enforcement. In either circumstance, it is essential to remember your rights, including the right to remain silent and the right to legal counsel. Contacting an experienced criminal defense attorney will help you navigate that distressing process with an advocate by your side.

Airport arrests can lead to severe criminal charges depending on the circumstances of your case. Common criminal charges in this context cover a broad range including drug offenses, sexual offenses, firearm offenses, DUIs, disorderly conduct, battery, theft, trafficking, and fraud. You could also be arrested at the airport for entirely unrelated criminal charges if you are simply identified and apprehended pursuant to an active arrest warrant, such as this recent arrest in Atlanta. Committing crimes while aboard an aircraft (like interfering with the performance of the duties of a flight crew) can lead to federal criminal charges and even more severe penalties. Many of these charges carry significant terms of imprisonment and hefty fines.

In criminal proceedings, the State often attempts to use evidence of “similar transactions” against a defendant. This typically comes in the form of the State introducing evidence at trial of a defendant’s prior crimes to help prove that defendant’s guilt.

Under O.C.G.A. § 24-4-404(b), evidence of other acts can be introduced by the prosecution to prove a defendant’s “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.”  This type of evidence is only admissible if the State shows:

“(1) that it seeks to introduce the evidence not to raise an improper inference as to the defendant’s character but for some proper purpose; (2) that there is sufficient evidence to establish that the defendant committed the independent offense; and (3) that there is a sufficient connection or similarity between the independent offense and the crime charged so that proof of the former tends to prove the latter.” Amica v. State, 704 S.E.2d 831 (Ga.App. 2010).

An NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a digital asset representing ownership or proof of authenticity of a unique item or piece of content using blockchain technology. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are fungible and can be exchanged on a one-to-one basis, NFTs are non-interchangeable and one-of-a-kind. As long as you’re following copyright laws and selling legitimate assets, creating, selling, and reselling NFTs is legal. However, due to the decentralized and anonymous nature of the crypto world, NFTs come with a host of legal issues. Like with most digital innovations, regulatory legislation has been slow to catch up and establish clear guidelines; still, wrongful use of NFTs can implicate an array of criminal charges.

Money Laundering refers to the illegal process of concealing the origins of money obtained through criminal activities, making it appear as if it comes from a legitimate source. This is criminalized under 18 U.S.C. § 1956. Money laundering using NFTs involves the illicit use of these digital assets to disguise the origins of illegally obtained funds. In this context, individuals create a fake record of sales on the blockchain by selling NFTs to themselves using different accounts. Once finished, they sell the NFT to an unsuspecting buyer and repeat the process.

Fraud has grown increasingly common in the crypto landscape due to its anonymous and decentralized nature. Fraud involving NFTs can manifest in various ways due to the unique characteristics of these digital assets. This is mostly being prosecuted as wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Some common forms of fraud associated with NFTs include:

Meg Strickler often discusses the law in the media.  Recently, with all of the attention of the former President Trump being charged in several indictments, Meg Strickler has been quite busy discussing her thoughts on the various cases.  She was asked by NBC 11 Alive more than once for her thoughts on the RICO Trump indictment in Fulton County.  She also was featured in an article by the BBC, among others.

Georgia’s RICO act can be used by county district attorneys in a variety of ways including both Trump and the Cop City indictment in Dekalb County.  The state of Georgia RICO statute is even more broad than the federal RICO statute.

The RICO statute is explained in another blog by Conaway & Strickler, PC.  Feel free to contact us if you should have any questions on RICO and more importantly, should you or someone you love be facing a state or federal RICO charge.

Schools across the state of Georgia are facing an increase in threats of violence.  It has led schools to step up security.   Each and every threat must be taken seriously.  Some of these threats turn out to be real, so officials have beefed up security everywhere, including for example, Fulton County Schools implementing license plate readers on all of its campuses.

But,what if a threat is simply a result of a prank?  What charges could result from calling in a threat that is not real? Criminal defense attorney Meg Strickler recently commented on NBC 11 Alive News about this very issue.  Calling in a threat to a school can be very disruptive and it will always involve law enforcement.  Teens can thus face charges ranging from misdemeanor to federal charges.  And, the school can also suspend or expel a student for this conduct.

It is a complex situation especially in these times.

As the DOJ states, “Federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (persons less than 18 years old).  Images of child pornography are also referred to as child sexual abuse images.  Federal law prohibits the production, distribution, importation, reception, or possession of any image of child pornography.   A violation of federal child pornography laws is a serious crime, and convicted offenders face fines severe statutory penalties.”

Below are the federal statutes that address child pornography.

18 U.S.C. §2252 – Child pornography;

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The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects against unlawful searches and seizures by the government.  When the government wants to obtain a search warrant, an affidavit must be drafted and application must be made to a U.S. Magistrate judge (in federal matters).  The affidavit can be more than a hundred pages at the minimum in complex cases.  The affidavit will begin with an introduction and the background of the agent (his/her experience).  In this section, statements beginning with “Based on my training and experience” are plentiful.  The next section generally addresses probable cause and sets forth facts that show probable cause has been established to support the issuance of a search warrant and that items listed have a reasonable probability of being found during the search.  Finally, it will detail what needs to be searched and what items the government is seeking.  Law enforcement often request search warrants when seeking documents, electronic devices, money, drugs, paraphernalia, ledgers, photos, receipts etc.  A warrant can be requested for real property, a person, electronically stored information from your phone, iPad, computer, external hard drives, a tracking device on a car, the car itself, and/or other modes of transportation such as a boat.

Once the search warrant is signed by the judge, the search warrant will be executed.  Generally, the government will work to execute the warrant with local law enforcement officials. The search can take hours, and often times, questioning will occur at the same time.  NEVER SPEAK TO LAW ENFORCEMENT at this juncture without a lawyer.  This interview at your home or office is often recorded by body cam, audio, and other video devices.  It can be difficult to get those statements excluded at trial for a variety of reasons.

After the execution of the search warrant, a copy of the search warrant inventory will be left, and it will list out exactly what was seized.  In the case of the execution of the search warrant for Donald Trump, there is a search warrant, sworn affidavit, and application filed, but it is under seal.  Mr. Trump also received a search warrant inventory. Hopefully, these documents will be released to the public sooner than later.

The Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) and the Non-Residential Abuse Program (NRDAP) are offered by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) to assist inmates suffering from substance abuse issues.

RDAP consists of 3 intensive phases, totaling over 500-hours of voluntary individual and group treatment, and it is about 9-12 months long. This program offers prisoners to live in a modified prosocial community within the prison, separate from the general population. They split their day in half with vocational, work, or school activities and the other half in treatment/programs. Prisoners must meet specific requirements to be considered for this program, and space is often limited. The prisoner must have at least 24 months remaining in their sentence to complete the program.

Since some inmates may have less than a 24-month sentence, the FBOP also offers a Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program (NRDAP), where prisoners can participate in 12-24 weeks of Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment. This treatment consists of skill-building within communication, rational thinking, and institution adjustment. NRDAP is often offered in a group setting and is more accessible to prisoners because of the less strict qualifications. NRDAP differs from RDAP because offenders may join this program if they have short sentences, are not eligible for RDAP, or awaiting availability.

On April 11, 2022, the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta announced the creation of a new pretrial diversion court, the Accountability, Treatment, and Leadership Court “ATL Court“. It is formed with the Northern District of Georgia, the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Defender Program, and  will be run by folks from each of these agencies who will be known as the ATL Court Team.  Please note: The ATL Court is in addition to, and not a replacement of, the Northern District of Georgia’s existing Pretrial Diversion Program.

“THE ATL COURT MISSION:  Our mission is to provide the opportunity to avoid some of the consequences of aberrant criminal conduct to certain individuals charged with non-violent crimes in the Northern District of Georgia who would most greatly benefit from intense supervision, education, or treatment.”

HOW ATL COURT WORKS

Attorney General Merrick Garland made recent comments about what he considered to be the Department of Justice’s top priorities for 2022.  Since taking office in March 2021, Garland has tried to combat crime in a tumultuous time.  He has been criticized for his handling of January 6 investigation and has stated it’s the most urgent probe in history.

With all of this going on, the US Attorney’s office increased its prosecutions of individuals of white collar crimes in the year 2021.  White collar charges like fraud, theft, corruption, bribery, environmental crime, tax fraud, health care fraud, procurement fraud, money laundering, PPP loan fraud, etc will continue to get more attention from the Department of Justice.

What does this mean?  It means that investigations of any sort need to be taken seriously and that you should contact a lawyer immediately if any wrongdoing is alleged.

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