Posted on July 20, 2013 in Criminal Defense

If you have been charged with and found guilty of a crime in the U.S., you may have to pay a fine, serve jail time and/or be on probation for a certain length of time. Probation is usually after you get out of jail, although sometimes it is a less severe alternative, when you can live home, but you are still under strict supervision by law officials and you are still limited to what you can and cannot do.

When you are being supervised for probation, your officer makes sure that people on probation follow all the conditions that were set by the court when he or she was released.

Probation officers are also responsible for the safety of the community in which the person on probation is released into. Along with the safety of the community, probation officers also help with the health of the person on probation. This includes medical care, employment assistance and mental health treatment, basically anything that will help him or her to re-enter into the community.

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 Posted on July 16, 2013 in Violent Crime

A Chicago grandmother, Helen M. Ford, 51, is being held on no bail and is facing a murder charge in the death of her granddaughter, according to the New York Daily News. According to the Daily News, Ford had been inflicting “abuse for so long that the dead little girl had maggots living in a head wound that had gone untreated.” The girl, Gizzell Kiara Ford, was eight years old. She was dead, and her body had already gone cold, when cops responded to a call of a person not breathing, according to the Daily News. “The girl lived with her grandmother and bedridden father, both of whom were home when the girl died,” reports the Daily News. “Ford initially told cops the girl inflicted the injuries herself, but police found several bruises, burns, and cuts on her body, lying face up in a bedroom in the home.”

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 Posted on July 14, 2013 in DUI

In our last post we discussed drunk driving charges being brought against a 24-year-old man who crashed his car near Naperville. Another man was arrested for speeding while intoxicated this weekend, and authorities say that this is not the man's first drunk driving conviction.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the principal of Joseph Academy has been arrested for driving while intoxicated. Authorities say that the 36-year-old Itasca man had a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit when he was stopped by authorities in Harwood Heights. Cook County court documents indicate that the man was stopped around 1 a.m. early yesterday morning.

The principal of the south suburban private school was held in lieu of $25,000 bail on charges of aggravated DUI felony, speeding and improper lane usage, among other things.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the man has two prior drunk driving charges, but both of these are over two years old.

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 Posted on July 13, 2013 in DUI

A 24-year-old Lisle man is facing two drunk driving charges after causing a serious car accident in Naperville. Authorities say that the man was intoxicated and driving over 100 mph when he crashed into two parked cars and a lamp post earlier this week.

In addition to his drunk driving charges, the man was also cited for improper lane use, reckless driving and speeding more than 40 mph over the posted speed limit according to the Chicago-Sun Times.

CBS Chicago reports that the crash happened at a strip mall at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Naper Boulevard at the border of Lisle and Naperville.

Authorities say that the man was traveling alone at the time of the accident and not seriously injured. No one else was hurt in this particular crash and CBS Chicago was unable to find any prior criminal history for the man.

Speeding and DUI charges are highly common in the Chicago area. There are multiple ways that a defendant can overcome drunk driving charges including proving that breath test equipment was fault and demonstrating that the person who administered the breath test was not qualified to do so.

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 Posted on July 08, 2013 in Your Rights

The fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the most important protections against governmental intrusion. It guarantees the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” In other words, the fourth amendment requires that searches or seizures be reasonable. “So, what is reasonable?” one may ask. Courts have interpreted reasonableness to require a warrant supported by probable cause. Thus, before law enforcement officials can search something or someone, or arrest someone, they need to go in front of a judge with enough evidence and obtain a warrant.

However, the Supreme Court of the United States has recognized certain exceptions to the warrant based on probable cause requirement. For example, in what are known as Terry stops (named after the Terry v. Ohiocase), law enforcement officers may briefly detain someone and quickly perform a pat down search if the officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot. These searches, however, are meant to ensure the safety of law enforcement, i.e. if the officer has a reason to believe that the suspect is carrying a weapon, he should be allowed to ensure that the person is not a danger to the officer. Terry stops, however, are not supposed to be a fact gathering expedition.

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 Posted on July 05, 2013 in Divorce

In our last post we discussed a divorce involving a wife who was found to have dissipated marital assets during the divorce proceedings. In her appeal, the wife also challenged the trial court's maintenance determination.

When awarding maintenance, Cook County courts look at several factors including the income and property of each party, their needs, future earning capacity, among other things. Like many stay-at-home mothers, the wife in this case had both an undergraduate and a graduate degree, but chose to stay at home and raise the couple's children because her physician husband made enough to support the entire family.

Although the wife's employment consisted of working low-paying part-time jobs, the court found that her education weighed against a larger maintenance award for her.

The court found that under Illinois law, the wife had a duty to seek and accept "appropriate" employment. The wife had a law degree and the court decided that the wife should have sought employment as a lawyer after losing custody of her children instead of pursuing another advanced degree.

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 Posted on July 04, 2013 in Criminal Defense

Most convictions require that the prosecution prove the defendant had a criminal intent to commit the crime. Absent an outright admission, prosecutors have to rely on circumstantial evidence to prove criminal intent. Some defendants have attempted to negate criminal intent by turning a blind eye to criminal behavior.

For example, A, a person with a reputation of being a drug trafficker, asks B to transport a package. Because of A’s reputation, B suspects that the package’s contents may be illegal, but decides to transport it anyway while purposely avoiding knowledge of the package’s contents. This is called ‘willful blindness’ and it has landed many people in jail.

The seminal case holding that willful blindness will not preclude a finding of criminal intent is U.S. v. Jewell. In that case, like the example above, the court had to decide whether ‘positive knowledge’ is a requirement for conviction of a crime that requires criminal intent before a jury can find someone guilty. In Jewell, there was a dispute whether the defendant actually knew that the vehicle in which he was traveling contained marijuana. Defendant argued that he purposely avoided knowledge of any potential drugs in a secret compartment of the car. This so called ‘ostrich defense’, i.e. purposely burying one’s head in the sand to avoid knowledge, did not fly. The court held that there was enough evidence to support a conclusion that defendant was aware of a “high probability” that the vehicle contained an illegal substance. The fact that he did not have ‘actual knowledge’ was not enough to avoid a conviction.

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 Posted on June 30, 2013 in Criminal Defense

When Miriam Conrad graduated from Northwestern University’s journalism school, she likely did not think that she would be the defense attorney for one of the highest profile cases in the nation. Well, she is. Ms. Conrad, who is the head of the Federal Public Defender’s office in Massachusetts, is going to represent Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of using a weapon of mass destruction that resulted in three deaths and hundreds more injured in the Boston bombings.

Ms. Conrad is not new to high profile cases, but representing Tsarnaev will be tricky not only because of the gruesome nature of the attack, but also because of the attention the case has gotten from the media worldwide. It will be difficult for Ms. Conrad to find an untainted jury pool that can keep an open mind for whatever defense she may devise.

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 Posted on June 28, 2013 in Division of Property

Dissipation of marital assets is a serious issue that often arises in Chicago divorce cases. The dissipation of marital assets is defined as the use of marital property by one spouse for his or her own benefit for a purpose unrelated to the marriage during a time when the marriage is breaking down.

The dissipation of marital assets is often relevant in the division of a marital estate and can be used to lower a spouse's property award. What constitutes a dissipation of marital funds depends on the facts of a particular divorce case.

One recent case involves the dissipation of funds during divorce proceedings. The dissipation occurred in association with false accusations made during the divorce.

False accusations are common in acrimonious divorce cases. One recent Cook County divorce case involved a wife who was married to a doctor who she accused of sexually abusing her children. The abuse allegations were taken seriously by a court which ordered all of the doctor's visits to his children be supervised.

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 Posted on June 27, 2013 in Criminal Defense

The United States seems to have a great government and justice system, but it can only be kept that way if the people working for our country are kept in check just as any business would keep its employees in check. Recently, Illinois found that it had a bit of work to do to keep it’s law enforcement system running smoothly, when it was found that evidence from rape cases were not being submitted for testing in labs.

The Illinois State Police were sent 51 sexual assault kits from previous cases after they were found untested in the Robbins Police Department evidence room, according to Tom Dart, Cook County Sheriff.

Dart said, “The victims should know they will have their cases heard, and they will be treated like they should have been treated. My goal is to bring justice to these folks.”

He added that the untested kits date back as far as 1986 and they were found alongside guns that were supposed to be sent into the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace the ownership for cases as well.

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