CASE DISMISSED
Andreas Jackson and Merlin MacGillivray defended a man of 41 years old who was cited for cocaine possession following a supposed welfare inspection. The officer initially approached our client under the pretense that he believed he was in distress. However, when spotting that a client was fine, the officer began to investigate possible crimes without any reasonable suspicion. The officer checked our client’s criminal history, asked for his identification, took him out of the car and interrogated about “anything” he might have on him. We felt that the officer’s search of our client was not justified. We were unable to capture our client’s extended detention on bodycam. Instead, we relied on dispatch audio and CAD logs to determine what happened during the 51-minute violation. We filed a motion for suppression, citing all of the officer’s actions prior to the citation as unpermissible deviations from the welfare mission. Prior to our representation, the court’s delayed proceedings were a further injustice. Instead of allowing the client to appear on time, the court delayed his arraignment. A series of mistakes led to our client’s arraignment being delayed until September 2022. We filed both a Serna and suppression motions, arguing that the unreasonable delay violated our client’s Sixth Amendment Rights. Upon review of our motions, DA decided to dismiss all charges. Now, our client can focus on his event planning business and support his four children.
Early Termination Motion Granted!
We represented a father who cares for his grandmother, aged 99, in his motion to terminate supervised release early. He makes sure that she takes her medication, cleans their home, and entertains his grandmother. We enjoyed meeting our client’s grandmother to help her draft her letter of assistance. He brings meals to the elderly people in his community. We worked closely together with our client in order to collect letters of support from people who are important to him. His coworkers praised his dependability, and said how charming he was with people he helped. We used the information we gathered about our client from his friends and colleagues to create our brief. We demonstrated how he has grown since his sentence. He is now an active community leader who tries to steer young people away from the violence he experienced. He is a father who strives to ensure that his children are successful in school and at work. After reading our brief, the Judge Breyer found it to be so persuasive that he did not need any more briefing. He granted our request immediately!