New York Criminal Lawyer BlogYes, the New York criminal lawyers at Saland Law PC represent numerous travelers flying in and out of area airports. No, just because the firearm is unloaded when you check it at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) or LaGuardia Airport (LaGuardia), doesn’t mean you will avoid an arrest. For that matter, merely because you checked in advance with the TSA or your airline, whether it is American, Delta, US Air, Southwest or JetBlue, that your hard side case was the proper means to store that pistol, in no way means police with the Port Authority will let you board your plane without an arrest. As you may only know now, your registration, carry permit or concealed license in Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Illinois or California (we can throw in Arizona or any other state if it makes you feel better), won’t shield you from an arrest and prosecution from the Queens County District Attorney’s Office. However, if there is any silver lining, albeit more of a silver colored paint as opposed to the precious metal itself, if an unloaded and unregistered firearm is recovered from you after you declare and attempt to check it, the crime you will face is not the dreaded Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon (New York Penal Law 265.03). As you will soon find out from your criminal defense attorney and the court, instead of a Class C violent felony, you will be booked and arraigned on the Class E felony of Criminal Possession of a Firearm (New York Penal Law 265.01-b(1)). While Criminal Possession of a Firearm is not as crippling as an arrest for possessing a loaded revolver, pistol or gun, its all relative. Unfortunately, a recent Saland Law PC client learned that the consequences of a weapon and firearm arrest in Queens County for trying to check an “illegal” handgun at the airport is no less significant whether its locked and loaded or merely the weapon itself. Fortunately, however, Saland Law PC mounted a successful mitigation defense.
Articles Posted in Case Results
The Importance of Experience and Advocacy Before and During Trial: A Recent Criminal Defense Review
When I served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, my greatest achievement, selfishly or not, was securing a conviction after trial for Attempted Murder against a husband who had physically and emotionally abused his wife and children for years. From burning a son and repeatedly striking another child, his violent acts culminated when he repeatedly stabbed his wife after she turned down his sexual advances. Until that point, the wife, an immigrant without a full command of the English language, was hesitant to seek justice. While fortunately may not be the right term, on the night of this incident their pre-teen and fifteen year old children were home when their father went into a rage and began stabbing their mother with a knife he had been using to peal an apple. Not merely stabbing her once, the defendant stabbed the mother of his children repeatedly until the blade broke off in her shoulder and their fifteen year old son broke down the bedroom door with a hammer.
On many fronts, this conviction for Attempted Murder and the twenty five year sentence was gratifying. The bond and trust developed with the victims, providing them the protection they deserved, and bringing closure to a horrific time in their lives was rewarding. Why do I share this so many years later? I do so because despite the misconceptions that only prosecutors wear the “white hat”, criminal defense attorneys do so as well. Facing the same potential sentence of up to twenty five years in prison, a client of Saland Law PC was also brought closure as a victim even though he was charged with many crimes including Kidnapping in the Second Degree as opposed to being the accuser. After a lengthy trial, this innocent man was exonerated and found not guilty by a jury of his peers. Not due to a legal technicality, his innocence was “proven” because of my effort to provide justice to my client in the face of a fabricated story shrouded in what appeared to be significant and damning evidence. Through developing our own evidence and challenging the prosecution’s, and advocacy before and during trial, closure was seized. The following his this client’s review of our services as criminal defense attorneys and lawyers:
I was Arrested at JFK and LaGuardia Airpots for a Loaded Firearm: One Dismissal and Two Non-Criminal Resolutions
Don’t count on the TSA or your airline – Delta, JetBlue, American, United – to confirm whether or not the firearm you traveled with to New York from Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia or any other state in the Union is legal in New York. No official airline or TSA website will provide you that information and discuss the extent New York’s laws are in direct conflict with the Second Amendment or how your permit, license or registration in Texas, Maryland or California is not valid here. For that matter, the ticket agent, online booking website, the TSA or your airline will not explain that possessing the loaded firearm (loaded doesn’t require ammunition in the pistol or revolver) in New York without the proper permit is by default a class “C” violent felony punishable by a minimum term of three and one half years incarceration pursuant to Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Firearm (Penal Law 265.03). Certainly, you can follow the advice listed on the TSA website at your own peril. To some extent it is accurate. That is, wherever you may be flying to and from the regulations are the same. You must head to the ticket counter, have the unloaded firearm in a locked hard sided case, slap a sticker or a tag on that case, declare the firearm and ensure that no parts of the firearm are inadvertently taken with you as a carry-on onto the airplane. But that is where the TSA’s usefulness and value ends. Flying into JFK or LaGuardia (or for that matter any other airport) is one thing, but after checking the firearm at the ticket counter on your way home from one of these Queens County airports, you are going to be personally escorted to the “tombs” of Queens County Central Booking on your way to your arraignment on felony weapon charges at Queen County Criminal Court. A layover is one thing…but this is no what you expected.
Queens CPW 2 Ends in ACD and Future Dismissal: Client Avoids Criminal Record After LaGuardia Airport Arrest for NY PL 265.03
Although the law does not provide for it, there is an objective difference between an possessing an unlicensed and unregistered loaded firearm and possessing an unlicensed and unregistered loaded firearm. Wait. What? In New York State, if you possess a loaded firearm outside your home or place of business and you are not registered or licensed to possess it, then you are guilty of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, New York Penal Law 265.03. While there different provisions and subsections relating to specified conduct, the “catchall” language often prosecuted by District Attorneys throughout New York City is PL 265.03(3). More of a strict liability crime, a murderous, violent or criminal intent to harm, menace or threaten another person is not required. Merely, if you knowingly possess that firearm and it is loaded, a conviction will land you in prison for a minimum of three and one half years whether you are a physician, steel worker, or a stay-at-home mother of three. So, why do I say that there is an objective difference between an possessing an unlicensed and unregistered loaded firearm and possessing an unlicensed and unregistered loaded firearm? Simply, from a mitigation perspective, if you are toting around a loaded firearm with a bullet in the chamber while walking the streets of New York as opposed to following TSA procedures at LaGuardia or JFK Airport and declaring your otherwise legally registered or licensed firearm with the airline while its secured and broken down (ammunition not inside the firearm) in a hard sided case, there should be a vast difference. Fortunately for a recent client of Saland Law PC, our New York criminal lawyers were able to convince prosecutors of just that and were not merely successful in reducing the Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon from a felony to a misdemeanor or even a violation, but to an ultimate dismissal if our client does not get rearrested over the next six months.
New York Criminal Defense Results: Arrest for Second Degree Assault with Vehicle Reduced from Felony to Non-Criminal Violation
Sometimes bad things happen to good people. When that bad thing is being accused of a crime, arrested, hauled into a precinct, fingerprinted, and thrown before a judge, the consequences to your mental state, career and outlook on life can be devastating. If a misdemeanor accusation is horrendous, a felony arrest is exponentially worse. It doesn’t matter if this happens to you in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, or any city, county or municipality in New York State (or elsewhere for that matter). Sadly, this exact scenario happened to a Saland Law PC client after our client was charged with numerous crimes including felony Second Degree Assault (New York Penal Law 120.05(1)), Leaving the Scene of an Incident without Reporting (Vehicle and Traffic Law 600), Second Degree Reckless Endangerment (New York Penal Law 120.20) and other offenses. It was alleged that our client, a college instructor and professional, struck the complainant’s car at a stop light and drove off through the following red light. After catching up to our client, it was claimed by the District Attorney’s Office that there was a second accident between the vehicles driven by the parties. Finally, after pulling into a parking lot, the complainants’ (a passenger and driver) alleged that after a brief conversation outside the vehicles our client got back into the car, drove at one of the complainants and struck her. This complainant alleged that our client then drove off with her on the hood through the parking lot until she fell off. At that time, the complainant contended she suffered and injury to her nose area requiring multiple stitches. Despite these claims, the severity of the arrest and nature or the crimes, our client stood firm and adamantly denied that the events of the evening in question occurred as set forth by the prosecution and complainants. After much hard work from our criminal defense attorneys, our client’s strength and perseverance was rewarded with a non-criminal resolution.
Second Degree Assault and Endangering the Welfare of a Child Dismissed: Knife Injury to Eye of Child an Accident
I have discussed it many times on the NewYorkCriminalLawyerBlog.Com. Endangering the Welfare of a Child, New York Penal Law 260.10, may not be the most serious offense in New York’s criminal code, but it is a crime that is horrifically stigmatizing and one that carries up to one year in jail upon conviction. There is no way around it. An accusation of Endangering the Welfare of a Child cannot be ignored or brushed aside. It is bad enough if the child is not your own, but if the minor is your son or daughter you should expect that either the Administration for Children Service (ACS) or Children Protective Services (CPS) will be knocking on your door to open their own parallel investigation. Simply, when an allegation is untrue or there is a misunderstanding, the consequences of an Endangering the Welfare arrest will not merely go away. Law enforcement is always overly cautions and often for the right reasons even if the accused has done nothing wrong.
A recent example of the above scenario, a client of Saland Law PC not only fought through the embarrassment of a PL 260.10 arrest, but a felony charge of Second Degree Assault, New York Penal Law 120.05, as well. This latter offense carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison, dwarfing the one year of jail a defendant faces on an Endangering the Welfare of a Child conviction. Although the allegations were serious – the NYPD arrested our client for striking the client’s child with a knife in the eye requiring hospital treatment – prosecutors dismissed the all of the charges.
Reckless Driving and Resisting Arrest Misdemeanors Dismissed: Client Wrongfully Arrested and Maced
Like in any profession, from teachers to doctors and lawyers to carpenters, there are a few bad apples. Sometimes the consequence of a bad apple is more than a mouthful of unpalatable food. In the realm of law enforcement, a bad apple can mean a night (or a lot more) in jail and a face full of mace. Sadly, this scenario is exactly what a client of Saland Law PC faced when a police officer with the NYPD falsely arrested our client, stated our client had a warrant out for our client’s arrest, pepper sprayed our client and then charged our client with violating VTL 1212 (Reckless Driving) and NY PL 205.30 (Resisting Arrest). Fortunately, however, with the strong advocacy from our New York criminal lawyers, prosecutors agreed to review the case, speak with the arresting officer and dismiss the criminal complaint.
New York DWI Arrest Dismissed on the Merits by Prosecutors: Accused Never Committed VTL 1192.3
In the City of New York there are cabs, livery cars, Uber services, buses and subways. All of these modes of transportation make it a difficult sell to prosecutors that a drunk driving, DWI or DUI arrest was due to an inability of an accused to get home. Not that such a defense would be a viable or strong one, but these facts explain why prosecutors are often unsympathetic to the plight of an individual accused of VTL 1192.2 or VTL 1192.3. Couple this with the fact that drunk driving crimes in New York (or anywhere) can have significant collateral and direct consequences to other drivers and pedestrians, don’t be shocked if the District Attorney does not want to budge on a good offer. Remember, if you are convicted not only can you face a year in jail, the suspension or revocation of your license, a $1,000 fine and the requirement that you install an ignition interlock, but a DWI will remain on your record forever. While I may be a New York DWI attorney and criminal lawyer, I would tell you the same thing I would tell a family member. While I certainly zealously advocate for my clients in every case, if you are concerned you might be intoxicated call a cab or give your friend the keys.
Second Degree Burglary Arrest Leads to ACD and Avoidance of Mandatory Incarceration or Criminal Record
Alcohol often brings out the worst in people. On occasion we may see the smiling, happy and funny intoxicated person, but more often than not extreme intoxication leads to terrible and sometimes life altering consequences. While Driving While Intoxicated, aka, DWI or DUI, often comes to mind, fights, thefts and other acts occur which the person in a sober state would never have contemplated. A recent night of binge drinking by a Saland Law PC client resulted in one of these terrible and life altering actions that but for the diligence and efforts of our criminal lawyers, could have devastated a young professional’s career, livelihood and future after prosecutors charged our client with the violent crime of Burglary in the Second Degree pursuant to New York Penal Law 140.25.
Second Degree Aggravated Harassment Charged Dismissed: Bogus NY PL 240.30 Arrest Dismissed after Complainant’s Allegations Exposed as False
Nobody likes to falsely be accused of wrongdoing. Even worse, nobody ever wants to be accused of a crime he or she did not commit. Whether in New York City or any other city or state, the consequences of an arrest are often devastating to one’s mental health and one’s career and future. Unfortunately for a Saland Law PC client, after a former lover made bogus allegations of Second Degree Aggravated Harassment (New York Penal Law 240.30), detectives with the NYPD arrested, incarcerated our client over night, and presented the case against our client to prosecutors. Right or wrong, due to New York’s strict domestic violence laws and NYPD policies, the mere allegation of Aggravated Harassment was enough for an arrest even though no corroboration of the complaint existed at the time of the allegation or anytime thereafter. Fortunately, due to the diligence of our criminal defense lawyers, what started off as a nightmare ended with full exoneration and vindication after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office thoroughly investigated the accusations and ultimately dismissed the case on its merits.