Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
It was like stealing candy from a baby. At least it was for the police officers who recently arrested a Dundalk man for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Early in the morning hours employees at a Pennsylvania gas station observed the man placing unidentified candy bars in his pockets. The employees called 911 and law enforcement began searching the immediate area for a man matching the description. The man was spotted within ten minutes by local cops, who detained the Maryland man. After confirming the identification of the candy bar thief, police officers arrested the man for shoplifting. Search incident to arrest revealed two candy bars worth a total of $3.58. It is unclear whether the candy bars were king size, or if the gas station simply charges almost two dollars per bar. Nonetheless, the man would have likely avoided a trip to the local jail had he only been found in possession of candy, but that was not the case.
The Baltimore County man was also found to be in possession of 11 small bags of marijuana, which police claim were packaged for sale. Police did not say just how much marijuana was in each baggie, or whether they discovered any additional evidence that would indicate possession with intent to distribute, but the man was booked on that felony charge along with misdemeanor retail theft. He was released on $5,000 dollars bail. The defendant recently waived his right to a preliminary hearing for the felony distribution case in the same manner that a defendant would waive a preliminary in Maryland. According to Pennsylvania court records, the Dundalk man has one prior conviction for possession of marijuana in addition to this current arrest.
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A Delaware resident was recently arrested on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after he allegedly led police on a multi county high speed chase. State Police troopers along with the Kent County Sheriffs Department collaborated in apprehending the suspect, who was charged with multiple traffic infractions and crimes. Some of the more serious crimes included fleeing and eluding, DUI, and negligent driving. The chase originated near Chestertown, which is the county seat, and largest city in Kent County. At about 2 in the afternoon, law enforcement received a call about a suspected drunk driver. Sheriffs responded to the area of the call, and one officer observed a Dodge Charger that matched the description in the call speeding along Route 213. The Officer initiated a traffic stop and made contact with the driver of the Charger. The contact with the Officer did not last long, as the driver took off at a high rate of speed. 
More campaign and lobbyist money was spent in 2012 than in any other election year in American history. Whether it was the estimated 3 billion dollars spent on the presidential race, or the 90 million dollars spend on expanding Maryland’s gambling laws, this Election Day will not soon be forgotten. And for those who have been fighting the decades long battle to legalize marijuana, this Election Day may go down in history as the vote that started it all. Two states, Colorado and Washington have passed laws that will effectively legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The Colorado law makes it legal for adults over the age of 21 to possess up to an ounce of pot, and authorizes homeowners to have up to 6 plants for the purposes of cultivating the drug. The Washington law also authorizes carrying up to an ounce, but requires that users buy their stash from state licensed distributors rather than growing it at home. Both states make still maintain that it is illegal to drive while under the influence of the drug, with Washington establishing a blood THC limit. Smoking marijuana in public will still be illegal and violators are subject to citation and fines similar to a public consumption of alcohol violation. Supporters of the propositions, which will turn into law within the next few months, were out in force celebrating the victory. Meanwhile, the opposition was left questioning the law’s supposed benefits as well as the complications that will accompany implication of the state laws.
The synthetic marijuana controversy is back in the news again in Maryland. Clashes between vendors and members of the community where the fake drug is being sold continue to butt heads, and Frederick is at the center of this latest dispute. A cigar store that also sells beer and wine on Market Street in downtown Frederick has seen sales of synthetic marijuana boom in the last few months. Commonly known as spice, which was the one of the product’s original names, synthetic marijuana is actually a blend of natural herbs that is sprayed with a chemical compound. The chemical is not one specific compound, but rather one of many that is designed to mimic the effects of THC. Many of these chemicals have been made illegal by the federal government, including the original spice and K2 compounds, but manufacturers have created new chemicals to skirt the federal regulations. The synthetic drug now lines the shelves of various tobacco shops and liquor stores in Maryland, and the product is flying off the shelves. While storeowners and smokers are thrilled about the product’s availability, members of the community are voicing their displeasure with spice sales.
Federal probation and parole in Maryland got a whole lot easier for some defendants from 2009 to 2010. Well, at least it was for the dozens of defendants who had been convicted of federal crimes, or recently released from federal custody and completed their mandatory drug testing requirements at the Maryland treatment centers of Clean and Sober or Drug and Alcohol Recovery. And it were the drug counselors and drug testers that were allegedly on the take of this large scale pay for pass scheme. According to indictment proceedings that were just released to the public, two former federal contractors from Rockville, Maryland were involved in a long standing bribery operation where drug testing results were falsified in exchange for monetary compensation. Both former drug testers had been under investigation for federal criminal charges including bribery, making false statements, and witness tampering, and both face considerable prison time. According to court documents, one drug tester pleaded guilty to bribery, and is awaiting sentencing while the other was recently indicted. The drug tester who did not plead guilty was arrested soon after the results of the grand jury investigation were released.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department has released its final statistics about a recent DUI checkpoint. The results are consistent with another Maryland DUI checkpoint on the Eastern Shore that was the subject of a 
All Maryland police officers receive some sort of training in constitutional laws relating to search, seizure, and arrest. Constitutional law is by no stretch of the imagination the focus of any police academy’s training program. There is just not enough time and too little resources to put every potential police officer through a rigorous classroom curriculum on the search and seizure laws. Even if this training were available, there are no guarantees that each trainee would retain the information, and or use it in while working out in the field. This is not to blame police officers, as it is much easier to sit down and write an essay on constitutional law than it is to follow decades of case law and statutory restrictions during the heat of an arrest. Yes, it is true that some police officers intentionally conduct illegal searches and seizures, and make bad arrests, but good intentioned police officers face the daily challenge of making split decisions to protect life and property, and sometimes there is just no room for the constitution. Therefore police officers will make unlawful arrests, and execute unlawful searches and seizures, and this should be the first issue that any criminal defense lawyer should investigate in any criminal case. But this blog entry is dedicated to those people who wish to avoid ever needing a criminal defense lawyer to address an unlawful arrest. Knowing the basic search and seizure laws is not a foolproof way of avoiding an arrest. Each year thousands of drug prosecutions for substances such as marijuana and cocaine are carried out using evidence that was illegally seized. In addition, hundreds of DUI investigations are initiated after police make an illegal traffic stop. But knowing the law just may help you get out of a sticky situation, and it certainly cannot hurt.
Compulsory or mandatory blood tests during the course of a DUI investigation have been a hotly debated legal topic over the last decade. The debate over whether cops should legally be able to force a DUI suspect to submit to a blood draw to measure blood alcohol level has been debated in Maryland, Delaware, and in almost every state in the county. Twenty years ago it would truly have been far fetched to predict that a state could one day grant its law enforcement officers the power to force a DUI suspect to submit to a blood test without a warrant, but now this idea is becoming a reality. Many Maryland beachgoers who happen to cross over into Delaware can find out the hard way about this harsh law.
A variety of new Maryland laws are set to go into effect on Monday, October 1st. Many of these new Maryland laws are part to the criminal justice system, most notably the Maryland marijuana possession law. After years of lobbying by marijuana legalization groups, the Maryland state legislature finally voted to change the state’s harsh marijuana possession laws. Starting on Monday, the maximum penalty for simple possession of marijuana will be lowered from 1 year in jail to 90 days in jail, and the maximum fine will be lowered from $1,000 to $500. Simple possession of marijuana is possession of less than 10 grams of the controlled substance. Pressure from pro marijuana lobbyist groups was not the only reason that the legislature and governor agreed with the new marijuana penalties. The legislature was also swayed by proponents of a more streamlined judicial system. 
Snickerdoodle cookies might not have the value of the crown jewels in London, or the gold in Fort Knox, but it is certainly easier to attempt a cookie theft. Or at least that is what two Maryland teenagers had thought before attempting the not so glamorous heist. Baltimore County police recently arrested two sweet toothed teenagers for theft after security guards at the Towson town center observed the teens jumping over the counter at a cookie store. Three Maryland teenagers were apparently involved in the theft, but police were only able to arrest two 16 year old suspects. Police did not reveal exactly how many cookies were stolen by the two teenagers, but the amount appears to be significantly less that the amount of cookies that were stolen at the same store just 48 hours earlier.