MA
Biography
Nationally recognized criminal defense
attorney with 30+ years of experience
and 150+ jury trials. Proudly serving
Denver and surrounding communities.
J.H. was accused of assaulting an acquaintance inside his apartment. The alleged victim claimed that he was beaten for a lengthy period and he did have a broken nose. J.H.’s father hired me to defend his son against these serious allegations as he felt the public defender was not doing anything. The DA did not want to make an offer in this case given J.H. having an extensive criminal history.
We ran the alleged victim’s criminal history and learned he had a history of drug abuse and had a felony record. We interviewed him as well and found he had some mental health issues. At trial, the alleged victim could not keep his story straight under cross-examination. I exploited these issues and showed the DA and the jury that his claims were not supported by any evidence and did not make any sense. The DA’s final witness was the lead detective. We moved for a mistrial after the detective mentioned J.H.’s prior arrest. The judge agreed a mistrial was warranted and a new trial was set. The DA moved to dismiss the case prior to the new trial date.
A smoke alarm was heard coming from J.D.’s house so a neighbor called the fire department. No one was at home so a fireman opened one of her windows to check if they could smell smoke. They could not smell any smoke but smelled the odor of fresh marijuana. The fire department called the Aurora Police Department who entered her home without a search warrant to turn off the smoke alarm (and to check out the marijuana grow). Numerous marijuana plants were observed to be growing in the basement and were later seized by the police.
J.D. contacted me and was very distraught about the police entering her home when she was not present. I emailed the DA, presented them with case law, and argued that the case should be dismissed because of the illegal, warrantless entry into her home. The DA agreed and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The case has been sealed from her record.