Author Archives: David S. Zapp and Johanna S. Zapp

The Who, The What, and The How
An Interview with David Zapp

Good morning, Mr. Zapp.

David Zapp: Good morning, Ben.

I have asked to speak with you today to talk about OFAC, about what it is, and about what it does.

David Zapp. I’ll be glad to answer your questions if I can.

First of all, what does “OFAC” stand for and what does it do?

David Zapp: It stands for Office of Foreign Assets Control. It is a regulatory body that sanctions people and entities that OFAC believes are engaged in specified criminal activity.

It forbids anyone or […]

This is a copy of a letter we sent to a defendant that could be useful to other defendants facing narcotic charges.

The defendant had been in detention in Colombia and in the United States. He asked us what his options were:

Go to trial.
If you go to trial and win, excellent. If you lose, you […]

This is a case of a defendant who asked a judge to reconsider his motion for “compassionate release.” The defendant had originally asked for compassionate release relief because FCI Miami, the facility at which he was then housed, was experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak. The court denied the motion saying that the defendant had not shown “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for reducing his sentence.

But some time later the Defendant renewed his motion asking the court to reconsider his ruling on different grounds and citing a […]

About ten years ago Jeremy Zullo was sentenced to a mandatory minimum fifteen-years’ imprisonment. After the passage of the First Step Act of 2018, he sought compassionate release in the district court, arguing that his sentence was unjustly long, that he has shown exemplary rehabilitation, that he maintains close  relationships with his family, that he was a teenager at […]

2D CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS. JULY 2020

RACE IS NOT A REASON TO DETAIN A PERSON

Every once and awhile law enforcement has to be reminded that a person’s race is not a reason to stop a person. This is one of those cases.

The Second Circuit suppressed statements made and narcotics discovered during a search incident to […]

Here are the hypothetical facts: An individual, who is not in custody, learns he is in the cross hairs of the U.S. government. He hires an attorney who approaches the prosecutor. The prosecutor tells the attorney that he intends to indict or has already indicted the individual and the individual can either 1) surrender, 2) […]

[A very sad case that probably happens very often in this country, but never gets the media coverage it deserves. We were shocked. The following was our response to a Colombian friend who asked me if I would represent the accused. Fortunately, in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, rarely, if ever, do […]

Before you meet with the prosecutor to cooperate, if that is what you want to do, bear this in mind: you and only you can help yourself. You are the star of the show. Your success and what the prosecutor will think of you will be entirely up to you. You’re the LeBron James of […]

by Jacob Newman and Harry Sandick on May 28, 2019

In United States v. Pauling, the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court’s order granting the defendant’s motion to set aside his conviction for Conspiracy to Distribute or Possess with Intent to Distribute 100 Grams or More of Heroin.  The Court concluded that the District Court had correctly […]

Original article written byDanielle Quinn and Harry Sandick

Edited and abbreviated by Johanna Zapp

by Harry Sandick and Danielle C. Quinn on December 13, 2018

In United States v. Lutchman, the Court concluded that the defendant’s appellate waiver in his plea agreement was not valid (in that, for what he was giving up by waiving his right to appeal, he was not given […]