Category Archives/Archivos de la categoría: Articles

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel, October 24, 2013

A Broward jury on Thursday issued a not-guilty verdict for Fernando Rodrigues, a former mixed martial arts fighter who was arrested last year after a road rage incident in Coral Springs.

Rodrigues, 32, a former U.S. Marine and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor, claimed during the four-day trial that he was acting […]

How do the parties arrive at the point where at the moment of sentence the Judge asks: “What is the Government’s recommendation?”And the answer could be, “ the government recommends the low end of the Guidelines, Your Honor” Now the judge may or may not follow the recommendation. This is in the day-to-day federal case.

Answer: 

That […]

I don’t know where people get the idea that the Southern District of New York prosecutor or an Eastern District of New York prosecutor would recommend or offer a particular sentence. This is simply not true. In fact, it has caused at least one judge some consternation. Below, I quote the language of a Court […]

Dear David,

I was told that you successfully defeated a government claim that laundered money in a case you had was narcotics proceeds. Is that a reported case? – Marty

Answer

No, it was not a reported case but it happened –twice in fact. Once because I had an amenable (read, “older”) prosecutor who chose not to fight […]

By Benjamin Weiser

Published: June 30, 2013

The tip to the police was solid: An African-American man, in a striped shirt and a Yankees cap, was carrying a gun in a building in Upper Manhattan. Officers responded and made an arrest.

But where that information came from, and the lengths to which the police and law enforcement agents […]

By David Zapp, Esq.

“Safety Valve” is the procedure in drug cases whereby a defendant can escape the mandatory minimum sentences. The qualifications for “Safety Valve” eligibility are found in 18 United States Code. §3553(f) and United States Sentencing Guideline. §5C1.2(a):

(1) the defendant does not have more than 1 criminal history point, as determined under the […]

This is the first act in a long time where the economy forced a change in the criminal justice system. And there will be more. The new policy announced by attorney general Holder is not going impact a majority of defendants because it is only going to help people who cannot otherwise qualify to come […]

By Vanita Gupta (edited and abridged)

Published: August 14, 2013 in The New York Times

Starting in the 1970s, a domestic “war on crime” dominated by antidrug policies and racial profiling fueled a prison-building binge that is morally — and now financially — bankrupt. Both political parties embraced draconian policies like mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes laws and wide […]

The tension between the U.S. and Russia over Snowden’s presence in Russia reminds me of a cautionary tale about a federal agent who reluctantly had to double cross his informant because of shifting interests of his employer, the U.S. government. So Snowden should not get too comfortable. Snowden is the whistle-blower who revealed the extensive […]

By Johanna S. Zapp, Esq.

I have been getting a lot of questions about what the new drug policies mean for individual clients, and the short answer is: if you have a cooperation agreement, the new policies do not help you. If you are safety valve eligible, the new policies do not help you either.  […]

Challenges to foreign evidence seem hopeless. There is so much bad law. But then, along comes a case that gets one’s hopes up.  This is what occurred in a federal court recently:

Judge Rips Prosecutor For Withholding Information In Drug Case

A visibly frustrated judge called a federal prosecutor “disingenuous,” in questioning her candor about when she […]