Criminal/DUI
Dismissed & Sealed
My client, an army NCO, was charged with a first offense DUI. After drinking downtown with friends, he got into his car to sleep it off. Unfortunately, it was cold outside, and my client had the vehicle running while he slept. A police sergeant across the street was providing cover to a DUI officer during a separate DUI investigation when he noticed my client’s car running throughout the investigation. The sergeant crossed the street and shined his light into the vehicle, seeing my client reclined in the driver’s seat asleep. Without knocking or otherwise announcing himself, the sergeant opened my client’s car door without permission and began a DUI investigation. At the DMV hearing, I was able to successfully argue that the opening of the Client’s door was an illegal search, a violation of my client’s 4th Amendment rights, and that everything after opening the door was fruit of the poisonous tree and should be suppressed. The hearing officer agreed, and the DMV suspension was overturned. I was then able to leverage the DMV dismissal into a dismissal of the criminal case, and the case was immediately sealed.
Not Guilty & Sealed
My client, a soldier based at Fort Carson, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend and tearing off her acrylic fingernails. Despite my client passing a polygraph, the deputy district attorney refused to dismiss the case. Through the use of social media and text messages, expert testimony from a cosmetologist, and a critical and analytical look at the evidence, I was able to demonstrate that the alleged victim tore her own nails off while tearing wire shelving off of the wall in a fury. The jury came back with a not-guilty verdict in less than twenty minutes. The case was sealed.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client was charged with Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUI-D) and Weaving. The allegation was that my client was impaired by the prescription medication he was taking according to his doctor’s prescription. We set the case for trial and consulted with multiple forensic toxicologists and the prescribing physician. I filed motions with the court challenging my client’s voluntary consent to do the roadside maneuvers, the probable cause for the arrest, and the scientific validity of the Standard Field Sobriety Tests when applied to prescription medications. At the conclusion of the consent to do roadsides and probable cause motions hearing, the court ruled that there was no probable cause for the arrest, and therefore suppressed the blood test showing the presence of the prescription medication. In the end, the case was completely dismissed, and on my motion, immediately sealed by the court.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client was charged with Domestic Violence Assault 3 (a Class 1 Misdemeanor) and Harassment (a Class 3 Misdemeanor). My client was adamant that the alleged victim in the case was lying in order to gain an advantage with child custody in an imminent divorce, and that the injuries the alleged victim claimed my client caused were there prior to the night she claimed she received them. I had my client complete a polygraph examination, which he passed. I also obtained sworn affidavits from two witnesses that would testify that the injuries the alleged victim claimed to have received had, in fact, been there previous to the night in question. I presented the polygraph results and affidavits to the deputy district attorney, who subsequently dismissed the case.
Felony Charges Dismissed & No Jail
My client had no prior criminal history, but had a run of unfortunate encounters with the police, picking up 4 cases within a couple months. One case was based around a Domestic Violence, Assault 2 charge (a Class 4 Felony Crime of Violence charge carrying mandatory prison). Another was a Witness Tampering charge (a Class 4 Felony) involving a neighbor. The two misdemeanors were a Dangerous Dog citation (a Class 3 Misdemeanor) for a dog biting a deputy, and Criminal Mischief (a Class 3 Misdemeanor) for allegedly destroying a neighbor’s fence. After obtaining a successful polygraph examination result on one case, and after a lot of negotiation with the Assistant District Attorney on the other cases, the felony charges were completely dismissed, and my client plead to Class 3 Misdemeanors in just two cases with minimal conditions and only 12 months of probation.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client was charged with Domestic Violence Assault 3 (a Class 1 Misdemeanor) and some lesser charges. I was able to negotiate with the deputy district attorney for a pre-plea investigation report. My client completed the evaluation, and as the finding was non-batterer, the deputy district attorney dismissed the case at the next court date, and I was able to have the case immediately sealed for my client.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client was charged with Domestic Violence Harassment (a Class 3 Misdemeanor). The allegations were incredibly minor (in other words-stupid). Initially, the deputy district attorney absolutely refused to consider dismissing the case or to offer a Pre Plea Investigation Report (PPIR) that could result in dismissal because the alleged victim, a vengeful ex-boyfriend, wanted to see my client, his ex-girlfriend, convicted. We set the case for trial. At the pre-trial readiness conference, I was able to convince the deputy district attorney to offer the PPIR they initially refused to offer. My client completed the evaluation, and the evaluator determined it was not a battering incident. The deputy district attorney dismissed the case at the next court date, and I moved for the case to be immediately sealed.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client was charged with Domestic Violence Harassment (a Class 3 Misdemeanor). My client and his wife had been going through a difficult time and were separated. My client’s wife began using time with their infant son against him, unreasonably restricting his access to their son except in limited circumstances that she controlled. In frustration, my client allegedly pushed his wife, and then was so distraught over the situation and his powerlessness that he made the situation worse by putting hands on his wife and then tried to harm himself. The police were called, and my client was arrested on a domestic violence charge. The case became further complicated when divorce and custody proceedings were begun in the middle of the criminal case. After heavy and delicate negotiation with the deputy district attorney, and with help from the client’s mental health providers, I was able to put the case into context for the district attorney and to demonstrate that a recent medication change likely contributed to my client’s reaction to the stressful situation. Eventually, I was able to get a Pre-Plea Investigation Report offered, which came back favorably for my client, leading to a full dismissal and sealing of the case.
Deferred Sentence & No Jail
My client, and elderly woman, was driving her best friend when she turned left in front of another vehicle. Sadly, her friend died from complications resulting from the accident. This was a tragic case with a mistake but no ill-intent nor intentional carelessness. After negotiations with the deputy district attorney, my client was offered a plea agreement in which she plead guilty to the charge, but received only a 12 month deferred sentence with minimal conditions and no jail. After the 12 months, so long as my client did not pick up any additional charges and completed the minimal conditions, the case would be dismissed.
Not Guilty & Sealed
My client, an army soldier based at Fort Carson, was accused of physically assaulting his girlfriend, another soldier. My client claimed he was acting in self defense, and that his girlfriend was the aggressor because she found out he had been with another woman. The case went to trial, and the jury came back with a not guilty verdict in less than 15 minutes. The case was immediately sealed.
Dismissed & Sealed
My client, a firearms instructor, was charged with Domestic Violence Assault 2 (F4-Crime of Violence). My client was accused of assaulting and strangling his girlfriend. After investigation of the facts, interview with witnesses, and obtaining character statements regarding the ex-girlfriend, I was able to demonstrate to the deputy district attorney that the ex-girlfriend pushed her way into my client’s home against his wishes, assaulted him, and that he was forced to restrain her to keep her from breaking more of his personal property and continuing her assault on him. These facts implicated the Colorado Make-My-Day Law, and my client acted legally. The deputy district attorney moved to dismiss the case, and the case was immediately sealed.
Not Guilty & Sealed
My client was charged with Burglary 3 (a Class 5 Felony). My client was the long-time cleaning lady of an older couple that apparently had a habit of keeping large sums of money in multiple safes in their home. When the couple came to believe that there was a large amount of money missing from their safes, they believed that my client had stolen it. My client was seen on video opening one of the safes, but then closed it and locked it without taking anything. My client claimed that the alleged victim would leave her safe open often, so my client had gotten into the habit of checking it then locking it if it was not locked. The case went to trial. Through demonstrating an alibi for one relevant time period in the case, casting doubt that any money was actually taken at all, providing positive character witnesses, and demonstrating both motive and opportunity of other family members to have taken the money (if any was actually taken), a jury acquitted my client after less than 20 minutes of deliberations. We moved to have the case immediately sealed.
Charge Reduced, Probation, & Small Fine
My client was charged with Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUI-D) after causing an accident on I-25. My client hit her head during the accident and could not remember what happened. The officer, after finding out that my client took doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety medication, charged her with DUI-D. The blood results showed a minimal amount of medication in her system. I retained a forensic toxicologist that reviewed the case and wrote a letter stating that in his expert opinion my client was not impaired by the amount of medication in her blood at the time of the accident. Still, the deputy district attorney refused to dismiss the DUI-D charges. We set the case for trial and motions. At motions, the deputy district attorney was unable to demonstrate probable cause to demand a blood draw, and the blood results were suppressed. The deputy district attorney was forced to dismiss the DUI, and my client ended up pleading guilty to Careless Driving for the accident with 6 months of unsupervised probation and a small fine.
Not Guilty & Sealed
My client was charged with felony Menacing (a Class 5 Felony) for allegedly threatening her husband with a handgun during an argument. After conducting a far more thorough investigation than the police or District Attorney’s Office, the case went to trial. It took the jury less than two hours of deliberation to find my client not guilty.
Personal Injury
$340,000 Settlement
Trip and Fall at Grocery Store.
$97,500 Settlement
Slip and Fall at Casino.
$55,000 Settlement
Fender-bender. Our Client was rear-ended at a stop light.
$47,500 Settlement
Trip and Fall at Restaurant.
$41,000 Settlement
Injured on City Bus.
$30,000 Settlement
Slip and Fall at Restaurant.
Probate Litigation/Will Contests
DNA Determined Sole Heir of Estate
The deceased, my client’s biological father, abandoned my client and his mother before my client was even born. My client’s mother later remarried, and was adopted by his step-father. My client’s biological father later passed without remarrying or having any additional children. The sisters of my client’s biological father hired an attorney to help them handle the estate, and that attorney told my client and his mother that because my client was adopted, he was no longer an heir of the deceased and therefore not entitled to any inheritance from his biological father’s estate. This was wrong, and my client was in fact the sole heir of the estate. My client hired me to handle the matter, and after a DNA test, I was able to straighten out the other attorney on the matter and facilitate administering the estate without needing to go into formal litigation on the matter, saving the estate, and my client, significant amounts of money and ensuring my client received his rightful inheritance in full.
Lease Provision Saves Family Business and Restaurant
Our clients owned a popular local restaurant, but they leased the building from a long-time friend/landlord. A few months before his death, the landlord signed a lease with my clients that contained a provision stating that upon his death, the building the restaurant was in and all the equipment would pass to my clients. After the landlord passed, the children of the landlord refused to honor the provision in the lease stating that it was forged, and even if not forged, was not legally enforceable. They also attempted to argue that the entire restaurant business belonged to the landlord and was leased to our clients, and therefore the children now owned the successful restaurant itself. We argued that the lease provision, even though unorthodox, was a writing intended as a will and therefore enforceable pursuant to C.R.S. §15-11-503, and that there was no validity to their claim that the deceased actually owned the restaurant business itself. We litigated the case through mediation, where we were able to negotiate an outcome that was very favorable to our clients, resulting in their ownership of the building and the withdrawal of the claim by the decedent’s children that they owned the restaurant.
Multi Million Dollar Settlement
This was a complicated case that is hard to summarize briefly here. My client’s brother (the deceased) had recently moved to Colorado with his new girlfriend and was killed in a car crash in Colorado soon after. The deceased was in the process of a divorce in California from his wife, but the divorce had not yet finalized. Before moving to Colorado, the deceased had signed a Legal-Zoom will in my client’s home, having friends of the deceased act as witnesses, that attempted to give everything to my client. The deceased presumably took that will with him to Colorado. The estate of the deceased turned out to be a multi-million dollar estate. After the deceased passed, his wife flew to Colorado from California, talked the girlfriend of the deceased into letting her into the house, where she admittedly took all of the legal documents of the deceased. However, the wife claimed that there was no will in those documents and that she never saw any new will. The wife then attempted to probate an old will in which she was the sole beneficiary. We were able to obtain an un-signed copy of the signed will from e-mail records and Legal Zoom itself, and to obtain witness testimony from the witnesses to the signing that it was the same document they saw the deceased sign in their presence. After a hotly contested litigation, including many depositions conducted in both California and Colorado, extensive motions practice, and comprehensive investigations by three different investigators based in three different cities, we were able to negotiate an outstanding outcome for our client at mediation.