The firm is locally and national renowned and respected for its many successes on behalf of its clients. For more information, contact us for a courtesy consultation at (410) 730-5016, (410) 720-6129, www.CharlesJeromeWare.com.
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Defending the Modern Drug Case
When it comes to successfully defending drug cases it is now a new world; with new drugs, new charges, and new techniques for drug enforcement. This requires defense counsel to have a new perspective as well as a modern understanding and strategy for drug defense cases.
It has been said that the War on Drugs is a war on the Bill of Rights and this is evidenced by the the fervor and zeal at which our government has pursued this war which has ultimately been a war on the rights of all of us. Because drug users typically aim to keep their behaviors secret, the aggressive law enforcement schemes to go after them must necessarily penetrate the private lives of millions. Moreover, the expansion of police powers has been perhaps no greater than in this realm with law enforcement now having very few limits on their tactics. In addition, property may be seized on slight evidence and forfeited to the state or federal government without proof of the personal guilt of the owner.
Given the high rates of drug availability and usage in our country, coupled with the ever-increasing aggressiveness of law enforcement aimed going after drug offenders, drug charges are of the most common and of the most serious one can face. Drug accusations carry the very real potential for extremely long sentences, harsh collateral consequences and civil penalties that may be assessed under property forfeiture provisions. A drug charge can ruin a person's life which is why we aggressively defend drug cases using many different strategies. In general, there are three ways that drug charges are successfully defended: 1) the drugs seized were not actually a controlled substance; 2) the person did not actually "possess" the drugs; 3) the drugs were seized in violation of the person's constitutional rights.
Search and Seizure
Perhaps more so than any other type of charge, we find that our clients charged with drug offenses have often had their constitutional rights violated in large part due to the overzealousness of law enforcement tactics used in drug cases. One of the first steps we take in representing our clients accused of a drug charge is to analyze the legality of how the evidence was obtained. Evidence that is illegally obtained, whether that be for lack of probable cause or an illegal search and seizure, cannot be used against you. The Fourth Amendment provides protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and a violation of that can lead to a ruling by the court that illegally seized evidence is suppressed and inadmissible which most often leads to the dismissal of charges. We have successfully litigated constitutional violations on behalf of our clients which has lead to the dismissal of charges.
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