The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States limits the power of the police to make arrests and conduct searches on individuals and their property. To honor the privacy of the individual, searches and seizures are considered to be unlawful and are dismissible in a court of law…
Search Warrants Must Meet Certain Requirements Citizens are protected from unlawful search of their homes, person, vehicles and other property unless a law enforcement officer has obtained a valid search warrant and has probable cause to conduct a search. This protection is provided under the Fourth Amendment to the United…
Everyone knows that it is a violation of your constitutional rights to be stopped without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Both the federal and Massachusetts constitutions give us that protection. So the thought process of many teenagers and young adults is simple. As long as I am following the rules,…
Fighting Cops Who Violate Your Rights Every criminal defense lawyer I know has tons of stories about how client’s constitutional rights were violated. Some involve motor vehicle stops for no reason. Others involve searches without warrants. Sometimes people are compelled or tricked into talking to the cops. The good news…
The manager of a rooming house in Lawrence, Massachusetts found a laptop in the laundry room that she believed belonged to one of the tenants. Rather than return it the woman opened it and found images of Child Pornography. She then called the police. It was determined that the computer…
In Broward County Florida a criminal charge issued in large part due to texting between defendants and Facebook posts that detailed their plan. The text messages discussed what to do with the victim’s body. The Facebook posts were more detailed and accompanied by photos and entries that offered law enforcement…
This past weekend police in Framingham, Massachusetts raided the home of Douglas Lester (a pseudonym), a twenty one year old man living on Day Hill Road. The Metrowest Daily News reports that early Sunday night Lester was seen selling marijuana to a female not far from his home. Police stopped the…
A Salem, Massachusetts police officer became suspicious the other day when he saw a car with dark tinted windows. He then followed the car. He observed the car failing to stop for people in a crosswalk. The officer pulled the car over and quickly learned that the driver, Julio Cruz…
Back in early February Hingham, Massachusetts Police responded to a call for a dispute between a landlord and her tenant. Officers were advised that the woman had several aliases and was using multiple identities. An ensuing investigation showed that the woman, Wanpen Florentine had multiple birth dates, a couple of…
Roberto Saldana of Boston and Rose Marquez-Cartegena of Lawrence, Massachusetts were arrested late last week by members of the Essex County Drug Task Force. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune reports that Saldana was caught Distributing Heroin on six occasions to an undercover officer starting in January of 2012 and ending with…