After executing a search warrant, a joint task force of law enforcement in Green County arrested our client for a marijuana grow operation in his residence. The case generated a fair amount of media publicity at the time of the arrest. The client interviewed several lawyers before selecting Chirafisi & Verhoff. He had two primary concerns. He wanted to avoid any jail time, and he wanted to avoid a felony conviction. Given the amount of evidence against the client, including a confession, Attorney Verhoff had his work cut out for him. Meeting the client's goals was even more challenging because the search warrant was executed properly, and Attorney Verhoff had no legal means of attacking the admissibility of the evidence. During initial meetings, the prosecutor was adamant that a felony conviction and jail time were required. But our lawyers did not give up on the case. In the end, Attorney Verhoff negotiated an agreement by which the client would be convicted and serve probation on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. At the conclusion of probation, the felony charge of manufacturing THC would be dismissed. And the agreement included a provision that the client would not be required to serve any jail time. Needless to say, the client was satisfied with the results.
Green County OWI/PAC at 0.12 Dismissed
What was supposed to be a fun day of tubing down the river in Green County turned into a legal quagmire for our client. A 20-year-old college student, our client was driving his friend home in the afternoon when law enforcement stopped him for having a broken tail lamp. What started out as a stop for an equipment violation quickly turned into an OWI investigation after the client informed the police officer he had been drinking earlier in the day. The client was arrested and taken for a breath test, which showed a reported alcohol concentration of 0.12 percent. Concerned about what a conviction meant for his future, the client and his parents hired Chirafisi & Verhoff to deal with the situation. After Attorney Corey Chirafisi reviewed the reports and the video, he filed two motions to suppress the evidence based on two different legally theories attacking and challenging the manner in which law enforcement gathered the evidence against our client. The case was scheduled for an evidentiary hearing. On the day of the hearing, however, the prosecutor saw the problems with the case. He did not even bother offering an amendment to the OWI charge. He simply dismissed both the OWI and PAC charges. The client then pled to a much less significant citation for a violation of the absolute sobriety law and was extremely happy with the results.