Party To A Crime Possession of 72 Grams of Cocaine - Charges Dismissed (Dane County)

The first case involves a client who was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation.  In the course of that stop, officers located 72 grams of cocaine in the vehicle and $3,800 in cash in the clients purse.  

Now, to be fair, the driver of the vehicle said that the cocaine belonged to him, which is helpful.  The client told the police that the driver asked her to hold $4,000 in cash which was located in her purse, which is not helpful.  The State then made a decision to run DNA tests on the baggy in which the drugs were located and the scale located in the vehicle.  The portions of the scale had a positive DNA match for only one person in the vehicle, our client.

So, now we had a client as a passenger in a vehicle with 72 grams of cocaine, holding $4000.00 for the driver and her DNA on the scale used to weigh the drugs.  Seems like a good party to the crime case for the state.  

The State moved to dismiss the case against the client.  No cooperation, no amendment.  Just a straight dismissal.

Client Avoids Cocaine Conviction

In this case, the client came to Chirafisi & Verhoff after he asked an acquaintance and a member of local law enforcement which attorney he should hire.  Given a recommendation, he turned to Attorney Tim Verhoff.  The client had been arrested during an annual college festival held in Madison. During the arrest, police located a small amount of cocaine in his pocket, and the District Attorney's Office charged him with a criminal offense for drug possession.  The client, an outstanding student who was nearing graduation and had plans to obtain post-graduate degree, was obviously concerned about the impact a criminal drug conviction would have on his future. Although he had a few previous, but minor, brushes with the law, he had never been convicted of a crime. 

Our attorney reviewed the case, but unfortunately there were no legal issues he could raise to challenge the arrest or discovery of the cocaine.  Instead, Attorney Verhoff went into mitigation mode.  He had the client undergo an alcohol and drug assessment, and he met with the prosecutor to discuss the case a number of times.  At the first meeting, the prosecutor insisted the client enter a plea and be convicted of the cocaine charge.  Attorney Verhoff pointed out the problem the client would have in receiving federal financial aid if convicted of a drug offense.  The prosecutor agreed to improve the offer, indicating he would settle the case with an agreement that the client plead to the cocaine charge with a deferral of judgment.  By the last meeting, after Attorney Verhoff had obtained the results of the AODA, which were favorable.  Using this information, our attorney persuaded the prosecutor to simply amend the charge from a criminal offense to a non-criminal ordinance violation for possession of paraphernalia, which has the legal equivalence of a traffic citation..  The client decided to accept the offer, paid a modest fine, and avoided a criminal conviction.