February 2010 Archives

DNA evidence has revived two cold cases in New York City.

The New York Times reports that Mauricio Rosales, 32, was arrested last week because his DNA matched DNA that was found at two rape crime scenes. In November of 2009, Mr. Rosales had to give a sample of his DNA after he pleaded guilty to petit larceny. In New York, if you are convicted of a felony or one of 35 different types of misdemeanors, you are required to give the officials a DNA sample.

The New York Daily News reports that the first rape Mr. Rosales is accused of occurred in 2000. The 11-year-old victim was in her room when a man broke in, robbed her, rapped her, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone what happened.

Former fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander claims that he cannot afford New York criminal defense lawyers for his criminal trial.  

The New York Daily News reports that Mr. Alexander, who once sold painted jeans for $700 each, has two court appointed, state paid New York criminal defense lawyers. 

The prosecutors for his criminal trial moved to have Mr. Alexander's two defense lawyers removed from his case. Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal argued that, "the taxpayers of New York should not be paying for not only one but two lawyers."

Mr. Alexander claims that he has no funds because he has been in jail since 2007 and not working. 

Bernard Kerik, once the pride of New York City as its police commissioner, was sentenced on Thursday for a variety of felony charges that he pleaded guilty to.

The New York Daily News reports that Mr. Kerik was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his eight felonies. In November of 2009, he pleaded guilty to "lying to the White House, lying about $255,000 in work done with a mob-linked contractor and filing false tax returns." His alleged fraud towards the White House was in hopes that he would get the job as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson handed down a sentence that was much longer than the recommended term of 26 to 33 months. As an explanation for the harsher sentence, Judge Robinson said, "The fact that Mr. Kerik would use that event [9/11] for personal gain and aggrandizement is a dark place in the soul for me." He added that Mr. Kerik's decision to break the law warranted additional jail time because he was the former police commissioner of New York City.

A New York man and his New York criminal defense attorney will have their case heard by a grand jury.

The Associated Press reports that Michael J. Abdallah, 26, was arrested two weeks ago on charges of "second-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment and custodial interference." Allegedly, he kept a 13-year-old girl in his home from July to December. The girl (a runaway) told police that Mr. Abdallah had sexual intercourse with her over a hundred times. She also alleged that Mr. Abdallah forced her to babysit his 1-year-old son.

His New York criminal defense attorney, Frank Bogulski claimed that the girl invented the story of sexual abuse because she did not want to be blamed for the baby's injury. The police were questioning her about burn on the infant's hand when she told them about how Mr. Abdallah was treating her.

There is nothing worse than laughing at a completely inappropriate moment. Take for example, a criminal trial.

The New York Daily News reports that Assistant District Attorney Steven Constantiner, laughed in court as he read Tiara Davis' statement about how she attacked her dog in an elevator. The defendant's New York criminal defense lawyer, Stacy Schneider was angered by the prosecutor's actions. She explained that ,"he was laughing and had to turn away because he couldn't control the laughter... I didn't see any humor in the statement."  

The New York Daily News reports that Hemant Megnath's New York criminal defense attorney, Todd Greenberg, will have to challenge the science behind "touch" DNA. This controversial method of obtaining DNA samples has been deemed admissible in his client's murder trial.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy was the first judge in the nation to approve the method, which would allow any DNA that was discovered through this practice to be seen as evidence during the trial.

The first person to be convicted of sex trafficking under the New York Sex Trafficking statute, has been sentenced. The New York Daily News reports that David Brown, 32, was sentenced to 25 years to life for buying a young woman and forcing her to have sex with other men for his own profit.

Mr. Brown bought the 19-year-old victim for $2,000 from an ex-girlfriend. He then prostituted the victim to 30 men in a twelve day period. The North County Gazette reported that the victim was held against her will, threatened with death, and constantly watched to make sure that she did not escape the apartment which served as her prison.

Mr. Brown found some of his male customers through Craigslist. On the website, he posted nude pictures of the victim and marketed her as a sex slave. When the men did pay her, between $60 to $200, Mr. Brown took the money.

The New York Daily News reports that in the trial of an officer accused of sodomizing a New Yorker with his baton, a witness for the defense testified that Mr. Mineo's injuries could not have come from a police baton. John Patten, the accused NYPD officer's New York criminal defense attorney, recently had two expert witnesses testify in support of his client.  

In a previous post in the New York Criminal Law Blog, we wrote about how the alleged attack was said to have occurred in a subway platform in Prospect Park. The victim was running from the police officers when they caught up to him, pinned him down, and allegedly sodomized him with a baton. The Huffington Post reports that as a result of those allegations, Officer Richard Kern is being charged with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual assault whereas the other two officers, Cruz and Morales, are being charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct for allegedly attempting to cover-up the incident.

The New York Times reports that Raj Rajaratnam has more evidence stacked against him now that a tenth person has pleaded guilty in the Galleon Group insider trading case. Rajiv Goel, was the third person that pleaded guilty and had direct ties to Mr. Rajaratnam; the founder of Galleon. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Galleon case began when David Slaine pleaded guilty to insider trading, and as part of his plea deal, Mr. Slaine agreed to work with New York prosecutors by wearing a wire. The information that they would receive from Mr. Slaine's informant work and from wire taps would allegedly assist them in collecting evidence against Galleon Group traders who they thought were engaging in illegal insider trading.

Once the evidence was in, the New York Times reports that 22 people had been criminally charged or faced civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the Galleon case.

The criminal trial of Aafia Siddiqui ended when Siddiqui was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder. The AP reports that she was also "convicted of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm and assault of U.S. officers and employees." When she is sentenced in May, she could face a maximum of life in prison. 

The MIT-educated neuroscientist was detained by U.S. soldiers in 2008 after she was found with a list of New York landmarks and directions on how to make a bomb. She claimed that the bag in which the items were found did not belong to her. In an effort to escape, she was accused of picked up a gun and shooting at F.B.I. agents and U.S. soldiers. She was injured when the soldiers returned fire.

A new state law was passed in April of 2009 that allows more ill prisoners to be eligible for an earlier release date. However New York criminal defense lawyers should note that it might not be all that is cracked up to be.

The New York Times reports that the prisoners that might qualify for "compassionate release" are chronically ill and terminally ill inmates who are "deemed physically or cognitively unable to present a threat to society."

Michael Douglas' son, Cameron Douglas, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. He is being represented by New York criminal defense attorney Mr. Nicholas M. De Feis.

The 31-year-old is set to face a minimum of 10 years in jail, with a maximum of life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for April 27. The CBS News Blog reports that Cameron Douglas pleaded guilty to dealing large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine out of a New York hotel room at Hotel Gansevoort in New York's Meatpacking District. In the intercepted phone calls, Cameron Douglas called the drugs "pastry" or "bath salts."