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Federal Sentencing for Drug Crime is about to get smarter; or at least that is what some people think. In what could be a significant change in the Federal Sentencing laws for drug crimes, Senator Richard Durbin sponsored a bill – "The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013" or SSA - that was introduced ...

What exactly happened on the night of when Oscar Pistorius' finance was found dead in her bathroom and Mr. Pistorius was found with a loaded pistol in his possession. The South African prosecutor claims that as a result of a domestic dispute, Mr. Pistorius shot her with the intention to kill. Mr....

When one hears the words "revenge porn," the images conjured up are not pleasant ones. The term revenge porn stems from the idea that a way to get back at – or take revenge – on an ex may be to publically send out nude or sexually compromising images of the ex by means of the web. Given the ease ...

The death of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman from a heroin overdose has triggered an interesting debate as to whether the individuals who sold Mr. Hoffman the drugs should be criminally liable for his death. Presently however, New York State has no crime on its books that specifically addresses thi...

The news that Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell died yesterday got me thinking. Schell made his mark in Hollywood – and won an Oscar – for his role as a criminal defense attorney in the movie "Judgment at Nuremberg." In the movie, Schell played the role of Hans Rolfe, who was given the job of...

Although 2014 is only weeks old, the Obama administration is making good on its promise to use the power of the executive branch to advance the President's policy agenda when Congress will not, or is slow to, act. On Thursday, the Office of the Attorney General issued a request to defense lawyers...

The federal government wields tremendous power when it comes to civil or criminal asset forfeiture laws. Specifically, 18 U.S.C. § 981, permits the government to seize "any property, real or personal, involved in a transaction or attempted transaction in violation" of any of a long list of offens...

The following blog post was written by Kenneth Del Vecchio, a well-respected New Jersey criminal defense Attorney, a former New Jersey Judge, a legal book author, a prolific filmmaker, and a good friend of Sullivan Brill. As U.S. Attorney of New Jersey, Chris Christie would have been frothing ...

A sharply divided Second Circuit Court of Appeals (9-6) issued a decision in Poventud v. City of New York , et al that clarified the Circuits understanding and application of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). The fundamental issue the Court considered was whether or not a § 1983 plaintiff, w...

STOP THE PRESSES! LET”S WAIT FOR THE EVIDENCE DA Oversteps Boundaries in Announcing Arrest of 106 NY Police Officers and Firefighters Certainly, a hot button issue in New York City has been, and will remain, any news connected to the 9/11 attacks. News that might relate to the first-responders ...

Odds are the call will come at the most inopportune time – middle of night, during your work day. The important thing to do is to get information that will help an attorney help your family member as quickly and efficiently as possible. First of all, keep in mind that the first step in the arr...

The holiday season is upon us. This means family dinners, office parties, social gathering and lots of travel. But at the same time, the holiday season here in New York means something else for the NYPD: a time of increased number of DWI checkpoints, car stops for all types and traffic infraction...

The dangerous reality of civil forfeiture At Sullivan Brill, we have noticed a disturbing and escalating trend: more and more individuals, not accused of any crime, are finding their cars, bank accounts, homes even "approximately 81,454 cans of baby formula" seized by the government with little ...

In an effort to minimize what are considered excessive prison sentences and help reduce prison overcrowding, federal judges and prosecutors are collaborating on programs that have been adopted at the state level in a growing number of states. The special treatment programs are meant to minimize w...

The issue of how bail is determined and how bail is paid were addressed this week. The Conference of Chief Justices just adopted a new resolution calling for an overhaul to the way in which individual states' court systems determine bail for their pre-trial defendants. Also, a pilot program imple...

Google, Inc., the internet giant, recently announced that it would require warrants from law enforcement officers before releasing information relating to its e-mail service, Gmail, or any data stored through its cloud service. The announcement came within days of Google's most recent “transparen...

The SullivanBrill criminal lawyers are thrilled to announce that the case against their client for looting in Coney Island the day after Hurricane Sandy was dismissed by a Brooklyn Grand Jury. Last week, SullivanBrill's client exercised his right to testify in a New York State Grand Jury so he co...

A 19 year old life long resident of Coney Island in Brooklyn was arrested and charged with Burglary and other related charges when a NYPD officer claims to have seen him coming out of a fruit stand that was severely damaged as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Nothing found on him was connected to the...

If you want to understand the power of mitigation factors at a federal sentencing hearing, look no further than the sentencing of Rajat Gupta before Judge Rakoff in the SDNY. Mr. Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs board member, was convicted of 3 counts of securities fraud and 1 count of conspiracy...

There is an old 17th Century English saying: a man's home is his castle. Those words rang loud and clear in a recent case in Kalispell, Montana where an unarmed man was shot dead when he entered his neighbor's garage to confront the neighbor about an affair he was having with the man's wife. Beca...

The NYPD says that it has made major inroads in improving their stop and frisk policies: but that remains to be seen. Presently, there are potentially three class-actions lawsuits against the City of New York and the NYPD alleging improper stop and frisk practices. If one believes the statistics...

If you were not a PNC Bank of Bank of America customer, you may not have heard that hackers had infiltrateddatabases making it impossible for customers to do their banking on-line. Other than some majorly inconvenienced customers, no money was stolen. But, the event, although not highly publici...

Throughout history, eyewitnesses have played an important role when it comes to matters of criminal defense law. Needless to say, eyewitness testimony is not as reliable as many of us would want to believe. According to the Innocence Project, headed by New York Defense Attorney Barry Sheck, 75% o...

Since the landmark decision of Miranda v. Arizona was handed down in 1966, courts have been chipping away at the breadth of protections that criminal suspects receive. For example, in the 1971 case of Harris v. New York , the Supreme Court found that statements made by a suspect who was not given...

Under New York State and Federal law, the police must respect a suspects constitutional rights when making an arrest and taking a person into custody. The police must have probable cause before they can arrest someone and they must not use excessive force when apprehending or taking an individual...