NY & NJ Criminal Defense Law Blog

With Covid-19 still surging throughout the United States, telemedicine has expanded as a viable option for patients seeking to limit their exposure to doctors’ offices. To meet this need, Federal and State regulators have both implemented and increased a number of measures allowing telemedicine to reach more people, as well as cover more areas of practice.

Around the country, a number of state and federal courts have started to use virtual grand juries to indict, and virtual juries for actual trials. If you are concerned that jurors involved in virtual processes may not represent a true cross section of the population, or that virtual hearings are inherently unfair, you are not alone.

It may come as a surprise to most, including many criminal defense attorneys, that the federal system detains a greater percentage of people arrested than state systems. Since the Bail Reform Act (BRA), enacted in 1984, pretrial detention has significantly increased from 19% in 1985 to 75% in 2019, which is particularly astounding, considering violent crime accounts for only 2% of federal arrests.

Stahl Criminal Defense Lawyers has once again been recognized by US News and World Report as one of New Jersey's best White Collar Criminal Defense Firm in its 2021 edition. Stahl Criminal Defense Lawyers is once again included in the 2021 Best Lawyers^® in America list. He has been included on the Best Lawyers^® in America list for nine years, since the list was published in 2012.

In an extremely controversial 4-3 opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld trial and Appellate Division rulings compelling a defendant to provide his cellphone passcode pursuant to a search warrant. The defendant was an Essex County Sheriff’s Officer accused of providing a drug dealer confidential information about an investigation into the dealer and his co-conspirators. The drug dealer gave evidence establishing that the sheriff’s officer provided him information about undercover surveillance of his vehicle and phones, as well as other case related information. Law enforcement confirmed there were numerous texts and calls between the sheriff’s officer and the drug dealer. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for the officer’s cellphones, but were unable to access them without the defendant’s passcodes or PINs.  

A new, just released report shows the number of federal and state-authorized wiretaps conducted in 2019. A wiretap is a court-authorized warrant, allowing law enforcement to listen to and record conversations and/or text messages on a target’s phone. In most jurisdictions, the law enforcement agency applying for such an order must demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that the target is engaged in a specified unlawful activity, that he uses the particular phone to conduct his illegal activity, that traditional methods of investigation have been tried or would not likely be successful, and that the wiretap is necessary to uncover the full extent of the target’s criminal activity, and/or the other coconspirators’. Such authorizations are usually limited to a 30-day period, but can be extended by a court under certain circumstances. Many individuals in the United States use encrypted messaging to protect their privacy – some for innocuous reasons, others for more illicit ones. Encryption may not, however, protect messages and conversations from being produced pursuant to a wiretap.

As discussed in a prior post, the Department of Justice has formed a nationwide task force comprised of AUSAs from each of the 93 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, as well as Main Justice. Together they total more than 100 federal prosecutors, to investigate and prosecute fraud related to the ongoing pandemic. The District of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito spearheads this effort.

If you are a small business that was lucky enough to find a bank willing to accept and fund your small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application, then a small portion of the $670 billion program went to an intended beneficiary. Unfortunately, many small businesses quickly learned larger banks were unwillingly to process their applications. News reports revealed banks received $10 billion in fees for the first traunch of funds dispersed, for which they received a set processing fee of 1-5% based on the size of the loan. A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against several major banks alleges they moved larger borrowers to the front of the line, ahead of many deserving smaller businesses in order to maximize on origination fees. Some corporations received tens of millions of dollars from the federal small business lending program, which initially ran out of money on April 16. Although the program has been funded once more, applicants are under much greater scrutiny. 

One of the largest issues hampering the re-opening of the American economy is that there are many asymptomatic yet contagious carriers of COVID-19. Rational leaders, medical experts, and scientists agree that widespread testing is essential to prevent further hotspots and determine which areas of the country may start to open again. Tests to determine whether a person is currently infected, as well as  antibody tests to determine whether a person has been exposed and may have some immunity to the virus, will soon be widely available from many new sources. Companies cannot make informed decisions about when and how to re-open without knowing if their employees are healthy. State and local governments cannot determine how to move forward without this critical information. The federal government has assisted testing companies and labs by removing some of the FDA safeguards and time periods normally in place to ensure quality standards and safety. 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and various state agencies have announced that they will aggressively pursue fraudulent schemes related to COVID-19. On March 16, Attorney General William Barr directed all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to prioritize the detection, investigation, and prosecution of all criminal conduct related to the Coronavirus pandemic. Each office was directed to appoint a COVID-19 fraud coordinator to serve as the liaison between the local Department of Justice and their state and local counterparts.