Articles Posted in Federal Crimes

Just the other day, “Bridgegate” cooperator and former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official David Wildstein, was sentenced in federal court to probation. The two defendants that he cooperated against were sentenced to 24 months and 19 months in federal prison. Despite the fact that Wildstein pled guilty to two counts of…

A plea agreement is the negotiated resolution of a criminal case between the government and the defense when the client decides to plead guilty rather than fighting the charges at trial. The benefit of a plea agreement is that the plea is usually to a lower offense or a limited number of charges rather than…

There is an alarming trend towards aggressive investigations by state and federal authorities on physicians. Whether it is by the state medical boards, DEA or federal or state prosecutors, doctors’ practices are subjected to heightened scrutiny. While this may be traced to the war on drugs, recent deaths related to the abuse of prescription opioids,…

Sometimes you may hear about “due process” in connection with your rights in the criminal justice system. But what exactly does that mean, and what are its sources of authority? In this and some of our future posts we will address due process generally as well as its core opponents. The root of due process…

The “right to a speedy trial” is grounded in the Sixth Amendment. But this amendment provides much more than a requirement that the government not unduly delay a criminal trial. Below we break down the protections that this important part of the Bill of Rights includes. In summation, the Sixth Amendment gives criminal defense attorneys…

This post is the third in our series covering due process in criminal law actions. In the first two posts we addressed the concept of due process rights generally, and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in particular. In this post we will examine the Fifth Amendment. Although it is only a single paragraph…

This post continues our series examining the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution in connection to your rights to due process under federal and New Jersey law when you are accused of a crime. Thus far we have considered the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution; here, we will…

Violating a state law in New Jersey does not, normally, expose someone to the possibility of federal criminal penalties. This is not, however, the situation if the state crime is a sex offense requiring that a convicted person register as a sex offender. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act is a national sex offender…

Any time that the alleged commission of an illegal act involves more than one person, it is possible if not likely that they will be charged with a criminal conspiracy. But what exactly is a conspiracy, and how do prosecutors attempt to prove it in court? Consider an example of a bank robbery in which…

Many crime drama television programs feature scenes of contentious negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys as the latter attempt to find a way to reduce the charges or the possible punishment against their clients, commonly known as plea bargaining. But how does this concept work in actual practice when one is faced with federal charges?…