Monthly Archives: September 2026
Ears Everywhere: How Wiretaps and Confidential Informants Build a Federal Drug Conspiracy Case
By the time federal agents knock on your door, they have often been listening for months. A federal drug conspiracy indictment rarely starts with a single arrest. It usually ends one, built slowly through wiretapped phone calls, informants working both sides of a conversation, and a mountain of recorded evidence the defense will not… Read More »
When the Accusation Isn’t the Truth: Defending Against False Allegations in New York Sex Crime Cases
An accusation of a sex crime can end a career, a marriage, and a reputation before a single piece of evidence has been tested in court. So what happens when that accusation simply is not true? Defending against a false allegation requires a different kind of strategy than defending against strong evidence, since the… Read More »
The Lindsay Clancy Case: Postpartum Psychosis, the Insanity Defense, Media Attention, and What a Hung Jury Really Means
The Lindsay Clancy case ended not in a verdict but in a deadlock. After roughly five weeks of testimony in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and several days of deliberation, the judge had no choice but to declare a mistrial. The case is a window into three of the hardest subjects in criminal defense: the insanity… Read More »
The Four Words That Decide Everything: Why Intent Is the Battleground in Most New York Homicide Trials
What separates murder from manslaughter when the outcome, a person’s death, is identical either way? The answer almost always comes down to intent. New York homicide trials rarely turn on whether someone caused another person’s death. They turn on what that person was thinking, or failing to think about, in the moments leading up… Read More »
Two Courtrooms, One Incident: What Survivors Should Expect When Civil and Criminal Cases Run Together
Wondering why the criminal case against the person who hurt you seems to be moving on a completely different track than your own civil claim? That’s not a coincidence, and it’s not a mistake either. Civil and criminal cases stemming from the same incident are legally separate proceedings, and understanding how they run in… Read More »
One Scheme, Two Statutes: Why Federal Prosecutors Love Charging Both Mail and Wire Fraud
Ever wonder why a single alleged fraud scheme can show up in an indictment as both mail fraud and wire fraud, as though prosecutors couldn’t decide which one to use? The answer isn’t indecision. It’s strategy. These two federal statutes are nearly identical twins, and charging both isn’t redundant so much as it’s a… Read More »
Rape Is Rape: How New York Quietly Rewrote One of Its Oldest Legal Definitions
If you learned about New York’s rape statutes in a health class or a courtroom drama a decade ago, you’re already working with outdated information. Effective September 1, 2024, New York eliminated the old “sexual intercourse” framework built around a penetration requirement and replaced it with a broader, more unified definition of rape covering… Read More »
Twelve Strangers, One Room: How a Grand Jury Actually Decides Murder, Manslaughter, or Nothing at All
Ever wonder what actually happens behind the closed doors of a grand jury room before someone gets charged with murder, a lesser homicide, or nothing whatsoever? The short answer is that grand jurors are working with a lower evidentiary bar than a trial jury, and their decision often comes down to which specific charge… Read More »
When the Subway Becomes Exhibit A: What Transit Violence Cases Reveal About New York Self-Defense Law
Why do subway confrontations seem to spark such intense public debate over what counts as legitimate self-defense? Part of the answer is that these cases play out in front of witnesses, security cameras, and increasingly, the entire internet, which puts New York’s justification law under a spotlight it rarely gets. High-profile transit violence cases… Read More »