Day Care Facility Which Includes Kindergarten Class Does Not Qualify as an Elementary School For 1000 Foot School Zone Charge.

In a rare victory in the fight against the oppressive and draconian 1000 foot school charge, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:35-7, the New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Shelley held that a Day-Care Center even one that has kindergarten classes is not an elementary school for purposes of this charge.

The statute makes it a crime for anyone to distribute or intent to distribute any controlled dangerous substance within 1000 foot of an elementary or secondary school.  The Supreme Court strictly construded the definition of elementary school as grades 1 through 6.

Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr.

CriminalDefenseNJ.com

Elizabeth, N.J.

Dated: July 27, 2011

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Roger Clemens’s Perjury Trial Ends in Mistrial By Blunder By Federal Prosecutors

Federal District Court Judge Reggie Walton declares mistrial in baseball great, Roger Clemens perjury trial as to whether he lied to the Congressional Subcommittee investigating the use of steroids in major legal baseball.

Judge Walton declared that the mistake in the prosecutor’s opening statement was so egregious that even a “first year law student” would not have made it.

In the opening statement federal prosecutor’s played a audio visual tape to the jury of statement of a witness that the judge had previously ruled would be double hearsay, and hence, not admissible. 

Although Judge Walton could have simply gave the jury instructions not to consider the evidence, he took the draconian step and declaring a mistrial stating that the trial was now tainted with extremely prejudicial evidence.

This case demonstrates the need for defense counsel to be extremely vigilant in insuring that prosecutors, negligently or intentionally, do not attempt to introduce into evidence hearsay testimony which can be extremely harmful to a defendant since defense counsel has no way of testing the credibility of such statements.

Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr.

CriminalDefenseNJ.com

Elizabeth, New Jersey

(908) 354-7006

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The Use of Deferred Prosecutions and Non-Prosecution Agreements by the Department of Justice for White Collar Defendants

The current trend by the United States Department of Justice in pursuing violations of federal law as it pertains to corporations and corporate executives is the trend by the feds of in offering deferred prosecution agreements and/or non-prosecution agreements for these white collar defendants.

Many United States corporations such as Beazer homes (engaged in mortgage fraud), American International Group (AIG, accounting fraud), Computer Associates International (stock fraud), Bristol-Myers Squibb and the major financial and insurance company Prudential Financial, have all benefited from these types of agreements over the last several years.

Such agreements are at the discretion of the United States Attorney prosecuting or investigating the individual case, and are offered early on in the prosecution of the individual corporate executive or the corporation itself.  The offers are usually made only in the pre-indictment stage of the case or investigation.  Further, the offending party or entity must show good faith in the early and voluntary disclosure of all wrongdoing committed, must cooperate fully with the feds investigation, and show the willingness and desire to remediate and/or substantial restitution or compensation to any victim pool.  A defendant who is recalcitrant or denies any wrongdoing or fails to come forward with a full disclosure during the investigative vase will not be considered for such deferred or non-prosecution agreements.

Although these programs have generated much criticism by the general public as being soft on corporate crime and offenders in the end such programs are both beneficial to the offending party and saves the taxpayers the immense costs of investigating and prosecuting the offending entities, because much of the actual investigation of the federal crimes is done by the corporate itself, through independent auditors and investigators with zero tax payer cost.

For further information regarding the defense of white collar criminals and corporations go to CriminalDefenseNJ.com

Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr.

Tel. No. (908) 354-7006

Yourcivilrights@gmail.com

Elizabeth, New Jersey federal trial lawyer, federal criminal trial attorney, NJ white collar criminal defense lawyer, NJ criminal attorney, Federal Criminal NJ lawyer.

Union County criminal lawyer.

Dated: July 11, 2011