Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
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weed4Medical marijuana has had a tough time catching on in Maryland as roadblocks have sprung up each step of the way. First the legislature failed to craft a legitimate medical cannabis program, and a year later when a real program arrived they failed to adequately fund a commission to draft its rules. Then the underfunded and inexperienced commission drastically miscalculated the number of expected grower and distributor applications, which lead to massive delays in the awarding of licenses. When the licenses were finally awarded three potential growers sued for unjust denial of their applications, and their cases are pending in court. Many of these roadblocks were predictable, and could have been avoided with greater cooperation among politicians and more resources dedicated to the launching the program. However the latest roadblock was not expected and could end up disrupting the medical marijuana program if and when it finally gets rolling.

A public records request revealed that only 172 Maryland doctors have signed up to potentially prescribe medical marijuana, which translates to about 1 percent of the 16,000 docs practicing medicine in the state. State officials are concerned that the lack of prescribing doctors could cause a serious bottleneck in the process of getting medical pot to the patient. We will certainly have enough growers, distributors and buyers, but the chain is not complete without the doctors writing the scripts. Potential patients could be forced to wait weeks or even months to see a doctor, and the huge numbers game could cause these doctors to fly through screenings at a pace similar to the pill mills that lawmakers and medical boards are trying to eliminate. Officials at MedChi fear that the end result will be the medical marijuana program becoming a façade for recreational use, as doctors with long lines of patients will be ill prepared to distinguish those with a medical need from those who simply want to enjoy high quality pot.

Once the program gets going there will likely be more doctors jumping on board. The free market will work itself out and doctors will eventually see the positives in running a lucrative and legitimate business that does not involve being on call at all hours of the night. An influx of new doctors who are more open to alternative types of medicine will also be more likely to stand behind the benefits of marijuana and less hesitant to prescribe it. A lack of doctors is not likely to be the downfall of the state’s already troubled medical marijuana program, as legalization will eventually be the kill shot for medical pot. Patients who benefit from ingesting cannabis may have to jump through hoops and wait in long lines for a year or two in order to legally obtain relief, but the day is coming when a trip to the dispensary and a valid ID is all it will take for access to all forms of cannabis. The federal government may be slow to change its designation of marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance, but the new administration will let the states decide their own pot policies. The people have spoken in influential states such as California and Massachusetts and it’s only a matter of time before the issue goes to a vote in Maryland.

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packs-163497_1280Despite years of scrutiny and two legislative task force inquiries the Maryland cash bail system has remained untouched. Thousands of defendants sit in jails statewide for months on end awaiting trial simply because they cannot afford to post bail. Many end up being released after their cases are dismissed, and others remain until accepting a guilty plea to time served or probation. In some cases the bails set by court commissioners or judges are exorbitantly high and in other cases the defendants simply cannot scrape together any amount of cash or collateral for a bail bondsman. The bail bond industry has been raking in profits for decades by preying off the desperate desire of defendants to get out of jail, and the industry’s hefty contributions to lawmakers have largely shielded it from reproach. But within the last month two influential members of the state’s legal community have spoken out against the current cash bail system, and their words have already translated to real change in the district and circuit criminal courts.

In mid October the newly elected Attorney General sent a memo to five state lawmakers declaring that judges and court commissioners must consider the defendant’s finances when determining an appropriate bail. The memo goes on to say that if bail is too high for the defendant the Court of Appeals in Annapolis would likely find it unlawful, and further states that an amount too high for the defendant to post would be excessive and a violation of Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. While the Attorney General’s memo was advisory and did not establish any type of rule of law, the Chief Judge of the District Court of Maryland took notice and sent a memo of his own. This memo instructs other District Court judges to treat monetary bail as a means to insure the defendant’s return to court, and not as a means to assure the public safety. Defense attorneys have been making this argument for years to court commissioners and judges across the state with little success. Too often our state judges use high bail amounts as a means to keep a defendant in custody pending his or her trial. These excessive bails are punitive and unconstitutional, but have become status quo in Maryland courts.

Excessive bails are set by judges and court commissioners all over the state, but this epidemic is particularly out of control in Baltimore City and to a lesser extent Baltimore County. Defendants arrested on drug charges such as possession with intent to distribute are often held on six-figure bail amounts, and end up paying thousands to bail bondsmen who lure customers with 1% down payment plans. It is not only drug charges that result in outrageous bail amounts, but also gun charges and alleged violent offenses where there is little objective evidence of guilt. The roots of the problem are the judges and commissioners that have been approaching bail hearings entirely wrong for years; they read the charges and set a bail amount solely on the alleged facts in the statement of probable cause. It becomes lost that defendants are to be presumed innocent at every step of the judicial process, including at a bail hearing.  But this finally appears to be changing as the Chief Judge’s memorandum is starting to show its influence in court. Defendants that do not pose a threat to the community and are not a legitimate flight risk are being released on their own recognizance. This falls in line with the least onerous means to assure the return of the defendant to court. Some defendants who are determined to be serious dangers to the community are being held in custody, but the judges are now putting their findings on the record, as instructed by the Chief Judge.

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network-197300_1280New details are slowly emerging in the theft prosecution of a former NSA contractor who is accused of stealing classified government information over a 20-year period. Federal law enforcement officers executed a search and seizure warrant of the man’s Glen Burnie house in August and found boxes of stolen papers and multiple computers containing as much as 50 terabytes of classified information. Although law enforcement appears to have a grasp on the quantity of information stolen, there are still many unanswered questions such as whether any of the information was disseminated to third parties. The one certainty though is that the former contractor with top-secret clearance will be held in jail until trial after a federal judge denied his request for bail.

On the issue of bail, defense attorneys argued that their client is not a flight risk because he does not own a passport and does not have the means or the desire to live in hiding. They added that 51-year old Ann Arundel County man has served in the U.S. Navy and is not a danger to the community or the country, citing the fact that there is no proof he intended to share any of the stolen government materials. The government countered with what turned out to be the more compelling argument to the judge; federal prosecutors argued that the stolen information could be highly sought after by foreign governments who hypothetically could be willing to offer asylum to the defendant. They stated that the defendant allegedly used sophisticated computer technology in order to defeat controls placed on classified information and he was able to use complex software that allows for anonymous and untraceable internet access. The government also argued that the defendant is a danger to the community after law enforcement found ten firearms during the search, including one in the floorboard of a retired police vehicle that he purchased over the summer.

The NSA is one of the largest employers in Maryland, and hundreds of people that work at the Fort Meade headquarters are not actually NSA agents. Outside contractors are essential for to the day-to-day operations of the agency, and most are privy to classified information provided they have a security clearance. This particular contractor happened to have the highest clearance, and allegedly the skill and desire to pull of one of the largest data heists in government history. All told the amount of material is estimated to be as much as 500 million pages, and allegedly includes the identities of American intelligence officers and a specific operational plan against a known enemy of the U.S. The defendant now faces misdemeanor charges for unauthorized removal and retention of classified material and felony theft of government property. The felony counts carry up to ten years in prison, and the government could add more serious counts if the ongoing investigation reveals any intent to pass along the classified materials to a third party or leak the information to the public. The Glen Burnie man is already a suspect in a late summer data leak, where details about secret NSA hacking tools showed up on the internet. The Blog will continue to follow the progress of this theft prosecution and may post a follow up article if necessary.

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pills_moneyPolice arresting two drug dealers is hardly worthy of a local news headline these days in Maryland. Crime statistics are dropping in many of the urban and suburban areas statewide, as the number of property and violent crimes are as low as they have been since the 1960’s when the state population was nearly half of what it is today. But drug crimes are not following the same trend, and these offenses are dominating the arrest statistics at most police departments. Controlled dangerous substance arrests occur so frequently that even local media outlets pass on reporting a bust unless the shear size makes it newsworthy, or if a celebrity, public official or law enforcement officer ends up being the arrestee. Occasionally though the facts are so bizarre or alarming that the media outlets pounce on a new drug case, and a recent bust out of Pasadena fits that bill.

Last week Anne Arundel County police officers arrested two alleged drug dealers that were suspected to have been selling their product from a residence that doubled as a daycare center. The female defendant owned the home and the center, which had its business license suspended in February and was operating illegally. But now the former child-care entrepreneur has a lot more to worry about than a citation for operating an unlicensed business. Law enforcement began investigating the daycare center after a tipster reported suspicious activity at the house, although two neighbors interviewed by the media stated they never observed anything out of the ordinary. Regardless police began gathering evidence for a search warrant, and eventually pieced together sufficient probable cause to gain a judges signature. Law enforcement executed the search warrant at 5:30 in the morning in order to avoid having any children present during the raid. Search warrants typically must be executed during daylight hours save for exigent circumstances, which this case certainly had.

It appears as if the raid yielded successful results, as both male and the female property owners were arrested on numerous drug offenses including felony possession with intent to distribute narcotics. The pair was also charged with reckless endangerment for keeping drugs in close proximity to children, and with simple possession not marijuana. In addition, the male defendant was charged with destruction of evidence under criminal law 9-307 for attempting to flush crack cocaine down the toilet during the raid. This is a misdemeanor with a three-year maximum jail sentence and in addition to destruction of evidence also covers fabricating and altering evidence of a crime. The two alleged daycare drug dealers have preliminary hearings set in the Annapolis District Court next month, but these cases will likely be indicted by a grand jury and sent directly to the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. We would expect the State’s Attorney to treat these cases with particular scorn for obvious reasons, so it would not be surprising to see both defendants serve jail sentences. The male defendant faces considerably more time due to his prior criminal record, and the fact that he could be charged as a subsequent offender due to a prior conviction for possession with intent to deliver, where he was sentenced to two years in prison.

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marijuana-1281540_1280Just shy of ten years ago the Maryland legislature voted to legalize statewide casino gambling. The governor signed the gambling bill into law shortly thereafter, and three years later the first casino opened its doors for business in Cecil County. The five operational casinos in Maryland have generated over a billion dollars in revenue since 2010, and come December this number will increase dramatically with the opening of the massive MGM National Harbor Casino in Prince George’s County. Most would consider the casino program a success as thousands of jobs have been created to go along with the millions in tax revenue. While it took decades to pass legalized gambling, the process of turning a signed bill into an open casino progressed relatively smoothly, and was night and day compared to the state medical marijuana program’s progression from bill to pot shop.

The Blog has been extremely critical of the state medical marijuana commission moving at a snail’s pace to award licenses to grow and sell medical pot, but some of the blame should also fall on lawmakers. In 2007 when gambling became legal the legislature added four full-time members to the Maryland Lottery Commission to oversee the process of awarding casino licenses. The members were given a 2.3 million dollar budget, and were able to use this money to hire industry experts to help hammer out the licensing process. In contrast, the medical marijuana commission consisted of volunteer members and a $125,000 yearly budget. The committee members were not experts, and had no firsthand knowledge of how to create a medical marijuana program. There were doctors, lawyers and police officers but nobody even resembling a marijuana producer or distributor. Their paltry budget made it nearly impossible to hire experts from the private sector or from other states with existing programs, and the result is a medical pot program that has taken longer to get off the ground than the 25 other programs in the country.

The failure of lawmakers to appropriately equip the current commission stems from their creation of the bust that was the 2013 medical marijuana law. Lawmakers created the commission to oversee the original 2013 medical pot law, which only permitted the program to function through public and private academic institutions. The 2013 law focused on studying the effects of medical marijuana through the legal treatment of patients with cannabis, and relied on universities risking loss of their federal funding to research a theory that has already been proven (medical marijuana works). There were predictably no takers and a year later lawmakers created a legitimate program that would be run by private businesses, thus shifting the focus of the program from research to profit. The problem was that existing medical marijuana commission did not receive the complete overhaul it needed to account for this 180-degree change. Regulating numerous businesses that stand to make millions is an entire different animal than regulating a few universities that aren’t in it for the money.

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usa-1663297_1280Just three years ago United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland made national headlines after announcing dozens of indictments for corruption and drug trafficking at the Baltimore City Jail. These indictments were the first major accomplishment of the Maryland Prison Task Force, a collaboration of law enforcement created in 2011 that includes the FBI, DPSCS, U.S. Marshal ‘s Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Task Force has remained active throughout Maryland’s jails, and recently made headlines for completing another massive corruption investigation, this time at the biggest prison facility in the state. The Eastern Correctional Institute or ECI is located in Somerset County on the Eastern shore, and houses over 3,000 inmates that have already been sentenced in court. It consists of two identical compounds with multiple housing units supervised by hundreds of correctional officers, and serviced by dozens of civilian contractors. With all the people moving in and around the facility it comes as no surprise that there would be contraband changing hands as well. It’s the scale of the conspiracy to move illegal goods such as drugs and cellphones within the facility that was far greater than expected.

The Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury came back with indictments on 80 different individuals for their role in a massive conspiracy to move contraband throughout ECI for profit. The indictments charged 18 correctional officers, 35 inmates and 27 so called outside facilitators for their part in the conspiracy, which focused around bribing the prison officers to bring drugs, tobacco and phones to inmates. The officers allegedly would bring in packages containing contraband through prison security, and then deliver the cocaine, MDMA, marijuana, suboxone or other items to inmates who would pay using PayPal. Officers were paid as much as $500 each time they brought a package inside, and completed delivery in locations such as dining rooms, inmate’s cells or offices within the housing units.

Each defendant faces up to 20 years in federal prison for racketeering, a common charge used by the feds to severely punish those who take part in a large scale criminal conspiracy. The defendants also face felony drug distribution and possession with intent to distribute charges, which carries a 20-year sentence aw well. As of now, two of the corrections officers face additional time for the crime of depravation of rights under color of law for their role in facilitating the stabbing of two individuals who disrupted the flow of contraband. This charge exemplifies the type of public corruption that the DOJ and the FBI continue to focus on, and it gives their headlines a lot more teeth than just announcing a drug conspiracy. But really what this case boils down to is a massive law enforcement effort carried out by multiple agencies to stop inmates from getting high. This bust exposed nowhere near the level of criminal conduct of the bust at the Baltimore County Jail, as few jail conspiracies could ever rival that amount of corruption. Since the state created, and is paying for, a prison task force they will have to justify their existence and we should continue to see glorified jailhouse drug busts filed under the public corruption headline.

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toy-768921_1280Maryland has some of the toughest firearm laws in the country, with harsh penalties for illegal possession and all out bans on many popular gun models. But the focus is not confined to working and operable firearms any longer, as legislation to ban toy and replica guns in now in the works in at least two jurisdictions within the state. The proposed bans did not come out of the blue, but rather were prompted by an incident in Baltimore City where a 13-year old boy brandishing a replica pistol was shot by a police officer that feared the replica was the real thing. Luckily the boy survived, but the two bullet wounds he sustained could have easily ended his life prematurely. While this potential disaster generated a good deal of press, there are likely hundreds of incidents each year where cops are placed in the dangerous position of encountering citizens with replica guns. Rather than hope their officers make the right split decision, Baltimore City and Salisbury want to take measures to assure their officers are no longer placed in this perilous position in the first place.

The Baltimore City Counsel recently introduced a bill that would ban ownership and possession of replica guns within city limits. The bill is specifically focused on replicas with largely similar characteristics of their real counterparts, which does not include toys such as water pistols and Nerf type guns. Rather it will focus on BB and pellet guns, as well as replicas that are the same size, shape and color as common handguns and rifles. The proposed law is not designed to throw kids in jail for carrying around plastic pistols, as city officials have suggested minor penalties for first and even second time offenders. Violators would face a civil citation and seizure of the replica weapon for a first or second offense, while criminal penalties could come into play upon a third offense. As it stands now a third time offender faces arrest, and then a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Since this would be a city code violation the city attorney could be the office that ends up handling the prosecutions of these cases, though it is a little premature to speculate on this.

Officials in the city of Salisbury have also stated their desire to institute a ban on replica guns, which would likely be similar to the law in Baltimore. Salisbury legislators plan to hammer out the details of the proposed bill in the coming weeks. The Blog will update the progress of these potential city laws, and will post a follow up article if necessary. We will also monitor the 2017 Maryland legislative session to see if state lawmakers put replicas on their agenda.

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courtroom-898931_1280Even before the medical marijuana commission began the selection process for awarding grower and distributor licenses it was hypothesized that some losing applicants would sue over the unfair process. According to newly drafted regulations, hundreds of qualified applicants ready and able to provide patients with medical cannabis would never get their chance. By drastically limiting the number of licenses, the commission thought it would put the state in a better position to regulate the program, but all it really did was ensure that numerous highly qualified candidates would be shutout. And with tens of millions of dollars at stake it was extremely likely that some of these qualified applicants would not just accept losing, but rather take their fight to the courts. Well, this week the hypothesis rang true as a losing company that planned to grow legal pot in Washington County filed a lawsuit against the Medical Marijuana Commission and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The company filed suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, and served it on the Attorney General’s Office soon thereafter.

The plaintiff is the same company that we wrote about in our last Blog post, which was originally awarded a license to grow pot but then stripped of it in favor of a Prince George’s County grower just 48 hours later in the interest of “geographical diversity”. If lawsuits against the commission and the DHMH were highly probable at outset of this flawed process, the commissioner’s suspicious change of heart in July made them a mathematical certainty. There was simply no way that the two companies who lost their golden tickets in the eleventh hour would stand down and not take the state to court. In addition to filing suit, the aforementioned company already began to wage a public battle against the process with lawyers and a well known ex NFL player going on camera to bash the unfair process. The former Raven offensive tackle turned medical cannabis investor has been outspoken about the NFL’s archaic policies toward marijuana for a few years, and is well versed relaying his opinions to the media.

The other company that was shut out after the commission’s flip flop has yet to file their lawsuit, though at this point it seems like a foregone conclusion. These lawsuits will probably delay the entire medical marijuana program yet again, but don’t blame the profit seeking growers and their lawyers. Lawmakers took years to pass legitimate medical cannabis legislation, and the commission had months to decide on regulations for the program. Both had dozens of already existing state programs to look at for guidance, but they valued creating a uniquely Maryland program over mimicking one of the many already successful platforms. The patients in need of alternative treatments to narcotic drugs and other prescription medications are the one’s who have suffered, and now it looks as if the relief is even further away. The company who filed the lawsuit has stated publicly that that it does not wish for its litigation to hold up the program’s progress, though delays seems inescapable. Latest predictions have medical marijuana being available in the summer of 2017 but timeliness is not something we have come to expect.

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cannabis-1418325_1280First, state politicians passed a completely ineffective medical marijuana law that unsurprisingly had zero takers. Then a year later when a legitimate medical marijuana program became state law, the commission in charge of writing the policy dragged its feet for months. After going well beyond the allotted time frame for which to craft the regulations of the program, the newly created commission began to accept applications. But as had been the case for the last three years, the commission delayed the process yet again by drastically underestimating the length of time it would take to review the applications. Finally, after two years the commission began awarding licenses to legally grow pot to the 15 (a completely arbitrary number) most qualified candidates. With the licenses issued it was finally time to get to work and plant the first seeds that would ultimately be used to legally treat patients with cannabis for the first time in Maryland history. This was exciting stuff indeed, but lest the reader think that this story has a happy ending we would remind you that nothing related to medical marijuana has come easy in our great state, and awarding the licenses now seems like the beginning of a long battle rather than the end of one.

The medical marijuana commission has taken a ton of heat for not awarding grow licenses to minority owned candidates. This issue has grabbed most of the headlines and has minority leaders up in arms about the process, but it is not the commission’s only highly criticized move of the summer. According to public records the five-member commission chose to award licenses to the top 15 rated candidates, as rated by an independent application reviewer, toward the end of July. Then a week later the members went back on their decision and dropped the last two to make the cut in favor of lower ranked candidates. Apparently one commissioner, a Prince George’s County law enforcement officer, persuaded the other four members to award a license to a PG County applicant instead of a Washington County operation that was ranked higher and had already been selected. A Frederick County applicant was also dropped in favor of a lower ranked Worcester County operation. The dropped applicants were outraged when they caught wind of this change of heart, and rightly so.

While state regulators included geographical diversity as a key factor in awarding the licenses it was never intended to shut out otherwise qualified candidates. But this is exactly what happened when less qualified applicants received licenses solely based on their location. The point of hiring an independent application evaluator was to take any sort of subjectivity and bias out of the process. But it’s easy to see that objectivity goes out the window when a commissioner who has spent his career working in Prince George’s County convinces the other members to select a less qualified candidate from his home county. Even if there were only good intentions the sudden change of heart gives off a strong feeling of impropriety, which is something the commission can ill afford at this time.

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maryland-280863_1280Holiday weekends motivate thousands to take to the highways to vacation or visit with friends and family. And in Maryland when the weather is warm, a large majority of these motorists travel between the Baltimore and D.C. metro areas and the Eastern Shore. Some stop in the smaller cities and towns along the way, but most end up in Ocean City or the Delaware beaches. Unfortunately there’s only one major thoroughfare between these two destinations, and the traffic can be a nightmare if you leave at the wrong time. Using nightmare to describe traffic might be a figure of speech, as Route 50 gridlock has become just part of the beachgoer experience. The real nightmares out on the highways are the serious car, motorcycle and truck accidents that injure or even claim the lives of those in search of a little sun and sand before heading back to work. Each year the Maryland State Police has made it a priority to do everything in their power to mitigate the increased risk of serious auto accidents that accompany the spring and summer holidays, and this past Labor Day weekend was no different.

In a recent press release State Police took credit for reducing crashes and keeping the public safe, thanks to various initiatives to post more troopers along the holiday driving routes. Initiatives such as Operation Showboat sent troopers posted in the Eastern Shore and the southern part of the state to specifically patrol the Route 50 stretch between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Ocean City. These troopers were targeting intoxicated drivers and anyone appearing to be operating in an unsafe manner. All told, MSP reported their troopers conducted over 9,000 traffic stops over the holiday week, and issued over 6,000 citations. There were 119 drunk driving arrests, including 10 arrested over the weekend by the much-publicized S.P.I.D.R.E team, a state police task force dedicated solely toward DUI and DWI enforcement. This task force took to the highways of Montgomery County, which has often been labeled as a drunk driving hotbed by law enforcement.

In addition to the thousands of citations and the 100 plus DUI arrests, the Labor Day traffic stops also produced 64 arrests unrelated to impaired driving. These unfortunate holiday motorists were probably pulled over for some minor traffic infraction (or nothing at all) and then arrested after a search yielded drugs or other contraband such as firearms. Police have made it a common practice to conduct traffic stops as a pretext to some other sort of investigation, and these stops have been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court as long as there was reasonable suspicion to conduct the traffic stop in the first place. Along with the 64 arrests for new crimes, troopers also arrested 75 people who had outstanding arrest warrants. Law enforcement officers that locate wanted individuals do not even need probable cause to stop or detain, as the courts have held that you essentially lose many of your Fourth Amendment rights if you have a valid arrest warrant. This is true even if the arrest warrant was issued in error or never issued at all, as the only factor that matters is whether the officer reasonably believed you had a valid arrest warrant at the time of the seizure. Moral of this story is that if you have an arrest warrant or are traveling with a currently illegal substance such as marijuana, avoiding the main beach routes over the holidays might be in your best interest.

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