These activities were clear red flags which the City tried to act upon by firing the teachers. The arbitrator told the City that they cannot fire teachers who obviously should be fire for inappropriate behavior. Ironically, the City might now be liable when these teachers ultimately do harm a child because they were clearly on notice that these teachers were a problem.

With a new law in New York, the State is trying to curb synthetic drug use. After the authorities learned that synthetic pot was widely sold throughout New York City as incense or potpourri, a new law was passed which now bans synthetic pot. Synthetic cannabinoids is made in a lab and creates a high similar to marijuana. There is also a federal ban on five of the chemicals used to make synthetic pot, but the law will expire in six months. The new law attaches criminal penalties to synthetic pot.

While technically illegal our New York and Westchester drug case attorneys firmly believe that marijuana should be legal and regulated like cigarettes. Our drug lawyers have successfully handled drug cases in New York City including Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Our criminal defense lawyers have also handled numerous drug cases in Westchester and Rockland including White Plains, Yonkers, Mt Pleasant, Mt. Kisco, New Rochelle, Port Chester, Rye, Scarsdale, Pelham, Poughkeepsie, Nyack, Bronxville, Greenburgh, Elmsford, Clarkstown and Airmont.

Our White Plains police misconduct lawyers and New York police brutality attorneys have defended numerous cases where the police should have been prosecuted for civil rights violations and felony level assaults. Despite overwhelming evidence, the local police departments and the Westchester District Attorney's Office Bureau of Public Integrity, has shown a complete lack of integrity and refused to prosecute clear violations of law and have instead turned these investigations into an attempt to gain discovery in preparation for the defense of the civil law suits.

Our Westchester police misconduct lawyers have handled numerous cases against the City of White Plains, Yonkers, Greenburgh, Mount Kisco and Westchester County for police misconduct and brutality. Even though the decks are stacked against our police misconduct lawyers, we continue to fight the good fight and make sure that the Constitutional guarantees continue to be protected.

Often times during an arraignment on felony criminal cases, the Westchester Criminal Courts set a high bail with a bond alternative. The bond alternative allows the family to hire a bail bondsman and pay a fee which is significantly less than the bail.

By having a bail bondsman in the office our criminal defense attorneys can facilitate communication and assist in expediting paperwork to get our loved one out of jail as soon as possible.

The law in New York does not impose criminal penalties for having sex with a drunk or high person who is exhibiting poor judgment. Often women understandably feel violated or betrayed that they did things that they would not have done if they were sober, but that is not rape.

In New York, Rape only occurs when a woman is physically helpless. To be physically helpless, a person must be unconscious or unable to consent because they are so intoxicated or drugged that they are not conscious or a drug, such as the date rape drugs renders them physically unable to move, although conscious.

If there is even a fear that someone may cry rape, a consultation with an experienced New York criminal defense lawyer who is familiar with sex crimes and rape charges. Often times, it is beneficial to refuse to speak with the police because they often create a hostile environment and even make threats of arrest, if a suspect does not admit that the girl was unconscious, even though they know that the girl was not. In the Kelly case, the matter was handled ethically because the defendant was the son of police brass, however, this is often not the case.

Our Westchester criminal defense lawyers have successfully handled numerous rape, sexual misconduct and other sex crimes. If you or a loved one is facing event the possibility of being accused, a consultation is absolutely necessary.

Our Westchester criminal defense attorneys are seeing more and more shoplifting charges arising out of customers in the major retailers including the Westchester Mall in White Plains and the other big box retailers in Port Chester and upscale boutiques in Rye, Mamaroneck, Scarsdale and Bronxville.

Switching tags is still considered petit larceny and can even be considered grand larceny if the amount "saved" is over one thousand dollars. Although many customers see this as a harmless non-criminal activity and just saving a few bucks, the criminal courts in New York have a different view.

Fortunately from our White Plains office, our Westchester criminal defense lawyers regularly defend these cases and we have gotten many good people who simply made a bad decision through this process without a criminal record and without jail or probation.

Our consultations are always free and we always handle our client's criminal problems with the utmost discretion.

Often, after a consensual sexual encounter, a man is shocked by either getting a call from the police that they "just want to talk" or their partner calls them to a meeting and the guy is arrested. This often happens with young people who are accused because the police want to interrogate them in a coercive atmosphere. For anyone facing a sex crime, going to a police precinct is like going into a lion's den. Usually when you go in, you are leaving in handcuffs.

Our New York and Westchester sex crime lawyers have viewed numerous interrogation tapes of suspects in which the police use unfair, misleading and deceptive practices to coerce false confessions. We have viewed numerous tapes where our clients explain what happened, that it was consensual to which the police imply they will not be going home, unless they tell the truth. Then the police feed them details to which they agree, just to avoid being arrested, and then of course they are arrested. We have seen the police tell our clients, that they will be asked the same questions until they say the version that the police want to hear. They often also prey upon our client's feelings for their sexual partner by saying things like don't make her out to be a liar, there is only one story, and that the stories have to match. The police often tell our clients that they are lying and they will not go home until they tell the police "the truth", which is of course the version of the events which the police want to hear.

Our New York and Westchester criminal defense lawyers recommend that anyone who is contacted by the police or arrested immediately ask for a lawyer and refuse to answer any questions. No matter what is said, even if true, it will never be right, until the suspect says what they want to hear. The questioning can last hours, even days to wear out a suspect into often falsely confessing just to end the interrogation. These dangers are heightened where the suspect is young or mentally slow.

A phone call from a lawyer can avoid this interrogation and stop it midstream once in progress. Unfortunately, these coerced confessions result in signed statements which are damning and hard to disprove.

In cases where our clients insist on speaking with the police, our attorneys can be present and make sure that the process occurs in a fair manner.

If you have been contacted by the police or even think you might be contacted, you need a New York or Westchester criminal defense attorney with experience defending sex crimes.

Our New York City civil rights lawyers are committing to seeking compensation for OWS victims of police misconduct, including false arrest, malicious prosecution and police brutality. It is important that the police who engage in misconduct be held accountable for their actions and it is the only way that our first amendment rights to protest will be preserved. Now technology has ensured that a majority of the police misconduct will be captured on camera, with so many Occupy Wall Street protesters having phones with video cameras that record the vivid images of police brutality.

Our White Plains criminal defense attorneys convinced a City of White Plains Judge that no crime occurred, even if the lies which the police officers told were accepted as true. As a result all charges against our client were dismissed. It is worth noting that our client filed a cross complaint for assault against the police officers, which would have been a felony level assault based on the severity of the injuries. Unbelievably, despite clear evidence of wrongdoing and injuries that were unexplainable, except for as the result of an assault, the Westchester District Attorney's office refused to prosecute the officers and instead continued to prosecute our client.

Our Westchester criminal defense lawyers are committed to making sure that police brutality victims are exonerated in the Criminal Courts and obtain justice through civil lawsuits against the police officers responsible for misconduct. We have even represented police officers against other police officers who target them and falsely accuse them of criminal activity to satisfy petty gripes.

Now our New York civil rights lawyers will file a civil lawsuits against the White Plains officers involved and hopefully, the White Plains police department will start to take police misconduct seriously, but I am not optimistic.

Fortunately New York's rape shield law has several exceptions, which specifically require admission of the complaining witnesses sexual history. One common example is any evidence which proves or tends to prove specific instances of the victim's prior sexual conduct with the accused. The importance of this exception is self evident since a claim that sexual conduct was not consensual is always suspicious where there is a history of sexual activity between the actors.

Another exception is evidence which tends to prove that the complaining witness has engaged in prosecution. This is also common sensical because anyone who would have sex for money, would also falsely accuse someone of a sex crime. As such, this type of evidence has bearing on the motive of the complaining witness.

Another exception is where evidence rebuts evidence introduced by the people of the victim's failure to engage in sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct or sexual contact during a given period of time; or rebuts evidence introduced by the people which proves or tends to prove that the accused is the cause of pregnancy or disease of the victim, or the source of semen found in the victim. These exceptions come into play on many occasions, for example when a witness denies having oral or anal sex, then a New York criminal defense attorney can explore whether they have ever done it in the past, which relates to credibility. Also on many occasions our New York criminal defense lawyers have received rape kit results which show semen or bodily fluids which don't match our client. This establishes that the victim had consensual sex with someone else within a very short period of time, therefore, any injury which was allegedly caused could have been pre-existing and it also casts doubt on the claims of forcible sexual activity.

The final exception involves evidence which tends to be relevant and admissible in the interests of justice. Generally the Courts have interpreted this requirement to mean that the evidence supports the defendants' case. For example, where there is a contention that deviant sexual activity was forced, evidence including emails, or other partners can be introduced at trial to demonstrate that the complaining witness had a proclivity or practice of regularly engaging in the activity. Likewise, in a recent case, through facebook pages, our Westchester sex crime lawyers were able to establish that a particular victim who claimed that she was unconscious because of intoxication had a proclivity to drinking excessively and then engaging in sexual activity.

New York and Westchester County criminal lawyers must diligently explore and expand the exceptions to the rape shield law.

In a recent New York Court of Appeals held that the County Court improperly deprived defendant of his right to present testimony that complainant had a bad reputation in the community for truth and veracity. The Court recognized that party has a right to call a witness to testify that a key opposing witness, who gave substantive evidence and was not called for purposes of impeachment, has a bad reputation in the community for truth and veracity. The Court went on to recognize that a "trial court must allow such testimony, once a proper foundation has been laid, so long as it is relevant to contradict the testimony of a key witness and is limited to general reputation for truth and veracity and that the rule is to ensure that the jury is afforded a full picture of the witnesses presented, allowing it to give the proper weight to the testimony of such witnesses. Once the party seeking admission of reputation evidence has laid the proper foundation, it is for the jury to evaluate the credibility of the character witnesses who testify, and to decide how much weight to give the views reported in their testimony.

Our New York and White Plains criminal defense attorneys hope this new ruling will assist us in fighting bogus and questionable criminal accusations.

Inexplicably, the Court held that there was no Miranda violation because the Court in a twisted and strained logic held that remaining silent is not a sufficient exercise of the right to remain silent, so as to trigger the right to end police interrogation. The Court held that If the accused makes an "ambiguous or equivocal" statement or no statement, the police are not required to end the interrogation.

So under the new rule, a criminal defendant to come under the protection of the Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination must explicitly state that they are exercising their right to remain silent otherwise, the police are free to continue their interrogation. This was a five to four split decision and is further evidence of the trend in which right wing Courts are intentionally stripping the United States Constitution of its protections. More and more, the Republicans have packed the Courts with political hacks who bend over backwards to undermine the Constitutional protections which our founding fathers enacted for us.

New York criminal defense lawyers should continue to look to the New York Constitution which has traditionally provided greater protection than the Federal Constitution.

Typically in simple negligence cases, Judges will exclude moral evidence or evidence of bad conduct on other occasions as unduly prejudicial. However, where a single act is part of a larger course of conduct our New York lawyers typically include a claim for punitive damages. Punitive damages are particularly suited for car accidents and truck accidents involving drunk drivers, wrongful death, sexual assaults, malicious prosecution, business cases involving fraud and police misconduct cases.

Punitive damages are different than compensatory damages because while compensatory damages for negligence or contract cases are intended to just make the injured party whole, the punitive damages are intended to punish a morally culpable defendant and to deter conduct of the defendant and others like them.

So bad conduct may not be relevant in a negligence case, but it is relevant in punitive damages cases. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that bad act evidence is relevant to reprehensibility. The Supreme Court has recognized that a Plaintiff may show harm to others in order to demonstrate the reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct, because evidence of actual harm to non-parties can help to show that the conduct that harmed the plaintiff also posed a substantial risk of harm to the general public, and so was particularly reprehensible. In determining reprehensibility, a jury may properly take into account the fact that conduct that risks harm to many is likely more reprehensible than conduct that risks harm to only a few.

However, the Supreme Court has also held that a jury may not punish the defendants by awarding damages to punish defendants for harm done to others who are not Plaintiffs in the instant lawsuit. Our New York attorneys will continue to seek high punitive damages in their representation of the citizens of New York City and Westchester who have been aggrieved by reprehensible defendants.

The arrest procedure in New York is arduous. Typically, once a person is arrested, it is very difficult for family members to get information about what is happening. Typically, that is because the person moves through various parts of the system.

The New York City arraignment process typically takes between 12 and 20 hours depending on many factors. The arrestee is first processed at the local precinct which takes several hours. Their information is faxed to Albany and then once the raps are run, the person is transferred to central booking. During this time, the District Attorney prepares the paperwork while the arrested person sits in Central Booking, until the case become Court ready.

Our New York City criminal defense lawyers are able to monitor the status of a new arrest directly with the arraignment parts of the New York City criminal courts by telephone. When the case is Court ready, we go to the arraignment and get our clients out as soon as possible. The New York City criminal Courts in the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan all have arraignments until 1:00 a.m., and when our New York City criminal defense lawyers are retained we will go to the arraignment, no matter how late it is.

The answer often depends on what happens at arraignment. The local Westchester town police departments do not often contact ICE or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So our White Plains criminal defense lawyers can obtain a release or bail which can be posted at the Court which is advantageous.

Typically once a person goes to the Westchester County Jail at Valhalla then Immigration is notified immediately and there will be an immigration hold. This is dangerous for the illegal immigrant because once an immigration hold is put on someone they will not be released even if they are bailed out. So our White Plains criminal defense lawyers aggressively fight to get undocumented immigrants out of jail before they go to the Westchester County Jail to prevent them from ending up in deportation proceedings.

Our Westchester criminal defense lawyers often see these issues in the Westchester towns with heavy immigrant populations including White Plains, Port Chester, New Rochelle and Yonkers.