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Call for a
free consultation: Office: (702) 809-6904
Fax:
(702) 655-0036 E-mail:
aw@wrightlawnv.com Mail: 420 N. Nellis Blvd.
A3-150 Las Vegas, Nevada
89110 Anthony can meet with you in a mutually convenient
location within the Las Vegas
Valley. Also
visit our "Traffic" page. Traffic violations are considered crimes by
the State of Nevada. That’s right, not coming to a complete
stop at a stop sign, failing to use a turn signal, speeding, tailgating, and
etc. are all CRIMES. They are misdemeanors punishable by high fines, jail
of up to 6 months, community service, traffic school, and even visits to the
morgue. Beyond these punishments, you also have to use your precious time
going to court, waiting in line, and risk points on your driving record and the
resulting increase in insurance premiums. It is strongly advised that you
have an attorney assist you. Usually this means that you will simply have
to pay a reduced fine, months down the road, and that’s it. No wasted time,
no stress, no points, no increased insurance premiums—just payment to the
lawyer for the service and then payment to the court for the fine. See our
“Traffic” page for legal services prices based on the jurisdiction in which you
received the ticket. OTHER CRIMINAL MATTERS: Just
because the government accuses a person of a crime does not mean that the
person is a criminal. Sometimes the prosecutors are wrong. Sometimes the
prosecutors trust and then rely on false reports by police officers.
Attorney Anthony Wright became committed to defending the accused following his own encounter while in law school with
Las Vegas police officers who wrote inaccurate facts in their police
report--which resulted in an internal affairs investigation and interest by the
American Civil Liberties Union. Police
and prosecutors can jump to conclusions and tarnish reputations with horrible
and false accusations. For instance, Anthony has worked on a case where
innocent business men were accused of slavery, and the charges were so
egregious that the case received world-wide media attention.
The charges were ultimately dropped by the US Attorneys office, but not until after the defendants spent many
days in jail and had to suffer the stress of the United States
government's false accusations. If you
have committed a crime, you may be "overcharged" meaning that you are
accused of a much more serious crime than you ought to be. For example, a
shoplifting crime could be trumped up from a misdemeanor to felony
burglary. In his work with the Las Vegas public defenders office, Anthony
was privileged to assist many individuals who had difficult lives that were
only made more difficult by criminal charges. The
Wright Law Offices will review your charges, the evidence against you, whether
the evidence was appropriately gathered and whether it is sufficient for the
crime with which you are accused, and will attempt to negotiate with the
prosecutor in charge to reach a settlement that you can live with. If a
negotiation cannot be reached, then we shall prepare to go to trial so that a
judge or jury will determine your guilt or innocence. IMPORTANT ARTICLES: Were you lying then or are you lying now? Whether
you committed a crime or not, you have the right to remain silent when being
questioned by an authority figure. The right against self-incrimination is a
constitutionally protected fundamental right. This article will point out a few
of the reasons you should keep your mouth shut. Reason 1. The
police are not there to help you. They are there to gather evidence against
you. Officers will play the good cop by acting like they want to understand you
and will be on your side. Then, if you are less than forthcoming, the same cop
or another one will become angry and attempt to threaten you into confessing.
Do not fall into these traps. The
officers might act like they are just conversing with you. The fact is that
they want to gather sufficient evidence so that they have probable cause to
arrest you, at which point they will read you your rights-but it could be too
late already if you confessed. The officers will say that you confessed
voluntarily, even if they manipulated you long before they arrested you. Who
are you to then stand up in court and call our fine peacekeepers liars? Reason 2. Officers
can purposefully or negligently miss-write on their reports what you told them.
Police reports are considered to be pretty good evidence in court. When you
take the stand and recount under oath the events leading up to your arrest and
what you say does not match up with the police report, the District Attorney can
then ask you the damning rhetorical question of, "Were you lying then or
are you lying now?" Reason 3. If you
told the police anything, whether you are innocent or not, you have just made
it much more difficult for your attorney later on to present a theory of the
case that could show you are not guilty. By speaking to the officers, you are
reducing your possible defenses. Conclusion A wise
man once said something to the effect of "a person is not condemned by
what is put in the mouth but by what comes out of." Therefore, when
approached by an officer, be polite, courteous, and quiet. Posted
by Anthony Wright--The Wright Law Offices--Las Vegas Labels:
cops, Criminal, police, remain, rights, silence, silent, talk CRIMINAL: Cruel and Unusual: How Prosecutors Punish
Criminals Our
United States Constitution tells us that we citizens cannot be tried for the
same crime twice. For example, if we are charged with murder and a jury finds
us not guilty, we cannot again be brought to trial for the same murder later.
Double jeopardy is against the law of the land. We can,
however, be sued. For those who remember the OJ Simpson trials, you will recall
that he was first tried for the crime of Murder and was acquitted because the
glove did not fit. The murder victims' families later sued OJ for
"wrongful death" and he lost millions of dollars. This is not an
example of double jeopardy because one trial was for crimes and the other was a
civil lawsuit. The constitution only applies to criminal cases. However,
lawyers who become legislatures have created laws, which are interpreted by
other lawyers called District Attorneys, which can cause a person to be
punished more than once for the same crime. These laws include
"enhancement" statutes and "strikes" laws. Oftentimes the
enhancement statutes are interpreted together with the strikes laws to really
punish a person. Punishment twice for the same crime is not double jeopardy and
does not offend the constitution. Case in
point, Mr. Leandro Andrade of California, was tried and convicted on two counts
of shoplifting from K-mart some years ago. Shortly before Christmas, this
father with a drug habit, went to K-Mart and stuffed several children's videos
down his pants but was caught when leaving the store. He was given a written
citation to appear in court. Two weeks later he attempted the same petit
larceny at another K-mart and was again caught and cited. Mr.
Andrade had prior convictions for minor non-violent offenses and had served
time behind bars for them. Most of his offenses were petty and involved his
addiction to drugs. What Mr.
Andrade did not know and what most of California did not know, was that the new
three strikes law would be applied to Andrade's case and Mr. Andrade would
spend the rest of his life in prison. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, right?
Who knew that two laws in different parts of the criminal code would come
together for this result. District Attorneys, that's who. You see,
California had enhancement statutes, which say that if a person has had prior
convictions and commits a new crime, the prior convictions are upgraded to
felonies, and so are the new crimes. Thus, in the case of Mr. Andrade, who had
had misdemeanors in his past and his newest crimes were also misdemeanors, the
enhancement statutes upgraded his prior misdemeanors and his current ones to
felony status. Next, the
District Attorney decided to apply the new Three Strikes Law. Under this law,
once a person has a third felony conviction, the person will receive a minimum
stay in prison of 25 years and a maximum stay of life. Do-gooder legislatures
and angry parents created the Three Strikes Law which was intended to put away
violent repeat offenders. By violent, the angry parents of dead children meant
killers and rapists. Nevertheless,
Leandro Andrade, a Veteran of the Armed Forces, a father, and a non-violent
drug addict suffered the Three Strikes Law because the District Attorney,
Judge, and even the Supreme Court of the United States believed that although
his offenses were not violent, they could have been. They declared that the act
of shoplifting could have become violent because any crime shows a disregard
for the common welfare and has the potential of becoming dangerous. Besides, an
example should be made of Andrade to deter other recidivist from continuing to
thumb their noses at the law. Thus, Mr.
Andrade's last two unsuccessful attempts at shoplifting constituted his third
and forth felony which became his third and fourth strikes. Now you must be
thinking that he received a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life in
prison. Not so! The
District Attorney and Judge declared that each count deserved its own sentence
and that the sentences should run consecutively, not concurrently. Therefore,
Andrade received a minimum of fifty years in prison and will not be eligible
for parole until he is in his late 80s. His children will grow up, go to
college, get married, have children of their own and will only get to visit
their father occasionally for limited time periods at a prison. No grandpa Leo
visiting on Holidays. Several
parents who lost children to murders were outraged when they learned that their
efforts were being used to put away people like Andrade. It was a slap in the
face to folks who had lost children to killers. They worked so hard for a law
that would prevent killers and rapist from committing sixth, seventh, eight,
and more crimes, and now the "justice" system was putting away a
father who tried to steal less than $500.00 worth of children's videos shortly
before Christmas. This
application of an otherwise well-intended law in California should tell us why
California went bankrupt. California shelters and feeds petty offenders for the
rest of their natural lives. Meanwhile, real murderers and rapists will be out
of prison long before Mr. Andrade so long as their crimes were only the first
or second offense. The
Constitution of the United States guarantees that we Americans shall not suffer
"cruel and unusual" punishment. Some of the Supreme Court Justices
had said in the past that even prison terms could be cruel and unusual if the
time given was excessive when compared to the offense. However, the very same Justices
who had said this in the past declared that Mr. Andrade's punishment fit his
crime. Noteworthy
for you readers is that if you are accused of a crime you did not commit but
you accept a plea bargain because you cannot afford to take a chance at trial,
you will be a convicted criminal in the eyes of our "justice" system.
Later on this conviction could be used against you when you are charged with
another crime and your punishment can be much more severe. And if
you think that you will not be charged again with another crime in the future,
remember that your prior crime is on the books and any police officer who
thinks you are a suspicious person can access your record. If you committed a
crime in the past, it is likely that you committed this one too, right? Innocent
people on death row have been exonerated after spending decades behind bars
because new DNA evidence proved that they did not commit the crime. Why were
they found guilty? A combination of prior arrests and convictions, overzealous
cops, tainted witnesses and evidence, overburdened public defenders, bored
sleeping judges, apathetic juries, and mean-spirited or power hungry district
attorneys contributed to the convictions. The best
thing to do is to never get a conviction, ever! This means you should plead not
guilty if you are innocent and you should have an attorney go to the bat for
you. If you have been arrested or convicted, at your earliest possible time,
work to have the record sealed or expunged. Posted
by Anthony Wright--The Wright Law Offices--Las Vegas Labels:
accusation, conviction, Criminal, DAs, district attorney, Leandro Andrade, prosecutors, strikes, three, three-strikes law Nevada
has forty-six Nevada Revised Statutes in its law books that directly deal with
cannabis. Forty of the statutes involve medical marijuana and six involve criminal usage.
There are many more indirect statutes, case laws, and federal laws that are
relevant as well. If you have been charged with a crime involving marijuana,
call us to assist. We do not advocate the usage of this substance, and by no
means encourage breaking the laws, however, with so many laws on the books
involving this weed, it can be confusing to know your rights. It is
important to have an attorney in your corner to guide you away from illegal
activity and also fight for you when faced with criminal prosecution. We
do not advocate illegal usage or possession, but we will zealously advocate for
your rights under the law. And yes,
you can be charged with DUI for having pot in your system even if it has been
weeks since you had any. OTHER CRIMINAL LAW
ARTICLES: CRIMINAL: My Mother Killed my Step-Brother Thirty-two Years
Ago! No SOL on Murder. CIVIL/CRIMINAL: Rape is Different when it’s about Money than
when it’s About Crime. CRIMINAL: Riding Your Bicycle and Other Arrestable Offences CRIMINAL: Criminal Defendants Better Hope Witnesses Against
Them Live to Testify at Trial CRIMINAL: Sealing or Expunging a Federal Criminal Record CRIMINAL: 'I didn't know': What Young Thugs Should Know But
Aren't Taught
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