The defendant, a middle school Principal, was tried in Kalamazoo County for Criminal Sexual Conduct. The government alleged that he had engaged in a sexual encounter with a student in the presence of two student witnesses who corroborated the Complainant’s version of events. After two weeks of trial the jury rendered a verdict of not guilty; finding none of the student witnesses to be credible.

The defendant, an Arab American business owner, was charged with Murder and Arson in a small rural community in Southwest Michigan . The government alleged that the defendant had hired two men to burn down a building he owned in order to collect the insurance proceeds. The two men died during the explosion in the course of the arson. The case was tried for two weeks and the jury rendered a not guilty verdict on the Murder charge. The defendant was convicted of Aiding and Abetting Arson and sentenced to a short term of imprisonment.

The defendant wife was charged with premediated murder of her husband. The government alleged that the defendant murdered her husband while he was asleep at home during the noon hour after working the night shift. The defendant suffered a gunshot wound to her arm which the government alleged had been self-inflicted to stage a phony self-defense claim. A plea agreement was negotiated resulting in the dismissal of the First Degree Murder charge (mandatory life), a no contest plea to Second Degree Murder with a sentence of a term of years.

The defendant accountant was the Chief Financial Officer for the Commercial Vehicle Section of an international manufacturing corporation. He was originally threatened with a federal criminal indictment for accounting fraud. The government was persuaded to abandon their effort to indict him.

Thereafter, the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated civil proceedings against the accountant for fraud and several other employees of the corporation including the CEO and the CFO. A Consent Judgment was ultimately reached with the SEC wherein the defendant neither admitted or denied liability.

Thereafter the accountant was named as a party defendant in a federal class action securities fraud case along with other corporate officers including the CEO and CFO. A federal judge dismissed the case against the accountant entirely.

The defendant arrived at his estranged wife’s home with a backpack filled with duct tape, spray paint, firearms and money. His estranged wife was lying next to her boyfriend on the couch watching television. The defendant broke into the home and shot and killed the boyfriend. He then held the wife captive in the basement for 10 hours after spray painting the basement windows and duct taping her to a chair. A mistrial was declared when the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the Murder charge. All other charges were dismissed by the jury. A favorable plea agreement was ultimately reached where the defendant was sentenced to a term of years allowing him to avoid a mandatory life sentence.

The defendant, a middle school Principal, was indicted by the federal government for Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography. The defendant claimed that his involvement in accessing the child pornography was an experiment conducted in order to enable him to put safeguards in place to protect students from the internet. The case was tried in the federal district court in the Western District of Michigan. After two days of jury deliberations the defendant was acquitted of eleven (11) counts of Receiving Child Pornography and convicted of seven (7) counts of Distribution of Child Pornography. The federal court sentenced the defendant to term substantially below federal guidelines. The defendant successfully completed a short term of probation.

The defendant was alleged to have followed an off duty female police officer home after work. The government claimed that he attacked and attempted to rape her but that her husband came out of the house after hearing the commotion and fired shots which chased him away. The defense was misidentification and alibi. The jury found the defendant not guilty.

Defendant was charged with Negligent Homicide following a nighttime boating accident on a lake in Kalamazoo County. The government alleged that the defendant had been drinking at a graduation party and was reckless when he struck and killed a fisherman anchored in the channel connecting two sections of Eagle Lake. The jury found the defendant not guilty.

Defendant was a middle school music teacher. He was alleged to have sexually assaulted several middle school children in the course of his employment. The defendant tendered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor non-sexual assault and was sentenced to probation without incarceration.

The defendant was alleged to have engaged in anal penetration with a 15 year old boy whom he had befriended. The jury did not believe the Complainant and the defendant was acquitted.

The defendant was the former President of the Board of Realtors in Kalamazoo County. It was alleged by the government that he took two young men whom he had hired to perform yard work to his lake house in a rural part of Van Buren County and engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct. Prior to trial, the government attempted, without success, to obtain an order allowing the introduction of evidence of several instances of the defendant’s prior sexual misconduct at trial. After vigorous pretrial litigation the case was resolved with a no contest plea to a non-sexual assault and a sentence bargain of probation without incarceration.

The defendant was charged with Negligent Homicide after his boat crashed into another boat killing someone seated in its bow. The jury found the defendant not guilty.

The defendant was the subject of a law enforcement raid where several pounds of marijuana were seized. The case was dismissed after the court found that the government had violated the defendant’s 4^th Amendment Rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

The defendant was illegally manufacturing marijuana in rented buildings on a farm in rural Barry County. The government, acting on an informant’s tip, entered the property and seized several hundred pounds of marijuana. The case was dismissed based upon the violation of the defendant’s 4^th Amendment Rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

Defendant was accused of growing marijuana illegally in an area near the river in a rural county at the Indiana border. The judge directed a verdict of not guilty before the matter was submitted to the jury finding that the marijuana was “volunteer” and not cultivated by the defendant.

The defendant was a night employee at a local restaurant in Kalamazoo. The government alleged that he broke into the safe and stole money after his shift had ended. The defendant was acquitted by a jury after a one week trial. The defense asserted that the defendant’s fingerprints found on documents inside the safe could have been placed there when the defendant had handled the documents before they had been secured.

Defendant’s blood alcohol level was far in excess of the legal limit. A jury acquitted the defendant based on contradictions in the description of the defendant’s alleged poor driving given by two police officers which were exposed during cross examination at trial.

The defendant was the CEO of a major animal research corporation in Kalamazoo. It was alleged that he sexually assaulted his daughter-in-law when she visited during a holiday with her husband. The defense successfully obtained an order that the Complainant turn over her psychiatric records to the defense. The case was dismissed by the lower court judge after the Complainant refused to produce records of her psychiatric treatment to the defense as ordered.

The defendant was charged with Premediated Murder. He sawed off a shotgun in his shop and went to his estranged wife’s home and confronted her lover. After shooting and killing the lover the defendant retreated to the woods and tried to kill himself by placing a .22 caliber rifle under his chin and pulling the trigger. The bullet hit a bone and ricocheted exiting his skull without injury. The judge dismissed the case finding the defendant not guilty by reason insanity before the case went to the jury. 

Defendant was a member of a motorcycle gang in Muskegon. Law enforcement got a tip that he was armed and carrying drugs. The case was dismissed after the court found that the defendant’s 4^th Amendment Rights had been violated.

Defendant was accused of Assault when he became involved in an altercation with a Security Guard during a rock concert at Wings Stadium. The jury found the defendant not guilty based on cross examination of the Security Guard who initiated the confrontation.

The defendant was accused of Murder when he struck a participant in a brawl across the forehead with a 2x4. On the morning of trial, the government dismissed the Murder charge, and the defendant entered a plea to Manslaughter with a sentence bargain involving a short term of local jail time.

The defendant, a Hope college football player, was alleged to have caused brain damage to another person whom he struck across the head with a baseball bat after a confrontation at the Complainant’s home. The jury acquitted the defendant of Assault with Intent to Commit Murder, Assault with Intent to Commit Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder and convicted him of the lesser offense of Felonious Assault. The defendant was sentenced to a short term of incarceration in the local county jail.

The defendant was a member of the Irish Travelers (an alleged organized crime group). The government alleged that defendant had bilked several property owners in three separate Southwest Michigan counties by contracting to lay down asphalt that failed almost immediately based on substandard workmanship. A plea agreement was negotiated to a misdemeanor offense in one county and the cases were dismissed in other counties. The defendant was ordered to pay fines, costs and restitution.

The defendant was a pediatric cardiologist. The government alleged that he had engaged in Criminal Sexual Conduct with his daughter’s teenaged girlfriend. A plea agreement was negotiated to a misdemeanor Assault and the Criminal Sexual Conduct case was dismissed.

The defendant physician was a respected pulmonologist in Kalamazoo. The government alleged that he sexually assaulted a nurse over an extended period of time after hours in the office. A plea agreement was negotiated where the defendant entered a no-contest plea to Seducing an Unmarried Woman (an offense which did not require sex offense registration). The sentence was probation without incarceration.

The defendant and his wife were school teachers at a Preschool in Southwest Michigan. The defendant was represented by another lawyer and convicted by a jury of Criminal Sexual Conduct involving one student. At trial, several preschool students claimed that he had taken them off premises in a bus and sexually assaulted them in a barn. I was retained to retry the case after the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the defendant’s conviction. After several months of pretrial litigation, the charges were ultimately dismissed and the defendant was released from incarceration.

Defendant was accused of felony Embezzlement for the theft of several hundred thousand dollars from his employer. The defendant entered a no contest plea to a lesser offense and was placed in a diversion program where he suffered no incarceration.

The defendant was the CFO for a hamburger franchise in Kalamazoo. He was charged with embezzling several thousand dollars. A plea agreement was negotiated, and the defendant was placed on probation without incarceration.

The defendant was a college student alleged to have raped his girlfriend. On the date set for preliminary examination the government offered a plea agreement to a non-sex offense of Gross Indecency under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act. After successfully completing a short term of probation the charges were dismissed against the Defendant who has no criminal record and will not suffer the consequences of the sexual offense registry.

Defendant was the son of a local prominent attorney. After consuming alcohol, he lost control of his vehicle in a subdivision on icy roads travelling at an excessive rate of speed. The jury acquitted the defendant of drunk driving finding that the poor driving was caused by bad weather conditions and not intoxication.

Defendant was the son of a high school Principal in Southwest Michigan. He was alleged to have raped a woman by attacking her while she was asleep. The matter was scheduled for a motion to quash the Information and to dismiss based upon the District Court’s abuse of discretion at the preliminary examination. A plea agreement was negotiated, and defendant entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor without incarceration.

The defendant, a local Kalamazoo attorney, was arrested for Domestic Violence. The defendant’s wife had phoned the police claiming she had been assaulted by the defendant. Upon arrival the police discovered that she was bleeding from her forehead claiming that the defendant had struck her in the head with a box. We were able to prove that the defendant had not handled the box, that the wound which the defendant’s wife suffered was self-inflicted and the matter was dismissed.

The husband and wife defendants were both educators in West Michigan. The police initiated a production of child pornography investigation after they were contacted by a local film processer who had discovered naked children dancing the Macarena on film being processed for the defendants. The prosecutor was persuaded that the alleged criminal conduct did not constitute criminal activity an no criminal charges were authorized.

The defendant was named in a multi-count federal conspiracy Indictment for his alleged participation in a drug smuggling ring. Law enforcement had interdicted a semi truck carrying 83,000 pounds of marijuana which had become stuck in the mud in a rural area of Van Buren County. A federal jury convicted the defendant of a lesser included offense, finding his role in the conspiracy to be less than the other participants.

The defendant was the former administrator of a medical practice in Kalamazoo. He was alleged to have sexually assaulted a co-worker after hours in an office at the medical facility. Prior to trial the government dismissed the Criminal Sexual Conduct charge. The defendant tendered a no contest plea to misdemeanor Assault and was assessed fines and costs only. The conviction was later expunged.

Defendant, an on-duty police officer, discharged her firearm at a fleeing felon who was attempting to avoid apprehension for driving a stolen vehicle while under the influence. The bullets permeated the vehicle and stuck a passenger. After a 3 day trial the defendant was found not guilty.