The Firm was retained to defend a retailer of glass pipes and smoking accessories against a criminal charge of distribution of drug paraphernalia. The Client was arrested and the police confiscated virtually his entire inventory. There was no evidence of drugs or drug use. The crux of the Commonwealth's case was that glass pipes are per se drug paraphernalia because they are "single use" items which can only be used for the ingestion of controlled substances (to wit: marijuana). We maintained that the items in question were "dual purpose" items which could be used for both legal and illegal purposes, and that the Commonwealth lacked evidence that our Client had exhibited the intent required for a conviction under the drug paraphernalia statute. After six months of extensive motion practice and negotiation, we reached an agreement with the Commonwealth whereby all charges were dropped and our Client was allowed to re-open his business. The case received extensive coverage in the media, including the Boston Globe (1) (2), Metro Boston (1) (2) , Allston-Brighton TAB, and the Boston Phoenix .
An application for a criminal complaint was taken out against our Client by his estranged wife. She alleged that her husband had fraudulently applied for $60,000 in student loans under her name. It was essential to our Client that he maintain a clean criminal record for business reasons. Throughout the course of several probable cause hearings, we persuaded the police detective in charge of the investigation that the charges were being brought to extract concessions in the parties' divorce settlement, and furthermore that the Commonwealth would never be able to prove the charges. Following the series of hearings, the police declined to issue the complaint, which precluded an arraignment from occurring. As a result, our Client was able to maintain a clean criminal record.
A City's Inspectional Services Department applied for a criminal complaint against our Client, the owner of a mixed-use building on the North Shore, for failure to obey an environmental order from the City's Board of Health. Following our Client's failure to timely comply with the order, a criminal complaint issued against the company and one of its principals. After numerous court appearances and negotiations with the City, we structured a remediation plan which was feasible for our Client and satisfactory to the City. As part of the agreement, the criminal charge was dismissed prior to arraignment, avoiding the creation of a personal criminal record for the members of the LLC.
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