When it comes to criminal charges, you should always seek help from an experienced attorney. Talking to the police, answering questions, entering a plea, and requesting bail can all be complicated, and there are ways that you might not even realize you are hurting your case – especially if you try to “talk your way out of” a ticket or a charge.
Our lawyers can represent you from bail hearings to police questioning to trial itself, protecting your rights along the way. If we can get the charges against you dropped or dismissed, it can save you fines and potential jail time. We can also help with post-conviction issues like appeals and expungement.
For help with your case, call our criminal defense lawyers at Overson Law today at (801) 758-2287.
Fighting Criminal Charges in Snyderville, UT
The criminal charges that you face typically have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt – a high standard that makes it harder for the police and prosecutors to win the case unless they have very sure evidence and testimony. However, even though the system is built to make things harder for the prosecutors, it is still an uphill battle to get evidence from the prosecution, build a strong case, produce the witnesses and experts needed to challenge the case against you, and ultimately get charges dropped or dismissed. Often, the best strategies rely on these four methods and factors:
Fighting Illegal Evidence
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires police to get a warrant and have probable cause before they can arrest someone or seize evidence. There are plenty of exceptions to the warrant requirement – such as being in “hot pursuit” – but the police still need probable cause to make an arrest, take evidence, or charge you with a crime in the first place. They also need at least reasonable suspicion to stop you and investigate a crime.
When police fail to meet these required standards, the evidence they take is considered illegally obtained. This means that they cannot introduce it against you under what we call the “exclusionary rule.” The evidence then has to be excluded, and our criminal defense lawyers can file “suppression motions” to ask the court to keep that evidence out of the case.
This can help block evidence the police obtained without a warrant (or an exception), without probable cause, during an illegal stop, during an illegal arrest, or in any of the steps stemming from these illegal processes. For example, if they arrest you illegally then force a confession out of you, the confession should be suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree” because it only came about because of the illegal arrest.
Without the evidence they need, it is harder for police and prosecutors to prove their case against you, potentially leading them to give up or lose at trial.
Blocking Legal Evidence
Some evidence is obtained in a perfectly legal manner and would be strong evidence against you, but it violates the Utah Rules of Evidence. This evidence can be blocked because it is not relevant to the case, because it would prejudice the jury against you (i.e., it is unfair), because it is not reliable (e.g., hearsay), or simply because the legislature has decided it should be excluded under the Rules.
One common way prosecutors try to use illegal evidence is with hearsay. People cannot testify to something that someone else told them outside of court in most cases. The prosecution instead needs to go find that person and have them testify. If they refuse to testify or have some kind of protection from testifying – e.g., lawyer-client privilege or their own right to remain silent – the prosecution is likely not going to get their testimony in from a secondary source.
Other evidence can be blocked because it does not follow the rules for scientific or expert information, because it is simply not relevant, because it talks about past instead of present behavior, or because it is otherwise unfair.
Negotiating Pleas
Plea deals are used in many cases, reducing the overall number of cases that actually go to trial to only a fraction of the number of cases brought every day. In many cases, pleading guilty can work to your advantage if the plea is part of a deal that will get certain charges dropped or result in reduced penalties. However, you should never plead guilty until you have a signed plea agreement in hand, which our lawyers can help you negotiate to give you the best outcome in your case.
If you want to fight the charges, though, we can help you with that instead; no one can make you plead guilty if you want to fight the case in court.
Legal Arguments
Sometimes the best way to get charges dismissed is to simply show that the facts do not apply to the law at hand. Some laws are written very narrowly, and applying them to other situations is not what the legislature envisioned. In other cases, the police – who are not lawyers – might simply be misinterpreting the law and charging you incorrectly. Our lawyers can fight these cases purely on legal grounds, potentially getting the case dismissed before trial is even needed.
Legal Services Our Criminal Defense Attorneys Handle in Snyderville, UT
As mentioned, we can fight the case at trial and help you negotiate plea deals. We can also help with the pretrial stages of your case, from arraignment to bail hearings and preliminary hearings. Our lawyers can also help with sentencing hearings, probation/parole hearings, violation of probation/parole hearings, appeals, post-conviction relief petitions/habeus corpus petitions, and expungement.
As far as the types of charges we handle, we can help defend you against charges for drug crimes, property destruction, theft, drunk driving, violent crimes, sex crimes, and more. We also handle minor violations like traffic tickets and infractions.
Call Our Criminal Defense Lawyers in Snyderville, UT Today
Contact Overson Law at (801) 758-2287 for a free case assessment with our criminal defense lawyers today.
