Drug Crimes Defense

WEBVTT 00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:07.650 Drug crimes in Arizona are wide-ranging. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:09.460 There are drug crimes that are misdemeanors. 00:00:09.485 --> 00:00:11.820 There are drug crimes that are very serious felonies. 00:00:11.845 --> 00:00:15.140 Generally speaking, a drug crime is possessing a drug that's illegal. 00:00:15.165 --> 00:00:18.880 You can be charged with simple possession of a drug, meaning you just had 00:00:18.905 --> 00:00:20.620 that drug on you, that's illegal. 00:00:20.645 --> 00:00:22.740 That's usually a relatively minor crime. 00:00:22.765 --> 00:00:26.900 You can be charged with much more serious offenses, such as trafficking drugs, 00:00:26.925 --> 00:00:30.760 if the drugs you have are over a certain weight, and if you are convicted of 00:00:30.785 --> 00:00:34.800 something like that, you are facing potential prison time and much stiffer 00:00:34.825 --> 00:00:38.620 penalties in general than just possessing a small amount of drugs. 00:00:38.645 --> 00:00:43.575 If you are caught in Arizona with a certain amount of certain drugs, 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.080 the government automatically assumes that you're trying to sell 00:00:46.105 --> 00:00:47.920 or traffic those drugs. 00:00:48.160 --> 00:00:51.480 It might just be you bought those all for yourself, and that's a defense we can run 00:00:51.505 --> 00:00:54.560 later on, and we have successfully done that in cases. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:56.780 But the government is not going to believe that at first. 00:00:56.805 --> 00:00:58.580 You need us to tell your story. 00:00:58.605 --> 00:01:02.020 It's important to hire an experienced lawyer if you're facing drug crimes, 00:01:02.045 --> 00:01:06.520 because the punishments are so wide-ranging, and they 00:01:06.545 --> 00:01:08.410 could be really severe. 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:12.480 If you hire an experienced attorney, they can help mitigate what you're facing by 00:01:12.505 --> 00:01:18.570 either negotiating a plea agreement, if a plea agreement is in your best interest, 00:01:18.600 --> 00:01:22.160 or if there's a path forward where you're truly not guilty to take 00:01:22.185 --> 00:01:24.160 the case to trial and win. 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:27.140 The way I handle drug crimes for my clients are, first things first, 00:01:27.165 --> 00:01:28.980 I want to get the police reports. 00:01:29.005 --> 00:01:30.820 I want to get the body cam footage. 00:01:30.845 --> 00:01:34.660 I want to figure out what any witness is saying. 00:01:34.685 --> 00:01:39.460 I need to know the specifics about the items found on my client. 00:01:39.485 --> 00:01:42.290 Is it actually the substance the government thinks it is, 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:44.080 or is it something else? 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:48.260 Once we have all that in place, depending on what we find in our investigation, 00:01:48.285 --> 00:01:53.735 that could dictate which way the case goes, we could negotiate a 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:55.080 favorable plea agreement for you. 00:01:55.105 --> 00:01:59.080 We could ask the judge to dismiss the case because your rights were 00:01:59.105 --> 00:02:00.380 violated at some point. 00:02:00.405 --> 00:02:04.660 We could take the case to trial in front of a jury and get not guilty verdicts. 00:02:04.685 --> 00:02:07.055 Every case is different. 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:08.800 We're going to find the best path forward for you.