Norm Pattis was in town this weekend, and Mirriam Seddiq and I joined him last night for dinner at Oyamel restaurant. Seddiq’s brother works as the head bartender there, and he made sure we were treated like royalty. Pattis and Seddiq were in the bar area waiting for our table when I arrived. Pattis commented on how much smaller …
JW, one of my favorite readers/commenters, has proposed a blog topic. He says he has read a lot about what a client should look for when hiring a criminal defense lawyer. Now that JW himself is in the market for a lawyer, he would like to know what a lawyer considers when deciding whether or not to take on …
While the YouTube video is now posted all over the Internet, I first found out about Congressman Etheridge’s altercation with two students when checking out my website stats through Google Analytics. I found that visits to the Simple Assault page on my website had gone through the roof. My summary of the offense was also quoted and linked to …
Disorderly conduct is a really annoying charge. The first problem is that the offense is usually so broad and poorly defined that it is too easy for police to charge and too easy for the government to prove at trial. For example, since intent to cause a “public inconvenience” is a major element of the offense in Pennsylvania, the …
I am watching a DVD recording of my client’s statement to the detective. The camera must have a wide-angle lens because my client and the detective take up only a small portion of the screen. There is also something surreal about two people huddled together in one corner of the room, the cinderblock walls a gray blur around them while …
Self-defense is an affirmative defense to simple assault and other assault charges in D.C. Self-defense is the use of force to protect oneself, one’s family or one’s property from a real or threatened attack. It is an affirmative defense, meaning that the defendant has the initial burden of raising it. In D.C., once the defendant has been able to introduce …