Fighting Drug Charges
Understanding the charges you face and the potential penalties is crucial when deciding how you will respond to the charges. The best thing you can do for yourself is hire an experienced, aggressive, lawyer from The Dummit Law Firm.
At the Dummit Law Firm, we approach your drug charge as a whole event, and not simply what the arrest report shows. We use our familiarity with the court system, the police departments, even the individual assumptions and histories of the officer in question, as we build your defense.
Our attorneys fight all types of drug charges including:
Marijuana
Mushrooms
Ecstasy
Cocaine
Prescription pills
Penalties vary greatly depending on the type of drug and amount you possessed. For instance, cocaine possession is a Class I felony, no matter what amount is possessed, while possessing less than half an ounce of marijuana is a Class 3 misdemeanor, which typically means no jail time. One way an arresting officer will bulk up a charge is to include "possession of paraphernalia" when possible. Paraphernalia is a Class 1 misdemeanor and could lead to increased fines and possibly jail time. This charge may be added when police find rolling papers, a pipe, a bong, even the container holding whatever drugs were found.
There are many steps that law enforcement must take in order to make an arrest for a drug charge, and we will investigate each one. Beginning with how the officer or officers decided to make the arrest, we review whether there were informants or plea bargains for snitches involved; whether all of your constitutional rights were upheld; whether the searches and seizures were constitutionally valid under 4th Amendment law; whether all evidence will be admissible at trial; the reviews of all these stages help us determine the best defense strategies and how we can best fight the charges.
Government agencies, acting through law enforcement, will often seize any property or asset- including cash- that a law enforcement agent thinks was gotten through illegal drug activities. This seizure is often a separate action, taking by either the state (NCDR), or federal (IRS), revenue collectors and the legal process is entirely separate. This means that even if you are acquitted of all charges, your assets might not be returned to you.
Our attorneys are here to get you the best outcome possible. This means we always prepare as if for trial, however, when an aggressive defense is presented to the prosecutor, often the State will offer a reasonable plea bargain. We work hard to get you the best result. Being prepared for trial gives us a stronger position when negotiating a deal with prosecutors.
