Federal Case Results

Our federal attorneys do great work. Take a look below.

Charge: Possession with Intent to Distribute Marijuana

Facts: Client was a truck driver from Mexico and was arrested at an international bridge along the border after federal agents found 4.5 tons of marijuana in the back of his tractor-trailer. This was a relatively high-profile case because it was one of the largest loads to be confiscated at a land point-of-entry. Immediately, we began work on trying to create a paper trail to show the prosecutor that the driver thought he was delivering a legitimate load of merchandise to the U.S. Through our investigation, we were able to show that the driver had picked up the load in Mexico and had all the necessary paperwork to cross into the U.S. and deliver it to a legitimate location. We were able to get his case dismissed pre-indictment and the client was able to go back to Mexico and keep his work permit.

Result: Case dismissed

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Charge: Motion to Revoke Supervised Release

Facts: Client was charged with violating her terms of supervised release for allegedly committing a new offense. Two years prior, client had been sentenced to serve time in federal prison for a drug charge and while on supervised release (federal term for a set-up akin parole in the state system), she was arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The government was trying to send her back to federal prison for violating her terms of supervised release. As we were reviewing the case, we realized that the client was seventeen when she was arrested for the original drug charge but had turned eighteen the next day and no one, including her original lawyer, had caught on to the fact that she was a juvenile at the time she was accused of committing the drug charge (in the federal system, you are not considered an adult until you turn eighteen unlike the state of Texas which considers a seventeen-year old an adult for criminal purposes). We filed a Motion to Dismiss Motion to Revoke Supervised Release and a Motion to Vacate Prior Conviction based on the lack of jurisdiction. The court granted both motions and the client was released and had her prior conviction vacated.

Result: Case dismissed, prior conviction vacated

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Charge: Illegal Entry

Facts: Client was charged with being in the country illegally. Although he had applied for status in the U.S. through his U.S. citizen wife, he had left the country without permission when his father was dying in Mexico and waded the river illegally to reenter. As he was doing so, border patrol watched him wade the river and at trial, testified that they had never let him out of their eyesight as he crossed the river. During trial, we raised the official restraint defense which states that if a person is under surveillance from the moment he passes through the port of entry or crosses the border until arrest, he/she has not entered the United States – even if the arrest occurred at a point well past the port of entry or border – because the person is under official restraint the whole time. After the government put on its case, we made a motion for judgment of acquittal and the judge gave the government time to respond. In the interim, the government decided to dismiss the case.

Result: Case dismissed

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Charge: Alien Transporting

Facts: Client was charged with transporting 19 undocumented workers in the back of a U-haul trailer. The client was an undocumented worker himself but had paid a reduced smuggling fee if he agreed to drive the U-haul. They were all arrested by Border Patrol and the government sought to seek an enhanced sentence based on the endangerment potential to those in the back of the U-haul trailer. Upon investigation and interviews with the undocumented workers in the back of the U-haul, we learned that after Border Patrol had arrested them, they had all been kept in the trailer and transported by Border Patrol for 45 minutes to an immigration detention facility. We argued that our client should not be punished for the same conduct that federal agents had done and if the federal agents thought it was sufficiently safe to transport the passengers in that manner that our client should not be held to a higher standard. The Judge agreed and refused to apply the enhancement and the client was released soon after his sentencing date.

Result: Client released

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Charge: Possession with Intent to Distribute Marijuana

Facts: Client was charged with possession with marijuana with intent to distribute. Client was an 18-year old passenger in a car with 2 other older kids. They were stopped at an immigration checkpoint when a dog alerted to their car. Upon inspection, it was discovered that there were 50 kilograms of marijuana contained in a hidden gas compartment of the car. Immediately, federal agents separated the 3 boys and began to interrogate them. The interrogator for our client interrogated him in a very threatening and intimidating manner. During the interrogation, the agent yelled and swore at him and continued to tell him the drugs must belong to him because the car was registered under his name (which was a lie). Ultimately, after hours of this type of interrogation, our client broke down and confessed ownership of the drugs so he was arrested and the other two were released. We filed a Motion to Suppress his confession stating that it was illegally given because it had been coerced. The day before the hearing, the government dismissed the case and he was able to go home to his parents.

Result: Case dismissed



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Charge: Felon in Possession of Firearm, Illegal Alien in Possession of Firearm

Facts: Client charged with two counts of Illegal Possession of Firearm and was facing a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years. The underlying facts consisted of a shooting incident with 3 civilian eyewitnesses identifying our client as the gunman. At trial, we used an eyewitness identification expert witness who testified about the problems and inaccuracies of eyewitness identifications. The jury deliberated for over 11 hours and could not return a unanimous verdict. Therefore, the case ended in a hung jury. The government decided to retry our client and a second jury convicted him after the government was able to produce one extra witness. After our client’s conviction, the government sought a 15-year minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Statute which requires a judge to sentence a person to a minimum of 15 years if they have 3 or more convictions for “violent felonies.” Although on the surface, it appeared that our client did fit under this statutory provision, we filed a lengthy objection, attacking all 3 of the prior convictions. After a very contested hearing, the judge sided with us and held that the prior convictions did not fit under the Armed Career Criminal Statute and sentenced our client to time served and he was released.

Results: Client sentenced to “time served”

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Charge: Possession of 525.5 kilograms (1,156.2 lbs) of marijuana with the intent to distribute.

Facts: Client was arrested after police had discovered large bundles of marijuana in her garage. According to the police, they had waited until client had returned home and then obtained her written consent to search her house. However, there were 4 witnesses we found that indicated that they had watched the police search the home without a warrant prior to them receiving written consent from our client. We raised the issue that the police illegally searched her home in violation of the 4th Amendment and filed a lengthy motion to suppress the illegally obtained evidence and requested a hearing. 2 weeks before the hearing, the federal prosecutor decided to dismiss all charges against our client.

Result: Case dismissed

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Charge: Illegal Reentry into United States

Facts: Client was charged with illegally reentering the United States after previously being deported to Mexico and was facing a very lengthy federal prison sentence and another deportation afterwards. The client was a young man in his 20s who had previously spent time in federal prison for being in this country “illegally” and had been deported numerous times. While our client was born in Mexico, his father was a U.S. citizen who lived in the United States and most of our client’s family lived in the United States as well. After a thorough investigation of our client’s family, dating back to records from the early 1900s, and a review of the very complicated immigration laws regarding derivative citizenship, we determined that our client was actually a U.S. citizen and had been one since birth. As a defense to the criminal charges, we raised this claim that he was actually a U.S. citizen and set the case for jury trial. The federal prosecutor decided to dismiss the criminal charges days before the trial and after much litigation, we were finally able to convince officials at immigration that he was a U.S. citizen. Ultimately, an official from immigration swore our client in as a U.S. citizen affirming our position that he had in fact been a U.S. citizen since the day of his birth.

Result: Case dismissed, federal government granted U.S. citizenship

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Charges: Possession of Controlled Substance

Facts: Our client, an 18-year old, was arrested at the port of entry between Mexico and the United States and was charged with being in possession of a controlled substance – ecstasy. The ecstasy was located in our clients wallet. Our client was in the middle of applying for U.S. citizenship and a drug conviction would have prohibited him from doing so and could have had him deported for life. When the federal agents confiscated the ecstasy, they also confiscated his green card. After much discussion and negotiation with the federal prosecutor, she agreed to dismiss the charges against our client if she could informally lecture him and his mother. We agreed to this informal meeting where I was present and at the end of the meeting, the federal prosecutor did dismiss all charges and even petitioned the federal agents to return his green card, which they did.

Results: Case dismissed, green card returned

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Charge: Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Distribute

Facts: Our client was arrested with trying to bring in 10 kilograms of marijuana from Mexico to the U.S. and was charged with the felony offense of possession with the intent to distribute. Our client was a UT student and was receiving financial aid from the federal government. Pursuant to the Higher Education Act, anyone convicted of a drug-related offense will lose all financial aid. After many hours of research, we were able to find a provision in the law called the “First Time Offenders Act” that would allow our client to be on informal probation for 1 year and if he stayed out of trouble during that 1 year, all charges would be dismissed. This provision of the law was only available for those charged with misdemeanors. Through negotiation with the federal prosecutor, we were first able to get his charges reduced to a misdemeanor. Second, we had a contested hearing where we were then able to convince the judge to grant him relief under the First Time Offenders Act.

Result: Informal probation for 1 year under the First Time Offenders Act, no loss of financial aid

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Charge: Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Distribute

Facts: Our client was charged arrested with 5 kilograms of marijuana and charged with a felony offense of possession with the intent to distribute. Based on our client’s criminal history, he was looking at a substantial prison sentence. Our client, who was a Vietnam Veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, had indicated that while he was guilty of possessing the marijuana, he was not guilty of intending to distribute it, as he was intending to use it all himself for medicinal purposes. We set the case for trial and our defense was although he was guilty of possessing it (a misdemeanor), he was not guilty of intending to distribute it (a felony). A few days before the trial, the federal prosecutor decided to dismiss the felony and let him plead guilty to the misdemeanor and he was given a sentence of “time served.”

Result: Felony charges dismissed, misdemeanor plea to “time served”