All of the 17 students that were arrested had sold drugs “hand-to hand” to undercover officers. The drugs that were sold included: marijuana, a variety of prescription drugs, ecstasy, and cocaine.

Three of the 17 students were arrested on campus, and all of the students that were arrested are possibly facing expulsion. Of the arrests, Chancellor Victor Boschini stated,

“TCU has never before experienced a magnitude of student arrest such as this.”

At The Gordon Law Firm, we understand that people make mistakes and we are here to help you get the best possible outcome so that you can move forward with your life. We have worked on many drug cases in the past and will give you the best legal advice for your case. Please feel free to give us a call or email us for a free consultation.

Along with Alevarado-Ibarra, two other men Jose Zuniga-Ruiz, also known as Tio Tony, 40, and Silvestre Castro-Sandoval, also known as Silver, 36, were convicted of conspiring to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine in Fairfax and Prince William County.

Prosecutors stated that the three men were receiving multi-kilograms shipments of cocaine each month and would meet at hotels off of Route 1 in Woodbridge, Virginia in order to distribute the drugs in the Woodbridge and Alexandria areas.

Under scrutiny by authorities for some time, the Virginia Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force had given their investigation of the drug ring the name “Operation Springfield Snow.” They have so-far convicted 55 people connected with the ring with more arrests expected.

The the girl described her mother colliding with another vehicle in downtown Great Falls. Fearing for her own safety, she had jumped out of the car and fled. The cashier called police and soon after Littledog was quickly arrested on for what would be her fourth DUI charge.

Police found Littledog parked near the Town Pump gas station where her daughter had sought refuge. According to police, Littledog was found sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys still in the ignition.

Littledog declined to participate in field sobriety tests but did offer that she had cons mined an 18-pack of beer earlier in the day. A subsequent breathalyzer test returned a blood alcohol level more than triple the legal limit in Montana.

Authorities in Manassas responded to a stabbing that occurred in the 7600 block of Somerset Lane on Sunday around 9PM. Officers found Maute in front of his home with multiple stab wounds. The officers performed CPR and he was transported to a nearby hospital where he died later from his injuries.

Authorities are saying that both men were acquaintances, and when a verbal altercation between the two occurred, Lopez pulled out a knife.  Witnesses say that the victim tried to run from Lopez, but fell, and that’s when Lopez took that opportunity to jump on him and stab him repeatedly until witnesses intervened.

Officers took down a description and later found Lopez. He is now being held in Prince William County Jail without bond. His court date is set for March 26, 2012.

Based on a law adopted in 2004, Virginia already mandates interlock devices for repeat DUI offenders but requiring them for a first time DUI would represent major change in policy. Setting aside how the average virginian might feel about the harsher penalties for first-time DUI recipients, powerful interest groups have arrayed themselves on both sides of the issue. On one side there are aggressive interest groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving which supports harsher penalties nationwide as well as interlock device manufacturers. Smart Start, which sells the breathalyzers employs three lobbyists in Virginia.

On the other side, groups such as the American Beverage Institute. Spokesperson Sara Longwell told Virginia’s  Dailypress.com that, “We should keep the resources focused on the hard-core guys… We have people who have six or seven DUIs and are still on the road. This would be turning attention from them to the marginal first-time offenders.” Longwell also pointed out that the interlock devices register alcohol consumption at well below the legal limit, meaning that a driver with a minimal level of alcohol in their system would be prevented from driving even though they do not reach the legal standard in Virginia for impairment.

A broader concern both the use of interlock devices is whether they are an effective tool in preventing repeat offenses. While some studies have shown that for first-time and repeat offenders, breathalyzers can be effective at reduce recidivism rates, other studies suggest that this prevention effect is limited to the duration of time that the device is installed. Following the removal of the interlock device, repeat offender rates remain high and indicate there is minimal long term effect on behavior. To date, only 15 states require interlock installation on a first time DUI offense.

1. Along the Dulles Toll Road, you can find many county and airport police officers. They tend to hide behind the jersey barriers along the access highway and at the main toll plaza. Many of our clients that hired us for a Reckless Driving charge received it while driving on the Dulles Toll Road.
2. Just before Burke Lake Road on Fairfax County Parkway, police sit there and pull over motorists by flagging them down. This area is dangerous because of the speed (50mph) and the quickness of having to pull over when flagged. Please be cautious.
3. Main Street and Maple Avenue often have police monitoring that area right before Woodson High School.
4. The parking lot entrances between Humphries Drive and Braddock Road often have police officers parked there going in the east bound direction.
5. Exit 66 and 123 Southbound has a hill that drops down to 30mph. Many officers have pulled motorists over while going down the hill.

As a criminal defense law firm, we have had many cases of motorists being charged with Reckless Driving and other traffic offenses. Please give us a call to find out more information if you have found yourself being charged with a traffic offense.

The incidents occurred between May 6, 1991 and November 14, 1997 and all but one was in Montgomery County, MD. The last attack was in Georgetown and resulted in the murder of 28 year old Christine Mirzayan when she was walking home from a cookout.

Seven of the nine attacks were linked through the collection of DNA and the two remaining attacks were linked by similar methods the rapist used. Detectives are saying that the man would enter the victim’s homes and throw a towel or blanket over their heads and overpower them physically.

The rapist is being described as a black male between the ages of 40-50, with medium build, and between 5’ 8’’ to 5’11’’.

The FBI has launched a website specifically on “The Potomac River Rapist” in order to seek any information that the public may have.

Authorities are also using digital billboards along highways with the sketch of the rapist. They used similar tactics when looking for the “East-Coast Rapist,” and they successfully caught him with the help of the site/billboards.

FBI spokeswoman, Amy Godwin, said “This is something we’ve tried, and has worked, four or five times across the country in the past year.”

“We want to be able to use everything that the public has at their fingertips,” Godwin said. “So if they’re bringing it up on their iPads, their BlackBerrys, their ­iPhones, and they can easily get not only images but video and podcasts — anything the public uses on a daily basis — we want to be in front of them.”

As of right now, there are no suspects in custody and any information can be sent to FBI or Metropolitan Police.

• HB 49 - Penalty for DUI manslaughter.  

Introduced by: David B. Albo

Provides that the punishment for DUI manslaughter is to include a one-year mandatory term of confinement and raises the mandatory minimum term for aggravated DUI manslaughter from one to five years.

• HB 50 - Penalty for DUI maiming.  

Introduced by: David B. Albo

Provides that the punishment for DUI maiming, a Class 6 felony, shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of one year.

• HB 973 - Sex crimes; penalties. 

Introduced by: Robert B. Bell 

Imposes a mandatory minimum life sentence for rape, forcible sodomy, and object sexual penetration of a child under the age of 13.

• HB 751 - Recruitment of persons for criminal street gang; penalty. 

Introduced by: Benjamin L. Cline

Provides that any person who, by telephone or by any electronically transmitted communication producing a visual or electronic message, solicits, invites, recruits, encourages, or otherwise causes or attempts to cause another to actively participate in or become a member of what he knows to be a criminal street gang is guilty of a Class 5 felony.

• HB 752 - Assault and battery by strangulation; penalty. 

Introduced by: Benjamin L. Cline

Raises the penalty for assault and battery of a family or household member from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony when the assault and battery is accomplished by strangling the victim. The bill also raises from a Class 6 to a Class 5 felony the penalty for assault and battery of a family or household member when the perpetrator has been convicted of certain prior offenses and commits the offense by strangulation. The bill also expands the list of prior offenses for which aggravated punishment is authorized to include unlawful wounding as well as malicious wounding.

• HB 968 - Penalty for subsequent offenses of drug trafficking. 

Introduced by: Robert B. Bell

Provides that any person convicted of a second offense of drug trafficking who has also been previously convicted of any violent felony offense set forth in subsection C of § 17.1-805 shall be fined not more than $500,000 and (i) if the maximum term of incarceration for such prior violent felony offense is less than 40 years, sentenced to an additional mandatory minimum term of incarceration of five years or (ii) if the maximum term of incarceration for such violent felony offense is 40 years or more, sentenced to serve his term of incarceration consecutively with any other sentence of incarceration. The bill also increases the mandatory minimum term of incarceration for a third such offense from five to 10 years.

Each of these bills have come from the 18-member Hose Courts of Justice and Criminal Law subcommittee.  Of the proposed legislation subcommittee member, Delegate Terry Kilgore said:

“One of the most important duties of government is protecting its citizens. The Republican caucus is the leader in Richmond when it comes to protecting children and families from the dangers of this world,” Kilgore said. “The issues my colleagues have laid out for you today are just a small number of the initiatives the General Assembly is working on this session to make sure every Virginian is as safe and secure as possible.”

Shave Demerits off Your License

Many states, including Virginia offer driver improvement clinics that can help shave “as many as five demerits” off your license by taking a state-approved eight-hour class.  These classes provide positive or “safe points” which

You can take the class and qualify for the point reduction every two years. That’s some extra credit worth doing!

Get Better Insurance Rates

Clearing these demerits off of your driving record is a good thing and has big benefits for your insurance rates as well. Insurance companies view license points as a way to assess a potential client’s risk.

The fewer demerits – and the more safe points you’ve accrued – the better deal you’re likely to get from your carrier.

Have Charges Reduced

According to Chalon Smith, it’s not points that do the most damage to your insurance rates, it is a conviction for serious driving-related offense that sticks with your record even after your driver’s license demerits have been removed.

This is another situation in which a driver improvement course can come to the rescue.  Working with an attorney,  you can often see potentially harmful charges reduced by the court in exchange for completing a driver training class.

If you need advice concerning a DUI, reckless driving or criminal charge and you would like a free consultation, call The Gordon Law Firm at 703.218.8416.

via Nasdaq.com

If convicted, The Denicores could face fines of up to $3000 and Mark Denicore could lose his license to practice law, consequences he considers extreme.  Denicore claimed to the Loudon Times that his children have missed less that three hours of school in total since September.  Of the misdemeanor charges he and his wife are facing he said:

“I would say that it’s pretty extreme. The Virginia truancy statutes is for kids that are blowing off school without their parent’s knowledge, not for this kind of thing… They’re taking a lot of leeway in their interpretation of what the code says to make it criminal conduct, it’s outrageous.”

“We understand the school is running a train and they want everybody in the train station before the train leaves,” Mark Denicore said. “I understand that this is a legitimate goal to have and we are doing our best to try to comply to that. But, we’re not perfect parents. We don’t have perfect kids and sometimes we’re late. The real issue is is that criminal conduct? I can’t find it in the statues.”

Mother, Amy Denicore spoke about he issue this way to Babycenter.com:

“Punctuality is important, but it’s not the end-all be-all… It’s not my goal that the kids are late, but my goal is that they arrive to school well-fed, ready to learn and comfortable in their skin.”

Meanwhile, Loudoun county officials remain unmoved.  School spokesman Wayde Byard told WTOP that,

“It is our duty, as charged by the state, to make sure that student is OK… If somebody is coming in after the bell when everybody is seated and on task, the teacher then has to repeat the lesson and it is disruptive.”

Bayard also told the Loudoun Times that,

“…it would have to be only very chronic level cases where the school level has failed where we’ll take it to the intake officer at the juvenile and domestic relations court who will then take it to a magistrate if they deem it worthy of that attention and then they issue a summons,” Byard said. “The judge will decide if there will be a hearing. This is not us arresting people on the street.”

“The judges have asked us to turn over chronic attendance issues such as this. We issue no summons on anybody. The procedure is after five days we’ll call the parent and say we need to talk about this… There’s obviously a recurrent pattern developing here. After six days of unexcused absences we’ll have a parent conference and we’ll try to get a strategy going on how can we help you get your child to school, have them here on time and ready to learn.”

The Denicores acknowledge that they had received several warnings about their children’s late arrivals at school but had never met with school official about the issue. Mark Denicore claims that he did request such a meeting with Waterford’s principal, attendance officer and legal counsel but ever received a response.

For any parent the plight of the Denicores probably engenders both sympathy and frustration.  We’ve all been in the difficult situation of trying to get kids out the door but at the same time most of us can’t imagine racking up triple digit tardiness stats that reflect negatively on our kids. By any standard it seems that the Denicores are a family that needs to get their weekday morning act together and it is unfathomable that they let the situation get this far out of hand.

However, setting these mixed emotions of a fellow parent aside, should the Denicores really be facing criminal prosecution because their children are late to school on a regular basis? Students routinely receive in-school punishments like detention for tardiness – even tardiness the responsibility for which falls to the adults that bring them to school.  How then should we transfer some of this penalty to the parents themselves?

Whether or not a class 3 misdemeanor charge – punishable by unto a $500 fine per infraction and resulting in a permanent criminal record – is an appropriate punishment or hopelessly misguided overkill, according to Mark Denicore the statute used to charge he and his wife isn’t even applicable. Denicore, who plans to represent himself at trial, contends that Virginia State Code 22.1-254 is not meant to apply to tardiness at all. The law, instead, is designed to address parental involvement in supporting truancy.

If the Denicore’s aren’t successful in their defense, they can take some solace in that the fines associated with their charges will potentially  suspended or forgiven as long as their children’s school attendance improves.

Unfortunately things don’t always go so smoothly, as another recent case in Loudoun illustrates.  On January 21 another Loudoun County parent, Maureen Blake was arrested for her children’s repeated tardiness and has been charged with “contributing to the delinquency of her minor children.”  This was Blake’s second arrest relating to her children’s school attendance and she is facing a class 1 misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

It is important to note that while arrest warrants are rarely issued, these types of cases are not rare in Virginia. The Washington Post reported, per a county spokesperson, that the Loudoun sheriff’s office serves attendance-related court summons to an average of two or three parents per month.