Wednesday, June 29, 2016

WHY VOLKSWAGEN LEADERS SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON IF CRIMES ARE PROVEN

America's beleaguered criminal justice system claims to deter future crime by giving proportionally greater prison time for crimes that harm people or cause significant economic loss. In fact the Federal Sentencing Guidelines base most punishment on this criteria. 
Volkswagen's Cost-Benefit analysis for Gold
should result in prison time for executives.

Yet the truth is that significant economic crimes or crimes that bring physical harm to vast numbers of people rarely result in prison. This is true because the criminals who commit these crimes often benefit from being shielded as mere workers of corporations. But it's important to remember that when a corporation commits a crime one or more members of that company made the decision to commit fraud after weighing a cost-benefit analysis.

Let's look at the cost-benefit analysis of Volkswagen as an example.  The company admits that it long-term committed fraud in Europe and in America by rigging the anti-polution software on eleven million diesel vehicles causing approximately one million tons of additional toxic air pollution. Further, the addition pollution is estimated to have caused the deaths of 40 people per year for 8 years for a total of 320 deaths in the United States alone. Beyond these numbers of dead countless men, women and children suffered physical harm because of Volkswagen's greed including most anyone who walked outside in any urban area.

Volkswagen has agreed to pay substantial penalties. But is that enough to deter future companies from doing similar crimes?Should the leaders of Volkswagen be allowed to escape prison time just because they're part of a corporation? The Justice Department should make a criminal investigation of the leaders of Volkswagen a top priority. Let's see how well Volkswagen can avoid the victim loss calculations of economic crimes or reduce the valuation of goods under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

If the Justice Department finds that the leaders of Volkswagen committed fraud they should be indicted, shamed, extradited to America, tried and sent to long terms of prison if found guilty. 






Monday, June 27, 2016

HOW TO SURVIVE THE HARD FALL FROM AN ARREST OR AN ONGOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION IN FLORIDA

If you've been arrested or have a warrant for your arrest or if you're under investigation for a crime in Pinellas County, Florida you need to find the best way to parachute to safety from Florida's harsh criminal justice system. It's important to find timely help from a criminal defense attorney who will guide you thru the complicated criminal justice system so that you can land with the best possible outcome for your situation. 
How to Parachute to safety from Florida's
Harsh Criminal Justice System

When someone waits to hire an attorney, it only makes it more likely that their side of the story will never be heard or be heard too late to make a significant difference in the outcome of the case. That's because in most cases the criminal justice process works in the following way:

The police initiate an investigation of a possible criminal act. Their primary goal is find the perpetrator without regard to whether there exists sufficient evidence to successfully bring that perpetrator to justice at trial with a guilty conviction. The police either make an arrest or defer arrest for further investigation. 

It's important to understand that whatever decision is made by the relevant police agency, that decision will later be reviewed by prosecutors at the State Attorney's Office. Prosecutors may elect to file no charges or to file different charges or to file the same charges. But prosecutors aren't merely determining if a defendant committed the alleged criminal act, prosecutors use the higher standard of whether whatever charges may be filed can be won at trial. This makes sense in that the prosecutors are the ones who will try the case and must be reasonably certain of success to file a criminal charge.

If prosecutors elect not to pursue any charges, the case will end. Should prosecutors elect to file criminal charges then the criminal case will move forward thru the criminal court. A judge will set a day of trial before which the defendant will either plead guilty to a negotiated outcome or finally have his day in court before a jury of his peers - those unspeakable folks who occasionally ram your cart at Walmart. If convicted a defendant not only faces the frowning judge but the harsh Florida sentencing guidelines and scoresheets that determine sentences in Pinellas Courts from which even the most lenient judge has little room for judicial discretion to reduce a severe sentence.

Having immediate help and legal representation is essential to navigate the difficult and confusing criminal justice process from investigation by the police, to a possible arrest, to investigation of the facts and circumstances of the incident by the prosecutors and possible trial. At every stage your advocate will do everything possible to have the charges dismissed or reduced and to gain the best possible outcome in your case.