In the Defendant’s third bond hearing, Rockville criminal Attorney David Moyse convinced the Judge to lower his client’s bond from $250,000 to an unsecured personal bond. This means that all his client had to do was sign his name in order to be released from jail. The man had been in jail for over 45 days.
In a recent trial in May 2014, Rockville DUI attorney David Moyse convinced the District Court Judge that the police officer had no basis to request that his client perform field sobriety tests. As a result, the prosecution could not introduce any evidence of Moyse’s client being impaired by alcohol. This prevented the State from introducing Moyse’s client’s breath result of 0.15 – almost twice the legal limit. Moyse’s client was acquitted of all incarcerable charges, received no convictions, and no impact on her driving record.
In May 2014, Maryland DUI attorney David Moyse had an impressive morning as he helped two clients beat their DUI charges and avoid jail time.
In the first case, the prosecuting attorney planned to ask for a month in jail for Moyse’s client’s third DUI. Moyse successfully convinced the Montgomery County District court Judge to dismiss the case in its entirety for failing to provide the Defendant with a “Speedy Trial.” Moyse’s argument was bolstered by the fact that the Defendant had appeared twice in court with Moyse demanding a trial, but both times the Court ran out of time to hear the case.
Ultimately, the client walked out of Court with no fines, no points, and no jail!
In the second case, Moyse’s client was underage, driving over 130 mph on the Beltway, and admitted to consuming some alcohol. Maryland DUI lawyer David Moyse successfully cross-examined the arresting officer into admitting many facts that were damaging to the State’s case.
At the close of evidence, the Defendant was found NOT GUILTY of DUI, DWI, and Fleeing and Eluding. The client still faced hefty fines for driving 130 mph in a public area, but escaped jail time and kept a clean DUI record.
Maryland Personal Injury Attorney, Jonathan Carroll, won a hard-fought case for his client who was injured after crashing into a disabled car on a busy highway. The disabled car was left behind by a drunk driver who previously crashed into a guardrail. Carroll argued that even if he was not in his car at the time of the accident, the fact that a drunk driver left his car sitting in the middle of a busy highway was negligence in and of itself. The insurance company for the drunk driver tried to argue that he was not responsible since he was not inside his car when the accident happened. The Court disagreed and sided with Carroll. The Court noted that the drunk driver was not only negligent in causing the accident, but also negligent in not moving his car out of the road. Carroll’s client was awarded all of his medical bills, lost wages, plus more than double that amount in pain and suffering.
In April 2014, Virginia criminal lawyer Jonathan Oates convinced Fairfax county prosecutors and narcotics detectives to drop cocaine distribution charges against his client, who was facing up to 20 years of incarceration and a significant period of active jail time. To raise the stakes in the case, Jon’s client was also a green card holder with a family and children in the country. With a clean record, Mr. Oates’ client was able to avoid prison and deportation, which keeping a clean criminal record and continue supporting his child.
Maryland DUI lawyer David Krum convinced a Montgomery County District Court Judge to throw out all traffic charges in a DWI case where the Defendant had been stopped for speeding and weaving over the lane. The judge sided with Mr. Krum who argued that the officer was out of his jurisdiction and that the stop was invalid as the officer did not have the authority to enforce the Motor Vehicle Laws outside of his jurisdiction. Mr. Krum also argued, and the Montgomery County Judge agreed, that the testimony regarding the client’s speed was invalid as the officer did not have the proper certification of his police vehicle with him in court.
Attorney David Krum convinced a Howard County district court judge to sentence the Defendant to only four days of incarceration for his client’s third and fourth DWIs. The Jezic, Krum & Moyse client had been charged with driving under the influence two times within 30 days. In each case, the client had submitted a breathe test over .20, an amount almost 3 times more than the legal limit in Maryland. Attorney David Krum forced the Howard County State’s Assistant State’s Attorney to dismiss one of the cases and following a plea, where the state was asking for 6 months, convinced the judge to sentence the Jezic, Krum & Moyse, client to only 4 days in jail.
Maryland personal injury attorney, Jonathan Carroll, fought hard at trial after his client had been sideswiped by another car that unlawfully merged into his lane. The at-fault driver tried to argue at court that our client was the one who unlawfully left his lane. Our client prevailed, because he had photographs of the scene that showed the at-fault driver in his lane. If you are involved in an accident, it is important to take as many photos at the accident scene as possible. If you have been in accident and have any questions, call the attorneys at Jezic, Krum and Moyse.
In April 2014, Maryland DUI Attorney David Moyse convinced a Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge to dismiss his client’s DUI due to a violation of the client’s right to a speedy trial. It was the client’s second DUI and he had already been sentenced to six days in jail by a District Court Judge.
Moyse convinced the district court judge to stay the jail pending appeal. The Circuit Court victory means that Moyse’s client has no conviction on his record, no fines, and does not have to serve any jail time at all.
An Argentine woman charged in the 2007 slaying of a Washington paralegal pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Monday shortly before a jury was to be selected for her murder trial.
Prosecutors had charged Blanca Ortiz, 47, with first-degree murder while armed in the Jan. 8, 2007 fatal stabbing of Gabriela Jose Lopez Hernandez, 29. They had previously offered Ortiz a plea of second-degree murder that was rejected; over the weekend, prosecutors offered the lesser charge, and Ortiz accepted Monday.
Ortiz agreed to an Alford plea, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her but not admitting the killing.
She is scheduled to be sentenced in October, when she will face a prison term of between five and eight years. She cannot appeal, and could face deportation when her sentence ends.
Lopez’s naked body was found in the bathtub of her Kalorama Triangle efficiency apartment. She had been stabbed at least 15 times and had suffered a blunt-force head injury. An area near her body had been scrubbed with bleach.
Ortiz had repeatedly told detectives and prosecutors she was not involved in the killing since she was first questioned in the days following the death of Lopez, a friend she met during tango lessons in 2005.
But authorities had maintained that Ortiz killed Lopez during a domestic dispute; the women, prosecutors said, were romantically involved. Ortiz is married to a man who lives in Saudi Arabia and repeatedly denied having a romantic relationship with Lopez.
Ortiz, a native Spanish speaker, stood next to an interpreter and defense attorney Andrew Jezic on Monday as Jezic explained to D.C. Superior Court Judge Ronna L. Beck that he, his client and a therapist met several times during the weekend at the D.C. jail.
On Sunday, Jezic said, Ortiz decided to take the plea and acknowledged that she “could” have suffered memory loss and forgotten the events surrounding Lopez’s death.
Ortiz was charged in Lopez’s slaying in 2008, but by then had returned to Argentina. She told police there that she “barely” knew Lopez, according to court records. She was extradited to the United States last year.
A jury trial might have been challenging for Deborah Sines and Glenn Kirschner, among the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s most senior homicide prosecutors. No DNA linked Ortiz to the killing, and investigators had found no weapons or eyewitnesses.
But at Monday’s proceedings, Sines outlined various pieces of evidence that she thought would have convinced a jury of Ortiz’s guilt.
Security video showed Ortiz entering Lopez’s apartment the morning prosecutors think she was killed, then leaving three hours later. Ortiz told detectives in separate interviews that she was only inside for a few minutes and then, later, that she was there for about an hour.
Ortiz told detectives she was wearing a brown overcoat when she visited Lopez. But in the video, prosecutors say, she was wearing a blue coat. Police never found it, leading them to think Ortiz discarded the coat after killing Lopez.
Hours after prosecutors say Lopez was attacked in her apartment, Sines said Ortiz told her landlord that she wanted to break her lease and planned to return to Argentina.
Sines also spoke of pictures on Lopez’s cellphone and computer that showed the women kissing, embracing, vacationing and spending holidays together.
“They had an extremely close, personal relationship,” Sines said. Authorities asserted that the number of stab wounds indicated a crime of passion committed by someone in a close relationship with Lopez.
In a court filing last week, Jezic said he planned to present alternative theories of how Lopez might have been killed by discussing at trial three men who could be responsible: an ex-boyfriend of Ortiz’s and another of Lopez’s, plus Lopez’s former boss, an Arlington County immigration lawyer.
Neither Sines nor Kirschner would discuss the manslaughter plea. But one prosecutor familiar with the case said Ortiz’s previously clean record, and the fact that domestic violence cases in which an individual appears to have “snapped” frequently result in voluntary manslaughter convictions, might have influenced their decision.
At one point during the proceedings, Ortiz began to sob. Jezic sat her down and tried to console her, then asked Beck for a glass of water for his client. “We don’t have any water,” said Beck, who denied the request.
