Criminal Defense

For many years, state and federal laws have restricted the ability to eavesdrop on other people's telephone conversations and other electronic communications. These so-called wiretapping laws vary from state to state, with some states giving the public more protection...

Court proceedings can be technical and confusing. For Indianapolis residents who are not attorneys and who do not regularly work with the law, knowing just how to approach legal proceedings can be difficult and perplexing. A person may be asked to appear in court to...

The practice in Indiana of detaining the accused who are awaiting trial but cannot afford bail is bloating already crowded jails and devastating communities. During the 2020 Session, House Bill 1076, introduced by Representative Cherrish Pryor, attempted to address...

Indiana’s civil forfeiture laws were addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 and in a law passed in the state General Assembly in 2018. This year, however, another Senate reform bill was also introduced, and the state Supreme Court will review a case on whether...

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is a common form of security used by businesses to prevent crime and to aid police if the cameras capture the commission of a crime. The CCTV cameras in a convenience store in Indianapolis recently captured the image of a man accused...

A difficult economy this past year has led to a surge in allegations of white collar crime, in particular online identity theft, as the ranks of the unemployed have grown and people have gotten more desperate. In one recent report in Indianapolis, a case of stolen...

Assault and battery, while often paired together, are two different criminal charges. The main difference is that battery requires an intentional physical act and injury, while assault requires an imminent threat of physical harm, but no physical contact. Assault and...

In Indianapolis and across Indiana, when people are alleged to have committed a crime, it is not uncommon for them to face multiple allegations in different categories of offenses. When criminal charges are stacked up, they may face severe consequences with a wide...

There are numerous schools of thought about how much behavior should be legislated. Many argue that as legislators criminalize more and more actions, the more likely it becomes that average citizens will be treated as criminals. And because laws can be selectively...

All 50 states in the U.S. recognize theft as a crime, setting value thresholds between a misdemeanor and a felony charge. However, each state maintains different thresholds between the charges. While a person may spend a night in county lockup for stealing $300 in...