New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

August 14, 2011

Drinking & Dashing in New York City: Failure to Pay Bar Tab Not a Theft of Services Crime (NY PL 165.15)?

On a daily basis, tourists and everyday denizens of New York City are either arrested or given Desk Appearance Tickets for violating New York Penal Law 165.15, Theft of Services. An “A” misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, Theft of Services arrests and Desk Appearance Tickets routinely involve a passenger in a cab or a diner at a restaurant who fails to pay his or her tab or bill. While any arrest is concerning, and often requires the assistance of a criminal attorney to navigate the process, what exacerbates a Theft of Service arrest is that it can have a significant impact on professional licenses, certifications and immigration.

Putting aside the potential consequences of a Theft of Services arrest in New York City, there is a small (very small) body of cases that question whether or not it is a violation of New York Penal Law 165.15(2) if you drink at a bar and fail to pay your bill. In pertinent part, subsection two of NY PL 165.15 states that you are guilty of a crime if you intend to avoid payment for restaurant services and actually do not pay for those services. Well, according to People v Sei Young Choi, 170 Misc.2d 598 (Queens Cty Crim. Ct 1996), this may not always be the case in the alcohol and pub/tavern context.

August 8, 2011

Stealing Money You Never Had: Determining the Degree of Grand Larceny in a Fraudulent Bank Deposit & Theft Scheme

by Jeremy Saland

On its face, the Grand Larceny statutes in New York are relatively straightforward. That is, a simple review of various sections of the New York Penal Law may not require the assistance of a New York theft attorney or grand larceny lawyer. Although the statutes may seem clear, what becomes confusing are the various legal decisions that may impact an arrest, indictment or conviction for crimes including New York Penal Law section 155.30 or 155.35. It is theses decisions that may make a non-defense a viable one or a seemingly easy defense one that will not assist you in your case.

In a relatively unique fact pattern, what if you are alleged to have stolen from a bank by depositing bogus checks directly with a teller or empty envelopes into an ATM machine? As a result of your fraud, the bank credits your account the amount of the deposit you claim you made. Therefore, until the bank recognizes that you falsely inflated your account with these valueless deposits, you have access to money that is not truly in the account or even in existance. Knowing you have access to fraudulently obtained funds, you withdraw money from the account. In such a situation, the issue is fairly simple. Is the value of the theft, and as a result the degree or level of your crime, determined by the amount you fraudulently deposited without actual financial backing or the amount withdrawn by you in excess of your legitimate balance? Fortunately, People v. Esquilin, 37 A.D.3d 197 (1st Dept. 2007) addresses just that.

August 4, 2011

Testwell Reincarnated: Manhattan DA Declares War on Construction Industry & American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories

by Jeremy Saland

After a string of high profile defeats, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is going back to the well with the hope that a tested formula will deliver a conviction to public eyes. Like its predecessors, Testwell Laboratories and V. Reddy Kancharla, American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories Inc. (ATSC), along with its president Alan Fortich, was indicted by a New York Grand Jury and charged with Enterprise Corruption, Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree. Additionally, professional engineers Michael Rabkin, Shamim Akond, Richard Kasparian and Bruce Pumo were also charged in the extensive indictment. A “B” felony, Enterprise Corruption is punishable by up to 25 years in state prison for a first time offender while each of the other crimes are “E” felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.

Replicating the factual allegations and ultimate conviction against the Testwell group, Manhattan prosecutors claim that ATSC fudged, altered and manipulated lab results concerning concrete used in numerous public and private jobs. In fact, the indictment alleges that the defendants “regularly skipped vital safety tests and created false reports to create the impression that the tests were performed.” Of great concern for prosecutors is that the buildings where the concrete was poured include such iconic and critical New York venues and structures such as Yankee Stadium, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Javits Center, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and even sections of the Second Avenue Subway. Additionally, ATSC, Fortich and others are alleged to have filed false documents not only associated with testing procedures, but also with government agencies as to eligibility for certain programs. According to DA Vance, Fortich defrauded the “MTA through the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (“DBE”) program…designed to help businesses owned by women or a member of a designated minority group” by falsifying the paperwork that was the foundation of eligibility.

August 3, 2011

New York Criminal Lawyers Obtain Dismissal of Burglary After Two Positive IDs in Line Up

by Jeremy Saland

There are few crimes in New York that are more serious than the crime of Burglary. Whether the allegation is that you perpetrated Burglary in the Third, Second or First Degree, there is potential for significant state prison. In fact, Burglary in the Second and First Degree have a mandatory minimum term of incarceration for first time offenders of three and one half and five years respectively. Make no mistake. Whomever your criminal lawyer may be, he or she must be both a skilled advocate and an attorney versed in the laws and procedures of New York criminal practice to successfully combat a Burglary arrest.

Briefly, you are guilty of Burglary when you trespass into a building and have the intent to commit a crime. Although any crime is included in this intent, prosecutors need not prove a specific intent to perpetrate a specific crime. Moreover, the degrees of Burglary are enhanced to violent felonies if, for example, the structure entered is a dwelling, you possessed a weapon or someone was injured while you committed the offense.

July 30, 2011

Gravity Knife Crimes in New York & A New Line of Defense: Criminal Attorney’s Analyis of Two Recent Legal Decisions

by Jeremy Saland

Although legal case decisions establish precedents that New York criminal defense attorneys can sink their proverbial teeth into when attacking a criminal case in New York City or elsewhere, sometimes the practical value of that decision is limited. After all, if the facts or evidence do not establish the point your criminal lawyer is seeking to exploit, the particular legal decisions has limited value. In the arena of New York Desk Appearance Tickets and arrests for gravity knives, pursuant to New York Penal Law 265.01, a decision relating to two companion cases will hopefully be valuable in both the legal and practical context.

The issue raised before the Court of Appeals in the context of a gravity knife arrest or Desk Appearance Ticket was what is necessary to establish an officer’s reasonable cause to believe that the accused possessed a gravity knife as opposed to some other knife or blade? In the two cases, People v. Fernandez and People v. Brannon, the Court of Appeals held (in my own words of course) that in order to establish the reasonable suspicion, there must be articulable factors, but not absolute certainty, allowing the officer to believe that the item in question was an illegal gravity knife as opposed to some other type of blade.

July 26, 2011

New York Penal Law 155.35(2): Grand Larceny of an Automated Teller Machine or Contents

by Jeremy Saland

The most commonly prosecuted Grand Larceny cases in New York revolve around the value of the property in question. Whether there is a theft by embezzlement, trick or extortion, the degree of the Grand Larceny often relates directly to that value. For example, should you steal $2,000 from an employer by embezzlement or trick someone into giving you $2,000 in exchange for a item with no value, your arrest charge would likely be Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree pursuant to New York Penal Law 155.30(1) because the value of the theft exceeded $1,000, but was less than or equal to $3,000. In such a case,

In 2010, however, the New York State legislature added a new charge that New York criminal defense attorneys must fight against. Now, should you steal that same $2,000 your crime may be raised a degree to the more serious Grand Larceny in the Third Degree. According to New York Penal Law 155.35(2), one is guilty of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree if the property one steals is an automated teller machine (ATM) or the contents of an automated teller machine. Examining this statute further, regardless of the value of the physical ATM, if you hijack that ATM from a convenient store, bodega, or any other establishment, your crime automatically is a “D” felony even if the value of that ATM is $750 or $2,000 dollars. Furthermore, the contents of the ATM are also subject to this statute. Therefore, it appears that if you withdraw funds from an ATM, let’s say $750 for the purpose of this hypothetical, and you are stealing these funds from another person, you would also be guilty of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree based on this statute. Compounding matters, if you perpetrate this crime a second time in a five year period or this is merely your second Grand Larceny, you would also face the elevated offense New York Penal Law 155.43, Aggravated Grand Larceny of an Automated Teller Machine. A “C” felony, Aggravated Grand Larceny is punishable by up to fifteen years in state prison while the “D” felony is punishable by up to seven years in state prison .

July 21, 2011

AG: Non-Accredited New York Nursing Schools Defrauded Students Out of $6 Million

by Jeremy Saland

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has a long way to go to fill his predecessor Andrew Cuomo’s shoes, but he announced an indictment today that will certainly keep a crew of criminal defense attorneys busy over the next few months. The indictment, the culmination of a significant investigation where undercover investigators posed as potential nursing students, accuses eleven defendants of operating a fraudulent nursing school and college scheme. The defendants are charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (NY PL 155.35) as well as Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree (NY PL 190.65). A “D” felony, Grand Larceny in the Third Degree is punishable by up to seven years in state prison while Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree is an “E” felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.

It is alleged that the defendants, Robinson Akenami (owner and operator of Helping Angels Foundation of America (HAFA)), Jocelyn Allrich (owner and operator of Hope-VTEC Hope-VTEC a/k/a J. Allrich Productions, Inc., Hope Nursing Tutorial Services, and Tutorial Nursing Prep), Nadege Auguste (owner and operator of VTEC-NY, Inc. a/k/a Life-VTEC), Andre Castage (an Administrator and Admissions Director at International Language and Professional Network, Inc. (ILPN)), Carline D’Haiti (operator of Envision Review Center), Salavatrice Gaston (a second operator of Envision Review Center), Anthony Myers (an administrator and ILPN’s Admissions Director), Rodye Paquiot (an executive at ILPN), Carl Lee Sellers (the Administrator of Hope-VTEC), Frantz Simeon (owner and Executive Director of ILPN) and Jude Valles (established the VTEC franchise) each perpetrated various frauds on unsuspecting students. It is claimed that these men and women lied to students about critical educational issues such as the schools accreditations and that students would be eligible to sit for the New York State Nursing Board Exam (NCLEX).

July 20, 2011

High Class NY Escort & Prostitution Ring Busted: Brooklyn DA Indicts 17 Individuals in an Alleged $7 Million Online “Model” Service

by Jeremy Saland

Although not arrested by Detective Frank Drebin, for seventeen individuals indicted in Brooklyn because of their alleged involvement in High Class NY, a New York City escort ring, this certainly is “some kind of a bust.” Unfortunately for them, however, there is nothing funny about the predicament they face. According to Charles Hynes, Kings County’s top prosecutor, “[th]ere is no such thing as a high-class pimp, and as we do with all other pimps, my office will prosecute these defendants and seek the maximum sentences available under the law.” Charged in the 144 count indictment, seventeen individuals, including Mikhail Yampolsky; his wife, Bronislava Yampolsky; his son, Alexander Yampolsky; his step-son, Jonathan Yampolskaya and alleged investors Efim Gorelik and Yakov Maystrovich, face some of the highest degree felonies in the New York Penal Code. In addition to these defendants, detectives also arrested Valerii Loboda, Irina Pobukovsky, Ilya Olshansky, Angelo Pascacello, Meredith Harford, Boris Ratovsky, Yury Gorelik, Pinia Ashkinadze, Alexey Senenov and Oleg Lechko. These men and women, as well as five corporations, face a multitude of crimes such as Enterprise Corruption, Promoting Prostitution, Money Laundering, and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance.

If it is not overwhelming clear through DA Hynes’ statement, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office firmly believes that this alleged crew of pimps and prostitutes, who also dabbled in narcotics and drug trafficking, is being treated not merely as individuals, but as an organized criminal institution. Enterprise Corruption, a “B” felony punishable by a mandatory minimum of one to three years in prison and a maximum of eight and one third to twenty five years in state prison for a first time offender, is New York’s version of the federal RICO statute. In charging this crime and arresting these individuals, prosecutors believe and must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that High Class NY operated with a structure that was both ascertainable in nature, ie, different levels of workers, with a common goal or purpose.

July 19, 2011

Desk Appearance Tickets & Foreign Nationals: Handling a New York DAT & an Expiring Visa

by Jeremy Saland

From shoplifting and drug possession to assault and possessing forged instruments, the New York Desk Appearance Ticket lawyers and former Manhattan prosecutors at Saland Law PC routinely handle Desk Appearance Tickets (D.A.T.s) issued in New York City arrests. While Desk Appearance Tickets are routinely issued to those with verifiable addresses in the New York City area, that is not always the case. Fortunately, the police will occasionally give a D.A.T. to a foreign national with a temporary local address. While this courtesy prevents those arrested from being forced into “the system” for up to 24 hours, it also often creates a future issue that requires the assistance of NYC criminal attorney.

The End of Vacation and Expiring Visas

July 15, 2011

Jeremy Saland Interviewed in Wall Street Journal Article About the Use of Social Media in Lawyer Marketing

by Jeremy Saland

Jeremy Saland, a New York criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor, was interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article published today addressing the intersection of modern day lawyering and social media. An interesting article, one of the main themes of the piece was how social media – blogs, twitter and facebook – can help an attorney’s marketing and client generation.

Make no mistake. If done the right way, utilizing social media can certainly help drive business to your law practice. The article made this very clear. However, equally important in generating business over time is not only getting the phone to ring, but to be able to service your clients and to do so ethically and diligently. After all, establishing a career that will span decades is not about merely getting a high profile case or one “big fish” client, but in assisting all clients in all matters with the highest degree of professionalism.