Protecting Your Rights Throughout Eastern Iowa Since 1981
Criminal law is full of stereotypes. Many people believe that there is a "criminal type." And that anyone who fits that description, must be guilty of the crimes they are accused. In the 19th century, the study of the shapes of human heads called phrenology, which...
Evidence of a crime is typically the lynchpin of most criminal prosecutions. The more evidence, the stronger the case. And with some crimes the greater the evidence, the more severe the penalties. With drug prosecutions, the penalties for a few ounces of marijuana are...
A former city clerk for Casey, Iowa, has been charged with mail fraud and arson. These are two very serious charges that can result in harsh penalties if the accused is convicted. The defendant was indicted of five counts of mail fraud after she allegedly used the...
From time to time, politicians will argue that government is inefficient and to improve things, it needs to be run like a business. For the most part this is marketing puffery, as the role of government and business are very different and adopting practice and...
Last time we were looking at the issue of civil forfeiture in Iowa, and how it is apparent that some cases appear to involve what amounts to theft by law enforcement officers across the state. Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to take money or other assets from...
The Iowa Supreme Court is considering arguments in a case of civil forfeiture, involving a traffic stop on I-80, where an Iowa State Patrol trooper seized $33,100 in cash and a small amount of marijuana. The driver was charged, but acquitted, of marijuana possession,...
The filing of charges in a drug case can move slowly. In order for prosecutors to file charges, they need to be certain that substances suspected of being illegal drugs, in fact, are illegal drugs. It is the work of a crime lab to make that determination. A case...
Drugs have been seen as a problem in American society for a long time. The salacious "Reefer Madness" and other antidrug propaganda pieces worked on the premise of scaring people away from using a drug, out of fear of becoming drug-crazed maniacs. Of course, for all...
A felony conviction in Iowa is never welcome. Any type of conviction can lead to numerous problems with other aspects of your life, from finding housing to keeping a job, but with a felony conviction, the problems become greater and the solutions more difficult....
We often discuss the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment protects the people against unreasonable search and seizure. It does this by demanding that law enforcement obtain a search warrant from a judge prior to allowing a search of a person, their...
