In The News

With the prosecution’s case now rested in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, it appears her defense will continue their focus on the manipulation and motivation of her accusers. While speaking with Reuters, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma wondered whether Maxwell herself will take the stand, arguing the “only real counter to that is (Maxwell’s) coming back and saying ‘no, I didn’t intend that’.”

David Sweat, the cellmate of infamous Dannemora escapee Richard Matt, testifies in Buffalo on behalf of ZMO Law client James Pugh, who was wrongfully convicted of a 1993 murder. Sweat said that Matt admitted to the murder of Deborah Meindl and that he plotted it with the detective later assigned to investigate it. Attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Tess Cohen are fighting to exonerate James Pugh, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 26 years.

Ghislaine Maxwell‘s defense team faces a tough challenge in their upcoming trial in the Southern District of New York. Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma shared his thoughts with Reuters about some of the risks: “Victim shaming doesn’t work especially now in 2021. You have to show the utmost empathy in my opinion to people who have been victimized.”

Russian state press covers sentencing of ZMO Law client Aleksandr Zhukov, who was convicted after jury trial of fraudulently selling automated programmatic ad traffic on the internet.

After a 2018 DNA review revealed James Pugh’s DNA was not present at the scene of the murder he was convicted of, the Buffalo DA’s office began reinvesigating the case. But when two assistant DAs concluded that it was likely that celebrity criminal Richard Matt was responsible and that Mr. Pugh and his co-defendant had been wrongfully convicted, they were removed from the case. Now, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, Tess Cohen, and the ZMO Law PLLC team are fighting for a full investigation into what really happened to Deborah Meindl in 1993.

James Pugh, a ZMO Law PLLC client, was wrongfully convicted of murder. With new information recently revealed in an affidavit, Mr. Pugh will finallly see his day in court to overturn this miscarriage of justice. “This case has taken many twists and turns but one thing remained clear, which is that there was never enough evidence to convict James Pugh of this murder,” Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma told Fox News.

Twice-impeached former President Donald Trump seems to think he has a good defense to the recent fraud charges brought against his organization: ignorance. ZMO Law attorney Tess Cohen, however, isn’t so sure. “To a certain extent, not knowing the law is a defense… It’s one of the only defenses in a case like this,” she told The Daily Beast, for their recent article. “But I have trouble believing that’ll get very far.”

The family of Miguel Richards is trying to find out what went wrong when a “wellness check” ended in his shooting death at the hands of police officers. ZMO Law PLLC and the Law Offices of Daniel A. McGuinness are working hard to get them answers through a federal lawsuit.

A ZMO Law client has been awarded $550k in damages after being sexually assaulted and traumatized by a correction officer while she was an inmate.

ZMO Law attorney Tess Cohen explains the unusual partnership between the New York Attorney General’s office and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that is pursuing the criminal case against former president Donald Trump.

In his closing arguments Monday, Zhukov’s lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, compared his client to a businessman selling water to a grocer, who then uses it to water down the milk he sells. “You don’t go after the water seller in that analogy,” Margulis-Ohnuma said. “It’s the person who’s claiming that it’s real who is the fraudster.”

ZMO Law PLLC heads to trial for the first time in over a year in a case that tests the applicability of the wire fraud statute to machine-generated internet ad traffic. 

In an article exploring reaction to a recent report from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers regarding trial penalty, Law360 interviewed ZMO Law PLLC attorney Tess Cohen. “Banishing the minimums is the most urgent point of reform,” explained Cohen. “Mandatory minimums remain the primary driver of pretrial penalties and the reason people don’t exercise their right to trial.”

ZMO Law PLLC suit against the New York City police officers who shot and killed Miguel Richards alleges the officers planted of a toy gun after the shooting. 

Margulis-Ohnuma’s client, Felipe Rodriguez, was interviewed and featured on Telemundo. “I never lost faith or hope,” says Rodriguez, who regained his freedom after 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

“Courts can only do so much without legislative authorization, and choose to do less because of institutional and political concerns,” said Associate Attorney Benjamin Notterman, in an article analyzing the startlingly few reprieves granted to eligible, vulnerable inmates in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma was quoted in an article about Harvey Weinstein’s sentencing, and the implications of this “historical litigation.”

Margulis-Ohnuma’s client Felipe Rodriguez was highlighted in a NY Times opinion piece that explores the power and need for clemency in America’s justice system.

Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Victoria Medley were interviewed by WGRZ-2 about their new lawsuit against the NY State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.