We are delighted to announce that distinguished Irish-born attorney Shane Finn has joined ZMO Law PLLC as an associate. Shane’s practice here will focus on civil rights, criminal defense and vindicating the rights of victims of sex crimes in New York State and federal courts. Shane “read law” at Oxford University in the United Kingdom …
Sex Crimes
Is Matt Gaetz a sex trafficker?
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Having sex with a 17-year-old is not a federal sex offense. Having sex with a 17-year-old is not a sex crime under most state laws. But paying to have sex with a 17-year-old? With Venmo? That is a whole other story. Practically any involvement (“recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, obtains, advertises, maintains, …
In New York, Rape is now Rape — what does that even mean?
New York Governor Kathy Hochul swiftly signed the Rape is Rape bill into law this week, purporting to reform New York’s criminal sexual assault and rape statutes to make them fairer to survivors. While the new laws are somewhat more rational, they tend to expand the scope of the rape statutes in a way that …
Last Call for the Adult Survivors Act
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma With November upon us, the window is closing quickly on the New York Adult Survivors Act, which gave adult victims of sexual assault a chance to bring their claims in court even if the assult happened years ago. The law became effective for one year starting on November 24, 2022. That means …
Did your FBI handler coerce you into sex?
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma In a stunning revelation quietly received this week by the New York press corps, Gang Land News journalist Jerry Capeci broke a monster story: he revealed after two decades that a prolific mafia witness alleges he was coerced into sex with an FBI special agent who helped handle him while he was wearing a wire …
A ZMO Law firm update
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma As the school year and the fiscal year and the biblical year all get underway, ZMO Law is settling into its new routine. We announced earlier this month that Tess Cohen is now a partner at the firm with increased responsibility for expanding our services to clients. We are also glowing from some late …
The Closing Lookback Window for Survivors of Sexual Assault
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma If you have been hurt by a sexual abuser in New York the last two decades, now is the time to hire a sexual abuse lawyer and file a lawsuit. Adult victims of sexual assaults are often frustrated by the “statute of limitations” that can block them from suing their attacker because …
I was sexually harassed in a strip club. Can I sue?
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Many workers in strip clubs are well-paid, hard-working women supporting their families and using the extra income from the club to take control of their lives. Many clubs treat their workers fairly. Many customers are polite and appropriate. But not all. If you have been taken advantage of at a strip club, …
What do you mean they searched my house? Warrants, receipts and affidavits explained
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma If it could happen to defeated former president Donald Trump it could happen to anyone: the feds swooped in and searched his house last week—all 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms were up for grabs. Go big or go home. There was a lawyer there but the resident was out-of-town. FBI agents left …
Free Speech for All?
As Justice Lewis Powell wrote in 1980 in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Serv. Commission, “there is no de minimis exception for a speech restriction that lacks sufficient tailoring or justification.” Even for someone convicted of a sex offense, like James Cornelio, who was required to divulge internet identifiers to the state …
Can I use the internet if I am convicted of a sex offense?
By Benjamin Notterman For decades, parole officers have imposed restrictions on how people convicted of sex offenses can use the internet. Some of these restrictions made sense; others were just blanket prohibitions that became more and more onerous as the internet and social media became more enmeshed in everyday life. Last month, a federal court …
Reforming Laws Affecting People Convicted of Sex Offenses
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma There is a quiet struggle in New York State to ease the irrational burdens on people convicted of sex offenses. While the political winds mostly blow in the direction of more and more restrictions, policymakers are coming to realize that making life miserable for people does not actually improve public safety. As …
What Do District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s New Policies Mean for Manhattan?
By Tess Cohen Manhattan has a new district attorney who is introducing change on a scale not seen in decades, but reactions to the changes have been overblown, if not alarmist. DA Bragg’s Day One Memo explains that his policies are based on data proving reflexive incarceration does not make us safer. As the New …
Some thoughts on Mother’s Day from a criminal defense lawyer
BY ZACHARY MARGULIS-OHNUMA One thing every single one of my clients has in common is that they all have a mother. That’s one of the many responses I give when asked the iconic question, how can you defend criminals when you know they are guilty? In many of our cases, moms play an outsized role. …
Sex, Race, and Violence in Atlanta
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, Robert Aaron Long walked into Young’s Asian Massage, thirty miles northwest of Atlanta. He was carrying a nine millimeter handgun he had bought legally earlier that day. He opened fire, gunning down three women and a man. Less than an hour later, four more people …
New York’s sex offender registration system is broken. The time has come to fix it.
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma There are more than 42,000 people in New York who have to register as sex offenders — about the population of Poughkeepsie. Sex offender registration can affect every aspect of a person’s life: where he lives, where he can travel, how he is treated by his neighbors, the community and even the …
A New Way to Avoid Mandatory Minimum Sentences
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Federal criminal cases in court are driven by mandatory minimum sentences. Drugs, guns, child pornography and sex trafficking (among others) all carry mandatory minimum sentences which used to mean that, if the government has the evidence and won’t let you plead to a lesser crime, you do the time. That just might have changed …
The culture of sexual abuse in New York prisons
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma The Law of Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Law Offices of Daniel McGuinness filed an Amended Complaint in federal court today detailing harrowing allegations of severe, pervasive, routine, and tolerated sexual abuse by prison guards against six women. According to the allegations in the complaint, women have been raped by guards all over the state — from Lakeview …