Federal sentences for people caught up in drug crimes are nothing less than soul-sucking. They are guided, at least in the first instance, by the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which have often been criticized as being too high and too much driven by drug quantity rather than other factors, such as the person’s individual circumstances …
What's New
Welcoming attorney Shane Finn to ZMO Law
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 …
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, …
Victory in the Fourth Department
When the Hon. Paul B. Wojtaszek of Erie County Supreme Court vacated our client’s 30-year-old conviction last year, we were confident—maybe overconfident—that was the end of the story. James Pugh had been wrongly convicted of the 1993 murder of a young mother in Tonawanda, New York and served 26 years in prison for the crime …
Brooklyn MDC? Too awful to sentence you there.
By Anne AyotteZMO Law PLLC Paralegal Specialist An Eastern District of New York judge has joined SDNY Judge Jesse Furman in refusing to send a defendant to the Metropolitan Detention Center because of the abhorrent, violent conditions at New York City’s only jail for people accused of federal crimes. On August 5th, defendant Daniel Colucci …
Who killed Dr. Sheikh?
ZMO Law client Alvin Alston was framed by police for the 1987 murder of a Queens doctor. The same police framed Felipe Rodriguez—leading to 27 years in New York State prison for the wrongful conviction, exoneration, and $23.5 million in settlements. Alvin’s case is now pending in Queens Supreme Court: after a nine-year investigation, Alvin …
How long do I have to be cuffed and shackled to this hospital bed?
In June 2023, ZMO Law client Kiana Burgess was riding the 4 train when she experienced what so many New York women have experienced: a man pushing himself into her physical space. The guy saw there were plenty of open seats, but picked the one next to her anyway, half sitting on her lap in …
Justice Behind Bars: Judge Furman calls out the nightmarish conditions at the Brooklyn MDC
By Emily Furman While most New Yorkers enjoy their Easter and Passover meals this Spring, dozens of MDC Brooklyn detainees endure a different kind of cuisine— dishes tainted by maggots and weevils, according to reports by several Federal Defenders. Despite MDC officials confirming such gross contaminations, inmates continue to be served insect-laden meals. Bug-infested food …
Ten Years of Freedom
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma I woke up this morning to the tenth anniversary of the most important day of my legal career and an even more important day in the life of my treasured client, Antonio Yarbough. On February 6, 2014, Antonio and his co-defendant Sharrif Wilson walked out of Supreme Court in Brooklyn as free …
Chief Judge Wilson, Restorative Justice, and Keeping Your Cool on New York’s Streets
By Emily Furman Remember Dustin Hoffman’s iconic “I’m walkin’ here!”? It’s a phrase on the tongue of every New Yorker, but a recent New York State court decision has given street hollers a new level of seriousness. In 2017, Mr. Fabian Greene was convicted of one count of fourth degree larceny and two counts of …
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 …
Governor Hochul vetoed bills aimed to curb police misconduct and overturn wrongful convictions
By Tess Cohen At the end of the year, Governor Hochul vetoed two hard fought bills advocated for by criminal justice reformers. Though the signing of Clean Slate remains a huge win for advocates, two bills aimed directly at injustices in the system were rejected by the Governor over the winter holidays. The first seems …
How the First Woman Supreme Court Justice Set the Rules for Criminal Lawyers
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor died Friday. She will be remembered as the first woman justice, a fearless Republican who put principles of liberty and the rule of law above her personal distaste for abortion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, a case that safeguarded a woman’s right …
New Yorkers Get a Second Chance with the Clean Slate Act
By Tess Cohen Advocates for criminal justice reform are celebrating as Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Clean Slate Act into law, making millions of New Yorkers now eligible to have their criminal records automatically sealed. Before the new law was signed, New York only allowed special categories of people to apply to seal their convictions …
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 Power of a Defense Expert
By Tess Cohen A medical examiner declares cause of death. A DNA expert explains the likelihood of a match. A translator explains the meaning of a word in a foreign language. Criminal trials often hinge on the testimony of expert witnesses such as these, and all too often lawyers presume that the testimony of experts …
Felipe Rodriguez and Police Accountability
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma My extraordinary client Felipe Rodriguez was released from Otisville Correctional Facility in 2018 by then-governor Andrew Cuomo after serving almost 27 years for a murder he did not commit. He was exonerated in 2019 after the Queens District Attorney’s Office found an exculpatory note that no one had ever seen before. He …
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 …
Trump has been indicted. Now what?
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma I was in the elevator of my new building on Lexington Avenue when the news came down that a Manhattan grand jury returned a “true bill” against the 45th president of the United States. The exact charges remain unknown but they appear to stem from Donald Trump’s use of his business right …
Donald Trump and the Manhattan Grand Jury
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Every criminal lawyer knows that feeling when you get the call from the prosecutor telling you: your client is getting indicted, does he want to testify? Your stomach sinks. It’s different from hearing that your client is worried he did something wrong, or knows he is under investigation. It means the case …
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, …
I am Adnan Syed
By Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma The protagonist of the legendary Serial podcast that put the scourge of questionable convictions into millions of ears in 2014 was set free yesterday after 24 years in prison. Adnan Syed, 17 at the time, was convicted of stabbing his high school classmate Hae Min Lee in suburban Baltimore and dumping her …
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 …
A kind of justice
By Zach Margulis-Ohnuma She sat in front of me, bald, shellshocked, speechless, drug addled. The government had charged her with moving massive quantities of GBL and meth, gal Friday to a big-time drug dealer working the nightclubs. She was looking at a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence, no bail. The plan was to send her to …