Uttering and Publishing in Michigan | Andriacchi Law

Dominic Jr. is a criminal defense lawyer. During the summer of 2017, he got a uttering and publishing case dismissed.

Background

The citizen was charged with passing counterfeit money. Before the preliminary examination, the prosecutor made a great plea deal.  But, Dominic Jr. and the client decided not to take it. The client should not plead guilty to something he didn’t intentionally do.

Case Progress

They held the preliminary examination. At it, Dominic Jr. got the police officers to admit some important mistakes. The biggest mistake was that the officers did not read the citizen his Miranda rights.

Despite the police officers’ mistakes, the trial judge still bound the case over. The case was transferred to the circuit court.

Motion to Exclude: Miranda Violation

In the circuit court, Dominic Jr. filed a motion to exclude the citizen’s statement.

Generally, if the police don’t tell a person about their Miranda rights, then the person’s statements to the police cannot be talked about during trial. There is a lot more to the rule than that, but that is the starting point.

Instead of fighting the motion, the prosecutor agreed the police officers made a mistake. The prosecutor also agreed to not talk about the citizen’s statements during the jury trial.

Motion to Dismiss: Lack of Evidence

After the prosecutor agreed not to talk about the client’s statements, Dominic Jr. filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Generally, if the prosecutor doesn’t have enough evidence to prove the charged crime, the case must be sent back to the district court or dismissed.

Read the brief here: Michigan Uttering and Publishing Brief

Instead of fighting that motion, the prosecutor agreed again.

End Result: Dismissal!

A few days before the hearing, the prosecutor emailed Dominic Jr. To the prosecutor’s credit, the prosecutor dismissed the case!

Where most people or criminal defense lawyers would take a quick and easy plea deal, Dominic Jr. and his client fought the case. Instead of pleading guilty to something he didn’t do, the citizen walks today without a criminal conviction!

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At Dominic F. Andriacchi, P.C., we are criminal defense lawyers and we help citizens accused of crimes. We help people charged with everything from domestic violence to murder. We’ve represented clients in all Michigan courts, from district court to the Supreme Court. We can help you, too. If you or someone you know have been charged with a crime, give us a call right now at (906) 486-4457 or email us at andriacchilaw@gmail.com. You need to act now so that you, or someone you know, doesn’t say the wrong thing or let important evidence disappear.