In Fresno, CA, Client was pulled over by police officers. Upon searching the vehicle police officers found 18 pounds of marijuana. Client was released on bail. While on bail, the Fresno District Attorney’s Office was alerted to his arrest in Northern California for trafficking marijuana. Intervention by Margolin Lawrence led to the dismissal of the Northern California Case. In addition, Client was also suspected of mailing marijuana out of state via the US Postal Service. Margolin Lawrence successfully negotiated a plea agreement with the Fresno District Attorney’s Office for Client to plead to a misdemeanor which can be expunged upon completion of his probation period.

Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department raided a local Van Nuys dispensary for possessing marijuana for sale. Upon searching the dispensary, firearms were located along with marijuana. The District Attorney’s office prosecuted Client for possession of marijuana for sale. Attorneys for Margolin and Lawrence brought a motion to suppress in Van Nuys Courthouse stating that there was no probable cause to authorize a search warrant because Client’s dispensary was lawfully operating under California’s Medical Marijuana law. The Court suppressed all evidence in the case, resulting in the dismissal of the case. All money and firearms were returned the the client.

HUSTLER_GREEN_RUSH

Client was operating a mobile dispensary in the San Gabriel Valley and was contacted by an undercover police officer. The officer claimed that he was a medical marijuana patient throughout the transaction but had failed to give his recommendation the client. When the police officer approached the client for the exchange, the Client felt pressured and feared for his life after observing a bulge on the officer’s belt which turned out to be his service firearm. Not wanting to risk his life, Client exchanged the marijuana for cash and drove away.

At the jury trial, Attorney David F. Poblete presented a mistake of fact defense. The be specific, the client could not have formed the requisite intent to illegally sell marijuana because he had a reasonable belief that the officer was a medical marijuana patient. After deliberations, the judge ruled a mistrail due to a hung jury.

Client was caught in an altercation with his baby’s mother’s family during a custody exchange. Client fought with the baby’s mother’s brother leading to a criminal battery case. Client was seen on tape by police dash cam footage being beaten by the brother as police officers arrived. At the conclusion of the jury trial, the judge declared a hung jury and dismissed the case with prejudice.

Attorney Allison B. Margolin was hired as trial counsel in a DMV case where the client’s vehicle was found driverless after hitting two vehicles. Client was found shirtless and with a BAC of 0.19. Counsel had argued that because client was not observed actually driving the vehicle, she could not have been guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol. After deliberations, there was a hung jury leading to a mistrial. When the district attorney’s office re-filed the case, client only plead to a traffic ticket.

California is an implied-consent state where every driver, by receiving a driver’s license, consents to make themselves available to a chemical test when they are driving under the influence. The penalties for refusing a chemical test, eiher breath, urine, or blood, are heavy – 1 year suspended license for the first refusal.

In 2012, Margolin and Lawrence won a DMV Refusal Hearing where the client refused to take a chemical test at a DUI checkpoint – an exceptionally rare result.

The California court system has been flooded with medical marijuana cases since the inception of the Compassionate Use Act in 1996. This primarily stems from judges’ ignorance of the case law surrounding medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is one of the few places where the law is constantly shifting due to new case law and therefore causes much confusion amongst the judiciary who often see marijuana in the same light as other drugs. Margolin and Lawrence is one of the few criminal defense firms who regularly write writs of mandate to the Court of Appeal challenging erroneous rulings by judges. Often times judges will brush off counsel’s protestation by simply stating, “Take me up on writ then!” Well unfortunately for them, our office takes these challenges with gusto.

Below you will a recent alternative writ of mandate ordering in a medical marijuana case. Here, the client was merely transferring medical marijuana from his collective to  representative of another collective. He had pre-verified the representative as a qualified patient and was in the process of having the representative fill out the collective paperwork. Unfortunately, police officers intervened and arrested the client on alleged sales of marijuana. Before trial, counsel made a motion to allow a medical marijuana jury instruction but was denied. Hearing of our writ prowess, client contacted Margolin & Lawrence to write a petition for a writ of mandate. After writing to the Court of Appeal, an alternative writ of mandate ordering the jury instruction was issued.