Recent Blog Posts in March 2010

A Saginaw County woman is behind bars for allowing a 67-year-old man to have sex with her 10-year-old granddaughter in exchange for cocaine.

Angela A. Blackwell, who is a cocaine addict, has since been charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and pandering. If she is convicted of the sex crime charges, she could be sentenced to at least 25 years in state prison.

Police are still searching for the man who had sex with the girl, who according to police had sex with her repeatedly from September until February. He faces first and second-degree sexual conduct charges, as well as firearms charges.

Charged with a Sex Crime in Oakland or Wayne County?

Sex crimes involving a child are always prosecuted aggressively, and are punishable by a number of serious penalties, including years in state prison, heavy fines, probation, possible restitution to the victim, and mandatory registration as a sex offender. If you have been accused of committing a sex crime against a child, you can protect your rights, freedom and reputation by contacting a Michigan criminal defense lawyer at the Law Offices of Freedman & Freedman. With over thirty years of legal experience, we have helped clients throughout both Wayne and Oakland Counties successfully fight their criminal charges.

To learn more about the defense services offered at our firm, please call (877) 858-5297 to arrange a consultation today!

A drunk driver assisted in her own arrest after calling 911 and speaking with a dispatcher for nearly 20 minutes.

According to Police Capt. Tom Johnstone, the driver called 911 and confessed she'd been drinking and felt like she shouldn’t be behind the wheel. The dispatcher pleaded with her to pull over, but she continued to drive until she was eventually pulled over in East Lansing.

The driver, a 27-year-old woman from Charlotte whose name has not yet been released, was issued a citation for operating under the influence. If she is convicted of the OUI charge, she could face 90 days in jail.

Following a conviction for his role in a Ponzi scheme, a Bloomfield Hills man has been sentenced to over five years in federal prison. He was also ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution to his victims.

Raymond Frank Joseph was accused of soliciting loans from several people on the promise that he was planning to use the money to invest in business ventures. In reality, he used the money to repay people who had previously loaned him money, as well as to pay for personal things like credit card bills, household and vehicle expenses, etc. According to authorities, Joseph received more than $2 million that he never repaid to his lenders.

Authorities were eventually tipped off to Joseph’s scheme, and started investigating. It turns out Joseph had been borrowing money from 2002 to 2007.

In January, a federal grand jury found Joseph guilty of wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen money or property, and conducting monetary transactions in criminally derived property. As part of his sentence, Joseph will also have to serve three years of supervised probation once he’s released from prison.

Police have arrested a woman authorities say filed more than $3.3 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims from 2007 to 2009. She has since been charged with fraud and racketeering.

Deborah D’Anna, 56, was the owner and office manager of Palmer Park Medical Center, which had clinic locations in Detroit and Romulus until 2005. According to authorities, D’Anna would use the billing identification numbers of former doctors at the medical center to file her fraudulent claims.

D’Anna was arrested at her Ocala, Florida home, and is currently in police custody pending extradition. She faces 25 counts of Medicaid fraud and one count racketeering.

After narrowly avoiding a head-on collision, a Wayne County couple has taken it upon themselves to inform legislators that distracted driving is dangerous, and that something needs to be done about it.

Benjamin and Carol Roy are getting prepared to submit a petition at the next Trenton city council meeting for a city ordinance that bans cell phone use while driving. The ordinance would prohibit drivers from using a cell phone while driving within the city limits, regardless if the cell phone is hands free or not.

The couple began collecting signatures for the petition on Friday, March 5. By Monday March 8 they had collected 100 signatures.

The Roys’ desire to get this cell phone ban into effect stems largely from the fact they were almost involved in a head-on collision with a woman who was talking on a cell phone. Last month, they were driving their pickup truck in Southgate when a woman talking on her cell phone veered into oncoming traffic. They had to swerve onto the shoulder of the road to avoid a collision.

They Roys say their efforts are nothing more than them wanting to do their part to help make their city safer. They want the punishment for using a cell phone while driving to be the same as the penalties for drunk driving.

If you have received a traffic ticket or citation for talking on a cell phone while driving, it’s important to make every effort in fighting your ticket. There are many benefits to fighting your ticket as opposed to simply paying the fine and going to traffic school. A Michigan traffic ticket attorney at the Law Offices of Freedman & Freedman is available to help you fight your ticket, and can provide you with the experienced legal counsel you need to take advantage of all possible options available to you.

For more information about the traffic ticket defense services offered at Freedman & Freedman, please call (877) TKT-LAWS!

In January 2009, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed two new acts that have come to be known as Michigan’s “super drunk” law.

The laws strengthen the state’s drunk driving laws by amending several sections of the Michigan Vehicle Code. The first amendment to the vehicle states that any driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .17 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood or per 210 liters of breath or per 67 milliliters of urine will be subjected to enhanced punitive and license sanctions. Some of these sanctions include increasing the fine to somewhere between $200 and $700 and increasing potential jail time to somewhere between 93 and 180 days. This new law only applies to first-time DUI offenders.The law does not apply to repeat offenders because it is believed the penalties for a second, third, or subsequent DUI are worse than the sanctions imposed under this new law.  

Under the new laws, the offender will also be required to undergo 1 year of alcohol rehabilitation, such as an alcohol treatment program or a self-help program, unless it was a traditional first-time DUI offense (meaning the driver's BAC was less than .17). The requirement to attend a year-long rehabilitation program is a significant change to the vehicle code. Under current Michigan laws, alcohol rehabilitation is not a penalty requirement for any DUI conviction, even if the defendant has been convicted of drunk driving multiple times. Even those drivers found guilty of felony DUI are not required to complete such extensive rehabilitation.  

In addition to these penalties, the Secretary of State will also suspend the license of any driver convicted of a “high-BAC drunk driving offense” for year. The first 45 days of that period is a “hard suspension,” meaning the driver cannot drive at all. After 45 days, the driver may be able to regain some limited driving privileges, but only if the driver consents to having an ignition interlock device installed in the vehicle (they also have to pay to have the device installed, as well as pay the monthly payments to maintain it). If the driver attempts to operate their vehicle with a BAC of .0025 or more, they will face double penalties. Furthermore, if someone ordered to install a device in their vehicle fails to have the device installed, the amendment calls for that person’s vehicle to be impounded if they are pulled over.

Michigan’s current drunk driving laws give judges the authority to decide which offenders will be ordered to install an ignition interlock device as part of their probation.

The laws are scheduled to go into effect on October 31, 2010.

Contact the Law Offices of Freedman & Freedman if you have recently been arrest for OUI in Wayne or Oakland County, and are now searching for an experienced and aggressive Michigan DUI attorney to defend you against your charges. 

Ferndale police have arrested a woman suspected of driving drunk with a small child in the vehicle and fleeing the scene after hitting another vehicle.

The police were able to track down the woman with the help of a driver who called the police and then took it upon himself to follow the woman in his car until the police arrived.

The woman, 46-year-old Jean Timlin, has been charged with operating under the influence while endangering a child, as well as leaving the scene of a property accident. She faces one year in jail for each offense. She was transporting her 4-year-old daughter at the time of the arrest, and her BAC registered at .25%, more than three times the legal limit.

According to Timlin’s attorney, she is terrified of losing custody of her daughter and getting fired from her job.

A preliminary exam has been scheduled for March 18.

Operating under the influence is a serious offense, but when a person drives drunk with a minor in the vehicle, the prosecution will undoubtedly seek enhanced penalties. In some states, like New York, it is now a felony to drink and drive with children in the vehicle. If you have found yourself facing enhanced OUI charges, you can depend on a Michigan DUI defense attorney at the Law Offices of Freedman & Freedman to provide you with the unrelenting defense you need. We understand you are in a serious predicament, and would be happy to help you fight your charges to the best of our ability.

Contact the office today at (877) 858-5297 to learn more about our DUI defense services.

Police arrested a Huron Township man after they discovered he was stealing natural gas from his gas line.

According to the police report, the officer asked the man if he had been tampering with the gas line and the man said no. Still able to detect the smell of natural gas, the officer examined the man’s gas meter. The smell of gas was particularly strong near the meter, and the officer noticed footprints around the meter.

The man didn’t confess to tampering with the meter until the after the officer read him his Miranda Rights. He said he was simply trying to heat up the house for his family because they were cold, and that he used channel locks and a pipe wrench to twist the lock off. He told police he then used a pry bar to turn on the gas. In addition to tampering with his gas line, he had an electric cord running from his neighbor’s house into his house so he could operate an electric space heater.

According to the police report the man fell behind on his gas bill after his Social Security was cut off for three months.

After running a check on the man, police learned he had several warrants out for his arrest for misdemeanor offenses, some of which include traffic violations and having an unlicensed domestic animal.

A man who now lives in Memphis, Tennessee will be sentenced for arson after an Oakland County jury found him guilty of the offense.

Jason Richard Rose, 32, was charged with arson after setting his ex-girlfriend’s minivan on fire. The fire eventually spread to her house and a neighbor’s house, causing more than $60,000 in damages.

Rose apparently planned to scorch the victim’s vehicle as a form of revenge after she broke off their engagement. According to Ferndale Fire Marshall Brian Batten, Rose waited four months and then firebombed the car.

The victim, who lived in Ferndale at the time of the attack, has since moved out of the state out of fear of further retaliation.

Rose was actually sentenced to 14-40 years in prison for the offense, but the sentencing hearing was cut short and postponed until March 18 at the request of Rose’s defense attorney. Rose, who was out on bail, is now in the Oakland County jail following the conviction.

Three Michigan college students have found themselves in trouble with the law after a package containing 48 fake ID cards was intercepted by federal authorities.

The package was being sent from Toronto. At this time, it has not been reported what the students’ intentions were with the fake IDs or what they planned to do with them.

Immigration authorities confronted two of the students last Wednesday, Barak Leibovitz of West Bloomfield and Samuel Hamburger of Royal Oak. A third student, Zachary Firestone of West Bloomfield, was also arrested when he came to pick up 21 of the 48 ID cards.

All three students attend the University of Michigan, and have each been charged in federal court for their involvement in the crime.