Maryland Criminal Attorney Blog

Maryland Criminal Attorneys are often called upon to represent represent women charged with prostitution. Today, I defended a young women who was charged with solicitation for the purpose of prostitution after a police officer answered the advertisement that she had posted on Craigslist. Ordinarily I wouldn't blog about such a common and unremarkable case, but the case took on added significance to me in light of the Craigslist murder case in Boston that is receiving national and international attention.

The Boston Craigslist murder case reminded all of us who work in the legal profession just how much risk these girls undertake when they agree to have sex with strangers for money whether they advertise on the internet or stand on the street corner. Indeed the judge today commented at length on that issue during the sentencing phase of the case and specifically referenced the Boston murder case.

Continue reading " Craig's List prositution case successfully resolved " »

As a Maryland Criminal Attorney, I often represent people charged with Internet crimes such as solicitation of a minor for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. I was recently retained in such a case in Baltimore County Circuit Court wherein my client is charged not with soliciting a minor on the Internet, but instead with soliciting an undercover detective posing as a minor. These types of cases have become priorities for state and federal authorities in recent years and are taken very seriously. My client has been offered a plea bargain wherein the state would seek five years in prison. My client has been advised that if he fails to accept this plea agreement he will be indicted federally where he will face a mandatory 10 year, non-parolable sentence if convicted. To further complicate matters, my client is a foreign national who is married to an American citizen and has two American born children. Although he does have a green card, he never bothered to become an American citizen and is thus subject to deportation should he be convicted.

This is certainly not the first time I've ever had a case like this but I recall that the first time I did have such a case that my first thought were that defenses of impossibility and/or entrapment may very well apply. Well, according to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the impossibility defense does not apply in this cases and entrapment will be difficult to prove. More on the law shortly but first, here are the facts of the case:

Continue reading " Solicitation of a Minor on Internet for Sexual Activity " »