Ordinarily, criminal prosecutions begin with a crime and a person accused of committing it, but that does not necessarily have to be the case. In fact, under certain circumstances, district attorneys can start legal proceedings without a defendant and possibly without even a crime. These proceedings, known as “John Doe proceedings,” are special investigative processes […]
Foiled Crimes: The Crime of Attempt in Wisconsin
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPWhat happens when a murderer forgets to load his or her gun or a mugging is interrupted in the act? The person never succeeded in committing the crime, so he or she cannot actually be charged with it. After all, it would not make sense for a murder victim to be able to testify in […]
Welfare Drug Testing and the Constitution
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPGovernor Walker announced during his recent campaigning that he was planning on introducing drug testing for people who receive welfare or unemployment benefits. The idea behind the plan is to weed out the recipients of government funds who are using those funds to support drug habits. This has led to much debate about whether the policy is […]
Lawmakers Consider Changes to John Doe Proceedings
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPOrdinarily, criminal prosecutions begin with a crime and a person accused of committing it, but that does not necessarily have to be the case. In fact, under certain circumstances, district attorneys can start legal proceedings without a defendant and possibly without even a crime. These proceedings, known as “John Doe proceedings,” are special investigative processes […]
Supreme Court Rules on Driving Away from Traffic Stop
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPA recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision sheds more light on the complex question of regading a police officer detaining a person. Police stops come in two forms, voluntary and mandatory. If the interaction is voluntary, then the person is free to leave at any time, but if the interaction is mandatory, then the person must stay. These […]
Social Hosts and Dram Shop Liability in Wisconsin
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPSocial hosts and dram shop owners are two groups of people who often end up bearing responsibility for the intoxicated actions of others. Social hosts are people who have others over to their home or otherwise throw a party and end up getting other people dangerously drunk. Dram shop is an outdated term for bars […]
Traffic Stops: When Police Get the Law Wrong
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPPolice officers have a fairly large amount of discretion when it comes to making traffic stops, but their discretion is not unlimited. Instead, officers must have a reasonable suspicion of a crime before they can pull someone over. This is not usually an issue because many traffic law violations are quite obvious, like speeding or running […]
Corporate Crimes: Charging Companies with Criminal Activity
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPAdvances in technology have allowed modern corporations to develop a size and reach that are historically unprecedented. This poses problems because corporations are made up of people, and consequently are just as capable as ordinary people are of committing crimes, and charging corporate crimes presents unique considerations. Certainly, some of those can be avoided by charging the […]
Drones for Aerial Surveillance by Police
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPTechnology’s forward progress is usually reason for celebration. New technologies can cure disease, make work easier, or improve people’s quality of life. Still, new technology can also breed controversy, and one of the most controversial pieces of new technology to appear lately has been unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. Much of the controversy has centered […]
Revenge Porn in Wisconsin
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPThe recent trend of posting revenge porn has proven to be a significant problem for law enforcement officials. Revenge porn is the posting of naked pictures of a former significant other online following a breakup. While some states charged the crime as harassment, many states have passed laws specifically designed to criminalize the posting of revenge porn. […]
Understanding Probation in Wisconsin
/in Criminal Defense/by Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLPThe criminal law has a wide variety of different punishments it can impose for crimes. The ones that people think of most commonly are probably jail sentences and fines. However, these are not the only options. Another common option is criminal probation. Probation is a period of court-authorized supervision of the offender by the Department of […]