Every retail theft is a petit larceny, but not all petit larcenies are retail thefts… On March 1, 2017, the Superior Court issued a ruling in a matter of first impression- that being whether an individual’s prior convictions for petit larceny in New York constitute prior offenses for determining the proper grading for the Read More
Yes– if the conversation is being taped surreptitiously- that is, secretly. Illegal recording of a conversation is prohibited under the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Law. A recent Superior Court holding in Commonwealth v. Smith determined that an iPhone is a device which falls under the Pennsylvania’s wiretap act. The Superior Court ruled that Read More
The Altoona Mirror reported that Blair County Judges reached a 4-2 vote rejecting the state’s mandatory sentence laws, specifically those imposing minimum sentences. This decision comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alleyne v. United States, ruling that a jury should decide whether certain factors have been proven to trigger a mandatory sentence. Read More
Rapper, sometimes film and television actor, and perpetual news bait Chris Brown has made headlines again after a judge ordered him to remain behind bars for a month pending trial. The sentencing follows Brown’s most recent probation violation. The terms of his original probation from a highly publicized assault occurring in 2009 of then-girlfriend Read More