Bail can be an unexpectedly complicated process for those have been recently arrested and do not understand the system. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to help you understand the process better.

There are a few different types of bail which your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might seek for you, but the type that applies will depend on the specifics of your case and other factors, such as where you were arrested and the crime for which you were charged.

You may be released on an unsecured bond under certain circumstances. This means that you are released “on your own recognizance” or on a bond that requires no cash deposit or collateral. However, you will be held liable if you fail to appear on your court date or violate the bail conditions.

Failing to appear in court is a serious crime that carries its own penalties, such as years of imprisonment, if prosecuted separately, or additional penalties and longer prison time if factored into the sentence of your underlying offense.

You might also be released under a cash bond, which requires a cash deposit or collateral in order for you to be released. The bail might be “straight,” requiring the entire amount, or a percentage of the total amount. However, if you fail to appear, you will be liable for the total amount, and if you are ultimately convicted and the sentence includes a fine, your cash bond may be applied to the payment of the fine.

If you have more questions about how bail works, contact dedicated New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg. The initial consultation is free of charge.

When the court holds a bail hearing for you after your arrest, you may be wondering if it is a good idea for you to testify at your bail hearing. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might be able to advise you and answer your questions about bail.

In general, however, if you testify at your bail hearing, you do so at your own risk. Your testimony might come back to be used against you at trial, which does not violate your right against self-incrimination. While your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to ask the court to preclude your testimony from being used at trial, it is not likely the request would be granted. If for some reason you feel compelled to testify, you may have to sit for cross-examination. Your attorney can ask that the court preclude cross examination, but if it does, your testimony might not be considered reliable.

In sum, it is not a good idea to testify at your bail hearing just to express your sincerity and willingness to appear at your court date; the risk is too great.Another issue comes up if you post bail with cash. If the court has reason to believe your bail money might have come from an illegitimate source, it may hold a “source hearing” inquiring into the source of the funds. The prosecution is able to call and examine witnesses at this hearing.

If you have further questions about bail, contact experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today for a free consultation.

Under the Constitution, law enforcement may obtain a search warrant only if they have probable cause to believe that a crime was actually committed. A warrant is authority from a judge to search a particular place and seize particular evidence. The officers must prove probable cause by an affidavit or oral testimony.

A valid warrant must specify the places the officers may search and the items they may seize. A warrant must specify the times and dates during which the search and seizure may be performed. An experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may find a way to attack the validity of a search warrant.

The United States Supreme Court has held that if officers rely in good faith on a warrant, evidence they seize can be used at trial. However, a warrant will not protect a search in four situations. Evidence may not be used at trial if:

• The affidavit shows so little probable cause that it would be unreasonable to believe that it even existed;
• The person signing the affidavit includes information that he knew was false or should have known was false, except for his reckless disregard of the truth;
• The judge takes part in the search and allows officers to seize items outside the warrant; or
• The warrant is so obviously flawed (for example, it doesn’t identify the place to be searched or the items to be seized) that the officers could not reasonably believe that it is lawful.

If you’ve been arrested for a crime, contact New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today for a free initial consultation.

Questions concerning the search and seizure of cars do not always have clear-cut answers, and the constitutionality of such searches is a hotly contested subject. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to help you if your car has been searched by the police.

The unfortunate fact is that for the most part, cars are not well-protected under the Fourth Amendment. Police officers have considerable lenience when it comes to reasonable suspicion when pulling over or searching vehicles. Reasonable suspicion can occur any time an officer suspects a traffic offense has been committed.

When the police stop a car, they are allowed to ask for the driver’s license and registration and ask identifying questions; shine a light inside, and anything seen counts as being “in plain view” and grounds for seizure; look at the vehicle identification number; and order the occupants out of the vehicle. If the occupant is behaving suspiciously, such as making wary movements or refusing to obey orders, that may justify pat-downs.

The law is slightly more favorable when it comes to the arrests of a recent occupant of a vehicle; formerly, the police were allowed to search the entire passenger compartment and any containers, even if the arrestee was arrested outside the car and removed from access to it. But the Supreme Court has ruled that a search of a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest is only lawful when the arrestee is, at the time of the search, within reaching distance of the passenger compartment, and the police reasonably believe that evidence relevant to the crime of arrest may be in the vehicle. This is a much stricter standard, as the police typically handcuff and secure arrestees outside the car, anyway. Additionally, if the police issue a citation for a traffic offense, that does not give justification to search the car or driver, unless there is reasonable suspicion that the driver may pose a danger.

If you are pulled over while driving and arrested, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney’s best strategy may be to challenge the reasonable suspicion basis of the stop or whether the police had probable cause to believe the car contained evidence of a crime. If you have further questions about the search of a car, contact New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today.

There are specific regulations governing police behavior when it comes to searches and seizures of computers. If your computer has been searched or seized by the police, you may have grounds to challenge the search or make certain demands regarding it. A New Hampshire criminal attorney can advise you as to the Fourth Amendment implications of the search.

In general, when searching a computer, the police are supposed to use a keyword search that does not unnecessarily expose material for which they have no probable cause to search. Though the police might search a physical file cabinet by opening each file and inspecting its contents, they should not do the same thing with each file and folder on your computer.

The police will probably make a mirror-image of your computer’s hard drive and use that to conduct their search; they might return your computer as they no longer need it. Your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney should ensure that the evidence is not tampered with by the police. Your attorney can do this by having a computer technician make a mirror of the hard drive as soon as it is returned, so that you have an image of the files as they were at the time of the search; this can be compared to the evidence the police present. Finally, if the police seize property or files that are intermingled with other documents that are not covered by the scope of their search warrant, your attorney should move for the prompt return of the property and demand that the non-covered files be sealed.

If you have questions about a search and seizure of your property, contact experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today for a free initial consultation.

If you have been charged with a crime as a result of a police search, you may be wondering if there is anything you can do to contest the search. In particular, “plain view” searches are a special class of searches and have their own rules as to whether they are conducted lawfully. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to answer your questions about the plain view search as it pertains to your case. Here is some general information:

A “plain view” search occurs when the police spot an object and have probable cause to believe the object is the instrumentality of a crime. If so, they may seize the object without a warrant.  Three conditions must be met: the police must lawfully reach the vantage point from which they can see the object, they must have lawful access to the incriminating object, and it must be immediately apparent that the object is incriminating. “Immediately apparent” here means that viewing the object without further searching gives the police probable cause to believe it is contraband. For example, they cannot turn over the object to look at the serial number in a “plain view” search. Of course, the entire search must also be conducted within Fourth Amendment guidelines.

If your police seized your property or arrested you on the basis of a plain view search, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might be able to challenge it in two ways: (1) your attorney might challenge how the police got into the position to see the items, if they entered an area they were now allowed to be, or if they looked into a car that was stopped illegally; or (2) your attorney might challenge whether the incriminating nature of the evidence was immediately apparent, if the police inspected it intrusively, or if they conducted further investigation after seizing it—this would make the search not a “plain view” search. In one case, the Supreme Court ruled that an officer who felt a hard object in an arrestee’s pocket, and knew that it was not a weapon, could not remove the object on suspicion that it was drugs.

If you have been arrested and your property has been seized by the police as evidence, you may be wondering if you can challenge the use of that evidence in court.  Any evidence used against you has to be obtained lawfully, and you can try to have some evidence suppressed at trial if you think it has been obtained unlawfully.  However, this does not apply to all evidence. 

In order to get a suppression hearing, you must establish that you have “standing,” which means that you had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the item seized or the place searched.  Merely owning the item in question is not the same thing as standing.

The issue of standing can be difficult for defendants, as your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will try to distance you from the evidence seized.  However, that might conflict with the fact that your attorney needs to establish sufficient standing to get a suppression hearing.  Some prosecutors will challenge standing in order to force the defendant to testify at the suppression hearing that he did possess the item in question, which can then be used to impeach the defendant he testifies on his own behalf at trial.

An experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might try using other witnesses to establish standing.  For example, if the arresting officer testified that he saw the incriminating item in the possession of the defendant, that might establish standing without the defendant having to testify.  Similarly, other witnesses such as a friend can be called to testify to the defendant’s interest in the property that was searched.

If you have questions about how standing might affect your case, contact experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today for a free initial consultation.

If your property has been searched, you may be wondering about the constitutional issues surrounding police searches and whether your search was conducted lawfully, particularly if evidence gathered during the search is going to be used against you. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will be able to answer questions pertaining to your specific case.

The most important thing to note is that the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and similar provisions in state constitutions only limit actions government agents. Private investigators or other private parties are not limited by the Fourth Amendment, and evidence gathered by them can be used, no matter how unreasonable their search. However, if the individual who conducted the search acted as an instrument or agent of the government (such as an airport employee who regularly provides tips to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and searches packages), or if police officers join a private search in progress, then the search must still comply with Fourth Amendment standards.

It is also important to note that if you do anything to relinquish your privacy interest in an item, you may forfeit your Fourth Amendment right to privacy against searches and seizures of the item. Actions indicating forfeiting your privacy interest include leaving a bag in a public hallway, putting it in the garbage and taking it to the curb, or throwing it on the ground when being chased by police. However, if you only set an item down temporarily or give it to someone else temporarily, that does not constitute abandonment. The burden of proving that an item was abandoned is on the government.

If you have further questions about a search, contact experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg for a free initial consultation.

If you have been arrested for an alleged drug sale, your New Hampshire criminal defense lawyer may want to cross-examine the arresting officer.  After the officer has given his account of the incident, your attorney’s cross-examination might include the following questions:

• Where were you parked?
• Which side of the car were you on?
• Were you on the same side of the street as my client?
• Were there cars parked between you and my client?
• Did you or your partner use binoculars to observe my client?
• How far were you from my client when you saw him hand something to the other individual?
• The item you say you saw my client give to the individual who approached him—you could not see what it was?
• And you could not identify the item the individual gave to Defendant?
• You say that my client handed a package to another man?
• Could you please describe that other man?
• Had you seen this man before?
• Did you see what the man did with the package?
• Did you stop that man?
• Did you search him?
• Did you find drugs on him?

Questions like these may reveal inconsistencies in the officer’s account, and can be the key to creating “reasonable doubt.”  For this reason, an effective cross examination of the arresting officer can be all the difference in defending a drug sale case.  For best results, you need an experienced New Hampshire criminal defense lawyer like Sven Wiberg in your corner.  To schedule a free consultation, contact his office at 603-686-5454.

If you are arrested, the prosecutor’s promise of relatively little jail time may tempt you to quickly plead guilty to a serious charge. But be extremely cautious before accepting a plea bargain, especially to a serious charge early in the pleading process. A conviction of a serious crime may cause you severe problems in the future. For example:

• If you plead to a misdemeanor charge with a maximum possible sentence of more than two years imprisonment, you may never legally possess a firearm.
• If you plead to a drug offense, you cannot obtain federal student aid for at least one year.
• If you are convicted of a serious crime you may receive even greater punishment if you are later charged with a crime.
• If you are convicted of a serious crime your job prospects may be damaged forever.

Before pleading, try to hold out until a later court appearance. Hiring a New Hampshire criminal attorney can help you avoid many of the pitfalls inherent in an early plea bargain. For example, a New Hampshire criminal attorney will:

• Advise you to be very cautious before entering a guilty plea. A good attorney will look for weaknesses in the prosecution’s evidence and advise you when to hold out for a better deal. The prosecutor may see that your attorney has called his bluff and make a more acceptable offer.
• Consult with lawyers who appear regularly in that court and know the value of your type of case.
• Investigate your case fully and highlight weaknesses in the prosecution case.

If you’ve been arrested, contact Wiberg Law Office, PLLC at (603) 686-5454 for help and advice from an experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney.