2014

A Look at Indiana’s Most Common Drug Dealing Statutes More and more often, our firm receives calls of defendants being charged with dealing in drugs; thus, it goes without saying that detectives and the state of Indiana must be focusing more and more on charging people with it. That’s because whenever drugs are involved, police and prosecutors are actively looking to add a dealing charge on top of any possession charges they may file. Why?…

In today’s blog, we look at what qualifies a building to be a “dwelling” for purposes of the Indiana burglary statute.  There is a huge difference.  If a person burglarizes a building that isn’t a dwelling then it is a Level 5 Felony and the potential is for 1 to 6 years in prison, however, if the building qualifies as a dwelling, then the crime is a Level 4 Felony and the penalty jumps all…

Failure to Appear — The Consequences Both Criminally and Civilly – When it comes to any criminal or civil matter before a court, without question, one of the biggest mistakes a defendant or party to a civil matter can do is fail to appear for court. Any failure to appear (or “FTA,” as many refer to it) has consequences that may have significant ramifications on your case moving forward. A failure to appear is just…

Today our blog looks at one of the more common criminal charges Public Intoxication.  Especially in central Indiana, we see this charge with a high level of frequency.  This is due in part to us having great venues like Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and Klipsch Music Center.  We have these great venues, with great entertainment, that allow a person to drink to the level of intoxication, and then literally force them out into…

OBTAINING A HANDGUN LICENSE IN INDIANA AND APPEALING THE DENIAL OF YOUR INDIANA HANDGUN APPLICATION FOR A LICENSE/PERMIT One of the most fundamental laws of this country is the right to bear arms — so much so, it was immortalized in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. And, depending on your political view, the Right to Bear Arms and the ease in acquiring a permit to carry has become one of the most…

In this week’s blog, we examine how the Indiana Criminal Code categorizes different controlled substance and what are the differences which cause substances to fall under different substance schedules. First and foremost, Indiana law, similarly to federal law, has adopted a classification system which is based on different schedules. These schedules are based upon various factors, such as: the abuse potential, acceptance for medical treatment, and physical or psychological dependence. Moreover, it is important to…

It is probably the most well known of evidentiary objections.  Trial counsel asks the witness “what happened after the driver left the scene” and the witness says, “the lady across the street yelled out…” Objection! hearsay.  Counsel commonly jump to the exceptions to hearsay to determine how or why they should get the out of court statement in, however, many times one need to look no further than to the definition of hearsay itself. The…

Understanding Indiana’s Statute Forbidding the Passing of a School Bus with the Stop Arm Extended – Unless you’ve been living in a cave, almost every single person knows that you can’t pass a school bus when it is stopped and the arm of the stop sign is extended with flashing lights. In fact, we all probably know someone who has been cited for passing a school bus — that, or if we were honest, perhaps…