best indianapolis criminal defense attorney

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that every citizen shall enjoy the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” While this right applies to passengers and drivers during a traffic stop, you have slightly different rights and responsibilities as a passenger. While the police have the authority to ask for the driver’s identification during a traffic stop, they don’t have that same authority…

If police officers arrive at your home with a search warrant, it will obviously be a very stressful, difficult, and possibly chaotic time. As such, it is important to understand the process by which police obtain a warrant, and what they may search for once they enter your home with a valid warrant. A search warrant is an order signed by a judge giving police the legal authority to search for evidence of a crime…

Can Community Corrections Take Away Credit Time on Violations? Recently in Richard Shepard v. State of Indiana, under case number 84S01-1704-CR-00190, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the director a Community Corrections program lacked the authority to deprive a defendant’s good time credit. In 2013, Shepard pleaded guilty to dealing in cocaine as a class B felony and, in exchange, received an 11-year sentence in the DOC with 900 days total credit, including 450 days…

Certain counties around the state have put extensive time and resources into developing problem solving courts to help come up with creative solutions to criminal issues in our society. These courts are built around rehabilitation rather than punitive punishment to help give a different approach to certain types of crimes and situations such as drug, mental health, and veteran type issues. Although most of these programs have strict rules on eligibility, if you can get…

Surprisingly, one of the most common phone calls we receive as defense attorneys at Banks & Brower is that of a victim wanting to drop charges against a defendant and/or looking to hire us to help the defendant. And, even more unsurprisingly, as former prosecutors, these calls made up probably 50% of the calls we received when we worked for the state of Indiana. Why are they so common? The answer probably lies in the…

What Constitutes Neglect of a Dependent? Indiana’s neglect of a dependent statute (I.C. 35-46-1-4) reads in pertinent part: A person having the care of a dependent, whether assumed voluntarily or because of a legal obligation, who knowingly or intentionally: Places the dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent’s life or health; Abandons or cruelly confines the dependent; Deprives the dependent of necessary support; or Deprives the dependent of education as required by law; Commits…

A Look at the Crimes that Disqualify from Receiving Home Detention in Indiana In 2016, the Marion County Department of Corrections gave over 1 Million Dollars to hire additional staff to accommodate a large increase in home detention due to overcrowding. This puts the number of people on some form of home detention to over 3,000 in Indianapolis. This can be a preferable alternative to those who want to finish the remainder of their sentence…

I’ve Been Arrested for a Misdemeanor in Indiana, Now What? For most people, when they are arrested for the first time they have committed a misdemeanor.  These are sometimes called “petty” crimes.  However, when someone has been arrested for the first time nothing seems petty and the potential penalties for a misdemeanor sound quite scary. Three Classes of Misdemeanors in Indiana Class A Misdemeanor: A Class A misdemeanor carries a penalty that ranges from 0…