Criminal defense

March 9, 2022

Man Exonerated After 30 Years in Prison

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A Chicago man who was convicted as a teen for murder will now be freed from prison after his conviction was overturned after 37 years behind bars. The National Registry of Exonerations reported that this was the 3,000th conviction lifted since 1989 when the registry began tracking overturned convictions. The suspect was released from prison after 30 years behind bars, but not because his conviction was overturned — because he was paroled. He will now have the conviction expunged from his record, for all the good it will do him, and he will seek a certificate of innocence from the state.

The defendant was framed by a group of rogue officers operating within Chicago P.D. during the late 80s. The police found the teen walking down the street, beat him, and charged him with murder. The group resorted to framing, planting evidence, and gaining confessions through torture and beatings.

Exculpatory evidence had been suppressed at the original trial and the defense attorney representing the wrongfully-convicted defendant said he did not know about witness testimony that would have tied another man to the shooting.

March 4, 2022

Officer Will Not Face Charges After Groin Punching Suspect

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Two officers approach a suspect who opens fire on them. They return fire and strike the suspect. The suspect has now been shot. The police have him in cuffs and are searching him to determine where the gun is. The officer is patting him down. Another officer is standing near him. The officer who is doing the patdown hits his head on the other officer. Thinking it was the suspect who tried to strike him, he punches the man in the groin several times.

Bodycam footage does not show the suspect threatening the officer at the time of the arrest. The officer was relieved of duty and then charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct. However, a grand jury declined to file charges against the officer and so, the case has been dismissed.

Understanding the Problem

February 25, 2022

Police Get Teen to Confess to a Murder He Did Not Commit

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Defendants who confess to crimes rarely can go back into a courtroom and then say that their confession was coerced. This is especially true when the police have stopped looking for other suspects. Children are especially easy to get to confess to things they did not do because they just want the anxiety caused by the questioning to stop. Police will pressure them with more anxiety if they do not say what they want to hear and offer them incentives for confession, regardless of whether or not it is the truth. In this case, a teen confessed to shooting a clerk directly in the face during an armed robbery. He was plied with McDonald’s into the confession.

While juries will not listen to individuals who say they falsely confessed to the crimes, the courts will, especially children, and especially in a place like Chicago where there is a long history of police convicting suspects using torture and extortion.

In this case, the police told the teen that they would give him some McDonald’s if he told them he was there. The teen complied, ate the McDonalds, and was promptly charged with attempted murder, armed robbery, and enough felonies to put him behind bars for two lifetimes. Meanwhile, the teen was later able to prove that he was at a basketball game at the time of the shooting. It goes to show you just how useless police interrogations are at producing the truth and just how narrowly this boy dodged a bullet.

February 16, 2022

Officer Faces Charges for Manipulating a Lineup to Convict Innocent Man

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Authorities allege that a Dixmoor police officer manipulated a police lineup in order to establish charges against a man who was later cleared of wrongdoing. The officer is now facing three felony counts of official misconduct. According to a witness, the officer suggested the correct answer to a witness in the lineup. The suspect was placed into lockup for 18 days. After his release, he pressed charges against the officer.

According to his attorney, the man went into a store to buy a phone and was suddenly facing a 45-year sentence. Prior, an armed robbery had occurred at the store. An employee thought the man resembled the armed robber. The employee called the police.

The officer who is now facing charges is accused of telling the witness which individual to pick from the lineup. The employee did as asked and the man was charged with armed robbery, a Class-X felony, the highest you can receive in Illinois.

February 9, 2022

SAFE-T Act Under Fire After Grand Jury Fails to Indict Man on Murder

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The background is fairly simple. There is a controversial law on the books that allows the state to pursue first-degree murder charges against an individual who did not intend to commit the murder, but was in the process of committing some other forcible felony. As an example, if a man robs a liquor store and the clerk pulls a gun, the man cannot claim self-defense if he kills the clerk first. Instead, it is considered felony murder, the equivalent of first-degree murder. Makes complete sense, right?

Let’s move on to Alabama. You and a bunch of your friends are up to no good. Police spot you and tell you to stop. You do what kids do, and bolt. The police officer opens fire and kills your friend. You have now been charged with felony murder since fleeing law enforcement is considered a felony. Even though you did not pull the trigger, the law holds you responsible for the other teen’s death.

While the first situation makes complete sense, the second example is a gross perversion of the felony murder rule that is used to pin murder charges on mostly Black suspects. Hence, the felony murder rule is a target for police reformers who believe that the system is racist.

February 4, 2022

Chicago PD Announce Crack-Down on Retail Theft Rings

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The last time you heard about an ORC you were likely watching Lord of the Rings. Nonetheless, “organized retail crime” is becoming a major issue for Chicago retailers. CPD released a statement announcing a crackdown on organized retail crime after a 15-year-old was arrested and charged with 21 counts of theft from a beauty store.

The problem for police is that it appears that teenagers are being used to carry out the crimes, are paid by adults for the merchandise they pocket, and then that merchandise is sold over eBay or related services for profit. Police believe that the conspiracy employs children because they are less likely to face serious criminal charges. They also hide the identities of the adults who are profiting from the theft. The children are paid a fraction of the cost of the merchandise. This makes it a win-win for both children and adults. However, the retail stores and the very backbone of our economy are placed at risk by retail thefts.

Police have announced that they intend to track the merchandise and sales and come down hard on those who resell the stolen merchandise on the black market.

February 2, 2022

Man Charged With Painting Swastikas on Synagogue

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A man with a criminal history has been charged with defacing a synagogue by painting swastikas on it. He has been charged with criminal damage and defacement and is facing four hate crime charges related to each swastika that he spray painted. Earlier in the day, police found evidence that someone damaged a different synagogue, and broke the windows of two businesses. It is unclear if the man charged with defacing the synagogue has also been charged in relation to these crimes, but the matter will be investigated further to track his movements throughout the day, so more charges could be forthcoming.

What is a hate crime?

The term “hate crime” refers to a specific class of crimes committed with a specific purpose in mind. The purpose is to enrage, belittle, or terrify someone from a protected minority. In this case, painting symbols associated with the systematic murder and genocide of a people shows the type of bias the government is looking for to prove a hate crime.

January 26, 2022

Women Charged With Felony Burglary in Glitter Bomb Battery

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The law is seldom funny, yet here we are. Two women are being charged with felony burglary and battery after breaking into a man’s apartment and glitter bombing him during a dispute. Police say they have the altercation on video and at one point, one of the women threw the glitter can at the victim. Police later traced the women’s vehicle to their home. Police found evidence of glitter within the vehicle.

How Serious are These Charges?

The two women are facing life in prison in Florida, where the crime occurred. Why? Because they burglarized a home and committed battery at the same time. Burglary + Battery + Florida = Potential Life Sentence. Florida is not a great place to play around. The Florida police are not necessarily going to make a huge distinction between someone entering a home to rob it and someone entering a home to play a prank. No matter what happened here, whether it was a domestic argument turned upside down or just a drunk prank, the actual penalties they are facing are extremely severe.

January 21, 2022

Livestream Error Results in Judge’s Recusal

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The law has never been exactly funny. Yet today, it is becoming funnier and funnier. Now that live-streaming is being used in courts to deal with the pandemic, several extremely funny things have happened. It is important to understand, however, that these things are not funny for any of the individuals involved.

Among the funniest things to happen in the era of courtroom live streaming, a couple was caught apparently having sex during a hearing, a federal informant divulged that he was an informant over YouTube, and now a judge made inappropriate comments concerning defense counsel after a hearing.

In the last case, the judge did not realize that his conversation with two district attorneys and a public defender was still being broadcast over YouTube. During this banter, he made comments such as, “Can you imagine waking up next to her every morning?” The judge, apparently, did not like the way the lawyer conducted herself. The attorney interrupted him on multiple occasions and apparently moved her hands and arms in an agitated manner.

January 19, 2022

Feds: Illinois Nurse Stole Morphine from Patients

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A nurse at a suburban Chicago hospital is in deep trouble after the feds accused her of tampering with patients’ morphine. According to federal prosecutors, the woman removed some of the morphine from the bottle and diluted it with another liquid, essentially ensuring that patients would get significantly less morphine than their doctors had ordered. She is facing two counts of tampering with a consumer product.

Tampering With a Consumer Product

While this may not sound like a serious offense, it is the type of crime that is punished in accord with domestic terrorism. Why? Because ever since the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, Americans have been unduly concerned that random people will contaminate consumer products in order to create fear and panic in the public. Meanwhile, this almost never happens. In one case, however, a wife killed her own husband with contaminated aspirin and then attempted to hide her crime by contaminating more aspirin. Essentially, she tried to cast blame on a random terrorist poisoning American products.