Tag: NFG

Quick to Admit Quick to Acquit

Page County, Iowa.  GRL Attorney Matt Lindholm (aka The Wolf) obtained a not guilty verdict for a client facing an operating while intoxicated accusation in Page County Iowa.  The client was stopped around 1:00 A.M. and immediately suspected of being intoxicated.  The client informed the officer that he had not been drinking and had been at his parents all day helping them remodel their house.  The officer concluded the client was intoxicated because he had blood shot eyes, slurred speech, failed field sobriety tests, and refused a breath test.  The videos in the case painted a different picture however and […]

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THC Vape Charges Dismissed After Search of Mail Suppressed

It goes without saying that postal service investigations rarely turn out well for those who receive marijuana products by mail.  Drug dogs and search warrants will conspire to reveal the contents of suspicious packages before they reach the mailbox.  At that point, the recipients face a Hobson’s choice: either snitch on friends or cop to a felony. What can you do when neither is an option? You guessed it. You get the drug crime lawyers at GRL Law involved. Here’s an example of how we can flip the script on these mailed drug cases that don’t involve the odor of […]

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Jury exonerates man of sexual abuse allegation from 20 years ago

HAMILTON COUNTY – Client was charged with Sex Abuse in the Second Degree based on an allegation claimed to have occurred 17 years prior.  After being initially charged, the Assistant County Attorney who was handling the case filed a Motion to Dismiss the case.  Before the motion could be granted by the Court, the head County Attorney, who was personally affiliated with the complaining witnesses father, withdrew the Motion to Dismiss.  Months later the case was turned over to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to continue with the prosecution.  Three years after the charge was brought against him, the case […]

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Drug Charge Dismissed After GRL Challenges Marijuana Identification

GRL recently put its knowledge of drug identification procedures to the test in a case involving alleged THC vape liquid. Police seized a vape cart during a traffic stop.  Field testing of the liquid extract showed a positive color change indicating the possible presence of marijuana. Frequent readers of the GRL Law blog know that field testing can mistake CBD for marijuana.  We’ve discussed this phenomenon here. This is where things get interesting. Police didn’t send the cart to the state crime lab.  Instead, they sent it to a local department that employs an officer with training in marijuana identification.  […]

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Jury Finds GRL’s Client NOT GUILTY of Sexual Abuse

Bloomfield, Davis County, Iowa.  GRL’s client was found NOT GUILTY by a Davis County jury after a long, 2-year fight against sexual abuse allegations.  GRL’s client consistently maintained his innocence from the day the accusation was made, all the way through trial.  He passed up a plea offer that would have included probation, insisting on the fact that he was innocent of the accusations.  With everything on the line the case was presented to a Davis County Jury over a span of 5-days.  After approximately two hours of deliberations the jury unanimously found GRL’s client NOT GUILTY of all charges.  […]

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Vehicular Homicide DISMISSED Halfway Through Jury Trial

Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa.  Vehicular Homicide charge against GRL’s client was dismissed by the court because the prosecution failed to present enough evidence for the case to continue any further forward at trial. GRL’s client was charged with Vehicular Homicide under Iowa’s texting and driving law after he was involved in a tragic accident with a bicyclist on a county highway that resulted in the bicyclist’s death.  GRL’s client stayed on the scene, called 911, attempted to assist the bicyclists and cooperated fully with law enforcement.  When law enforcement arrived he explained that he did not see the cyclists […]

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Crossing Fog Line Is NOT Reason to Believe Driver is Drunk

Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court confirmed what the Iowa Supreme Court said back in 2004, a single, isolated incident of a driver crossing over the fog line (solid white line on edge of road) does not create a sufficient reasonable suspicion that the driver is intoxicated. The facts in the case were captured by way of the Cass County Deputy’s squad car camera and showed that the defendant’s vehicle crossed over the fog line just once as it met the Deputy’s vehicle on a curve.  The Deputy turned around and followed the vehicle and did not observe […]

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Double Violations Results in Dismissal

Sidney, Fremont County, Iowa.  OWI 2nd Offense arising out of an accident, dismissed outright after court granted defendant’s motion to suppress evidence.  GRL dug into the case and determined that the preliminary breath test calibration logs did not comply with Iowa’s requirements.  Additionally, a close review of the video recordings from the police station proved that a separate legal violation occurred by the officer when he refused GRL’s client’s request to call his father prior to making a decision to submit to a breath test at the station.  With the test excluded from evidence the prosecution dismissed the charges and […]

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