I had just finished a jury trial in Troy, Michigan (the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in approximately 5 minutes) when my client received a telephone call that his friend was being charged with Fencing Stolen Property out of his store.  The charges were serious: he faced a felony charge and jail or imprisonment.  Caught up in an undercover sting operation, he was caught on tape selling and buying stolen merchandise.   So much for celebrations over the “not guilty” verdict . . . we took on the client’s friend’s case.

During the case, we developed a theory of “sentence entrapment” — essentially that the police made the offense worse (from a misdemeanor to a felony) by repeatedly returning to our client’s store and purchasing more items from him or selling more items that were “stolen”.  Had they stopped after one (1) purchase/sale, he could only have been charged with a misdemeanor — the police made it a felony, we argued.

I am proud to say that the felony charges were dismissed.  He pled to what he had done — commit a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to six (6) months of non-reporting probation.

At Neil Rockind, P.C., we take our cases seriously.  We are a trial firm.  We are trial lawyers.  We hate to lose.   Visit our medical marijuana website, our other blog or our firm site that we share with Moss & Colella, P.C., a firm of personal injury trial lawyers to learn more about us.