RECENT CRIMINAL DEFENSE CASES

Recent Criminal Cases Defended by Peter Elikann in Boston

Boston Municipal Court

A medical student shoplifts a blouse from a department store. It appeared to be a one-time fluke of bad judgment in an otherwise good life of public service. However, it could have severely affected her career. Attorney Elikann approaches the police and the department and, at a clerk’s hearing, convinces all parties to not issue a criminal complaint against her. As a result, not only does she have no record of a guilty conviction; there is no record of her having ever been formally charged in court.

Westborough District Court

In this case, Attorney Elikann’s client was a homeowner with a wife and child who had worked steadily his entire life. However, a decade earlier he had pleaded guilty to drunk driving and having some marijuana in his car. Because of that, he was about to be deported and removed from his family. Attorney Elikann managed to reopen the guilty plea made 10 years earlier and have it withdrawn. The case was dismissed and the client remains with his family and will not be deported.

Middlesex Superior Court

A client, who was an otherwise hard-working family man, cashes a check for an acquaintance. Later he learns that the acquaintance was actually having a number of people cash checks for him that he was embezzling from a corporation. A large number of people were charged with a conspiracy and all pleaded guilty except for Attorney Elikann’s client. At a jury trial, his client was found not guilty.

Commissioner of Probation

A client had a rather lengthy criminal record in his youth. However, he had turned his life around and had been in no trouble for more than 15 years. Still, this long ago behavior was affecting his future and his career. Attorney Elikann successfully got his client’s record sealed so that he would have a chance at a better future.

Woburn District Court

A young professional couple had an argument in a supermarket parking lot. The husband touched his wife’s wrist to try to beckon her to come into the store. A passerby saw it and called the police. To the horror of the couple, the police insisted on arresting the husband because it was reported that there had been bodily contact during an argument, no matter how slight. Attorney Elikann negotiated a result where the husband admitted no wrongdoing in court, but was able to get the case dismissed.

Waltham District Court

A client was in a car accident with no one else’s car involved where he was taken to the hospital. Afterwards, he was charged with drunk driving even though there were no field sobriety tests. At a jury trial, Attorney Elikann argued that there was simply no evidence to convict his client and a head injury might have made the police officer think the client wasn’t thinking clearly. The jury found the client not guilty of drunk driving.

Sex Offender Registry Board

A former Massachusetts resident was living and working in upstate New York. While he was there, he began corresponding with a young female from another state via the internet. She both posted her age as 18 and told him that she was 18. Among other things, she told him that she was looking to relocate, had just moved back with her parents after having gotten out of a bad live-in relationship with her boyfriend, and was looking to leave an abusive home situation and defeat a growing drug habit. She flew to meet him, they did have sexual relations and within hours, he was arrested and it was revealed to him that she was actually 16. He pled guilty to statutory rape in New York using a New York attorney since having sex with someone underage, even if the person charged is unaware of the true age, is still in violation of the law.
After serving a period of incarceration in New York, he returned to Massachusetts and hired Attorney Elikann for help with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry. After gathering support from his family including his ex-wife; demonstrating what an otherwise good life of work and good works he had always led otherwise; showing that he was actively engaged in treatment; and showing that in Massachusetts this would not have been a crime since the victim would have had to be one year younger here, Attorney Elikann convinced the Sex Offender Registry Board to excuse his client from having to register whatsoever with the Sex Offender Registry.

Framingham District Court and Woburn Superior Court

A client brought his computer in for a specific repair to a large chain store. After it was repaired an employee started browsing through the computer and found some legal pornography on it along with some child pornography. This was reported to the police and the client was charged with possession of child pornography. Attorney Elikann convinced the judge to spare the client the period of incarceration that had been requested by the prosecutor. The client would undergo sex offender specific treatment both with a group and with an individual counselor, wear a GPS monitor and undergo a rigorous term of supervised probation, but was spared incarceration.

Charlestown District Court

A client was arrested with both a gun in his car and some drugs. In a Motion to Suppress, Attorney Elikann argued that the search was illegal and that the police had no probable cause to stop and search the automobile and that the entire search was a pretext.
The judge granted Attorney Elikann’s motion and the entire case was dismissed.

South Boston District Court

A client visited the home of someone who was under police surveillance because of neighborhood complaints that she might be dealing drugs out of that home. After he left, the police searched the home and found a small amount of drugs near the female who lived there. She told the police she had just purchased $40 worth of drugs from the client. The police followed the client in his car suspecting he might have had something to do with the drugs. A stop and search of his car resulted in no drugs being found on him. Still the client was arrested and charged with drug dealing based on the suspicion that he might have had something to do with the drugs found in the female’s home. During a jury trial, the judge granted Attorney Elikann’s motion for a required finding of not guilty. That means that the judge found the client not guilty even before the jury had a chance to deliberate on the case and give a verdict.