No. In most situations the police need either your consent or a search warrant to search your car unless they have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

The sufficiency of any search warrant can later be tested to see if it was properly attained. However, if you give consent, any defects in procedure or evidence will probably not help your situation and the search will probably be allowed.

If you are stopped by the police in your vehicle, you have the right to decline to let them search your car.  However, the police may have the legal right to search. If the search is later deemed unconstitutional, anything they found cannot be used in court. Unfortunately, if you consent to the search, the items found will likely be used against you, even if they had no legal right to search.

If you or a loved one has been arrested in Hamilton County or in the Greater Cincinnati Area, call the attorneys at Suhre & Associates at 513-333-0014.  The call and initial consultation is free and there is no obligation.

The most common defense raised in drug cases is to challenge the search and seizure that resulted in the police finding the drugs. If the police violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights, the court will suppress, or throw out, the drugs as evidence. The prosecution will then have far less evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and the case could be dismissed.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

In Ohio, and with some limited exceptions, after your records are sealed or expunged, you may truthfully say that you were never arrested, charged, or accused of a crime. In the eyes of the law, the entire incident never happened. In most respects, a sealing or expungement restores you to the status you occupied before being arrested or charged.

You should be aware that the federal government doesn’t have to honor the expungement, nor does an expungement of a conviction necessarily relieve a person from having to disclose it in an application for public office or on some professional license applications.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

Yes. Some factors which may contribute to a denial include:

*         Time period required by law has not been met. This time period often does not begin until all confinement and probation has been completed and fines are paid.

*        Additional convictions exists.

*        A previous expungement exits.

*        Pending arrest(s) Conviction of a sexual offense.

*        Registered sex offender Court records indicate that the case is still open.

 Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

For adults, arrest and conviction records usually aren’t automatically expunged or sealed after a period of years. Individuals seeking expungement generally have to file a written application in court and follow various rules for expungement. These rules can be found in the laws of the state where the conviction or arrest was made.

For juveniles, court and arrest records are usually sealed automatically once a juvenile has been arrested and a trial or “adjudication” begins. However, in Ohio, juveniles must file a written application to have their records expunged or destroyed later.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

The terms “expungement” and “sealing” are often used interchangeably, but there are some differences. “Sealing” is when criminal records are hidden from the general public. “Expunging” a criminal record means that the record is completely destroyed; it’s as if the crime never happened.

Each state has its own definition of expungement, based on different rules and laws. Some states may not use the term “expungement,” but rather terms like “expunction,” “removal,” or “destruction” of criminal records. And even if the term “expungement” is used, the records may not completely “disappear” and may still be available to law enforcement.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

An attempt means that you had the intent to commit the crime, you took some step toward committing the crime, but for some reason you did not complete it. Suppose you went into a bank and demanded money from a teller at gunpoint. Then an alarm rang, so you ran out of the bank before you could get the money. The prosecutor probably would bring charges of attempted robbery. Conviction for an attempted crime usually carries a sentence somewhat less than if the crime has been committed.  Usually, one degree less.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

Most states have laws that allow, or possibly even require, the expungement of juvenile records once the juvenile reaches a certain age. In some cases, the records are destroyed; sometimes they are simply “sealed.”

Also, in many states, juvenile records are sealed automatically and immediately. The purpose of these laws is to allow a minor who has committed criminal acts, or in the language of the juvenile courts, “delinquent acts,” to erase his record permanently, usually at the age of 17 or 18. The idea is to allow the juvenile offender to enter adulthood with a “clean slate,” shielding him from the negative effects of having a criminal record.

Be sure to check the laws in your state or talk to one of our attorneys for details on expunging or sealing juvenile records in Ohio.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

For adults, arrest and conviction records usually aren’t automatically expunged or sealed after a period of years. Individuals seeking expungement generally have to file a written application in court and follow various rules for expungement. These rules can be found in the laws of the state where the conviction or arrest was made.

For juveniles, court and arrest records are usually sealed automatically once a juvenile has been arrested and a trial or “adjudication” begins. However, in Ohio, juveniles must file a written application to have their records expunged or destroyed later.

Remember…if you or a loved one has been arrested on a criminal charge in Cincinnati, give our office a call at our 24 Hour Emergency Number at 513 333 0014.

The best way to answer this question is to quote a jury instruction that best sets out in our opinion, the concept of reasonable doubt in a criminal case:

The burden is upon the prosecution to prove by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt every material and necessary element of the offense charged against the defendant. It is not sufficient that you may believe his guilt probable, or more probable than his innocence.

Suspicion or probability of guilt, however strong, will not authorize a conviction, but the evidence must prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

You shall not speculate or go outside of the evidence to consider what you think might have taken place, but you are to confine your consideration to the evidence introduced by the prosecution and the defense and unless you believe, upon a consideration of all the evidence before you, that guilt of the defendant has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt as to every material and necessary element of the offense charged against him, then you shall find the defendant not guilty.

The burden resting upon the prosecution to prove guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt does not require that such guilt be proven beyond every imaginable, conceivable or possible doubt, but only beyond a reasonable doubt .

You must limit your consideration to the evidence introduced, and you are not to go outside the evidence to hunt up doubts, nor must you entertain doubts that are speculative or conjectural. If, upon a consideration of all the evidence, you are satisfied of the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then you shall find him guilty

If you, or a family member has been arrested in Cincinnati, call our 24 hour emergency number at 513 333 0014 for an aggressive criminal defense team.