Evidence

A Look at Maryland Search and Seizure Law… and How the Law Can Sometimes Mirror Sports

April 23, 2025 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

This blog devotes a lot of space to the suppression of evidence before a trial of an accused person. That is because warrantless searches that violate your Fourth Amendment rights occur frequently, and the inclusion or exclusion of the evidence the police obtained in an illegal search or seizure may represent the difference between a conviction or an acquittal (or dismissal) of the charges against you. Given the importance of these arguments, it pays to ensure you have an experienced and effective Maryland criminal defense lawyer on your side when facing drug or weapons charges.

Take, for example, a recent evidence suppression case from Prince George’s County. The evidence the police obtained during a vehicle search was inadmissible at trial because the police lacked an appropriate basis for searching the interior of the defendant’s car.

In reaching that conclusion, the Appellate Court helpfully laid out some “ground rules” for what is — and what is not — a legal vehicle search. The court’s recitation of the law serves as a notable reminder of two things:

Small details (and differences) can matter a great deal in a search-and-seizure case, and
Search-and-seizure law concepts can sometimes be analogized to sports.

What is (and is Not) Proper Justification for a Maryland Traffic Stop Based on a Driver’s Use of Cell Phone While Driving

February 14, 2025 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Driving in Maryland carries many potential risks. You could become involved in a crash, your vehicle could break down, … or the police could pull you over for a traffic violation and use that stop to find evidence of more significant crimes. In that last scenario, police sometimes overstep their bounds and engage in unconstitutional searches. When that happens, the difference between a conviction and an acquittal (or — even better — a dismissal) may be successfully getting the evidence from that search suppressed. Doing so usually means making a well-timed and well-worded pretrial motion. When it comes to this and other motions, representation provided by an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer is often an integral ingredient in a successful defense.

One problem in traffic stop situations is that people do not know their rights and may consent to things that the law gives them the right to refuse. A drug case from Hagerstown is a good example of this, as well as a scenario where the police overstepped.

M.S. was driving when a police officer spotted what, to the officer, looked like M.S. using the cell phone mounted to the front dash. Specifically, the officer testified that it looked like the driver was touching the phone with his right hand as he drove.

Suspicious Bulges, Reasonable Suspicion, and the Boundaries of a Permissible ‘Stop and Frisk’ Under Maryland Law

September 12, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Terry v. Ohio, which declared that police officers can stop and frisk targets without violating that person’s Fourth /amendment rights if the officer has reasonable suspicion for making the stop and conducting the frisk. Today, police officers frequently obtain incriminating evidence from these stop-and-frisk interactions… but they sometimes do so without the necessary probable cause. As a criminal suspect or a person accused of a crime, getting justice via dismissal or an acquittal can mean disproving the presence of reasonable suspicion and obtaining a court order excluding the illegally obtained evidence from your case. Doing so successfully can be nuanced and complicated, so it pays to have an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer representing you.

Law enforcement officers sometimes use relatively broad bases for conducting a “Terry stop” (a/k/a stopping and frisking a person.) These foundations include vague things like a “suspicious bulge,” “furtive movements,” an “uncooperative demeanor,” or presence in a “high crime area.”

Courts in Maryland have noticed that allegedly suspicious bulges often aren’t… and that the law often requires more than just an officer’s observation that a suspect had a bulge the officer considered questionable. A recent gun case originating in Prince George’s County underscores this.

Excluding Unqualified Experts and Inadmissible Expert Testimony in Your Maryland Criminal Trial

June 14, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Expert witnesses can make a huge difference in the outcome of a criminal trial. The law only allows experts to testify if their opinions are outside the general knowledge of an ordinary juror. In other words, they are probably opining about something scientific and/or technical outside the jury’s general familiarity and education. That unfamiliarity often leads jurors to afford expert opinions considerable weight. If you’re facing a criminal trial where the state plans to use an expert (or experts) as part of its case, you need a skilled Maryland criminal defense lawyer on your side. A knowledgeable advocate can help ensure that a proposed expert is qualified and that the testimony they give is allowed under the court’s limiting instructions.

There are many ways to blunt the prosecution’s use of expert testimony against you. A recent Montgomery County homicide trial illustrates the law that governs these legal arguments and court determinations.

The accused, G.J., was on trial in connection with a double murder in Burtonsville. According to prosecutors, the accused met with J.F. to pay a drug debt but, instead of paying, shot and killed J.F. and A.D., who had driven J.F. to the meeting. The police’s investigation determined that the killer shot the pair with a 9mm gun.

No ‘Experts in Credibility’: What Maryland Law Says About Witnesses Opining About Whether Another Witness Should Be Believed

April 9, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In many criminal matters that make it to trial, the difference between an acquittal and a conviction is which side’s witnesses the jury finds more believable. To ensure you have the benefit of a fair trial, the law forbids the prosecution from doing or saying certain things that would tend to bolster unfairly the credibility of its witnesses. Keeping out this kind of inadmissible evidence often requires a well-stated and well-timed objection, which one reason why is any accused person’s case can benefit from the services of a skilled Maryland criminal defense lawyer.

The prosecution of E.C. in Montgomery County is a prime example of this sort of inadmissible evidence.

In April 2022, the accused man stood trial in a multi-count sex crime case. The state’s central witness was the alleged victim. In addition to the alleged victim, the prosecution also presented a physician who spoke to the alleged victim. The physician testified that the alleged victim’s comments and statements were “credible.”

Police Comments About a Suspect’s Credibility: What an Officer Can Say in the Interrogation Room Versus What a Jury Can Hear in a Trial

January 31, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Maryland law gives law enforcement officers extensive leeway in the interrogation tactics they use. Officers may permissibly manipulate, deceive, and even outright lie to a suspect; those are all valid investigative tactics. This reality is one of the reasons why refusing to speak with officers without a qualified Maryland criminal defense lawyer present is almost always a good idea. Your seasoned attorney may recognize when an officer is employing the “tools of the trade” to get you to say something incriminating, and protect you from making statements that could later harm you at trial.

However, the statements an officer can make in an interrogation setting are very different from statements the state can introduce into evidence in a criminal trial. And, as a recent murder case shows, while the police can tell a suspect “your story defies belief” in the interrogation room, the state generally can’t admit that opinion commentary into evidence in the suspect’s trial.

The murder case arose from an alcohol-fueled dispute between two friends. Police arrived at a Montgomery County apartment to find a man, Y.R., dead. They took a woman, S.N., into custody and interrogated her. That interrogation was recorded on video.

What Maryland Law Says About the Admissibility of an Accused Person’s Prior Bad Acts

November 30, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In a Maryland criminal trial, a jury should only convict the accused if the prosecution has presented evidence proving the accused’s commission of that specific crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Often, the people on trial are folks without spotless records; they may have had multiple prior encounters with the criminal judicial system. Those facts alone don’t make them guilty, though those facts might tempt a jury to find that defendant guilty simply because the jurors decide they dislike the accused. If you’re someone with a criminal past who is on trial again, it is crucial to ensure that you get inadmissible evidence of your past excluded from your case. This is just one of many areas where it pays to have representation from an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer.

These limitations on what the prosecution can do are necessary to avoid confusing jurors, prejudicing them against the accused, and predisposing them to believe the accused is guilty. In other words, the evidence might lead the jury to convict just because they think the accused is a bad person, not because the state offered sufficient proof of the crime charged.

As an example, there’s the Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of F.B., a Baltimore man on trial for felony child abuse.

A Maryland Man Accused of Murder is Granted a New Trial… for the Second Time

September 29, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

When you’re accused of a crime, achieving a successful result may involve many procedural steps. These could include things like pretrial motions (such as a motion to suppress illegally obtained evidence,) in-trial objections (such as opposing the admission of inadmissible hearsay evidence,) post-trial motions, and appeals. To ensure that your rights are protected to the fullest, you need to be sure you have representation from a Maryland criminal defense lawyer with the skills and experience to handle these procedural elements effectively.

A murder case from Montgomery County is a good example. The defendant, H.A.Z., stood accused of killing his married lover’s husband. The state also charged the woman with the murder.

The prosecution chose to try the two together. The Maryland rules allow for this kind of trial if the two defendants are “alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction or in the same series of acts or transactions constituting an offense or offenses.” Sometimes, though, a joint trial would result in unfair prejudice to one or both defendants, in which case the defendants should be tried separately.

How a Search of Your Social Media Accounts Can Become a Fourth Amendment Violation

August 11, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Some things that are ubiquitous parts of our lives today probably would’ve seemed unimaginable 40, 30, or even 20 years ago. That includes developments like smartphones and social media. As technology evolves, so do the methods law enforcement officers use to pursue criminal suspects. Just as with anything else, though, a search of a social media account has the potential to represent a violation of the accused’s Fourth Amendment rights if it wasn’t backed by a valid search warrant. When it comes to getting illegally obtained evidence suppressed (whether that evidence was housed in something as old-fashioned as a bedroom closet or as modern as a TikTok account,) having representation from an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer often can enhance your chances of success.

Many times, this blog covers criminal issues arising from the Maryland courts. Today, we look at a federal criminal case for its insight into police searches of social media accounts.

According to federal prosecutors, T.R. was a member of the Cruddy Conniving Crutballs (a/k/a “Triple C,”) a Baltimore street gang. In the spring of 2021, federal prosecutors charged T.R. and 14 alleged Triple C members with various racketeering, conspiracy, drug, and gun crimes.

What the ‘Statement Against Interest’ Hearsay Exception Does — and Doesn’t — Allow in a Maryland Criminal Trial

July 27, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

The rules of evidence say that a party may not use hearsay to prove their case (or disprove the other side’s case,) unless that hearsay evidence falls within one or more of several exceptions laid out in the rules. Parsing these exceptions — and keeping potentially harmful
evidence that falls outside these exceptions out of your trial — is a place where having an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer can be vital. Because any criminal trial can come down to what the jury hears — and what they don’t — winning these battles is crucial.

One of those exceptions is something called a “statement against interest.” Maryland Rule 5-804(b)(3) says that hearsay may be admissible if it “so tended to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability, . . . that a reasonable person in the declarant’s position would not have made the statement unless the person believed it to be true.”

That exception was at the center of a recent drug case from Salisbury. In that case, the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office raided a home in the early morning hours and recovered 69 bags of suspected crack cocaine, 98 suspected bags of heroin, 17 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition, a digital scale, and six cell phones.