Burglary Charge Dropped After Defense Exposes Flaws in Eye-Witness Identification
The government claimed Christopher Bub’s client burglarized a home in the middle of the night while the victim was there. The victim said that she awoke to a noise, investigated, and found an intruder in her home. If convicted, Christopher’s client faced up to 10 years imprisonment. At a court hearing, an officer testified that the victim specifically identified Christopher’s client as the intruder. Because the government had not previously disclosed this evidence, Christopher demanded that the remainder of the hearing be postponed so that he could investigate. In doing so, Christopher discovered significant flaws with the victim’s purported identification of his client. Christopher took that information to the prosecutor and negotiated the dismissal of the felony charge. Instead, the client plead “no contest” to being a party-to-the-crime of disorderly conduct—a low level misdemeanor. Christopher’s client received no jail time, no fine, and no probation.