Westchester New York Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

NY’s Zero Tolerance Law – When People Under Age 21 Drink & Drive

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. In 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. And young people are considered to be at a higher risk of involvement in such fatal crashes. As such, New Y...

Constructive Possession: Is the Contraband Really Yours?

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. You can be charged with a variety of crimes for possessing illegal contraband. Namely, this includes drugs, weapons, and stolen property. But what happens if you are not ph...

Leaving the Scene of a Car Accident – What are the Consequences?

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. You’ve been in a car accident. Now what? Under New York law, you are required to exchange information with those involved in the accident. You can also provide that informa...

SARA Residency Restriction Mis-Applied to Prisoners in DOCCS Custody

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Imagine you’ve been told you have a date on which you'll be released from prison. However, that day comes and goes, and you’re still in prison. Why? Because the prison won’...

Is an Equipment Violation Ticket Probable Cause for a DWI Stop?

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. As we discussed in our recent blog, a car stop by a police officer is lawful in only a certain number of situations. One is when the copy has probable cause to believe the...

Assault Charges in New York: Misdemeanor or Felony?

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Assault is one of the most common charges in the criminal legal system in New York. Yet many don’t understand why its charged sometimes as a misdemeanor, and sometimes as a...

RAI for Sex Offense Registration May Change With New Bill

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. In New York, persons convicted of certain sexual offenses are required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”). They are assigned a risk level, mostly...

Junior License Drivers in New York: What Are the Restrictions?

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. In 2017, young drivers made up only 4% of all licensed drivers. Yet, that same group accounted for 8% of the drivers involved in crashes with fatalities and personal injuri...

When Your Criminal Court Accusatory Instrument Contains Errors

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Lots of paperwork gets filed when you’re charged in criminal court. For example, the accusatory instrument, supporting deposition, bill of particulars, order of protection....

Gray Divorce – Ending Your Marriage Later in Life

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. The saying goes that one in every two marriages will end in divorce. In reality, the divorce rate in the United States is more like one in three. For those aged 50 or more,...

Child Support in New York: How Much Each Parent Contributes

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Child support is payment made to a custodial parent for the child’s needs. When parents are getting divorced or are otherwise not together, determining custody and child su...

What to Do When You’re the Subject of a Police Investigation

By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. “Hi, this is Officer Smith from the Police Department. I’d like to set up a time for you to come to the station to speak with me about your involvement in an incident we re...