The Tennessee Highway Patrol took a novel approach to suppress demonstrations in Nashville,Tn. recently. Over 50 protesters were charged with trespass during protests. Someone put digital signs and paper signs out according to news reports which stated no trespassing. What is trespassing ? A person commits trespass if the person enters the property or remains on the property without the owners consent. See T.C.A. 39-14-405 Consent may be inferred in the case of property  that is used for commercial   activity  available  to the general public or in the case of other pr ..read more

Nashville, Tennessee District Attorney Glenn Funk issued a press release   announcing his office’s intentions on not prosecuting marijuana charges less than .5 ounces . General Funk did reserve the right to prosecute those who were smoking marijuana in public on disorderly conduct charges, General Funk’s rationale is well reasoned. General Funk opined that minor marijuana charges” do little to promote public health and even less to promote public safety”. The press release further states that the elimination of prosecuting these minor charges will save needed expenses. These resource ..read more

The ABA Journal posted an article recently on should jury trials be moved to Zoom. I posted a poll this morning on my Twitter feed  @RobMcKinney to get some feedback. From the lawyers responding it was a solid rebuke to the notion of a future of Zoom jury trials. First, I do not think that radical changes should be made to the American jury trial system. In my mind, it is the only mechanism that protects citizens from over zealous District Attorneys and police. Let’s examine some of the reasons why Zoom should not be used for jury trials. Lawyers cannot observe the body language of the j ..read more

In State of Tennessee v Mimi Barrett , The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on Ms .Barrett’s appeal of her sentence. The trial court denied her request to serve her sentence on community corrections. Community corrections is a form of alternative sentencing that avoids prison time. Community corrections is a more restrictive than regular probation. On appeal, the state contended that prior case law required Ms. Barrett to serve her sentence due to the wording contained in the Drug Free School Zone Act. Many different panels of the Court of Criminal Appeals have held that a defendant convicted o ..read more

Right now, I have a very active practice defending nurses, doctors, dentists and other health care professionals before the various Tennessee boards that regulate their license. It was a very different path that I took in defending health care professionals. I was thinking recently on how it all started. Most lawyers really don’t know what area of practice they want to focus on when they start out. I started at a small firm and did what they told me. Mostly, it was criminal law, personal injury law, family law, and some other litigation type cases. After a couple of years, I started my own pra ..read more

First, I must give credit for The Marshall Project. The Marshall Project is deeply engaged in criminal justice reform.  Dr. Brie Williams and Dr. Leah Rorvig wrote a great article tiled ” COVID-19: A Survival Guide for Incarcerated People” that appeared in the Marshall Project. If your interested in criminal justice reform, you should follow them on Twitter at @MarshallProj. Here are the good doctors advice on avoiding COVID-19 while in custody. One thing you need to know. jails are not equipped to deal with a pandemic. Jails are designed and maintained  to keep people in jail. Wash ..read more

During the cornavirus, people are stuck at home and surfing the internet. Our office has had several inquiries from our website asking this question. Can I have my Tennessee DUI conviction expunged from my record ? The quick answer is no.  A Tennessee DUI conviction can never be expunged currently. Only DUI cases that were dismissed or you were found not guilty can be expunged. There is a silver lining though. DUI charges that were reduced to a reckless driving or reckless endangerment may be eligible for expungement. Under Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-32-101(G), Tennessee law prov ..read more

The Nashville Tennessean reported yesterday  that Metro Nashville Police Department will not be getting funding for body cams. This news is shocking. Why ?  Metro Nashville Police Department has for years resisted a department wide implementation of body cams. Police s have for years hid behind the cost of the body cams as the reason why Nashville can’t equip it’s police officers with body cams. Yet, several police departments in middle Tennessee have body cams. The county with the least resources Cheatham County has body cams for all the deputies of the sheriff’s department. I comme ..read more

The police have an unfair advantage in prosecuting most Tennessee DUI cases. The main reason is the police control the narrative during the investigation. A citizen does not question the police during the DUI investigation. Here are just some examples. The police control the information in the arrest warrant, the search warrant, and the DUI arrest report. Very few times does a police officer include mitigating facts in their arrest reports. Metro Nashville, Tn. police officers are required to file out a DUI arrest report commonly referred to as a 132 report. Tennessee Highway Patrol officers ..read more

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great book titled Outliers. The book covered the careers of The Beatles , Bill Gates , and others. The premise of the book is that one does not become an expert until they do something over 10,000 hours. After 22 years of practicing criminal defense law, I still learn something new each week. Here are three lessons from the courtroom from Sumner County General Sessions Court last week; File motions. The charge was child abuse. One of the elements was that the neglect adversely affected the child’s health and welfare. No proof was stated in the arrest affidavit ..read more