Firm News

Barone Defense Firm Obtains Not Guilty on Troy Michigan Drunk Driving Jury Trial

Published on: September 17, 2018 | by Patrick Barone

The Barone Defense Firm is proud to announce a recent not guilty verdict on a Troy Michigan drunk driving case. The Barone Defense Firm Trial Attorney who handled the case was rising super-star Ryan Ramsayer. Here is Mr. Ramsayer’s synopsis of the case, including a summary of the not guilty trial:

Our client’s case arose out of Clawson, Michigan. The Troy District Court, a/k/a, the 52-4 Judicial District Court, is the court having jurisdiction over Clawson Michigan. There are two judges in Troy, the honorable Kirsten Nielsen Hartig and the honorable Maureen M. McGinnis, and Judge McGinnis presided over this jury trial.

As with all cases and clients at the Barone Defense Firm, while simultaneously preparing the case for trial, we attempted to avoid trial by engaging in plea negotiations with the prosecuting attorney. Despite Mr. Ramsayer’s best efforts to avoid trial, the arresting officer and prosecution would not offer less than an impaired. Our Client (hereafter BH, client’s initials used only so as to protect client confidentiality), had to then make the decision of whether to plead guilty take his case to trial. BH looked at the difference in penalties and decided that the trial was his best option. BH works in the auto industry setting up factories for production. For the last year he had been away most of the month in Spring Hill, TN or Buffalo, NY. His biggest fear, outside of driving, was that he had to go through Canada to get to Buffalo. Also, they have a factory in Canada that he could eventually be required to work at. To add extra intrigue, BH just found out that his wife is pregnant while this case was going. This complicated his decision because he knew that an OWI conviction would make it difficult to impossible to get into Canada, and so he knew if he was convicted he would probably lose his job. This meant there was a lot riding on the outcome of this trial.

Barone Authors Chapter in New Book Entitled “Legality of Search and Seizure in DUI Cases”

Published on: October 3, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

The Barone Defense Firm is pleased to announce that Patrick Barone has authored a chapter in the soon to be published 2016-2017 edition of “Legality of Search and Seizure in DUI Cases.” The title of Mr. Barone’s chapter is “Developing Essential Trial Skills for Defending DUI Cases.’ This new book from Aspatore’s “Inside the Minds” series will be available for purchase within the next few weeks.

Aspatore books is a division of Thomson Reuters publishing, one of the Nation’s largest publishers of law books. According to the publisher, the “Inside the Minds” series brings together leading executives and lawyers from around the world. Relative to law, the Inside the Minds series has published chapters written by the Chairs and/or Managing Partners from over 75% of the Nation’s top 200 law firms.

Mr. Barone’ Chapter includes the following sections:

Delay in Prosecution Leads to Dismissal of Wayne County DUI

Published on: September 19, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

Prosecutors are loath to dismiss or reduce drunk driving cases in Michigan. This is because so many people watch DUI cases so closely, everyone from MADD to the Michigan State Police watch and track what happens to each and every person arrested for intoxicated driving in Michigan. If a prosecutor gives a non-alcohol reduction or even dismisses a case, they usually will have a pretty darn good reason for doing it.

That’s where good lawyering comes into play. A case we handled recently at the Barone Defense Firm had a significant delay in prosecution, and this eventually lead to us being able to make a deal whereby the accused drunk driver plead guilty to a careless driving as well as a disorderly person, which was taken under advisement and will be removed from this client’s record after probation. The original charge of OWI was dismissed.

The facts of this case were not good. The accused was involved in a two car accident. The dispatch indicated that she was trying to leave the area. When police arrived they noted (in the written report) a “strong odor of intoxicatingly liquor emanating from her person.”