Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Excessively long police stops may (or may not) be your ticket to a better result in your Virginia criminal prosecution. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that "Traffic stops are analogous to investigatory Terry stops. Rodriguez v. United States, 575 U.S. 348, 354 (2015)....

Switching the occupant of a car's driver seat is sometimes practiced to help the actual driver avoid a Virginia DUI prosecution. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know the downsides of doing so include: (1) It is a crime to cover up another person's criminal...

Plain sight is the delight of police and the bane of a criminal suspect. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I was not surprised to read that Joseph Blake Widgeon's lost his challenge to his car search that followed a law enforcement officer's (LEO's) seeing an...

Invalid Virginia arrests occur when a misdemeanor does not take place in front of the law enforcement officer, and where an exception to the foregoing rule does not apply. Va. Code § 19.2-81. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that among those exceptions is...

Texts (TXTS) about actual or potential drug deals too often litter the seized cellphones of suspected drug dealers. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I too often see cellphone extractions of my alleged drug dealing clients that have incriminating incoming and outgoing drug transaction communications out...

Drug dogs (DDs) run rampant with police departments / law enforcement officer (LEO) departments, sniffing for drugs, explosives and other evidence. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that a dozen years ago, the federal Supreme Court by a 5-4 decision found that the Constitution's...

Blurts run amok with too many people stopped by police. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I shook my head in my hand as I read about this blurt from now-convicted Virginia drug and gun defendant David Witcher, who went down at his non-jury trial: “'I...

Assault trials (ATs) can be roller coasters in Virginia. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, my view is that plenty of alleged victims prevaricate to police and on the witness stand, which also happens too often with many other Virginia misdemeanor and felony prosecutions. How should...

Harsh judges are found in Virginia criminal court, as are more empathetic-seeming judges. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that people are ever-changing. The judge who at one moment or most moments seems unfavorable to criminal defendants may in your case on your court...

Fairfax prosecutorial flexibility to suit the situation is claimed by the county's chief commonwealth's attorney / prosecutor to be his approach to prosecution. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I have this mid-June 2025 short video of Steve Descano at the ready, in which he distinguishes...