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CRIMINAL DEFENSE/ DWI DEFENSE LAWYER IN MARYLAND, VIRGINIA & WASHINGTON, D.C. JON KATZ FIGHTS RELENTLESSLY FOR YOUR RIGHTS, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. CONTACT JON KATZ. Criminal defense is war and battle. Our above-displayed law firm symbol incorporates the essential battle power exemplified by the symbol for the taijiquan martial art that Jon practices, and the scales of justice. 301-495-7755, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland 20910 / Virginia meeting location: 703-917-6626, Tysons Corner, Fairfax County, Virginia 22102.
Sunday, May 20. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com On Sundays, I sometimes veer well beyond the law in my blog entries. On my Twitterpage, @jonkatz5, and elsewhere, I sometimes jot out news items, legal ideas, and personal ideas of interest. Every week or so I am assembling some of those recent random thoughts. Alan Watts on pain.
Continue reading "Random thoughts of the week, through May 20."
Thursday, May 17. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com Praised be the video technology that now makes it all the harder for rogue police officers to operate in the shadows. Praised be the people who boldly videotape those actions, including a friend of a skateboarder manhandled in 2007 by now-former Baltimore City, Maryland, police officer Salvatore Rivieri (video here). I can have compassion for Mr. Rivieri, just as it is critical for me to have compassion for all people and living beings. His conduct totally unbecoming an officer did not arise in a vaccuum. For him to have inflicted so much misery that 2007 summer day, he likely was suffering himself. Nevertheless, such behavior was so egregious, that Mr. Rivieri did not belong on the police force, not for purposes of punishing him, but for purposes of preventing his repeating his abusive behavior and to make clear to police officers that such behavior will not be tolerated. On April 27, 2012, Maryland's intermediate appellate court upheld the police commissioner's 2010 firing of Mr. Rivieri, finding no protection against the firing in Maryland's Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights. Rivieri v. Baltimore Police Department, __ Md. App. _ (April 27, 2012).
Continue reading "Five years after manhandling a skateboarder, a Baltimore cop's firing is upheld. "
Sunday, May 13. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com On Sundays, I sometimes veer well beyond the law in my blog entries. On my Twitterpage, @jonkatz5, and elsewhere, I sometimes jot out news items, legal ideas, and personal ideas of interest. Every week or so I am assembling some of those recent random thoughts. 4th Cir. reverses grant of summary judgment against Muslim inmate denied right to grow 1/8" beard. http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/116560.P.pdf
Here is the online detainee locator of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. https://locator.ice.gov/odls/homePage.do
D.C. Cir. in Watson affirms non-Mirandized post-detention answer to "What's in your sock?" question. http://www.dccourts.gov/internet/documents/09CM447_mtd.pdf Keep silent.
4th Cir. reverses gun conviction. With cops blocking D's car's exit and more, he would not have felt free to leave. http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/114268.P.pdf
The breathalyzer culture in DWI prosecutions is broken and needs to be abolished. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/settlements-in-lawsuit-over-flawed-alcohol-breath-tests-in-dc-dc-to-pay-20000-to-4-drivers/2012/05/07/gIQAKpTH8T_story.html . Blood is much more accurate.
Dronabinol is the generic version of Marinol.
CT governor expects to sign medical marijuana bill. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/us/connecticut-passes-marijuana-bill.html
Continue reading "Random thoughts of the week, through May 13. "
Sunday, May 13. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com The following blog entry is a re-print from the May 2009 original: Colman McCarthy put it well in 2003 when he said he will not eat anything that had a mother. Today, words praising mothers pour in from individuals and greeting card companies. How many of the same people speaking those words are going to eat mothers and their children today? Let us remember that each land, air and sea animal was born to a mother. Watch the bond between mammalian animals and their children. Watch birds making nests for their children, and showing them how to fly. Watch fish swimming together in schools.
Continue reading "Honor mothers and Mothers' Day by not eating them nor their children (May 2012). "
Sunday, May 6. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com On Sundays, I sometimes veer well beyond the law in my blog entries. On my Twitterpage, @jonkatz5, I sometimes jot out news items, legal ideas, and personal ideas of interest. However, it can be hard to view Twitter archives after a few weeks. Therefore, starting with this blog entry, I am assembling some of my recent random thoughts. - "[A]ll dharmas ... are but ... means & shifts around the Great Death which is 'our life.'" Jack Kerouac, Some of the Dharma. "Practice wishing happiness to all your friends, acquaintances & enemies. Not only does this awake a heart of compassion..." Id. "I always did suspect that life was a dream, now i am assured by the most brilliant man who ever lived, that it is indeed so." Id. Jack Kerouac engaged on Buddhism with Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, among others. - "The thing wrong with the world is that people don't have instructions." Tadodaho Chief Leon Shenandoah - Watch out for feces in your chicken. - Boredom is not a choice. Thanks to associatesmind.com.
Continue reading "Random thoughts of the week. "
Monday, April 16. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com The District of Columbia remains a colony, at least for having been denied statehood right to this day. If D.C. statehood has not become a reality during the presidential administrations of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, when will it ever become a state? Hawaii became the last state, fifty-two years ago. How much is race a factor in the denial of statehood to Washington, D.C., which for decades has long had a black majority, although that has fallen to near fifty percent. Other obstacles to D.C. statehood include Republican concern about D.C.' overwhelmingly Democratic voting record, the small size of the city (under 700,000), and possibly its having been carved out of Maryland without a sufficiently influential movement to encourage retrocession of D.C. back to Maryland, except for the federal enclave stretching from the Capitol to the White House and Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
Continue reading "Today is Emancipation Day in the land of taxation without representation. "
Tuesday, April 10. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com Recently, I rented a car at the airport from a major car rental company. It was far from a pleasant experience. The salesperson did not seem to care what I wanted in a car nor that I kept repeating "I decline all insurance and other options that are not required," and "I wish to get into my rental car right away." I surmised he gets a commission for selling such services. Rarely do I fill out customer satisfaction surveys, but did so this time in reply to an email from the car rental company. In response to my panning the sales agents' sales overhype, the canned response was that the company wishes its customers to know their product purchasing items -- right down to the push for a GPS device, I suppose. The car itself was just fine. The man who checked my rental contract on my exit was a teddy bear, as was the woman who received the car on my return. Unfortunately, my experience with the salesperson colored the rental car company’s name so negatively that I deeply regret that I overlooked even remembering those kind people who saw me off and back to the agency. This experience reminds me of many of the emails and voicemails that I receive from marketers, often assuring me more clients and much improved Google rankings if only I will buy their products and services. Too often those marketing communications lack a showing of caring about their potential clients (and, therefore, their current clients), nor an interest in what the customer or potential customer wants. Certainly businesses cannot survive without an interest in making money. However, businesses, lawyers, and all others in commerce who put clients ahead of money are destined to make more money than doing otherwise. At my own law firm, client service is key for me and my staff. Clients want to know that we are fully committed to them. Potential clients need to feel they have the right fit with the lawyer they choose. My primary interest is in seeing a criminal defendant get the best possible results, whether or nor s/he hires me. My interest in dealing with criminal defense colleagues is to collaborate and brainstorm with them in fighting for justice for criminal defendants, and not in feeling like cutthroat competitors. Cutthroat competition might be more acceptable for widget sellers, but not for lawyers defending those whose liberty and lives are so much at risk. The late jazz great Bill Evans said it well: "[A]ll I must do is take care of the music, even if I do it in a closet." The audience will come. The same goes for lawyers and everyone else. The video of Mr. Evans in this past Underdog blog entry blows me away every time, and kleeps me focused on my own true path in practicing law.
Thursday, April 5. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com The Blackberry is becoming a dinosaur as it loses its competitive edge with such other smartphones as the iPhone and Droid. Once I learned that my cell carrier Verizon was adding the iPhone, I considered getting one. I then hesitated for many months. I client told me the 4S model was round the corner. Moreover, I was not fond of losing an actual keyboard, which lets me type faster by feeling the crevices between the keys to know I have the right one. The iPhone apparently has no available app to adequately vibrate the keys on each touch to make up for the absence of a keyboard. Making up for that somewhat is the iPhone's fairly accurate voice recognition dictating system, coupled with spell check. On balance, the iPhone will serve my criminal defense practice better. Unlike the Blackberry, it lets me use Westlaw legal research, read an entire long email without its being truncated, access Yahoo email groups online, and even edit my blog and post some simple blog entries without the benefit of inserting hyperlinks. The still and video cameras on the iPhone are superior, and I used that function in taking pictures at last night's Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration, with one of those photos here. I will see what iPhone video length limit is suitable to upload videos to YouTube. Other than the downsides listed in this blog entry, the iPhone either matches and often exceeds what I got from the Blackberry. Here are some downsides about making the switch from Blackberry to iPhone: - I need to figure out how to download my photos and videos from my Blackberry to my desktop computer and to open them on my desktop. I am trying to see whether I can do the same with my Blackberry memos. - Unless an app exists for it, the iPhone does not enable creating subfolders to better organize emails. - The iPhone does not enable a person to hunt for a particular word or phrase within a particular email or Internet text, although search words may be used to isolate a list of emails that contain that particular word. - Spellcheck is quicker on the Blackberry than the iPhone, because the Blackberry skips automatically to each word with spelling issues, whereas the iPhone only highlights the spellings needing attention. - Outlook calendar works more smoothly with Blackberry than the iPhone. With my Blackberry, when I accepted an emailed Outlook calendar invitation from my assistant, it went straight to my Blackberry calendar. With the iPhone, my calendar will update on the iPhone when I wire-connect it to my desktop computer, which is of little help when my assistant emails me a morning invitation while I am in court, to meet a client the same afternoon. At first, I did not get far trying to follow online articles and recommendations by other kind iPhone users on how to integrate emailed Outlook calendar event invitations. At the suggestion of two iPhone users, I sought help on Outlook from Apple's technical service department. The nice and patient technical service phone assistant did not know either, but did a great job showing me how to sync to my desktop using iTunes, which must be downloaded and run in advance to your desktop. I figured out that I needed first to sync my iPhone with my desktop computer, including transferring my desktop's Outlook calendar data to the iPhone, which is automatic for me in the syncing process. Now, I receive Outlook calendar invitations by way of an email with an attachment called mime-attachment.ics. When I open the attachment, the bottom of the resulting screen offers me an option to add the item to my calendar, which I tap. I then click the Done button, and it is now on my calendar. To see all the details of the item when I am in the calendar, I tap the Show All Notes option in the calendar entry.
Continue reading "iBlog. Please ignore my iPhone e-address; jon@katzjustice.com is the one to use. "
Wednesday, April 4. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com 
Martin Luther King, Jr., was gunned down forty-four years ago today. Tonight, I attended a candlelight vigil and celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., at his memorial in Washington, D.C., facing towards the Jefferson Memorial at the Tidal Basin. The grandeur of the memorial -- which states "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope on the side of MLK's statue -- must not obscure the ugliness and viciousness of racism not only in history but to this very day. Nor should it obscure the many courageous actions of Martin Luther King, Jr., including his insistence on the nonviolent path to social change, opposition to the Vietnam War, and insistence on social justice beyond racial justice alone. At the celebration, I saw Dick Gregory, who is so friendly that one day several years ago when he heard me commenting happily to a friend on the phone that I had spotted him buying beets at the Silver Spring Fresh Fields, Dick walked right up to me and shook my hand, asking "How are you feeling?" Early on, he learned the power of humor in the fight to reverse injustice, which is remarkable when considering such struggles he endured as the following one when he was only nine years old: "I used to shine shoes in a whites-only bar in St Louis," Gregory recalls. "One day I was cleaning this lady's shoes. When you're putting the sole dressing on, you have to put your hand behind the heel, to steady it. I heard this man say: 'Take your hand off that white woman's leg, boy.' Then he kicked me in the mouth and broke my front teeth. The owner threw me out and told me not to come back." Back to MLK, on nonviolence, he said: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. ... Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. When accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, MLK underlined that "unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality." Thank you deeply, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, April 3. 2012
By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting relentlessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com UPDATED- April 24, 2012. Word came today that an unexpected incident has led to the cancellation of Claude AnShin Thomas's April 26 visit to Annapolis. I expect to hear when he will next visit the area. Other upcoming spiritual and harmony gatherings I look forward to in the D.C. general area are Krishna Das in June for the Buddhafest; Wayne Dyer in September at the National Harbor; taijiquan master Ben Lo later this year; and Bhagavan Das in October in Baltimore County. Ongoing are weekly Wednesday meditation gatherings in Bethesda Maryland with Tara Brach and monthly meditation gatherings in D.C. with Sharon Salzburg.
Last September, I blogged again about my teacher Claude AnShin Thomas, who inspires me to remain calm in the eye of the storm. I am delighted to be meeting him for the second time when he returns to the area as follows: “The Real Costs of War” Claude AnShin Thomas Offers Contemplation, Talk on Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Book-signing, Thurs. Apr. 26, 7-9 PM at Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis Here is the informational flyer. Here is more about Claude AnShin Thomas. He became a mendicant Buddhist monk years after killing hundreds of people in Vietnam. I met Brother Claude in 2005 during his speaking tour, and was taken by his dual approach of not denying or suppressing the anger that he still lives with -- which for quite some time led him to pickle himself in drugs, alcohol, and sex -- but also doing his best to dissipate and reduce the pain and anger. When he is about to get angry, he accepts the feeling, but tries to dissipate it by focusing on his breath and on the sound of a bell, which I suppose helps get him back to concentrating on his breath and calm rather than on anger. Brother Claude was heavily influenced by Thich Nhat Hanh in his healing process. He was long out of the military at the time, which was sixteen years after the United States military finally pulled out of Vietnam in 1975.
Wednesday, February 29. 2012
By Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. Recently, I updated our webpage containing directions to our office. Our directions page now adds to the information on getting to our main Silver Spring, Maryland, office, by also providing links to directions and pictures for our offsite meeting locations in Tysons Corner, Fairfax County, Virginia; Arlington, Virginia near the courthouse; and downtown Washington, D.C., a few blocks from the White House. All but our Tysons locations are a short walk from the subway. Our Tysons meeting location is right near the intersection of the Capital Beltway and the Dulles Toll Road. Meetings with me can be arranged with my staff, consisting of our two-year full-time legal assistant Lina, and part-time legal assistant Rose. Both are bachelors degree graduates of the University of Maryland's main College Park campus. Thanks deeply to them both.
Sunday, February 5. 2012
By Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer, drug defense lawyer, marijuana defense lawyer, and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com Taijiquan serves me personally and professionally in innumerable ways, including in being calm in the eye of the storm. Taijiquan is moving meditation, wtih the form ending for me and many fellow practitioners with at least five minutes of standing meditation at the end, with the arms raised around parallel to the ground, with the fingertips pointed somewhat towards each other, whether or not that involves an exchange of energy between the fingertips. Regardless of my views on his case opinions and votes, I was taken over the weekend to learn that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer meditates twice daily: "'For 10 or 15 minutes twice a day I sit peacefully. I relax and think about nothing or as little as possible.'" Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, quoted in the Mindful Lawyer http://bit.ly/AmJWjU . Here is the article about Justice Breyer's meditation: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/11/seeking-serenity-when-lawyers-go-zen/ . May that be inspiration for all other judges and lawyers to do the same.
Friday, February 3. 2012
Sending good vibes to recently-passed-away Don Cornelius and his family. Scores were the Saturday mornings during my single and early double-digit years in the 1970's, when I watched and dug Soul Train, ending in Don's trademark "Love, peace and soul" signoff. Little did I realize at the time the breakthrough that was Soul Train in shining the spotlight on its guests, types of entertainment, and dancers that was exponentially larger than if the show had not existed. Here, here and here are three parts of an infomercial for a compilation of Soul Train episodes. Of course, Don was more than Soul Train. Here he explains that R&B continued into soul, funk, rap, and hip-hop ("which is where we are now") and that "you hear so much of the music of the seventies in the music of the nineties, because the music of the seventies was so well done. " Sending Don love, peace and soul.
Sunday, January 22. 2012
When my former law partner Jay Marks and I held a law firm opening party over thirteen years, on the guest list I added Sayuri and Santana Miyazaki, after previously speaking to Sayuri by phone, having been connected by our mutual friend Jun Yasuda. This was the start of a few wonderful meetings over the years with this fascinating, optimistic and utterly peaceful couple. Sadly, today I learned rather late that thirteen months ago Santana passed away in his native Japan. I have no more details than that; Google points to little. Santana was a very talented and inspiring artist and human, painting bright and optimistic colors, including of his beloved Mount Rainier, Maryland (including here and here). I first learned of Santana's art when he brought a beautifully colorful postcard of his art to our party. His widow Sayuri is a poet, who brought me a pamphlet with some of her photos. I surmise that the art and poetry lost their way in one of my subsequent office moves. Sayuri floored me in 2002 with her presentation of her poem "Enola Gay". As I recounted at the time, read first in the original Japanese, and written about six years earlier at the airplane's then site at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Sayuri's Japanese made clear to the speaker of any language her feelings and sadness and pain not just about the Enola Gay, but about war itself. A few years ago, Santana and Sayuri returned to Japan, where they apparently stayed. Here, Sayuri sings a farewell song in Japanese to fellow Mount Rainier residents. To her left, seated, is Santana. I agree with the concept that peace in the world begins with peace inside each of us. Santana already was peace when I first met him, and so is Sayuri. They very much inspire me to be on that path. If anyone knows where I can reach Sayuri Miyazaki, please let me know. In the meantime, I will check with others who know her. Thanking and bowing deeply to Santana Miyazaki.
Monday, January 16. 2012
NOTE: This is a re-print from 2010's Underdog entry on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. Martin Luther King, Jr., presented his immortal "I Have a Dream" speech when I was just four months old. When he was shot dead on April 4, 1968, I was only five years and three days old, and he was only thirty-nine. He would have been eighty-two years old today. I have been very positively influenced by the nonviolent path in fighting for social justice from Gandhi and Martin Luther King, How did they take up and stay on the nonviolent path? For both, their deeply-held religious beliefs helped them on that path. For Gandhi -- writes Radhika Rao --he was also influenced by the non-violence of his mother and of Tolstoy, and the civil disobedience message of Rousseau. Martin Luther King, Jr., was heavily influenced by Gandhi's non-violent path, starting with Mordecai Johnson's discussion of Gandhi. Ironically, hanging in King's office was a picture of Gandhi; both were assassinated. On non-violence, King said: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." In overcoming violence, we have a very long way to go. Let us make the first step and the next step today on the non-violent path. Happy birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr., and thanks many time over.
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