Archive for the ‘Legal Issues’ Category

Change in Virginia Exclusionary Rule

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

Jack E. Call, who is a professor of criminal justice at Radford University, has written another great overview of a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision. In the overview, entitled "The Virginia Supreme Court Issues Important Decision Concerning Application of the Exclusionary Rule to Arrests Unlawful Under State Law", he ...

Cell Phone Searches Incident to Arrest

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

Special thanks to Lt. Scott Schwarzer for forwarding the following memorandum from the Irving, TX Police Department that contains an overview of a case that was heard in the Fifth Circuit. I am attaching the a copy of the finding to this entry. Please be sure that you ...

Reasonable Suspicion for Pat-Down

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

Mr. Jack Ryan is an attorney in Rhode Island, a graduate Juris Doctorate, Cum Laude Suffolk University Law School. He is also a veteran police officer with the Providence Police Department, Providence, RI, with 20 years experience. In addition, he is an instructor with the Public Agency Training Council and ...

Sex Offender E-mail Registration is “Feel Good” Legislation

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell recently announced that he will propose legislation to require convicted sex offenders in Virginia to register their e-mail addresses and IM names in the Sex Offender Registry. The purpose of this legislation is to provide a method for social networking sites like MySpace.com to ...

VML Brief Cases – Winter 2006

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Rusty McGuire provides us with more analysis of recently decided court cases. Take a minute to review the Brief Cases file attached to this post. CLICK HERE: VML Brief Cases - Winter 2006

VML Brief Cases – Summer 2006

Thursday, July 13th, 2006

Rusty McGuire provides us with more analysis of recently decided court cases. Take a minute to review the Brief Cases file attached to this post. CLICK HERE: VML Brief Cases - Summer 2006

VML Brief Cases – Spring 2006

Sunday, June 4th, 2006

Rusty is back in Virginia after an all expenses paid trip to the beautiful Mid-Eastern country of Iraq. He provides us with more analysis of recently decided court cases. Take a minute to review the Brief Cases file attached to this post. CLICK HERE: VML Brief Cases - Spring 2006

Legal Issues – Academy Membership

Monday, May 15th, 2006

Several agency administrators have indicated to me that they are confused about the procedures for joining or leaving their academy of record. I have prepared this memorandum in an effort to explain the procedures as I understand them. Mr. Ronald E. Bessent, the Program Director for the Division of Standards and ...

Virginia Criminal Justice Certification Rules

Saturday, September 24th, 2005

I discussed this issue on the CopCAST podcast but I also want to address it in the blog since the it keeps coming up. The issue is the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) regulation pertaining to the certification of officers, deputies and dispatchers, which is one of the ...

Website: Court Ruling References

Monday, August 29th, 2005

One of our chiefs recently asked for a list of websites that he could use for legal research so I gathered up the ones that I use most frequently and I thought I would share them. Virginia's Judicial System lLII: Supreme Court Collection Home FindLaw: Cases and Codes: Supreme Court Opinions United States Court ...

Judge Tosses Internet Sting Case

Thursday, August 4th, 2005

A man accused of trying to seduce a minor via the Internet was acquitted by the judge. At issue was the fact that he was chatting with a police officer posing as a minor. This case may call into question the techniques used in such programs as Operation Blue ...

Eminent Domain

Sunday, July 10th, 2005

Governments most commonly use the power of eminent domain when the acquisition of real property is necessary for the completion of a public project such as a road, and the owner of the required property is unwilling to negotiate a price for its sale. In many jurisdictions the power of ...

Seizures – Off Duty Officer

Sunday, July 10th, 2005

Wilson v. Commonwealth, Record No. 0560042 March 1, 2005 (Court of Appeals of Virginia) An off duty officer was returning from vacation with his family when he was run off the road in another jurisdiction. Ultimately, the defendant pulled into a convenience store. The off duty officer called the local ...

Search Issues – Misdemeanor Arrests

Sunday, July 10th, 2005

Russell McGuire heads The McGuire Consulting Group, LLC, a constitutional and criminal law training and consulting company. He has presented training seminars on legal issues at the academy in the past. Currently, he is a special prosecutor in the office of the Attorney General, although he is on ...