Role of An Attorney in Dealing With Federal Child Pornography Investigations

Once you’re arrested, particularly when it comes to the federal court system, the government usually has already completed their investigation. The role of a Maryland federal child pornography attorney will help you in understanding the evidence that has been gathered against you. We’ll also be able to help you in any negotiations that need to take place with the government and also to identify any problems with the way that any searches or seizures were conducted, whether they were in violation of any of your rights under any constitutional principles, and whether any of the charges could be dismissed based on violations of those rights or based on any other weakness in the government’s case.

Below a federal criminal defense attorney in Maryland discusses the defense side investigation that is done before heading to trial. Call and schedule a consultation today to learn more.

As a Defense Attorney, Do You Do An Investigation of Your Own?

As a criminal defense attorney, we have investigators that work for our firm exclusively that are seasoned in understanding exactly how these criminal prosecutions work and exactly how the investigation itself works. Generally speaking, we talk to the same individuals that the government talks to. We subpoena our own sets of records to make sure that the ones that the government is relying on are in fact accurate and are in fact the correct records to be relying on.

We also have the government provide us with access to all of the information that they’ve gathered in the case. Our own investigators review it to see whether or not there are people that the government opted not to talk to that we believe might be appropriate for us to speak to in order to formulate an appropriate defense on your behalf.

What Does An Attorney Look For When Collecting Evidence For A Case?

One of the first things a defense attorney will look for is whether the information that they gathered against our client in a child pornography investigation was gathered properly. If it was gathered improperly then even if an individual was in possession of the illegal material, we may be able to have it suppressed from evidence so that it cannot be used against our client. Basically if it’s suppressed, that would mean that it never existed and usually the charges against our client can be dropped completely.

The second thing that we look for is whether, when the evidence was gathered, the government actually had the ability to properly authenticate its introduction into court. Due to the fact that these records are usually electronic records of some kind, they need to be properly authenticated so that the government actually has the ability to present them in a court room and use them against our clients in a court case.

Authentication of those documents is a way, just like some violations of constitutional statutes, of keeping that evidence out of the courtroom and assisting our client in actually having the charges against him dropped.

Does The Government Give You Access To All Their Evidence In Child Pornography Cases?

In most circumstances, the government gives us access to everything that they have. Unlike in state prosecutions for child pornography where the government is required to turn over everything that they have, in the federal system the rules of discovery are a little more limited. For the most part, we get the information that the government has that’s necessary for us to conduct our investigation and represent somebody who’s charged with this kind of offense.