Possession with Intent to Deliver Cocaine

Police conducting a narcotics investigation went to a residential apartment in effort to serve an arrest warrant. The warrant was for a suspected drug dealer. Police believed the dealer was residing in an apartment with a young married couple and their children. When police arrived early one morning to the multi dwelling structure, they ascended to the second floor apartment to execute the warrant.

The man of the apartment answered the door and informed police that the person they were searching for was not present and did not reside there. In an effort to convince police of this information, the man invited the officers to search inside his home. Police accepted the invitation. Others officers were present outside to serve as back-up or look-out in the event the man they were hunting tried to flee.

While standing watch outside, officers noticed a window open from the second floor apartment. They then saw an object tossed outside and onto the ground. Officers did not see who tossed the object. Police on the ground retrieved the item, which turned out to be a small box that contained 118 grams of cocaine. This prompted police to further search inside the apartment where they discovered drug trafficking paraphernalia such as baggies, a digital scale, cutting agent, and more than $6,000.00 in U.S. Currency.

These items were found inside a spare bedroom. Police arrested the man’s brother who was found on the premises and admitted to tossing the object out of the window. Police then charged him with Possession with Intent to Deliver Cocaine. The man was subsequently arraigned and held without bail pending the outcome of a bail hearing.

He and his family retained Attorney John L. Calcagni III to represent him at this hearing, and ultimately the pending felony drug trafficking charge. In preparation for the bail hearing, Attorney Calcagni conducted a biographical survey of his client. This yielded information about the man’s fiancé, three small children, mother, two brothers, nieces and nephews and other extended family members living in the area.

The man also had two jobs, one working for a bank and another with a landscaping company. He had no criminal history and had never been arrested before this incident. Lastly, Attorney Calcagni collected evidence to prove that his client, brother of the man who occupied the apartment, did not reside there. He lived with their mother in a different apartment and was simply an overnight guest on the night in question. Attorney Calcagni established this important fact with utility bills, credit card and banking statements, a driver’s license, student loan statements, academic records and other sources.

Further, Attorney Calcagni’s client was not the man sought after by police or named in the arrest warrant. This person, however, had recently been a short term guest in the couple’s apartment, but was not there at the time police came with the warrant. Based on these collective factors, Attorney Calcagni successfully persuaded the Court, over the prosecutor’s objection, to release his client on bail while awaiting trial.