When DHS wishes to have the power to remove children from a family, they must have a court appearance within one business day of the removal. In this case, Multnomah county’s DHS refused to remove the children from a family, so the Washington County DHS filed with the court asking for this power. Ms. Johnson argued to the court that the caseworker working with this family is a Multnomah county DHS caseworker, that the family and children all live in Multnomah county, and that the only connection that this family has to Washington county is that they once in the past had lived in Washington county. The court agreed with Ms. Johnson that the case should be in the Multnomah system (which didn’t want to remove the kids) and not in the Washington county system. Accordingly, the Washington County case was dismissed!
Congratulations to Tyler Beach on an Assault IV win!
Mr. Beach’s client was accused of assaulting his former girlfriend when she came over to his home. Through both direct and cross examination, Mr. Beach established that the ex-girlfriend came to his client’s home in violation of their preexisting agreement and was trying to steal his Xbox. After Mr. Beach’s client repeatedly told her to leave and she grabbed the Xbox (pulling it out of the wall and TV without unhooking any of the wires), Mr. Beach’s client pushed her away from his property. The judge understood this explanation and returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Congratulations to Jennelle Johnson on a Jury Trial win on a Methamphetamine and Cocaine possession case.
Ms. Johnson’s client’s purse had been left unwatched while the police were talking to people. Eventually, the police searched her purse and found methamphetamine and cocaine. So, the police charged Ms. Johnson’s client with that possession. At trial, Ms. Johnson explored for the jury how long that purse had been left unwatched while all these other people had access to the purse and who knew the police were searching people. The jury agreed that it was impossible to know beyond a reasonable doubt who put the drugs in that purse. Accordingly, Ms. Johnson’s client was found Not Guilty.
Congratulations to Thomas Goldman on another criminal case win!
Mr. Goldman’s client had been accused of assaulting a coworker by jabbing the coworker with a thumb. The workplace was filled with other workers at the time who would have seen this alleged event; but, none saw this happen. In fact, they all had reason to believe the complainant was lying. Nevertheless, the prosecutor believed the complainant. At trial, Mr. Goldman, naturally, explored all the inconsistencies with the complainant’s story. Mr. Goldman also had the coworkers at the ready to share their observations. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Goldman’s client was found to be Not Guilty.
Congratulations to Jennelle Johnson on a Jury Trial win on another Domestic Violence case.
Ms. Johnson’s client was accused of domestic violence crimes and was offered the Washington County Deferred Sentencing program. He declined that option and went to trial with Ms. Johnson. During cross examination of the ‘victim’, the ‘victim’ admitted that Ms. Johnson’s client was actually just defending himself!
Congratulations to Tyler Beach on a trial win for a Criminal Mistreatment case!
Mr. Beach’s client was accused of allowing his child to have access to drugs. The accusation came because the child tested positive for drugs and there were drugs in the home. However, at trial, Mr. Beach proved that the drugs were kept in a locked cabinet that the child simply could not gain access. The win came through a ‘motion for judgement of acquittal’ Mr. Beach submitted at the conclusion of the prosecutor’s witnesses.
Congratulations on a Termination of Parental Rights Trial Win for Thomas Goldman!
Sometimes a parent can’t provide the care a child needs. However, that shouldn’t necessarily mean the child should never have contact with that parent. Mr. Goldman’s client couldn’t care for his child; but, had a family member who could and wanted to be the child’s guardian. However, the Department of Human Services disagreed with that plan and wanted to ‘free the child for adoption’. So, they went to trial. At trial, the judge agreed with Mr. Goldman that the better plan for this child was to continue the family connection with a safe relative guardian.
Congratulations to Tyler Beach on a two day two count win!
Mr. Beach’s client has had a lot of criminal law problems in his past. In this case, he was accused to opening someone’s door and hitting them. If convicted, it was expected that Mr. Beach’s client would go to prison for 30 months. As is a theme with defense attorneys, the case was won by cross examination. While cross examining the person claiming to be a victim, Mr. Beach got two important statements. One regarded how the door opened (to the left or right) and the specific day and time this all supposedly occurred. As to the door, the photos of the door showed that the claim was false because the door didn’t open that direction. More amazingly, the date this person claimed it all happened was a day Mr. Beach proved his client happened to have been in jail that entire day. Naturally, Mr. Beach dove into this person’s motivations to make up this story. The natural result was a not guilty verdict!
Congratulations on yet another domestic violence win by Jennelle Johnson!
Ms. Johnson’s client was accused of breaking into the home of his prior girlfriend because he was there to see his child. This case was eligible for the Washington County Domestic Violence Deferred Sentencing program. However, Ms. Johnson’s client declined that option. The prosecutor immediately threatened to add more significant criminal charges as a threat to Ms. Johnson for her client not entering the Deferred Sentencing program. Ms. Johnson called that bluff and went to trial. The morning of trial, the alleged victim admitted that Ms. Johnson’s client was allowed to be there that day and that the damage to the door that she had previously claimed came from Ms. Johnson’s client breaking in actually preexisted that event. The prosecutor gave up after learning this and agreed to dismiss the case that morning.
Congratulations to Tyler Beach in preventing charges from ever being filed!
Mr. Beach represented a teenage year old boy accused of a sexual assault that supposedly occurred a couple years previously. Mr. Beach arranged for the investigating office to come to our office and interview our client in our presences. After this process, the decision of the government was that they could not successfully bring charges against Mr. Beach’s client.