Cases Dismissed

Ms. Denholtz extensively investigates her client's cases to put her clients in the best position to achieve the best possible results, given each client's unique desires, needs, and circumstances. Below is a selection of cases that illustrate how extensive investigation into the State's proofs (or lack thereof) can lead to dismissal of charges.

*NOTE: The below should not be construed as a promise or guarantee of similar results. Results will vary depending on the particular facts and legal circumstances of each individual case.

State v. T.W. - Client was charged with domestic violence offenses for allegedly punching his girlfriend in the face, strangling her, and punching a hole in the wall during an argument. Client was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, and criminal mischief, and was detained in jail pending the resolution of his case. Ms. Denholtz had an investigator speak with the alleged victim, who completely recanted her story about the client assaulting her. The alleged victim admitted that she made the story up because she wanted T.W. to be kicked out of her house for the night. Ms. Denholtz filed a Motion to Re-Open Detention, arguing that the alleged victim recanting her story warranted the Court reconsidering the decision to detain the client in jail. The Court agreed with Ms. Denholtz’s arguments and released the client from the jail. At pre-trial conference, Ms. Denholtz negotiated an agreement for dismissal all charges in exchange for client providing proof he completed a therapy program. Based on the defense investigation, the State ultimately dismissed all charges against T.W.

State v. G.G. – Retired veteran and 81-year-old client with no prior criminal history was charged with 2nd degree possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose and 3rd degree terroristic threats. The State alleged that during an argument with his wife of 60+ years, G.G. fired his gun in his wife’s direction, missing and hitting the wall. G.G.’s position was that he did not threaten his wife and the firearm shot accidentally when G.G. was attempting to move the firearm from one room to another.  The State’s initial plea offer was to plead to a felony and serve time in jail.  Ms. Denholtz ultimately hired an expert who showed that G.G. was not competent to proceed in his criminal case and, due to his untreatable and progressive cognitive decline, he was unlikely to be restored to competency. Based on Ms. Denholtz's advocacy, the State dismissed all of the charges.

State v. J.R. – Client was charged with felony aggravated assault and weapons offenses for allegedly assaulting his partner with an alcohol bottle by hitting her over the head. Ms. Denholtz investigated the alleged victim and found that she had made similar domestic violence complaints against multiple men in the past when she perceived they were being unfaithful. Ms. Denholtz filed a motion with Court seeking to use these prior incidents with other boyfriends against the alleged victim at trial. Ms. Denholtz argued that these incidents showed that the alleged victim had a motive, intent, and common scheme or plan to summon the police and allege domestic violence following arguments with boyfriends regarding other women. Ms. Denholtz showed the Court and the State multiple prior incidents with at least 3 other previous boyfriends where the alleged victim became enraged when she believed her partner was talking to another woman, then called the police and alleged her prior boyfriends hit her in the head, even though officers in all of the prior incidents did not notice any signs of injury on the alleged victim that would corroborate her allegations of domestic violence. The Court agreed that all of these previous incidents were similar and possibly established a pattern of conduct by the alleged victim to falsely allege domestic violence by her boyfriends after heated arguments involving other women. Four weeks after we won this motion, the State dismissed all of the charges.

State v. D.G. - Client was charged with making domestic violence threats while being in possession of a weapon (a knife). Ms. Denholtz conducted extensive investigation into the allegations in the case and, most importantly, into the alleged victim’s credibility. Ms. Denholtz was able to uncover a variety of information about the alleged victim which showed that she completely fabricated these allegations against D.G. to get revenge because he left her for another woman. Ms. Denholtz found text messages the alleged victim sent to a friend where she admitted to causing bruising on her own body to make it look like D.G. inflicted the bruises, and to lying about the allegations to get back at D.G. for leaving her for another woman. In these texts, she stated that she was going to “bury” D.G. with these allegations and did a lot of crying in front of the police to get the police to believe her allegations. We also showed proof that the alleged victim previously violently confronted and threatened another woman when she found out that her boyfriend left her for someone else. This showed a pattern of the alleged victim to be jealous and seek revenge for those she perceives to have wronged her.  The alleged victim had a vindictive intent and complete lack of credibility. Based on all of this evidence, it was our position that the alleged victim’s allegations of domestic violence against D.G. were categorically false, and the extensive documentation we provided to the prosecutor, we argued, completely exonerated D.G. and supported our request for dismissal of the case. After reviewing Ms. Denholtz’s investigations, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss all charges against D.G. and acknowledged the reason for the dismissal was that the State could not meet its burden of proving these offenses beyond a reasonable doubt.

State v. J.M. - Client was charged with felony shoplifting offenses for allegedly stealing items from Walmart. The State wanted Client to either enter Recovery Court or go to prison for 3 years.  Ms. Denholtz showed the prosecutor that surveillance footage from the store showed the suspect had a large tattoo on her right arm and Ms. Denholtz’s Client did not have such a tattoo on her right arm.  Based on this investigation by Ms. Denholtz, the Client was released from the jail and all of the charges were dismissed.

State v. H.M. - Client in his 20's with no prior criminal history was charged with weapons offenses and terroristic threats for allegedly threatening his landlord with a knife.  Ms. Denholtz subpoenaed police records from this shared family home and found that days before this alleged incident, the Client had twice called the police requesting help because the alleged victim was trying to illegally evict the Client from the apartment without going through formal eviction proceedings with the Court.  Ms. Denholtz found that the alleged victim was twice informed by the police that to evict H.M. she would have to go through the courts and could not just simply tell H.M. that he could not return to the home.  Ms. Denholtz filed the appropriate motion with the court to argue that these prior police calls should be admissible at trial to show the alleged victim’s motive to lie about the Client because she knew that if she made these allegations the police/court would tell the Client that he could not return to the residence (i.e., effectively evicting H.M. from the home without having to go through formal eviction proceedings).  Ms. Denholtz also provided the prosecutor with alibi information in the form of H.M.’s work records, which showed that he was “clocked in” at work at the time the alleged victim claimed these events happened.  Ms. Denholtz was prepared to take this case to trial.  However, after all of Ms. Denholtz's investigations, which significantly reduced the strengths of the State's proofs, the State ultimately dismissed all charges right before a trial date was set.

State v. B.H. - Client was charged with several domestic violence offenses. Client planned to pursue a "self-defense" theory of the case. The case was pending before the Grand Jury for approximately 11 months. After months of waiting for the State to seek an indictment, Ms. Denholtz sought an order from the Court stating if the State did not get an indictment within 30 days, the case would be dismissed. The State responded by dismissing all charges.

State v. F.M. - Client was charged with various domestic violence offenses.  Ms. Denholtz conducted extensive investigation into the alleged victim’s allegations and showed them to be demonstrably false as F.M. had a solid alibi for where he was at the time the alleged victim claims the offenses occurred.  Ms. Denholtz was able to secure records showing that F.M. was shopping at Marshall’s and Shoprite 45 minutes away at the time the alleged victim claimed F.M. was violently assaulting her.  We also provided information from an alibi witness who said that she was with F.M. 45 minutes away shopping at the time the alleged victim claimed these offenses occurred.  The prosecutor reviewed the contents of our investigation and dismissed all charges against the client, because our records showed an alibi defense and that the alleged victim made a false report to law enforcement. The prosecutor acknowledged that our investigation made it so the State had insufficient evidence to prosecute the alleged victim’s allegations.

State v. K.S. - 28-year-old client was charged with felony offenses, including aggravated assault by strangulation, terroristic threats, and simple assault.  The defense position was that the alleged victim was lying and these offenses never occurred.  We turned down every plea offer the State provided and pushed the case towards a trial, where the State would have to prove all of the allegations against client beyond a reasonable doubt.  At the final court date before a trial date was set, the State dismissed all of the charges against the client.

State v. N.J. - Client was charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses for allegedly attacking her boyfriend in her apartment. After conducting investigation into the case, it was clear that the boyfriend had previously been abusive to client and was known to carry a handgun. Client refused all plea offers.  After thoroughly reviewing all of the discovery, Ms. Denholtz knew this case would proceed under a theory of self-defense. Ms. Denholtz conducted extensive investigation to determine that the client was the sole owner of the apartment (i.e. her name was the only one on the lease) so the second she told her boyfriend to leave and he refused, coupled with her belief that he would be violent as he had done in the past, her reaction was warranted. Ms. Denholtz also subpoenaed all of the alleged victim’s police records within the last 10 years and found some very interesting and useful information. Ms. Denholtz litigated a motion where she sought to admit records of prior times the boyfriend had refused to leave client's apartment and police were called, prior attempt to break into the apartment through a window, prior violence towards the client, and prior times boyfriend was known to carry a handgun. After whittling away at the State's proofs with our own investigations, the State ultimately decided to dismiss the matter shortly before a trial date was set.

State v. L.B. - Client was charged with felony burglary and theft for allegedly entering a person’s hotel room and stealing $7,000 from the hotel room safe.  Ms. Denholtz conducted extensive investigation in this matter by visiting the alleged crime scene to take photographs and interviewing the manager of the hotel. Ms. Denholtz ultimately showed the prosecutor that he could not prove this case as the Client, a maintenance worker at the hotel, was requested to enter the hotel room to fix the safe and the maintenance logs from that day were noticeably missing.  Also showed the prosecutor that the alleged victim had a criminal history and a gambling issue.  The State would not be able to prove that there was ever any cash in this hotel guest’s safe, because it was only his word that there was $7,000 in cash in the safe. Ms. Denholtz argued the alleged victim gambled away his money and then concocted a story that the Client entered his hotel room and stole money from his safe to try to recoup the money the alleged victim gambled away.  Ms. Denholtz advised the prosecutor that he could not prove this case at trial and that we are either seeking a dismissal of all charges or we would proceed to trial in the case.  All charges were ultimately dismissed.

State v. V.M. - 82-year-old client with no prior criminal history was charged with Aggravated Assault for allegedly punching his niece in the face and stomach during a dispute. After reviewing discovery it became clear that the Client was the victim of his niece’s actions and not the aggressor. It was clear Client had not done anything wrong and the niece had motives to lie. Ms. Denholtz presented all of this information to the State and sought an outright dismissal of the case. The State repeatedly refused to do this. As we approached receiving a trial date, after 1.5 years, the State finally dismissed the case.

Contact Denholtz Criminal Defense

for Your FREE Consultation

At Denholtz Criminal Defense, we understand the stakes involved with criminal cases, and are committed to providing you with skilled, aggressive, and personalized legal representation.  No matter what the allegations, Ms. Denholtz will provide an honest and detailed evaluation of your case, outline the best legal options available, and craft a defense strategy designed to achieve the best possible result for your unique situation.  Contact Denholtz Criminal Defense today for your free consultation: (862) 842-0811 or Tracy@DenholtzCriminalDefense.com.