“Wrong Man” Freed by Writ of Habeas Corpus
August 19, 2014
Our client lived a person’s worst nightmare: arrested and detained for a crime he did not commit. On Friday August 8th, 2014, our client, along with his wife and two young children, travelled to Kennedy Airport to board a plane to Mexico for a one week vacation. Instead, our client’s name came up as a “wanted person”, based upon a warrant for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon issued from Orange County Florida. He was detained, arraigned and held for extradition in Queens County. Immediately upon being retained, New York Criminal Attorneys Todd Greenberg of Addabbo and Greenberg prepared a Writ of Habeas Corpus to bring our client before a higher Court. They thoroughly investigated the case and obtained the entire case file from a co-defendant’s attorney in Florida, and then convinced the District Attorney of Queens County to further investigate whether the right person was arrested. At first, the District Attorney’s response was that the Warrant was not only issued in our client’s name, but contained his date of birth, previous Florida address and social security number! However, upon further urging, the District Attorney contacted the Detective in Florida, showed the complainant in Florida a picture of our client and, sure enough, it was determined that the wrong man was in custody. The Writ of Habeas Corpus was granted on Friday, August 15th, 2014 and after one nightmarish week on Rikers Island, our client was released from custody and the extradition proceedings dismissed. On the way out of the Courtroom, an Assistant District Attorney of Queens County told our client’s family that if she (the Assistant District Attorney) or any members of her family were ever in trouble she would call Todd from Addabbo and Greenberg! Once again, the diligent efforts to free an innocent person by Criminal Defense attorneys Todd Greenberg resulted in the immediate release from jail and an end to this serious injustice. If you need help in an extradition matter or any criminal matter, please call New York Criminal Attorney Todd Greenberg at 718-268-0400.