The penalties facing persons charged with drug offenses in federal court are mind boggling. For example, time and time again we have seen young people, without any criminal record, facing a minimum of ten years in federal prison based upon drug charges. This is a minimum sentence and, many times, the reality is that they are facing much harsher sentences in the range of thirty years to life. Also, unlike state prison, persons serving time in federal prison must serve eighty-five percent of their sentence.

It is important for those charged with drug offenses to hire an attorney with expertise in federal court and the federal sentencing guidelines immediately. At Broden & Mickelsen, we will begin to work at once in order to decide how we can successfully defend the case and in order to fully investigate the case. Nevertheless, if a guilty plea is inevitable, we will work diligently to secure a favorable plea bargain that does not call for a mandatory minimum sentence. Moreover, we will fully explain to a client how the Sentencing Guidelines operate. Unfortunately, all too often, we have seen persons plead guilty in federal court to a drug offense without any explanation by their attorney as to how the Sentencing Guidelines operate only to receive a horrible shock at their sentencing.

Our success in this area speaks for itself. We have had evidence suppressed in drug offenses in federal court on repeated occasions that has led to the charges against clients being dropped. In one case, in federal court in Miami, Florida, our client had been represented by several other lawyers and had spent seven years in prison before he hired Broden & Mickelsen and we successfully litigated his release. Another client was acquitted at a federal trial in Dallas, Texas of distributing large amounts of drugs in Dallas after our investigation proved that the client was not in Dallas at the time the government claimed he was distributing the drugs (the client was acquitted while his co-defendant was convicted).

Just recently, in February of this year, Clint Broden and Mick Mickelsen traveled to federal court in Midland, Texas to represent a client facing almost 30 year in federal prison.  He had three prior federal drug convictions, was found with almost $10,000 in cash and several kilograms of cocaine in his vehicle, and fought with police when he was arrested.  After a three day jury trial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the client was found not guilty and went home with his family.

Please contact us to see if we handle your type of criminal matter here>>>