William S. Smith | Holden Criminal Attorney

• Attorney Smith's Recent Public Speaking Engagements at Seminars and Conferences for the Legal Profession Include:
  
  Challenging Cases Involving the Right to Confront Witnesses        
  Criminal Appeals Conference                 2011
  
  Preserving the Record at Trial & Objections        
  Greater Lowell Bar Association                 2010
  
  Using Ceative Non-Fiction for More Effective Legal Writing        
  Criminal Appeals Conference, Boston         2009

• Attorney William S. Smith is the co-author of Warrantless Searches of Persons or Places in the award-winning reference manual used by attorneys, Trying Drug Cases in Massachusetts. He has been an invited lecturer and instructor at many continuing legal education seminars and conferences for attorneys. The founder of the first and only website for appellate criminal defense attorneys in the state, he was also a guest on a major television talk show in Boston. As a bar association leader, Attorney Smith has testified before the Massachusetts Judiciary Committee in the Statehouse multiple times with respect to criminal justice legislation. He has litigated criminal and civil cases extensively throughout both the state and federal trial and appellate courts. In 2008 he represented the defendant in a landmark case on automobile stops in Massachusetts before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Attorney Smith has also represented defendants in many other high-profile criminal and civil trials and appeals. He is certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to accept first-degree murder appointments.
  
  Attorney Pamela M. O’Sullivan is Of Counsel to The Law Office of William S. Smith. She has been practicing since 1993 and is certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to accept CHINS and Care & Protection appointments. She represented the family in the case before the Bureau of Special Education Appeals awarding an out-of-district placement and reimbursement for private tutoring. Attorney O’Sullivan has extensive experience litigating in the District, Superior and appellate courts of Massachusetts.

• • After taking to trial a subsequent-offense drunk driving case on behalf of his client, Attorney Smith then successfully argued on appeal that our client’s conviction was unconstitutionally-obtained by the state because our motion to suppress all of the evidence should have been allowed before trial. Results: The decision made new law, holding that police in Massachusetts may not lawfully stop motorists because there are small objects dangling from their rearview mirror. • Client was charged with drunk driving. Attorney Smith prepared and litigated an extensive motion to throw out the breathalyzer test results on the grounds that the way the police administered the test was legally invalid. Results: Despite the prosecutor’s claim that the evidence against our client was overwhelming, because of our motion, the prosecution offered dismissal of the drunk driving charge and amendment to negligent operation and a 6 month continuance without any guilty finding was imposed then resulted in dismissal thereafter. • Client was charged with drunk driving in a town outside of Boston. Attorney Smith wrote and litigated a motion to suppress the field sobriety tests on the grounds that our client had given the legal equivalent of a refusal to take the tests, despite his not having actually expressed any such refusal to the officers. The judge allowed Attorney Smith’s motion, throwing out the majority of the prosecution’s evidence against our client. • Our client was an employee at a large national retailer. He was wrongfully accused by his employer of having stolen from them, was wrongfully fired, and then wrongfully prosecuted, by his former employer. Attorney Smith successfully handled the matter in favor of our client against his employer in both a trial court and an administrative agency. • Our client was in a major automobile accident, suffering head trauma and other injuries. When the police arrived, they reported that there had been a strong odor of alcohol on our client’s person and in the vehicle and so they charged her with drunk driving. We filed extensive discovery motions to obtain, among other things, the video of our client’s booking at the police station. The police then ultimately responded that the booking video had been lost or destroyed. Attorney Smith then filed a motion to dismiss the charges on these grounds, which was allowed in full by the judge. • A young client of ours was facing serious felony charges in the District Court for vandalism resulting in substantial monetary loss to a commercial lot. After the client’s two codefendants had already admitted to the alleged offense, in essence, they were ordered by the court to pay large amounts of restitution. However, Attorney Smith investigated the matter fully, including interviewing one of the owners of the property. Having done so, he established at the probable cause hearing that, in fact, an agent of the owner had given full permission for our client and his friends to demolish the property- having thought it had been abandoned by the owner. As a result, the court issued no charges against our client. • Despite our client’s having been captured on video cursing repeatedly at the police at booking, and with such evidence having been claimed by the prosecutor as strong evidence of intoxication, Attorney Smith obtained a not guilty verdict for our client at trial, arguing that the words, while arguably inappropriate, were, in fact, more consistent with someone who had been upset at having been wrongfully arrested for drunk driving. • Before having been represented by us, a client in his twenties was convicted in Superior Court of very serious drug trafficking charges and given a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence to state prison. Attorney Smith handled his appeal and won, successfully arguing that his conviction should be reversed because the prosecution had not offered sufficient evidence as to the composition and weight of the controlled substances. • Attorneys Smith and O’Sullivan represented a retired real estate developer who had a massive outstanding civil judgment entered against him and was charged with contempt of court for its non-payment. They litigated the matter exhaustively and vigorously in the trial courts and then in both the Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court, first successfully obtaining a stay of execution of jail sentence, and then resolving the matter in such a way as to keep the client from having to serve the contempt. • Before our representation, our client was convicted of cocaine trafficking and given a very lengthy mandatory sentence. Attorney Smith handled his appeal and won, successfully arguing that the state had not provided sufficient evidence as to the weight of the substance aside from the improperly-admitted state police chemist’s report. • Client, a member of the active military, retained us to represent him in his child support modification case. Though having duly paid his child support obligations, wife sought to have them substantially increased, and at what would have been a severe hardship to our client. After the trial judge ruled against the wife’s request for modification, she appealed. We prevailed in the appeal, successfully arguing that the trial judge had properly followed the support guidelines and the applicable case law. • Client was convicted, before our handling the matter, of possession of drugs with the intent to distribute, with a mandatory minimum sentence. Attorney Smith represented him on appeal. He and was able to get his client’s sentence vacated on the grounds that the state had, in fact, failed to present legally sufficient evidence that he was within a school zone- this despite the fact that the issue had not even been raised by client’s original lawyer. • Our client retained us after their dog had been ordered by a local town to be restrained due to its alleged bothering of pedestrians. Attorney Smith represented the client, a former law enforcement official, before the town’s select-board. After that governing body found against our client and imposed the requirement that our client must install a large, extremely expensive structure within which to keep their dog when outside, Attorney Smith took the matter to the District Court having jurisdiction. There, he argued that the order the town had entered exceeded the town’s lawful authority. The court agreed and vacated the town’s order. • Client was convicted, after having been represented by a different attorney, on very serious assault with a dangerous weapon charges. He was then sentenced under the state’s habitual offender law. Advancing what was then a completely novel legal argument, Attorney Smith successfully argued on appeal that his client’s conviction was invalid because prior federal criminal cases should not be interpreted as predicate offenses under the state’s habitual offender law.

• Warrantless Searches of Persons or Places.

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