Attorney Gerson gets Bradford woman acquitted of drug charges

A McKean County jury acquitted a middle-aged Bradford woman charged with multiple deliveries of morphine pills, narcotics and opioids to confidential informants who were working with Office of the District Attorney. The client was charged with selling drugs to the confidential informants who were family “friends” during several “controlled felony buys.” The keys to the successful defense were: that none of the purported transactions were observed by the police, who were compelled to rely exclusively on the confidential informants; the total and unrestricted access the confidential informants had to my client’s home; the opportunity of the confidential informants to “plant” evidence within my client’s residence; the failure of the police to conduct “cavity” searches of the male and female confidential informants prior to the alleged sales; the confidential informant’s incentive to fabricate based on recent arrests for drug act violations; and, their extensive record of “crimen falsi” convictions. Significantly, I was contacted by the client who had no prior criminal record within days of sentencing, and after a local McKean County attorney convinced her to enter guilty pleas pursuant to a plea agreement calling for not less than 4 or more than 8 years of imprisonment in a state corrections institution. When I asked why she was interested in retaining a Pittsburgh-based criminal defense attorney to fight her drug charges, she replied, “The local defense attorneys are friendly with the District Attorney… they hang out together and no one takes cases to trial. You come highly recommended, and I am willing to pay more for somebody who will fight for me.”