Federal and State Felonies and Misdemeanors

Bold labels are required.

• A United States District Court jury in Greenbelt, Maryland acquitted Graci Bellosi after a four week federal criminal trial. She was indicted on 10 federal counts including: prescription medication distribution; health care fraud; and aggravated identity theft. She was found not guilty on every count. Had she not prevailed, she was looking at a federal sentencing guidelines range of 20-30 years. Robert Biddle and Marisa Ruthven from Nathans & Biddle served as co-counsel for Ms. Bellosi with another law firm. Robert Biddle was the lead forfeiture counsel and was successful with the aid of the other law firm in retrieving over $6,000,000 of seized assets pretrial. Dunkirk Woman Acquitted of Drug Charges
• Jason Savedoff was indicted in the United States District Court for Maryland for his involvement in the most prolific historical document theft scheme in United States history from numerous historical societies in several states including Maryland. After extensive pretrial and sentencing efforts, Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke, Nathans & Biddle LLP, were able to secure a sentence of one year and one day in a minimum security prison for Mr. Savedoff. This sentence was far less than sentence the Government requested in Court. It was also seven times less than the 84 month sentence given to his co-defendant, Barry Landau. National Archives' Treasures Targeted by Thieves - 60 Minutes story dated October 27, 2012
• Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke served as criminal defense counsel for the entities and employees associated with a prominent Baltimore land developer regarding the Maryland State Prosecutor's Grand Jury investigation and prosecution of the Mayor of Baltimore City and several others.
• Walter Lomax was freed after serving 39 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Booth Ripke and Larry Nathans began representing Mr. Lomax in 2005, after an exhaustive investigation revealed never before presented evidence of innocence. The firm filed a Motion to Reopen in the decades old case.
• Successful public corruption defense of the Baltimore City Council - the Maryland United States Attorney announced that he was closing out the 1 1/2 year public corruption investigation of the elected Baltimore City Council members and declining to bring any criminal charges. Mr. Nathans represented nine of the Councilpersons and was the lead defense counsel in the matter.
• Freeing an innocent man, Michael Austin, from prison - Mr. Nathans was engaged by Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey based organization committed to free wrongfully imprisoned individuals. Mr. Austin was serving a life sentence for the 1974 armed robbery/murder of a convenience store clerk. Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke mounted a successful challenge to Mr. Austin's conviction, based upon Mr. Austin's innocence and significant constitutional violations leading to his conviction. The case received significant local and national press coverage including an appearance by Mr. Austin and Mr. Nathans on ABC's Good Morning America news program. Mr. Austin received a full pardon from Governor Robert Ehrlich. The Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW) awarded Mr. Austin over $1.4 million dollars in compensation (the largest award ever given in Maryland). At the BPW hearing, Governor Ehrlich praised Mr. Austin's Nathans and Biddle, LLP, attorneys for their work in representing Mr. Austin.
• Successful campaign finance defense pertaining to the Governor's election - The firm represented an individual in a campaign finance prosecution involving the Maryland gubernatorial campaign. Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke succeeded in having all charges dismissed and convincing the Prince George's County Circuit Court and the Maryland Court of Appeals that the 25 year old law was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
• Baltimore City Circuit Court attempted first degree murder charges dropped to a misdemeanor and client received unsupervised probation sentence.
• Client's criminal charges dismissed and DSS investigation "Ruled Out" in Cecil County after Nathans & Biddle's investigation of case. The State's main complaining witness was subsequently charged with embezzlement and falsely accessing a computer related to client.
• Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke gained an acquittal for a client in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court trial. The client had been previously convicted with other counsel based in large part on the testimony of two witnesses. After the main witness testified in the retrial, was cross-examined by Mr. Nathans, and the client was acquitted, false statement charges were brought against the main witness and she was subsequently found guilty.
• 9-3 verdict for acquittal in D.C. federal embezzlement trial. Decision by Federal Judge to not allow defense counsel for cooperating witnesses in the future, not to be in court when their client testifies, as the result of 2 day delay in testimony when witness refused to answer any more questions during Mr. Nathans cross-examination which exposed multiple areas of mortgage and tax fraud that the witness had not disclosed to prosecutors.
• Successful resolution of many month Baltimore federal death penalty case resulting in life sentence based upon Robert Biddle's presentation of multiple compelling mitigation witnesses.
• Franchise owner's Baltimore County Circuit Court felony embezzlement charges dismissed. Parent company subsequently paid settlement for money actually owed to client.
• Dismissal of all Baltimore County Circuit Court felony charges against Baltimore City Detective client.
• Federal Sentence of 150 months for one of the largest importers of cocaine and marijuana in Maryland history.

See White Collar Criminal Defense, Public Corruption, Mortgage Fraud, Health Care Fraud, Appellate and Post Conviction and Federal Sentencingsections for other significant representative successes related to our federal and state felony representation