Probation Violation Charges Mitigated

We recently helped a client in his mid-20s. A college graduate with an engineering degree, he had been in an accident and prescribed painkillers during his recovery process. As it happens to a good number of people, our client became addicted and moved from painkillers to harder drugs like heroin. He had been on probation for some serious felony offenses including new drug charges. His serious criminal record complicated his probation violation since judges tend to view these violations poorly when a defendant is not abiding by the terms of his or her probation. Things do not tend to look very good for clients when there are probation violations involved.

The man retained our Butler criminal defense attorneys to represent him in Butler County Court of Common Pleas. Attorney Mike Worgul attended three court dates on the defendant’s behalf. We worked closely with the probation office and third party drug abuse treatment centers. We were successful at having our client accepted into a a dual diagnosis rehab center, which impressed the probation office since this is rare.

At one of the hearings we attended, the Commonwealth was recommending that our client be sentenced to a state length prison term in excess of one year. We were able to convince the judge to allow our client to enter the rehab program we helped him get into, and then return home on house arrest while he continued out-patient treatment. The judge agreed, and our client is now on the road to recovery in a way that state prison cannot provide.

Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case.