The Marc Lopez Law Firm just scored a jury trial victory in Hamilton County on a case that was filed back in 2019. Attorney Marc Lopez recapped this hard-won battle with Attorney Matt Kroes. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Marc Lopez
Matt, give us a little background on the case.
Matt Kroes
The client reached out back in 2019, and this case had been going on for a while when he first contacted us. He said, This never happened, and I cannot be a felon.
So we went to court, talked with the prosecutor, and tried to see how we could avoid a felony. The prosecutor didn’t want to budge, so at that point we knew we were going to trial.
Marc Lopez
So this gentleman was charged with leaving the scene of an accident as a Class A misdemeanor, reckless operation of a vehicle in a highway work zone as a Level 6 felony, and criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon as a Level 6 felony.
Our client never tried to hide anything. When the investigating officer came to his house, he spoke to them.
Matt Kroes
The officer who wrote the report described it as a case of leaving the scene of an accident. So the police were originally thinking about this as a misdemeanor.
Something changed because the prosecutor filed to amend the charging information and add the two felonies. And that would have wrecked our client’s life.
Marc Lopez
He’d initially hired a different lawyer who saw the original misdemeanor charge and thought, No big deal. Then, as Matt said, the State piled on two felony charges.
And I give his first attorney so much credit for recognizing that she was in over her head. She called her friends, Marc Lopez and Matt Kroes, and we hopped in and took over.
So the client says, I’ve never been in trouble before—can you get this dismissed? How’d that go, Matt?
Matt Kroes
This was an unusual case. The alleged victim was very involved. He really wanted our client to go to jail, and because of the victim rights statute, he had a right to confer with the prosecutor.
Marc Lopez
Let me just say that this alleged victim—who a jury did not find to be believable—wrote some of the longest letters I’ve ever seen to the prosecutor. He demanded felony charges. He demanded jail time. It was kind of outrageous.
Matt Kroes
So our client wanted no jail time and no felony. The prosecutor’s first offer was a cap of 30 days in jail. That means he probably would’ve done a couple weeks of actual time, assuming he didn’t get into any fights, and then he would’ve had some probation.
After that, he would’ve been able to petition the court for alternative misdemeanor sentencing, but even in the best case scenario, he’d be looking at two weeks in jail and a year as a felon.
Marc Lopez
And he’d be on probation for that year, so there’d be nothing he could do about his status as a felon. This was set to affect his employment, so it was a big deal for him.
Matt Kroes
So the follow-up offer was, Do 30 days in jail and we’ll make it a misdemeanor up front. The problem was, if our guy had to do jail time, he was going to lose his job. So that was a non-starter. We had to go to trial.
Marc Lopez
Walk us through it.
Matt Kroes
Well, it eventually became clear that there were three different stories being told in this case.
Marc Lopez
This is something defense attorneys dream about.
Matt Kroes
So version A was our client: The construction worker flopped on the ground. I never hit him.
Version B was an eyewitness who was some distance away: The driver and the construction worker were waving their hands and yelling at each other, and then the construction worker was hit by the car and rolled up underneath the car.
Version C was the alleged victim: The driver hit me so hard that I flew 12 feet in the air and landed in the asphalt. Mind you, this guy was checked out by both police and medical professionals, and the only sign of injury was a scrape on his blue jeans.
Then at trial, the State called another witness who offered a fourth version of the incident. Ultimately, it couldn’t have taken the jury more than 25 minutes to come back with not guilty verdicts across the board.
Marc Lopez
And the client was so appreciative, even before the verdict was read. That’s always great to hear.
Matt Kroes
I was really happy for him.
Marc Lopez
Huge victory for our client and our firm. Excellent work, Matt!
Matt Kroes
It was fun, man.
Marc Lopez
I’m so proud of you. There haven’t been as many juries in the past two years, but trials are still happening. If you have any questions, give us a call at 317-632-6342 and remember—always plead the 5th!
