Eric Arnone Secures Full Dismissal of Charges Including Robbery, Assault and Weapons Possession After Five-Month Investigation
After fighting aggressively for over five months – both in and out of New York Criminal Court – Eric Arnone has secured outright dismissal of all eight charges filed against his 20-year-old client, who faced over 25 years in prison if convicted.
In this challenging case for the defense, Arnone’s client had been falsely accused by multiple complaining witnesses of robbing them of their cell phones while brandishing weapons. These serious allegations were made even more difficult to overcome in light of an allegation that a cell phones belonging to one of the complaining witnesses was recovered from the client at the scene. The client was further accused of acting in concert with a co-defendant to strike one of the complaining witnesses in the head with a broken bottle, thereby causing serious injury. A number of people at the scene were treated by EMS and some were hospitalized.
After conducting an extensive investigation on his client’s behalf, Arnone was able to affirmatively disprove that the robbery ever took place, and demonstrated to prosecutors that any physical force undertaken by his clients was indeed justified under New York law. Thankfully, the defense investigation succeeded in turning up invaluable surveillance camera footage which contradicted the account of the alleged victims.
After five long months during which the serious felony charges were pending, Arnone was able to convince the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to toss out all of the following counts against his client:
Two counts of Robbery in the First Degree, each carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison;
Four counts of Assault in the Second Degree, each carrying a maximum sentence of 7 years in prison;
One count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree, which carries a maximum of 1 year in jail;
One count of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property, which carries a maximum of 1 year in jail.