By the time a federal indictment is unsealed in Maryland, the government has usually spent months — sometimes years — assembling it. Agents have already interviewed witnesses. A grand jury has already heard one side. The question is no longer whether an investigation exists. The question is what is left to do about it.
Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. represents people facing federal criminal exposure in Maryland. Practicing since 1997.
Phone intake staffed 24/7. Attorney consultations are scheduled by appointment. Consultations are not free.
A Maryland state prosecution and a federal prosecution are not the same proceeding with a different letterhead. They run on different rules, different resources, and a different clock.
State cases often begin with an arrest and work backward. Federal cases usually begin with an investigation and work forward — surveillance, subpoenas, cooperating witnesses, forensic accounting — and the arrest comes last, when the file is already built.
Federal charges in Maryland are returned by a grand jury sitting in secret. The defense is not present, does not cross-examine, and does not respond.
Federal sentencing runs through the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are advisory rather than binding, and through statutory mandatory minimums that a judge cannot go below except in narrow circumstances. Loss amount, drug quantity, role in the offense, and criminal history are calculated before a judge ever exercises discretion.
Federal sentences are served substantially in full, subject to limited credit programs.
Agencies — FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS-CI, HSI, Postal Inspection Service — gather evidence, often for a long time, before anyone is told they are a subject.
A letter stating that a person is a target of a grand jury investigation. It is the last quiet moment in the case — and when counsel has the most room to work.
The government presents its evidence. If the grand jury finds probable cause, it returns an indictment.
The court decides whether a person is released pending trial or held. In some categories of federal charge, detention is presumed and must be argued against.
The government produces its evidence. Motions to suppress, motions to dismiss counts, and challenges to the scope of a search are litigated here.
A negotiated agreement or a trial before a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
A presentence report is prepared, the Guidelines range is calculated and contested, and the court imposes sentence.
The firm concentrates in criminal defense and family law across five jurisdictions. On the federal criminal side, matters include:
Mail fraud is a federal offense punishable by up to 20 years, and up to 30 years where the scheme affects a financial institution. Fraud exposure is driven heavily by the calculated loss amount, which is contested at sentencing, not conceded.
It is unlawful to knowingly manufacture, distribute, or dispense a controlled substance, or to possess one with intent to do so. Mandatory minimum sentences turn on drug type and quantity, which makes the government's weight and purity attribution a central issue.
A willful attempt to evade or defeat a federal tax is a felony punishable by up to 5 years. Willfulness is the element the government must prove and the element most often in dispute.
Corruptly obstructing or impeding the due administration of justice, or influencing a juror or court officer, carries up to 10 years. Obstruction counts are frequently added after the fact and are frequently the weakest counts in an indictment.
A conviction for a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence carries a federal prohibition on possessing a firearm or ammunition — the Lautenberg Amendment. It is a lifetime disability unless the conviction is set aside, expunged, or pardoned, or civil rights are restored.
Representation of subjects, targets, and witnesses who have received a subpoena but have not been charged.
Representation during the pre-indictment phase, where the objective is to shape the government's charging decision before it is made.
Individual attorneys are admitted in specific jurisdictions; not all attorneys are admitted in all states. Federal court practice requires separate admission to the bar of the relevant United States District Court.
Federal criminal cases arising in Maryland are prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland and heard in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, which sits in Baltimore (Northern Division) and Greenbelt (Southern Division). Appeals go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Which courthouse a case lands in usually follows where the conduct is alleged to have occurred — and it matters, because the two divisions draw from different jury pools.
Admitted in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York. Founded the firm in 1997 and has practiced continuously since. Concentrates in criminal defense and family law. Testified before the Virginia House Courts of Justice Committee in support of 2019 HB 635 (chief patron Del. David Bulova).
Admitted in Maryland and Virginia. Former Maryland Assistant State's Attorney. J.D., Rutgers School of Law, 2004. Prior service as a prosecuting attorney in Maryland informs how she reads a government file — what was collected, what was not, and what the charging decision was built on.
The firm's Of Counsel attorneys contract directly with Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. Of Counsel attorneys are not employees of the firm.
Agents may interview without an arrest and without a warning. A false or incomplete statement to a federal agent is itself a separate federal offense, independent of whatever was under investigation.
Consent forecloses the suppression argument that would otherwise have been available.
This is the most common route from a defensible case to an added obstruction count.
Those conversations are frequently recorded, and they are frequently how a conspiracy count is built.
The window in which counsel can affect a charging decision closes when the grand jury returns.
Subject, target, or defendant are three different postures with three different sets of options. That determination comes first.
Pre-indictment contact with the United States Attorney's Office is the point of maximum leverage — the objective is to influence the charging decision while it is still a decision.
How the material was obtained, whether the warrant was supported, whether the digital forensics hold, whether the loss or quantity calculation survives scrutiny.
In a large share of federal cases, the sentencing calculation determines more of the outcome than the plea does. Enhancements are contested; role, acceptance, and loss are argued.
Seven questions the intake line receives most often, answered without the sales register.
A target letter means the United States Attorney's Office has identified you as a target of a grand jury investigation. No charge has been filed. That is the phase in which counsel has the widest range of options available.
No. Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. does not offer free consultations. Consultations are scheduled by appointment, and the fee and scope are explained before the appointment is confirmed.
The intake line at (888) 437-7747 is staffed 24 hours a day. Intake staff log the matter, run a conflicts check, and route the file. Attorney consultations are scheduled by appointment and do not occur on the intake call.
Not from a phone call. A federal sentencing exposure depends on the counts charged, the Guidelines calculation, any mandatory minimum, and criminal history. Any number given before the indictment and the discovery are reviewed is a guess.
No. Different court, different prosecutor, different sentencing regime, and no parole. A case can also be charged in both systems for the same conduct.
Yes. Representation of subjects, targets, and grand jury witnesses is a substantial part of federal criminal practice.
Any target letter, subpoena, search warrant, property receipt, or agent's card you have received, and a written timeline of contacts with law enforcement. Do not bring or create documents you have not already preserved.
If you have been contacted by a federal agency, received a target letter or a grand jury subpoena, or been charged in the District of Maryland, call the firm to request a consultation.
