Practice
Criminal Law

Representative Criminal Cases

• MF attorneys represented Feld Entertainment’s Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ star performer and animal trainer, Mark Oliver Gebel, at the highly publicized Elephant Trial, where Mr. Gebel was falsely accused of violating section 596.5 of the California Penal Code.  Mr. Gebel was acquitted by a San Jose jury in record time. 

• MF attorneys represented a school head who was accused of failing to report a suspected case of child abuse and obstructing an officer in his investigation. After a year-long saga, the prosecution and defense agreed to forgo a jury trail and let a judge decide the case. The client was acquitted of all charges. The judge ruled that the head had followed school policy in dealing with the situation and since the incident in question did not constitute child abuse after all, the client had no duty to report it. 

• MF attorneys represented a Silicon Valley executive accused of molesting his two sons after a bitterly contested divorce. Following a two-week jury trial, the client was acquitted of all charges.
  
  
• MF represented a client who had been charged by the District Attorney’s office with domestic violence. The case arose out of an incident where the client inadvertently struck his wife in the face while sleeping, leading to a cut lip. Subsequent investigation led to the discovery that the client had a sleep disorder, leading him to thrash about during the night and strike people without intent or knowledge. After presenting medical evidence, MF lawyers were able to convince the D.A. to drop the charges and dismiss the case in the interest of justice.