100s of Cases Dismissed

Ellsworth, WI, driver was charged in Pierce County with felony operating while intoxicated (“OWI”) and operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration (“PAC”), both as felony fourth offenses. Attorney Nero filed a motion challenging a prior conviction. That motion was granted and the felony OWI-4th offense was reduced to a misdemeanor OWI-3rd offense, saving the client from a felony conviction – an important matter to him because felons cannot possess firearms and the client enjoyed bonding with his son on hunting trips – as well as a lengthier jail sentence, revocation and ignition interlock. The end result was a much shorter sentence that the client was able to serve in his own home on electronic monitoring.

Princeton, MN, driver was charged in the City of Sparta with operating while intoxicated (“OWI”) as a first offense, as well as the more serious offense of refusing to take a chemical test for intoxication after arrest. Attorney Nero convinced the prosecutor that the arresting officer was not a believable witness. The prosecution agreed to dismiss all charges against this young man.

Roberts, WI, driver was charged in St. Croix County with operating while intoxicated (“OWI”) as a seventh offense. Unfortunately, OWI-7th+ carries mandatory minimum prison time – not just time in the county jail. Attorney Nero knew he had to find a problem with one of the prior offenses, some of which dated back to the late 1980s. Luckily, Attorney Nero discovered a flaw with one of the older prior offenses and filed a motion to collaterally attack (or “throw out”) that prior conviction. That motion was granted and the client was then able to resolve his case as an OWI-6th offense, saving him from a mandatory three-year prison sentence.

Ellsworth, WI, man charged with repeated child sexual assault in Pierce County. Attorney Nero first filed a motion to dismiss the charges, which resulted in the client facing only a single allegation of first-degree child sexual assault. After many rounds of aggressive pretrial litigation, the Defense discovered the silver bullet – one which the government was apparently hiding. Through various open records requests, discovery demands, and follow-ups on the same, the Defense found out that the alleged victim in this case had been previously interviewed by Pierce County about these incidents. In this years-old recorded interview, the alleged victim absolutely denied that anything had ever occurred. Years later, for some reason, she changed her mind and said that the allegations did occur. However, in this type of he-said-she-said case, the accuser’s credibility means everything, and the one thing everyone knew was that, at one point or another, she had flat out lied about what happened. Faced with the prospect of an unbelievable witness and a three-day felony jury trial, the State packed up its things and dismissed the case entirely, saving the client from a possible 60 years of prison time.

Osceola, WI, driver charged with felony, misdemeanor, and civil traffic-related offenses was facing up to 10 years prison and a $25,000 fine for allegedly driving her vehicle in a ditch while intoxicated. When she exited the ditch, she became airborne, striking another vehicle. Luckily, there were no serious injuries. However, she hired Attorney Nero because, like all of his clients, she needed to fight her case. She could not accept a criminal conviction, much less a felony, and because her BAC was alleged to be 0.15 or above, she was facing an IID order as well. Not only did Attorney Nero convince the prosecutor to drop the felony recklessly endangering safety, he convinced the prosecutor to drop every criminal charge, and also to agree to agree that her BAC was 0.149 to save her from the ignition interlock device order. While an OWI conviction occurred in this case, due to the seriousness of the other charges, this client was extremely glad to avoid criminal penalties, jail/prison time, probation, large fines, and to take the minimum possible penalties on a first-offense OWI.

Illinois driver charged with OWI/PAC-1st in the City of Hudson municipal court. Few places punish their residents more harshly for OWI/DUI convictions than the State of Illinois. Unlike Wisconsin, Illinois punishes their residents for OWI/DUI convictions, regardless of where they occur, with an indefinite driver license revocation. This client hired Attorney Nero because he knew he needed to take this case extremely seriously and fight it as aggressively as Wisconsin law permitted. After the prosecution turned over its evidence to the Defense, Attorney Nero noticed that, although the officer claimed that this person made serious mistakes on the field sobriety tests, the squad video directly contradicted those claims. Did the officer not know his squad camera was on? Did he make it up? Did he copy and paste from an old police report? Regardless of the reason, the prosecution did not want this case coming before a judge or jury. It quietly settled out of court for no OWI conviction, saving the client’s Illinois driving privileges, and avoiding the other penalties that go along with it.