Life Sentence Felony Reduced to Misdemeanor

I hired Dan Koukol to represent me as soon as I was aware the police were investigating my case. Shortly thereafter, I was arrested and charged with several very serious offenses. In fact I was charged with a crime that carried a “life” sentence as well as six additional serious felonies. It is a very scary feeling to be in a jail cell not knowing if you will ever get out. That is a feeling I will never forget.

Fortunately for me I have a very supportive family and an attorney that understood what I was going through and was willing and able to do whatever it took to get me out of this situation.

My story is fairly long because my case required a lot of work. Let me start by saying that Dan Koukol has the best team of people helping him imaginable. One of his investigators, Carolyn Young, did an amazing job. Ms. Young literally worked night and day on my case. She interviewed every witness conceiveable and a few that I never would have thought of myself. Mr. Koukol also hired an expert witness to counter the prosecutor’s expert witness.

Right away, Mr. Koukol met with the prosecutor and the prosecutor’s investigator and told them that he thought my case was incorrectly charged and that they were wrong about several key points.  He said the same thing to the judge. 

During the preliminary hearing, Mr. Koukol was able to get the most serious charges dismissed.  Instead of facing “life” in prison, as well as seven strikes (three strikes law), my charges were reduced to four non-strike felonies and four misdemeanors. My maximum sentence at this point was down to nine years in state prison. I was still very scared but at least there was movement in the right direction.

Mr. Koukol and his team kept working. Over the next several weeks, Mr. Koukol provided the prosecutor with his “defense discovery” and the list of almost 30 witnesses to be called in jury trial. Before trial began, Mr. Koukol filed six motions and met with the judge and the prosecutor in an attempt to resolve my case. The prosecutor insisted that nothing less than prison will do, so we continued the fight.

Mr. Koukol and the prosecutor met the day before my jury trial begin. It was estimated that my trial would last approximately five weeks. When the trial began, Mr. Koukol had 26 witnesses ready to testify.  After the trial began, the prosecutor made me a misdemeanor offer (with informal probation), which I very eagerly accepted. Even though we were ready to show that I was actually not guilty of committing the crime in a case like this, it was simply too risky to turn down this type of offer.

Looking back, remembering how it felt when I was in jail facing life and then the relief of closing the case with a misdemeanor plea, I can’t tell you how much better it feels to have this behind me.

I have never been through anything like this before in my life. Although this was not the first time I have been in trouble with the law, it was the first time I have been in serious trouble.  It was also the first time I have had an attorney that handled my case the way Mr. Koukol did. He actually had a defense team and they managed the “project” using project management software tools. Everything was done on time and in the correct order. We had weekly meetings and everyone in my family had a voice on what should be done. When I look back on it I don’t think it could have been handled any better.

If you ever need a really good attorney and investigator, you should hire Mr. Koukol.  He and Ms. Young together literally saved my life.

~ Anonymous