Last time, we began looking at what exactly constitutes public corruption under the Maryland Criminal Code. As we noted, public corruption can sometimes coincide with ethics violations, and sometimes not. In addition to state charges, federal charges may also be involved in public corruption cases, which can make matters more complicated.
Public corruption can take a variety of forms and can involve a variety of crimes, including money laundering, conspiracy, tampering with a criminal investigation, bid rigging, campaign law violations, income tax fraud, election fraud, and other forms of fraud. The specific charges involved in a public corruption case depend not only on how public corruption is defined by the relevant statutes, but also the specific activities that are involved.
Public corruption cases involve unique considerations for suspects and defendants, including management of negative publicity, navigation of investigations and grand jury proceedings, interpretation of fraud states, which commonly come into play in public corruption cases, and sorting out sentencing matters.
Those who are accused of public corruption, whatever the circumstances, should always work with an experienced criminal defense attorney to build the strongest possible case. In any criminal case, the task of a defense attorney’s task is to hold the state to its burden of proving the truth of the charges by providing relevant, reliable evidence.
An experienced is also able to take advantage of any protections offered in the criminal process to ensure that a defendant has the best possible case and the best shot at achieving a favorable outcome.