FEDERAL CRIMINAL CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST TWO WILSON CLIENTS

Federal criminal charges have been dismissed against two clients of Roger C. Wilson and The Roger C. Wilson Law Firm, PC in two different cases several weeks apart.

One client was charged with marijuana offenses based on events in a federal park near Atlanta.  Significant issues were discovered in a thorough review of the case, including in the reports of the investigating law enforcement officers, which issues supported the client's claim of innocence. Substantially as a result of those issues, and in the course of negotiations by Roger C. Wilson with the federal prosecutor, all charges against the client were dropped several days before trial.

Any crimes committed in federal parks or similar federally controlled or administered territories, such as on the Chattahoochee River or elsewhere in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, are federal crimes and are prosecuted in federal courts.

In a separate case, another Wilson client was charged, along with several co-defendants, with multiple offenses involving alleged weapons trafficking, including the alleged illegal possession and distribution of an unregistered weapon.  The charges, and similar charges against many other defendants in other cases, arose from a lengthy sting operation conducted by federal agents, principally from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. 

The agents established a storefront business in Southwest Atlanta as the base for an undercover operation in which they encouraged local residents to sell firearms and other items to the agents at the store, where the agents posed as legitimate business owners.  Those lured into the operation then were charged with such crimes as engaging in or conspiring to engage in gun sales without being registered to do so under federal dealer licensing regulations.  A number of such persons have reported not knowing of the existence of such registration requirements and regulations until their arrests. Other charges also were brought based on the involvement of certain weapons, such as sawed-off shotguns, which require registration to be possessed or sold.

All proceedings inside and outside the store were recorded by an elaborate network of hidden surveillance cameras and microphones.  Wiretap recordings also were made of numerous telephone calls engaged in by the undercover agents with customers who had been lured to the store.


The client of Roger C. Wilson was indicted on multiple counts, relating both to the alleged illegal dealing and to the alleged possession and sale of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun.  Shortly before trial the case was resolved, by means of a resolution of the lesser (in terms of sentencing) counts and then, just before  trial, with a negotiated dismissal by federal prosecutors of the major count (also in terms of sentencing) and of the corresponding remainder of the case.


Roger C. Wilson represents clients charged with crimes and otherwise involved in government enforcement activities at the federal and state levels.  He has represented individuals and companies facing actual or possible criminal prosecution in "white collar" and "blue collar" contexts, including by defending them at trial and by negotiating resolutions with state and federal prosecutors, as well as by negotiated resolutions with federal enforcement agencies in such areas as export controls, foreign assets controls, and customs and import regulations.