Earlier this month, Criminal Defense Clinic students Carly Bittman (JD ’15) and Vina Seelam (JD ’16) received an unexpected and exciting email from the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office—one of the cases they had been working hard on all quarter was being dismissed!  Rather than submitting a Reply Brief to the court, the People decided to dismiss the case altogether after reading the CDC team’s Motion to Suppress.  In the motion, the clinic students had argued that the search warrant that had been used to justify a search of their client’s property was unlawful.

The police had relied on this warrant to justify a search of their client’s home and to charge her with being under the influence of a controlled substance and for possession of a controlled substance.  The police also conducted a warrantless blood draw of the client, which the team argued was unlawful in the motion to suppress. After receiving this extensive motion from the clinic, the prosecution decided to drop the case rather than proceed to oral arguments at the scheduled suppression hearing.

Right after receiving the DA’s notice of dismissal, Carly and Vina called their client to share the good news.  She was thrilled, and she informed them that she was looking forward to coming to court to witness the DA’s dismissal of her case.