Case Results of Joe Welch

Mr. Welch’s client was facing up to 7 years in prison for felony possession and the prosecutor was asking for a felony conviction and a trip to prison for a drug treatment program only if he first waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Instead of having his client waive the hearing he tried to convince the prosecutor that a class D misdemeanor was ultimately all they would be able to prove. After thinking it over the prosecutor released their witnesses; there would be no preliminary hearing this day as the felony charge was voluntarily dismissed and refiled as a misdemeanor and Joe Welch’s client walked out of court with only a small fine. In Missouri you are only entitled to a preliminary hearing if you are accused of a felony and once the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor that right went away.

Joe Welch's client was charged with 14 felony drug and weapons charges for the alleged distribution of methamphetamine. After a very thorough preliminary hearing at which Mr. Welch cross-examined the investigating officer at length and filed a brief with the court, all the charges were dismissed for lack of probable cause.

After Joe Welch challenged the pretextual nature of the traffic stop in which his client was a passenger, the prosecution voluntarily dismissed all charges. His client had been facing up to 7 years in prison.

Felony marijuana possession case completely dismissed after a tough law-and-order judge in a very conservative county made it clear that the law also applies to the police when he held them accountable for violating Joe Welch’s client’s rights and suppressed the evidence they illegally seized.

Jury acquits Joe Welch’s client of the class B felony of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. After three years of litigation during which Mr. Welch filed a motion to dismiss under Missouri’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act for the religious use of marijuana, a jury in one of Missouri’s most conservative jurisdictions quickly and decisively found his client not guilty of the felony, instead convicting him of misdemeanor possession. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $500 on the misdemeanor, having originally been facing from 5 to 15 years in prison on the class B felony.