May 25, 2010

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 10:21 am

The defendant, who was on probation, wanted to terminate his probation early, and hired Attorney Topazio. On May 12, 2009, the defendant pled guilty to the lesser included offense of Assault and Battery and was placed on probation for two (2) years to May 12, 2011, with conditions of probation that included, among other things, random alcohol and drug testing, and counseling. Attorney Topazio contacted his client’s therapist and learned that his client completed all the behavior modification and parenting skills that he had worked on with his therapist during his therapeutic sessions and obtained a report confirming same. Attorney Topazio contacted his client’s probation officer and negotiated with her and reached an agreement that she would not oppose his client’s motion to terminate. Attorney Topazio filed a motion to terminate his client’s probation and argued in court that his client had met all the terms of his probation and was in compliance with the terms of his probation since May 12, 2009 and that all the goals of probation were met and requested that his client’s probation be terminated early. Despite the lack of opposition form probation, the court took no action on the motion to terminate probation and suggested that the motion be argued at a later date because the court reasoned that not enough time had gone by to allow the motion at that time. Nevertheless, the Court acknowledged the defendant’s progress and rewarded him by vacating all conditions of probation, and further ordered that the supervised probation be changed to limited supervision, with no reporting and vacating all remaining payments.