Success Stories

Our partner, John LoTurco, secured a dismissal of Burglary charges without our client, “Steven,” ever having to appear in court.

Steven, a teacher in New York, was detained at Newark Airport in March 2026 pursuant to a Suffolk County arrest warrant related to a 2024 charge of Burglary in the Third Degree. His family contacted Mr. LoTurco on Sunday, March 29th at approximately 10:00 p.m., and he immediately recognized the urgency of the situation.

At the time of his detention, Steven was en route to Italy with his girlfriend, intending to propose. Instead, he was taken into custody and transported to the Essex County Jail, where he faced imminent extradition to New York on the outstanding warrant. The extradition hearing was scheduled just two days after his detention.

In the interim, Mr. LoTurco obtained compelling documentation from Steven’s family establishing that Steven was the victim of identity theft and had not been in Suffolk County for over a decade. He promptly provided this information to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, which agreed to vacate the arrest warrant, thereby terminating the extradition proceedings in New Jersey.

Remarkably, within four days of Steven’s detention, Mr. LoTurco further persuaded the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to dismiss all charges in Suffolk County Court. Steven’s appearance was fully waived by both the Court and the District Attorney’s Office.

Although Steven endured three days in custody in New Jersey, he was deeply grateful that the matter was resolved so swiftly, sparing him a prolonged incarceration pending extradition. Steven is now actively pursuing civil remedies arising from his wrongful arrest and detention, including claims for damages related to his incarceration, legal expenses, and the significant mental anguish he suffered as a result of this incident.

On January 13, 2026, the day trial was scheduled to commence at the Suffolk County First District Court, firm partner John LoTurco secured a dismissal on behalf of our client, who had been charged with Harassment in the Second Degree and Stalking. The complainants were our client’s former fiancé and his current fiancée.

Mr. LoTurco demonstrated to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office that the matter was not trial-worthy, as the allegations arose from a long-standing and highly contentious history between the parties, marked by repeated and reciprocal police reports. On the eve of trial, Mr. LoTurco conducted an exhaustive review of the evidence with the two assigned prosecutors and their supervisor, establishing that the complainants had engaged in a prolonged campaign of abusive emails and text messages directed at our client. These communications reflected numerous instances of intentional emotional distress.

One particularly egregious example involved the desecration of our client’s mother’s headstone. The complainants left a card addressed to our client on the grave, mocking her inability to have children, along with baby bottles and toys deliberately placed to further antagonize and emotionally harm her.

Complicating the case was the fact that our client’s former fiancé is a retired NYPD officer who leveraged his status and influence to have our client arrested while preventing charges from being pursued against himself and his current fiancée. Through a comprehensive investigation, Mr. LoTurco was able to demonstrate to the District Attorney’s Office that the retired officer was himself engaged in ongoing criminal conduct, including working off the books while collecting disability benefits.

Although the District Attorney’s Office initially offered a violation plea, and later an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal before trial, Mr. LoTurco and the client stood firm on proceeding to trial. As a result, the District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case in its entirety, and the Order of Protection issued against our client was vacated.

Our client was elated with the outcome and is now exploring potential civil remedies against the complainants.

Mr. LoTurco was assisted throughout the matter by his longtime paralegal, Gina Zamora, who played an integral role in trial preparation and provided professional, attentive client support.

Head of our DWI and Vehicular Crimes Unit, Steven Epstein, describes a recent case:

"This client's story will not get any media attention. It did not result from a jury trial. It will largely go unnoticed to the world, but it exemplifies so much of the successes we have and what we do to help our clients and change their lives.

"Our client was charged in Brooklyn with Vehicular Homicide in an accident that resulted in the death of one person and serious injury to another. He faced up to 25 years in prison. He did cocaine but that was much earlier in time but he was not impaired by it at the time of the accident. The prosecution disagreed but they got it wrong. It would take a miracle to prevent an indictment.

"Though the case had been presented to a grand jury we convinced the DA to withdraw it because our client was innocent of the charges. To their credit, the DA withdrew the case from the grand jury and worked with our office and our amazing experts as we worked together with the prosecution and investigated what transpired.

"Ultimately, the client pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident only. He will not do any jail time. He will keep his licenses to do his job and keep his career.

The firm represents a local Nassau County resident who had been involved in an emotional separation from his girlfriend, after which his employer received an anonymous email attacking him and attaching videos of his text messages with other romantic interests. Shortly after this email, he was removed from his white collar job responsibilities for his local municipality, was given remedial tasks instead at its Parks and Recreations department, and was passed over for promotions and raises that he was otherwise well qualified to obtain.

Arising from this setting, he sued his ex-girlfriend—alleging, among other things, that she had written the anonymous email and tortiously interfered with his business. After the close of discovery, she moved for summary judgment—claiming that he lacked sufficient evidence of her authorship, and denying that his experience at work formed a cognizable basis for damages in light of the fact that he was not technically fired.

Led by Alexander Klein, BEKAL opposed the motion—coming forward with comprehensive evidence surrounding the circumstances of the email as well as subpoenaed records showing the extent to which he had been passed over for promotions and raises given to less qualified colleagues. And on July 10, 2025, the Court agreed—denying the summary judgment motion in its entirety, and paving the way for trial in this action.

“The Court recognized our fundamental view of this case,” said Klein. “Our adversary can deny having written this damaging email, but the body to evaluate that denial is not a judge on motion practice but a jury after trial. We look forward to giving a jury that opportunity.”

Read the decision and motion papers, here:

Decision

Motion

Wrongful convictions remain one of the most devastating injustices in our criminal legal system, with researchers estimating that approximately 100,000 innocent people are currently incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. When people are wrongfully convicted, they lose their freedom, their reputation, and their dignity. Beyond this, their loved ones and communities suffer as additional victims of these miscarriages of justice. This results in increased generational trauma, financial difficulties, and mental health problems for families. Additionally, the problems of wrongful conviction extend beyond fairness and justice to include public safety, since actual perpetrators remain at large and often continue to endanger the community.

To address the ongoing crisis of wrongful convictions in this country, Martin Tankleff (himself an exoneree who spent nearly 18 years in prison before his exoneration) and Marc Howard (Tankleff’s childhood friend) started an undergraduate course at Georgetown University in 2018. This 5-credit course—called “Making an Exoneree” (MAE) —is unique in multiple respects. Over the course of each spring semester, a group of 15 highly motivated undergraduate students reinvestigate potential wrongful conviction cases and create campaigns advocating for release or exoneration, including eight-minute documentary films portraying the main issues, challenges, injustices, and human stories involved in each case. When Marc and Marty started Making an Exoneree, they drew on their own experience, given that Marty’s exoneration would not have been possible without zealous reinvestigation, sustained media attention, and public pressure. Thus, Making an Exoneree was born out of a vision for utilizing what we often refer to as “secret weapons”: undergraduate students who pour their hearts into reinvestigating cases and can help bring them out of obscurity.

Since its founding, MAE has developed as a program with staff dedicated to reviewing case applications and supporting students in their advocacy for our cases. We successfully expanded the MAE program to Princeton University in 2023, and, to sustain this expansion, we established an independent 501c3 organization, called Making an Exoneree Project, Inc. The MAE staff collaborates to carefully narrow down the list of potential cases and provide comprehensive guidance and support to students throughout the spring semester.

This course model now operates at four universities: Georgetown University (since 2018), Princeton University (since 2023), New York University (since 2025), and the University of California at Santa Cruz (since 2025), all of which are partly supported by a practicum course at Georgetown University Law Center. Overall, the MAE program has helped gain freedom for 12 wrongfully convicted individuals. Our organization works tirelessly to pursue freedom and justice for the wrongfully convicted, while engaging young, passionate students in real-world advocacy.

This past Spring 2025 semester, students at the four schools were able to reinvestigate 16 cases of likely wrongful conviction. All together, these 16 individuals have spent 420 years and counting behind bars for crimes they did not commit. Thanks to zealous student reinvestigation, pro bono support from leading experts in the criminal legal field, and experienced professors and lawyers assisting our program, Making an Exoneree has become a life-affirming and life-altering course for everyone involved. In the eight years since inception, we have developed a model that allows us to replicate and expand the program to more universities across the country, and we look forward to continuing our expansion and helping wrongfully convicted people achieve their much-deserved and long-awaited freedom.