St. George Attorney Shares Some Notable Victories

Southern Utah criminal defense lawyer with an impressive record of success

Aric Cramer knows that going to trial may be the only way to get the justice a client deserves. Attorney Aric Cramer has taken over 50 misdemeanor trials to verdict. He has also had notable victories in appellate courts, such as State v. Harrison, 24 P.2d 936 (Utah 2001) and State v. Piep, 2004 UT App. 7 2004.

Call a successful attorney in St. George, Utah to discuss your criminal defense options

Aric Cramer has been successfully defending clients against criminal charges for more than three decades. The firm is conveniently located next door to the St. George courthouse, and is open during standard business hours. To schedule an appointment for a free 30 minute consultation in-office or by phone, contact Aric Cramer by phone at 435-627-1565 – criminal law issues only. or online.

Aggravated Sexual Assault

In the case of State v. Slater, Aric Cramer’s client was accused of Aggravated Sexual Assault.  His client was an elderly gentleman who was traveling with his wife to various famous areas throughout the world.  He struck up a friendship with one of the maids at the hotel and upon leaving gave her a kiss on the cheek.  One week later he was arrested in his home in a different state for Aggravated Sexual Assault – the maid had alleged to the police that he had grabbed her breast and forcibly French kissed her!  Mind you not only was his client extremely aged but only about five and a half feet tall and one hundred fifty pounds.

Mr. Cramer interviewed her co-workers who were there on the date of the incident.  To a person, the co-workers said the accuser only said he kissed her cheek on the day of the incident.

At the scheduled preliminary hearing the prosecutor indicated to the court that the accuser wished to drop the charges and wanted nothing to do with the case.  The 15-year prison term possible for such a crime evaporated in light of an aggressive investigation into the truth.

Illegal Re-Entry

Aric Cramer had a major victory in Federal Court again this month. His client had been charged with illegal re-entry and the recommendation from the government and the probation office was a sentence of at least three years in prison. His client had been brought to the U.S. by his family when he was 13 years old to prevent him being murdered in the cartel wars raging in his home town in Mexico. Upon his being brought to Texas by relatives, he was left to fend for himself and became addicted to drugs. When he was a young adult he quickly picked up a couple of drug possession felony charges and was deported after having served some time in the Texas prison system. In order to save his life from the cartel that was the cause of his father, brother, sister and cousin being murdered, his client re-entered the U.S. without permission.

The story changed when he got back to Texas and met his future wife. She (a U.S. citizen) convinced him to give up his life of addiction and leave Texas to start a new life in Utah. They moved to the St. George, Utah area and his client began working construction and starting a family. One decade and five children later, he had become a model father and valuable employee. When he left his employer to get a better job due to his infant twins having expensive health problems, his old employer – having known his history, but turning a blind eye to it while he worked for that employer – turned Mr. Cramer’s client in to Federal immigration authorities.

When the Judge was made aware of all of these facts, he reduced the sentence by over two years and gave Mr. Cramer’s client the sentence of one year and a day, so that his client could get the 54 days of good time allowed by federal law, giving an effective sentence of 5 months after credit for time served and good time!

Federal Court

Aric Cramer won a jury trial in Federal Court this month. This is an extremely rare occurrence in Federal Court. More than 98% of all criminal cases brought in Federal Court are resolved with plea bargains Of all cases that are plead or tried, only one in every two hundred and twelve cases come back with an acquittal.

The case involved a US citizen who had immigrated to the US in 1986 from Mexico. He and his family were never affluent. He was convinced by a neighbor of his mother that jobs were more plentiful in Colorado than in Southern California, so he convinced Aric’s client to drive him to Colorado from Bakersfield California. This false friend borrowed the client’s van the night before their trip under the pretense of helping someone jump start their truck. After an inordinate delay of 3 hours, the van was returned. The next day the two began their trip but were stopped in Richfield Utah by the Utah Highway Patrol. The trooper noticed the paint on the driver’s side step was different than the paint on the passenger side and discovered three (3) pounds of high grade (96% pure) methamphetamine in the driver’s side rocker panels. Both men were arrested and were facing 15-17 years in prison under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Both men initially plead not guilty, but eventually, the co-defendant plead guilty when it was discovered his fingerprints, and his alone, were on the methamphetamine packaging. The government still believed Aric’s client knew about the drugs in his van and that he was a knowing co-conspirator. Aric’s client was adamant as to his innocence. Even after a plea bargain that would have limited his client to four (4) years in prison was negotiated, Aric’s client was firm in his claim of innocence. So off to trial they went!

After 2 days of testimony and hard-fought legal issues, Aric delivered an impassioned closing argument. After only 90 minutes, the jury returned a NOT GUILTY verdict!

Aggravated Sexual Abuse

Aric Cramer recently obtained a not guilty verdict for their client who was charged with aggravated sexual abuse. The client had been charged with the crime for allegedly groping his date’s breast without her consent during a dinner at his home. The accuser had made a number of statements to her friends and to the police at the time of the incident indicating that he had tried to grab her but was not successful. At trial, she explained that he HAD been successful and that he DID succeed in touching her breasts. The jury found him not guilty. Upon interviewing the jury, they indicated that her stories were inconsistent, that they believed something had happened, but it wasn’t clear what had happened (if anything) and therefore they followed the law and dismissed the charges.

Second-Degree Felony Theft

Aric Cramer recently had a second-degree felony theft case dismissed at the preliminary hearing. The client had been charged with theft. He had done some landscaping, yard work, and handyman services for a friend of his who was 96 years old. The client had the elderly gentleman make out the check to a company that he owned. The elderly gentleman’s daughter began interrogating her father as to where her future inheritance was going and he did not remember off the top of his head what the check was for. Washington County Sheriffs’ office then filed charges of theft when they traced the check back to their client. Mr. Cramer went out and interviewed the alleged victim, the elderly gentleman. He indicated that he willingly gave the money to the client and received value for the services received. The daughter tried to have her father determined incompetent to prevent him from testifying. Mr. Cramer drove out and picked him up, and took him to the preliminary hearing. Even after the prosecutor spoke with the alleged victim, they still wanted to go forward with their case. Despite being grilled by the prosecutor as to why he didn’t remember who he wrote the check out for when they interviewed him, he indicated that he remembered now who it went to and for what purpose. The court dismissed the case at the end of the preliminary hearing ruling that there was no credible evidence that their client had taken any money from him with intent to deprive.

Felony Prescription Drug Charges

Aric Cramer was recently was granted motions to suppress on his clients’ felony prescription drug cases out of Iron County, Utah. An officer had stopped his client for a traffic issue and found there was an outstanding warrant from a justice court in Salt Lake. Without the client’s permission and after she had been arrested, handcuffed, and placed in the back of the patrol vehicle, the police opened up her purse and dumped out the contents on the trunk of her vehicle and found that she had some prescription bottles for her family. The trooper felt that the pill count was not correct and turned the case over to the Drug Task Force. The Task Force then went to the physicians’ offices and got the records of the client and her husband’s prescriptions. The County then charged them both with doctor shopping and possession with intent to distribute felonies.

The court ruled that there was no reasonable articulable suspicion for the trooper to go through the client’s purse and that the fact that she had prescriptions bottles for her husband and her daughter, the evidence was not legally obtained, and even if it had been was not evidence of any crime being committed. The court suppressed the search and all of the subsequent investigation of the doctors’ offices.