Since 2017, the Baltimore Public Defender’s Office has called over 2,000 convictions into question related to police misconduct. In one instance, a Baltimore Police Department body-worn camera appeared to show an officer planting drugs at the scene of an arrest. As law enforcement agencies are increasingly using surveillance tools and forensic technologies to identify and arrest suspects in criminal investigations, defense attorneys are faced with the challenge of both defending their clients and holding police accountable for misconduct and abuse. How can criminal defense attorneys turn police technologies on police departments in criminal proceedings? From police drones to body cameras, this webinar will guide the criminal defense bar through the functionality, technological limitations, and legal challenges of litigating police technology in criminal cases.

This webinar will feature Debbie Levi, Director of Special Litigation with the Baltimore City Public Defender, and Ivan Bates, Managing Partner of Bates & Garcia, P.C.

LOCATION: Online LIVE Web Training
DATE: Tuesday, August 11, 2020
TIME: 11:00am – 12:30pm EST
COST: FREE (for NACDL members and non-members)

FACULTY

• Debbie Levi began her career as a public defender with the Salt Lake Legal Defenders in 2008. In 2012, she joined the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, and has been with the Baltimore City Felony Trial division since 2013. She became the Director of Special Litigation in 2017, where she aggressively litigates access to internal affairs files and specializes her practice in exposing police misconduct and curing discovery abuses.  In 2013, she successfully challenged the Baltimore Police Department’s practice of tracking a cellphone without a warrant, which led to one of the first appellate reported opinions on the issue in State v. Andrews. She received her law degree from the University of Utah and is a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. She has presented nationally on cellphone tracking and police misconduct for NACDL, NORML, Forensics College, and state public defender offices. Ms. Levi is also the 2018 recipient of the American Bar Association’s Charles H. Dorsey award, recognizing exceptional work by a public defender or legal aid worker.
   
• Ivan Bates, Managing Partner of Bates & Garcia, P.C., is a United States Army Veteran and a graduate of the French Commando School who served his country in foreign and domestic assignments while assigned to the 32nd Air Defense Artillery Command in Europe. Following his military service, he attended and graduated from Howard University, School of Communications as Honor Graduate. Ivan has received many prestigious awards and honors including the Lyndon Baines Johnson Internship and the General Motors Volunteer Award. He continued his education earning his Juris Doctorate at College of William and Mary, School of Law. There he was a recipient of the Public Service Fellowship, a member of the Black Law Student Association and a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. While in law school, Ivan launched into his law career gathering experience and exposure as a law clerk for offices such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Global Sports Management, Inc., and several law firms in the DC/Baltimore region. Following graduation from law school, Ivan was selected to serve as Law Clerk for the Honorable David B. Mitchell in Baltimore, MD. When his term with Judge Mitchell ended, Ivan was offered a position as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office. There, he refined his trial and advocacy skills, making such an impression that he quickly became an ASA in the Homicide Division.
  While Ivan enjoyed his time as a prosecutor, he found another passion as a criminal defense attorney when he joined the firm of Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow, Gilden, and Ravenell, PA., (Baltimore, MD), a premier criminal defense firm in Maryland.
  In 2006, Ivan started his own firm Bates and Garcia PA., Ivan has had the opportunity to represent clients in federal court in San Francisco, Northern Virginia as well as Maryland. He has appeared in every Court in the State of Maryland when his representation of his clients has made him one of the most sought-after attorneys in the City.