Posted 3/29/2014 by Mark Miclette
Information
It was hard enough to get arrested and charged, but your lawyer now says the Feds are stepping in. This might mean the charges are going to be upgraded to federal charges. There are four common reasons for federal authorities stepping in.
Definition: A federal crime is a crime against the U.S. government’s laws. A state crime is against the state laws.
- You transported a victim across state lines. Even if the state line is across the street from your house, if you force the neighbor into prostitution and take her across the state line to perform sex for money, you will find yourself tied up with the Feds.
- You are a felon and charged with gun possession. Many state courts will deal with this charge at the state level, but there are cases where it is turned over to the Feds. A felon in possession of a gun is against federal law, so the state is not required to keep it in state court.
- You took your children out of state against custody or visitation rules. You love them and they love you, and one day you decided to move where you could all live together. Even if you provide them a better home than you took them from, you can be charged with a federal crime if you took them to a new state.
- You trafficked drugs across state lines. Trafficking is handled at the state level if you remained within state boundaries, but if you moved the drugs from one state to another, it is a federal crime.
Final thoughts: In short, the most common reason Feds get involved is for crossing state lines during the commission of a crime. In addition, Internet
crimes are federal if a person you are accused of swindling or embezzling was in a state different from yours at the time you did it.
