Daniel M. Rosenberg’s Post

Transcript

Did you know that Morgan Wallen? Yes, the same famous country singer who's about to release a song with Post Malone, is facing felony charges for throwing a chair off a rooftop in Nashville, TN. Are you wondering how this beloved country singers case might unfold? While I'm about to give you a criminal defense attorney's perspective on that right now? Hi, my name is Daniel. I'm Rosenberg. I'm a criminal defense attorney and the founding partner of Rosenberg, Perry and Associates. There's also my personal goal and passion to provide information and education about the criminal justice system before people come involved and entrenched in the system. So I'm sure a lot of you have seen the headlines about Morgan Wallen and the allegations in Tennessee, but what exactly happened and what exactly is he facing? Well, on April 7th of 2024, approximately 11:00 PM, there was a chair that was thrown from the rooftop of Chiefs Bar. In Nashville, TN, on Broadway, the chair landed on the ground within 3 feet of two law enforcement officers, and what's been released thus far is that there's video surveillance of this alleged incident. There's also witnesses, and those witnesses stated that Morgan Wallen grabbed the chair, threw it off the balcony and laughed about it afterwards. While in was arrested early in the morning hours of April 8th and subsequently released soon thereafter, he released the social media post which stated we didn't mean any harm and we want to say sorry to any bar staff or anyone that was affected. Thank you to the local authorities for being so professional and doing their job with class Love Y'all. Mistake #1, admitting conduct mistake #2 disclosing that conduct mistake #3 providing any statement to anyone. I can't emphasize this enough, but I'll move on. Now that we know what the allegations are, what does Morgan Wallen actually facing? Well, he's facing 3 felony counts for reckless endangerment and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The reckless endangerment charges are Class E felonies in Tennessee and allege that he was likely to cause serious bodily injury or death with a deadly weapon, in this case the deadly weapon being a chair. His maximum exposure? Six years in prison, but with no prior criminal history. He is in a range one which is a two year maximum sentence. Disorderly conduct is a classy felony with a 30 day maximum sentence exposure. So when I point out something very significant, and that is where you are, will really dictate what kind of punishment you could potentially get. So if this same conduct occurred here in New Jersey, there is no reckless endangerment statute. In fact, that statute was repealed or taken off the books in 2016. So there is no felony charge for reckless endangerment. He's got 3 counts in Tennessee exposing him to six years in prison. And each one of them. None of that happens in New Jersey. He's exposed to criminal mischief. And disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct is a petty disorderly persons level offense. That is the lowest level of offense we have here in New Jersey. He is exposed to up to 30 days in the county jail. Criminal mischief is graded on how much damage occurred. If that damage was under $500. This is a misdemeanor with six months in the county jail's exposure. If the chair was worth more than $500 in less than $2000. Now we're looking at a crime or a felony of the 4th degree which has an exposure of. 18 months in state prison. So Tennessee, you've got six years on each felony in New Jersey if it's a felony. Up to 18 months. Significant difference. So now that you know the allegations and what the potential exposure is, how do you handle a case like this? The first thing you do is you do not provide any statements. I'm gonna say that again. You don't provide any statements. You don't provide anything on social media. And this is significant because there is no crime of reckless endangerment, but there is a crime of aggravated assault if it was your intent to throw the chair and hit someone down there. So by uttering any words that the state could use to further that charge, you could be walking yourself. Into an additional felony charge #2. Engage a defense attorney to advocate for you. #3 Ideally you want someone local who knows the INS and outs of the courtroom that local law enforcement agency. This is a high profile criminal charge, so you wanna put your client in the best possible position, and in all likelihood having a local attorney is going to do that for wallop. The next thing we do is obtain discovery, see if they can actually prove their case, and #4 explore diversionary programs. And by that I mean are there any programs that he can enter into where he's not going to admit to guilt, where he's not going to have a conviction if he's eligible for those programs that he is Abed out from under without serving anytime and potentially without having any criminal record whatsoever. The question I constantly get is a criminal defense attorney is, hey, this is a high profile guy, high profile situation, is he going to get treated the same as everyone else? No, no, he's absolutely not because there's people involved. If the prosecutor is a fan of Morgan Wallen, do you think they're going to do it a little bit differently? Yes, everyone is absolutely supposed to be treated the same, and Morgan Wallen is supposed to be treated just like everyone else in the courtroom. But I live in the real world, not in fantasyland. And in the real world, people in these situations are going to be treated differently. No one's going to say out loud, hey, I was going to convict him as a felon, but now, because it's Morgan Wallen, I'm probably going to do something different. That's all subtext. Yeah. Welcome to the criminal justice system, everybody. So if you or someone you know has been charged with a crime here in New Jersey, please contact our office. We're happy to help in any way we can. We'll take the time we need to assess your situation and. Provide you blunt and candid advice with the intention of putting you in the best position for the best possible result. And if you like the contents of this video, please like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if there's a topic you'd like to learn more about, please contact our office or leave a comment below. I'd be happy to hear about it. We are criminal trial attorneys. We have your back. That's what we do.