NYC Criminal Defense Lawyer

A NYC criminal defense lawyer takes over the moment an arrest happens, not at trial. Most New York City cases are decided long before a jury is picked, through arraignment, bail, discovery deadlines, suppression motions, and negotiation, and the decisions made in the first weeks usually determine the outcome.

New York City runs five separate county criminal court systems, two federal districts, and a set of statutory deadlines that cut in a defendant’s favor when someone is tracking them. Most people arrested here have no idea those deadlines exist, which is exactly why they pass unenforced.

Cedeño Law Group, PLLC defends clients in the criminal courts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Founding partner Peter L. Cedeño began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and has practiced in New York since 1994, which means he has built these cases from the other side of the table before defending against them.

What Happens After an Arrest in New York City?

Arraignment comes first. A person held after arrest must be arraigned without unnecessary delay, and New York courts have treated detention beyond roughly 24 hours without arraignment as presumptively unreasonable. At arraignment the charges are read, counsel appears, and the release decision is made.

Not everyone waits in custody. For many offenses the police issue a desk appearance ticket instead, releasing the person with a date to return to court. Either way, the arraignment is the first real opportunity to affect the case, and appearing there with retained counsel who has already spoken to the prosecutor produces a different result than appearing without.

Which borough the case lands in matters as well. Each of the five counties has its own district attorney, its own charging practices, and its own diversion and alternative-to-incarceration programs, so the same conduct can be handled quite differently in Manhattan than in the Bronx or on Staten Island.

What a defendant says between arrest and arraignment matters more than anything else in that window. Our NYC criminal defense attorneys give the same instruction every time: identify yourself, ask for a lawyer, and stop talking. Explanations offered to police at the scene become the prosecution’s evidence, not the defense’s.

What Is a Desk Appearance Ticket in NYC?

A summons to return, not a dismissal. A desk appearance ticket releases a person from custody with a future arraignment date rather than holding them for immediate arraignment. New York now requires a DAT for most misdemeanors and Class E felonies, subject to statutory exceptions.

The relief of walking out of the precinct leads people to underestimate what they are holding. A DAT is the commencement of a criminal case. Missing the date produces a bench warrant, and the underlying charge carries the same exposure it would have carried after a night in custody. A DAT also does not mean the charge is minor, since Class E felonies are routinely charged this way.

The DAT window is also the best opportunity in the whole case. There are weeks before arraignment to investigate, gather mitigation, and approach the prosecutor before charges are locked in, which is why our desk appearance ticket attorneys want the call the day the ticket is issued rather than the week the court date arrives.

Will I Be Held on Bail in New York?

Usually not, for most charges. New York’s bail statute requires release on recognizance or on non-monetary conditions for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, and reserves monetary bail and remand for qualifying offenses defined by statute.

Where bail is available, the court must consider the least restrictive conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant’s return to court. That standard is argued, not assumed, and the material that wins it is concrete: employment, housing, family ties in the borough, treatment enrollment, and a record of appearing when required.

Counsel prepared at arraignment can present that package the first time the question is asked. Counsel appearing cold cannot, and a release decision made on incomplete information is far harder to revisit than to get right initially.

How Long Does the Prosecution Have to Be Ready for Trial?

It depends on the offense class. Under CPL § 30.30, the People must be ready within six months on a felony, ninety days on a Class A misdemeanor, sixty days on a Class B misdemeanor, and thirty days where the top count is a violation.

These deadlines are real and they are enforced, but only when someone is counting. Adjournments are charged or excluded depending on who requested them and why, and the arithmetic across a case with a dozen appearances is genuinely intricate.

Speedy trial practice in New York is also tied to discovery. The People’s certificate of compliance with their discovery obligations is a prerequisite to a valid statement of readiness, so incomplete disclosure can leave the clock running when the prosecution believes it has stopped. Our criminal defense attorneys track that record from the first appearance, because a dismissal on speedy trial grounds is won with a calendar, not with an argument.

What Are the Levels of Criminal Charges in New York?

Three tiers. New York classifies offenses as felonies, punishable by more than one year, graded Class A through Class E; misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year, graded Class A and Class B; and violations, which are offenses but not crimes and carry up to fifteen days.

The classification drives everything downstream. It sets the sentencing exposure, the speedy trial deadline, whether a desk appearance ticket is available, whether bail can be set at all, and whether the conviction will ever be eligible for automatic sealing.

It is also the first thing worth negotiating. Moving a charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, or from a misdemeanor to a violation, changes a client’s life far more than shaving time off a sentence, because a violation is not a criminal conviction and does not carry the collateral consequences that follow one into housing, employment, and licensing.

What Criminal Cases Do Our NYC Criminal Defense Attorneys Handle?

Charges across the New York City criminal courts and the federal districts, with particular depth where a criminal case and a family case are running at the same time.

Our criminal defense practice covers:

• DWI and DWAI defense: charges under the Vehicle and Traffic Law, including breath and blood testing, refusal hearings, and license consequences.
• Desk appearance tickets: misdemeanor and Class E felony cases charged by DAT, handled before arraignment where possible.
• Gun and weapon charges: criminal possession of a weapon and related counts, where search and seizure issues frequently decide the case.
• Burglary and property crimes: burglary, trespass, and theft offenses across the degrees.
• Child abuse and endangerment defense: allegations that frequently arrive alongside a child protective or custody proceeding.
• Family law related criminal defense: domestic violence charges, order of protection violations, and contempt allegations arising out of a family case.
• Criminal appeals: appeals to the Appellate Division and post-conviction applications.

The overlap between the criminal and family dockets is where this firm is different from a criminal-only practice, and it is the subject of the next section.

How Does a Criminal Case Affect a Divorce or Custody Case in NYC?

Directly and in both directions. A criminal charge produces a criminal court order of protection that can exclude a parent from the home and the children, and DRL § 240 requires a custody court to weigh proven domestic violence in the best interests analysis.

The sequencing creates traps. A plea entered to resolve a misdemeanor quickly can supply the finding that decides a custody case months later. An allocution given to satisfy a prosecutor becomes an admission in the Family Court. A defendant advised only on the criminal exposure, by counsel who never asked about the custody case, can win the smaller fight and lose the larger one.

It runs the other way too. Statements made in a family offense proceeding, or in a Statement of Net Worth, can surface in the criminal matter. Our family law related criminal defense attorneys handle both dockets together, coordinating with the order of protection and custody side of the case rather than treating them as unrelated files.

Can a Criminal Conviction Affect Immigration Status?

Yes, and the advice is constitutionally required. Under Padilla v. Kentucky, defense counsel must advise a non-citizen client of the immigration consequences of a plea. A conviction can trigger removal, bar naturalization, or block reentry, and the effect turns on how the offense is classified under federal immigration law.

The classification rarely tracks intuition. Some New York misdemeanors carry harsher immigration consequences than certain felonies, because federal law asks whether an offense is an aggravated felony or a crime involving moral turpitude rather than what New York calls it. A plea that looks like a bargain on the criminal side can be catastrophic on the immigration side.

For a non-citizen client in New York City, the immigration analysis belongs at the start of plea negotiations, not at the end. Charge selection and the exact language of the plea can preserve status where a routine disposition would destroy it.

Will a New York Criminal Case Stay on My Record Forever?

Often not. New York’s Clean Slate Act, effective November 16, 2024, automatically seals eligible misdemeanor convictions three years after sentencing or release, and eligible felony convictions after eight years, provided the person is not on probation or parole and has no pending charges.

The exclusions matter. Sex offenses under Penal Law article 130, sexually violent offenses, and Class A felonies other than certain drug convictions are not eligible, and a new conviction during the waiting period restarts the clock from the later date. The waiting period runs from sentencing, or from release where a sentence of incarceration was imposed.

Separate relief also exists and is not automatic. Cases terminating favorably are sealed under the sealing provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, and a person with a limited record may apply for discretionary sealing of up to two convictions after ten years. Sealing is not expungement, and certain agencies and licensing authorities retain access, so anyone relying on it should understand its actual reach.

Is the Case in State Court or Federal Court?

It changes almost everything. State charges are prosecuted by the district attorney of the borough where the offense occurred. Federal charges in New York City are brought in the Southern District or the Eastern District of New York, with different procedure, different sentencing, and different timelines.

Federal cases usually arrive after a long investigation, so by the time charges are filed the government has assembled its proof. Sentencing runs through the federal guidelines, and the practical realities of federal detention and supervised release differ sharply from the state system. Federal discovery obligations and speedy trial rules are their own regime as well, so state court experience does not transfer automatically.

A subject or target letter, a grand jury subpoena, or an agent appearing at a home or workplace all mean the same thing: the investigation is underway and the moment to involve counsel has already arrived. Federal cases are shaped in the pre-indictment period more than at any point afterward.

How Do Our NYC Criminal Defense Lawyers Handle a Case?

By working the front of the case. Our NYC criminal defense lawyers put the effort into arraignment, discovery enforcement, and suppression practice, because the overwhelming majority of New York City cases are resolved on that record rather than by verdict.

The sequence is consistent. Counsel appears at arraignment prepared on release. Discovery is demanded and the People’s compliance is tested rather than accepted, since an incomplete certificate affects both the disclosure and the speedy trial clock. Where a stop, a search, a statement, or an identification procedure is vulnerable, suppression is litigated, because a granted motion frequently ends the case without a trial.

Negotiation happens against that prepared record, not instead of it. A prosecutor facing a defense that has filed motions, counted the speedy trial time, and identified the proof problems offers something different than one facing a defendant who wants the case over. And where no acceptable offer exists, the case is tried by counsel who has been preparing to try it from the first appearance.

Why Choose Peter L. Cedeño for a NYC Criminal Case?

Prosecution experience and three decades in New York courts. Peter L. Cedeño served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office before entering private practice, and was admitted in New York in 1994.

Mr. Cedeño is a graduate of Pace University School of Law and is admitted in New York and in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the two federal courts that hear New York City criminal matters. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and lectures for the Association, and his practice spans both the criminal and matrimonial dockets that so often overlap in the same family.

Contact a NYC Criminal Defense Lawyer

The window that matters most in a New York City criminal case is the one that opens at arrest and closes at arraignment, and it is usually spent by people who do not yet have a lawyer.

Cedeño Law Group, PLLC is located at 111 Broadway, Suite 811, New York, NY 10006, and defends clients throughout New York City and the surrounding counties. Contact our NYC criminal defense lawyers before speaking with police or prosecutors about your case.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Updated 2026. This page reflects the New York Criminal Procedure Law, Penal Law, and the Clean Slate Act as in effect in 2026. It is general information, not legal advice for any individual case or situation.