Practice Area - Criminal Defense
Let's Fix That.
When your freedom, your record, and your reputation are on the line, the stakes are real. What you need is an attorney who has been in these courtrooms, who knows these cases, and who will be honest with you about where things stand.
Criminal Defense
in Nevada
Kelsey started her legal career as a Deputy Public Defender in Elko County one of the most demanding introductions to criminal practice you can have. She continued that work in Washoe County before opening her own practice. Hundreds of criminal cases across Northern Nevada have sharpened her instincts about where cases are strong, where they are weak, and how to use that knowledge to protect her clients.
Kelsey evaluates each case on its actual facts and gives you a straight answer not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear to make informed decisions.
Cases Kelsey Handles
- Assault and battery, including domestic violence charges
- Drug offenses possession, distribution, and trafficking
- Theft, burglary, and robbery
- Weapons charges
- Sex crimes and offenses requiring registration under NRS Chapter 179D
- Fraud, embezzlement, and white collar offenses
- Felony and misdemeanor DUI
- Probation and parole violations
- Juvenile defense matters
- Resisting arrest and offenses arising from police encounters
If you or someone you care about is facing criminal charges in Northern Nevada, do not wait. The earlier you have an attorney involved, the more options are available to you.
Your Rights
Come First
The most important thing to understand when you are arrested or under investigation in Nevada is this: you have rights, and those rights matter. The U.S. Constitution and the Nevada Constitution both protect you but those protections only work if someone is actually enforcing them on your behalf.
The Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment protects you from unreasonable searches and seizures. If law enforcement searched your home, your car, your phone, or your person without a valid warrant or a recognized legal exception to the warrant requirement, any evidence they collected may be suppressible. When evidence gets thrown out, the prosecution’s case often collapses. Kelsey reviews every search and every seizure in every case she takes because this is one of the most powerful tools in criminal defense, and it gets overlooked more often than it should.
The Fifth Amendment
The Fifth Amendment means you do not have to talk to the police. You have the right to remain silent, and you should use it. Anything you say before an attorney is present can and will be used against you. Statements made during a custodial interrogation without Miranda warnings, or obtained through coercion, can be challenged and potentially excluded. If you have already spoken to law enforcement, that is not necessarily the end of the road but it is a reason to call an attorney immediately.
The Sixth Amendment
The Sixth Amendment guarantees your right to an attorney and your right to confront the witnesses against you. These are not technicalities. They are the foundation of every criminal defense, and Kelsey builds on them from day one of every case.
How Nevada Classifies
Criminal Charges
What Happens
After an Arrest
Understanding the process helps take away some of the fear. Here is how a criminal case moves through Nevada’s courts.
After an arrest, you will be booked and processed. Within 72 hours, you will appear before a judge for an arraignment or first appearance, where the charges are formally read and, if being seen on misdemeanor charges, you enter an initial plea. At this hearing, bail is also addressed. If you are in custody and cannot afford bail, Kelsey can argue for a reduction or for release on your own recognizance and getting this right matters, because spending weeks in custody while your case proceeds has serious consequences for your job, your family, and your ability to assist in your own defense.
After arraignment, the case moves into the pre-trial phase. This is where discovery happens. The prosecution is required to turn over its evidence, including police reports, witness statements, lab results, and any exculpatory material. Kelsey reviews everything. Pre-trial motions are filed during this phase, including motions to suppress evidence, to dismiss charges for insufficient probable cause, and to exclude improper evidence at trial. In many cases, the pre-trial work is where a case is won or lost before it ever reaches a jury.
If the case does not resolve through a dismissal or a negotiated plea, it goes to trial. Kelsey is a trial attorney. She is comfortable in the courtroom, prepared on the facts and the law, and focused on one thing: the best possible outcome for her client.