The government filed a probation violation claiming that our client had violated probation by pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge. The actual violation stated that he “failed to remain law-abiding” as a condition of his probation. However, in obtaining the actual sentencing document which the probation department and prosecutor obviously failed to look at, the only requirement of probation was that he not have any “same or similar” violations, and that “failure to remain law-abiding” was not checked as a condition of probation. We went to the first appearance for the probation violation and argued to the district court judge that the violation report fails on its face, and informed the judge that the prosecutor and probation department filed the report without even looking at the sentencing document. The prosecutor attempted to form an argument committing no “same or similar” was nearly the same as “failure to remain law-abiding,” but the judge bought none of it. The case was dismissed right at the first appearance and our client avoided the significant jail sentence the government was seeking. Hiring a criminal defense attorney to lift up every stone often saves the day.