California Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Officials in Newport Beach have pitched in money to put together a reward to catch the person or people who are responsible for damaging the Reagan statue in Bonita Canyon Sports Park, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Charges of vandalism are typically considered juvenile crimes in Newport Beach.

But as police and prosecutors sometimes trying to show, vandalism cases can be linked to gang-related activity in California. The laws in this state are tough on people accused of gang crimes and a conviction can lead to years in prison.

But, for the most part, vandalism is a crime committed by teenagers or other youth. While some consider this a minor crime, it can have long-lasting implications outside of what a judge sentences. These charges can lead to a lifetime of regret.

A person who is convicted, even as a teenager, can miss out on scholarships for college, not get accepting into a university of their choice, be disqualified for military service and have problems getting a job. These are all consequences that an experienced Santa Ana criminal defense lawyer can help mitigate in the right circumstances.

In the Newport Beach case, the statue, which was purchased through private funds for $80,000, shows the former President standing and waving with his right hand. The bottom bears a facsimile signature and writing underneath. It now leans heavily forward as someone appears to have pried it up.

Officials recently announced that they had raised $5,000 so there is a reward for someone who may have information about who is responsible for the crime. The statute hasn't come without some controversy. Created to celebrate his 100th birthday, some were frustrated by it being put in a public park. That's why private donors were brought in to create it.

Council members and the mayor put up personal funds to create the reward.

Vandalism charges can vary, but most often they are charged as misdemeanors. If a juvenile is indeed arrested, they can be placed in juvenile court, but they may be subjected to the adult criminal justice system as well. Past criminal history, the facts of the case and the age of the defendant are all factors.

There are rare cases when vandalism charges can escalate into more serious allegations and possibly felonies if the state can prove that the damage done exceeds a certain amount of money.

This can lead to even more serious charges and possible jail or prison time, regardless of the age of the defendant. In a case where no one saw an event happening, the credibility of any witnesses the police can find and what they say to police and then at trial can make a difference between whether a person is found guilty or not guilty.

Like any criminal charge, a defendant shouldn't take it lightly. Even a misdemeanor conviction won't look good in 20 or 30 years. It still means a brush with the law and that can be a turn off by employers and others a person may seek to impress. That's why fighting a vandalism or juvenile charge in Orange County is so critical.

Continue reading " Reagan Statue Wrecked and Officials Put Up Catch Reward to Cash Newport Beach Vandalism Suspect " »

A recent case out of Georgia highlights the responsibility police have to uphold suspects' rights, even when detectives are in the midst of pursuing a drug investigation.

Drug cases in Fullerton and elsewhere in Southern California can lead to serious criminal penalties, which can escalate depending on the amount of drug alleged, whether it is being purchase, sold or manufactured and where it is being sold.

An experienced Newport Beach criminal defense lawyer will be prepared to defend a client facing drug charges or any related charges they may encounter, such as gun possession, which is a common partner charge that police lay out to defendants.

One common issue in drug cases is that police tend to be overzealous when pursuing these criminals. The "War on Drugs" has spanned decades and yet drugs are still in high demand. Therefore, law enforcement tend to get excited when they have a lead and sometimes they pursue it without following the law.

That excitement can turn into a violation of rights quickly if they don't respect the rules of search warrants. The Fourth Amendment gives everyone in the United States a right not to be unlawfully searched. This means police can't simply break into your house and start searching your property without justification.

A search warrant must be signed by a judge after police present enough evidence to convince the judge to let them break into a person's house, vehicle or business and search for clues. If they break in without a warrant, it can lead to evidence being suppressed, which means it won't be used at trial.

In some situations, police can use a "warrantless entry," meaning they can break in if they have reason to believe there is illegal activity going on inside. In the case of Kentucky v. King earlier this year, police broke into the wrong apartment after following a person involved in a drug deal.

In Boykins v. State, a Georgia case, a man pulled up to a woman standing on the street of a "high crime" area. When an officer spotted this, he turned around and followed the man to an apartment complex, where he pulled into a parking space. Suspecting prostitution, the officer pulled up to the man's parked car and asked for identification. The man said it was in his apartment, but gave him his name and birthday, which showed he had a warrant out for his arrest.

After handcuffing him and giving him to another officer, the initial officer searched his car and found cocaine. He was charged with possession of cocaine and sentenced to four years in prison. He appealed the ruling of his motion to suppress being denied.

The Georgia Supreme Court reversed the conviction, ruling that the state failed to show that it was a "dangerous" or "rare" situation that required a warrantless search.

Continue reading " Police Must Abide By the Law By Getting Warrants For Fullerton Drug Cases, Boykins v. State Says " »

As we approach the winter holiday season, police will begin increasing their patrols throughout Orange County as they seek to nail as many people as possible for drunken driving charges.

According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, law enforcement made 743 DUI arrests between December 17 and January 3 last year in Orange County. There were 390 people arrested for DUI in San Bernardino County and more than 1,900 in Los Angeles County.

That's a large number of people charged with DUI in Orange County and the surrounding areas. In many cases, Fullerton DUI defense lawyers have seen, police simply didn't have a lot of evidence.

They were instructed to increase patrols and conduct DUI checkpoints in order to place as many people in handcuffs as they could. But arrest numbers and conviction numbers are two different things. Once police make arrests, they rarely boast what percentage of those cases end in a conviction for that charge. That's because many do not.

Once such case came out of Santa Barbara, where a newspaper journalist faced a DUI charge, but had it dropped after a judge ruled that police didn't have probable cause to make the stop in the first place.

Probable cause is a law enforcement term that is the standard for officers nationwide. Probable cause means that officers must have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred before making an arrest. This is true for DUI cases, drug cases or murder investigations. Regardless of the severity of the allegation, police must have a reason for making an allegation.

In DUI cases or other traffic charges, police must have a reason for making a stop of a vehicle. This can be based on speeding, swerving, running a red light or stop sign or causing an accident.

In the Santa Barbara case, the man stopped at a green light and stayed there for 3 to 5 seconds, the officer stated, before the officer swung by and flashed a light in his car. He looked at the car, looked down and then drove, before the officer made the stop.

After being asked to take a breath test, he blew a 0.09, over the state's 0.08 legal blood alcohol level limit. But his lawyer was able to show the judge that in other states, judges have dismissed DUI charges in cases where a person stayed at a green light for as long as 60 seconds. That was enough to lead to a dismissal of the DUI charge, with the judge saying that any evidence discovered after the traffic stop should be tossed out.

That's what typically happens in cases where police have been found to not have probable cause. Even if the evidence they found shows guilt and proves the person should be convicted, the fact that they obtained the information improperly comes back to haunt them. If the evidence is tossed out, the case goes away, too.

As this holiday season approaches, drive safe and smart. If you are charged with DUI in Orange County, call an experienced DUI lawyer who can help you get through this difficult time.

Continue reading " Thanksgiving DUI Arrests in Santa Ana Coming as Holiday Season Approaches " »

Police in Orange County continue to have a challenging year.

As our Fullerton criminal defense lawyers
pointed out on our blog recently, Fullerton police have had problems as officers have recently been charged with murder as well as groping a woman. Plus, a squad of officers raided the wrong house and never told their bosses.

And now a Garden Grove police officer was allegedly run over by a man from Fullerton, who has recently been arrested, The Orange County Register reports.

Charges of assault in Garden Grove can lead to serious penalties, including prison time. When the victim is a law enforcement officer or another kind of official, the charges can be enhanced.

What may be the most difficult issue about this case is whether this defendant will be able to find a fair and impartial jury to look at the facts. For one, police officers are exalted by jurors many times in terms of the credibility of their words. Jurors sometimes will take an officer at his or her word, but will dismiss other witnesses.

Secondly, in cases where an officer is a victim, the news media will almost always do a story. And they will follow the story, reporting on the incident and the things happening in the court case until it goes to trial. This keeps it in the public eye. The bad thing for a defendant is that it puts a bias into the minds of the prospective jurors out there reading and watching these reports.

So, the question remains -- can this defendant get a fair trial?

According to the newspaper, the 28-year-old man was charged with running over a motorcycle officer during a traffic stop. He was arrested in Riverside County.

Officers were looking for the man for the better part of two days when a motorcycle officer pulled over the driver of a green Infiniti with no license plate. As the officer was talking with the driver, he noticed he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

According to the news account, the driver was asked to step out of the vehicle, causing him to act nervous. The officer thought something else was wrong, so he patted down the man after he got out of the car.

While pulled over in a parking lot, the driver allegedly ran back to the car as the officer, who radioed for back-up, struggled with him. The man was able to put the car in reverse and the open door knocked down the officer, a 10-year veteran. As the man put the car in drive, he ran over the officer's legs, causing moderate injuries.

It's unclear what led police to arrest this man, since the story doesn't say if the officer was ever given an identification or if anything on the vehicle with no license plates gave him information about the man.

The newspaper doesn't state what charges he faces, but he will likely face charges related to an assault or battery, fleeing and other charges. Given that the officer is considered the victim, the prosecutors will likely levy as many charges as they can come up with against this defendant.

Continue reading " Can Fullerton Man Charged With Running Over Officer Get a Fair Trial? " »

Corona Del Mar Today reports that four vehicles at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas had their windows smashed and items inside stolen, including three sets of golf clubs.

Cases of auto theft in Newport Beach and statewide have gotten much attention in recent months as the state has changed its policies on who goes to jail and prison.

As Newport Beach criminal defense lawyers recently reported, the state's unconstitutionally overcrowded prisons and jails had to be addressed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

The state's decision was to begin releasing non-violent offenders, or holding them only for several days, while violent offenders were more likely to be held in custody pending trial. Some now say that this situation has resulted in an increase in theft-based crimes in California.

While there is no definitive proof of this, people arrested and charged with theft, burglary and auto theft have been released back into the public. In the past, they likely would have been held in custody unless they could arrange to be bailed out.

With California's budget in such a mess, it's unlikely that a new or better plan will come along any time soon. But rather than rely on speculation, it should be proven that re-offenders are causing a spike in auto-based crimes statewide, if in fact that is the case.

According to the news report, four vehicles were broken into at the upscale beachfront resort in Newport Beach just north of Laguna Beach.

The incidents were reported in a five-hour span between 6 and 11 a.m. on a recent Tuesday. It's unclear if the incidents were connected or performed by the same person. In one case, a window was smashed, but nothing was stolen. In another, golf clubs were stolen and in a third case, two sets of clubs were yanked. In the fourth incident, there is no word if anything was taken.

There is a difference in auto theft and auto burglary, however. And in California, the difference between penalties is substantial.

Under California Penal Code 458, burglary means breaking into any building or vehicle and stealing the contents inside. Under the law, a person convicted of the crime can be sent to prison for up to six years.

Under California Penal Code 484, however,
a person is convicted of grand theft of a vehicle if the value is $950 or more. But the possible prison term maxes out at three years.

So, stealing property from inside a locked vehicle can be prosecuted as burglary of a vehicle and can be punished by twice as many years as actually taking the vehicle.

In order to prove these crimes, the state must show intent to commit an act. That means they must prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the person intended to steal the vehicle or the contents of the vehicle. Not only are there challenges to that, but also to eyewitness identification or alibi witnesses who can prove the defendant wasn't near the vehicle in question.

Not every case is as open-and-shut as the news media makes it to be. That's why every case must be challenged aggressively in court.

Continue reading " Car Smash and Grabs Reported to Newport Beach Police " »

A Huntington Beach man faces up to 100 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting four women and taping the encounters, the Los Angeles Times reports.

As the newspaper reports, allegations of sex crimes in Huntington Beach can lead to serious penalties. In situations where the defendant is a registered sex offender, as is the case here, penalties can often be increased, leading to decades in prison.

Huntington Beach criminal defense attorneys have represented many defendants accused of sex crimes that carry possible long prison sentences. As in any criminal case, a defendant has the right to a fair trial. That means he or she must be able to confront the accusers, analyze the evidence, question it and prepare a strong defense.

In the case of the 30-year-old Huntington Beach man, he had his day in court and was convicted by a jury. The Los Angeles Times reports that he was convicted of several sex crimes after being accused of bringing drunk and drugged women to his apartment and forcing them to have sex with him while he secretly recorded the encounters.

The videos were used by prosecutors to show the women hadn't consented to the sex after they had met him at local bars. In one case, the man had sex with a woman consensually but later raped her and a video tape shows she was assaulted on camera. After breaking free, the woman reported the assault, which led to additional charges when police found other videos.

He was previously convicted in 2005 of lewd acts on a child, which required him to register as a sex offender. According to the newspaper, he faces a minimum sentence of 100 years to life when he is sentenced in January.

The Orange County Register reports that the man would take advantage of the women after they had likely been drugged. Many were confused when they woke up the next morning and didn't remember what happened. The state convinced jurors that the videotapes showed the crimes being committed.

Two of the four victims said "no" before being sexually assaulted, while the two others were semiconscious and couldn't consent. The man claimed that he recorded the encounters to show the women consented since he was on parole for the prior sex-based crime.

The jury of nine women and three men said the man was guilty after three weeks of trial and three hours of deliberations. He was convicted of intent to commit rape, two charges of forcible rape, three counts of rape of an intoxicated woman, three misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another person with intent to arouse and several other felony sexual assault charges, The Register reports.

A defendant is guaranteed a fair trial and an experienced lawyer can provide that. Being able to scrutinize the state's case, witnesses and evidence is all appropriate and guaranteed for every citizen. One can only hope that the truth is presented to the jury and not allegations that are baseless.

Continue reading " Huntington Beach Man Convicted of Videotaping Sexual Assaults " »