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Criminal Law

California Criminal Defense Blog

Focuses on drug crimes, criminal defense, white-collar crimes, drunken driving and sex crimes.
By Neil Shous, Esq.

Post Frequency: 1.9/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2011 at 16:57:15

Michael Jackson Doctors Could Face Murder

Posted on July 13, 2009
Although no charges have been filed yet, the doctors overseeing Michael Jackson could face prosecution--possibly even for murder--if it's determined that they knowingly and improperly administered to him a dangerous combination of drugs. Dr. Alex Farshchian, a Miami Beach doctor...

Local Officials Continue to Attack Dispensaries

Posted on July 10, 2009
Under new Obama Administration policies, Federal authorities have stopped making raids on legitimate medical marijuana clinics. But officials in Los Angeles and other municipalities are picking up the slack. The city has enacted a 2-year moratorium on new dispensaries, and...

Penal Code 470: California?s Forgery Law

Posted on July 08, 2009
Most people think of forgery as signing someone else?s name to a document without the person?s permission. But Penal Code 470 ? California?s forgery law actually reads much broader than that. In California, a person commits forgery when he knowingly....

Reforms Needed to Hone the Reach of Proposition 36

Posted on July 07, 2009
In 2000, California overhauled its drug laws by enacting Proposition 36. The ?Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act? allows most offenders convicted of casual drug use or possession to undergo treatment in lieu of any jail time. The policy goals...

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Tough Sentencing for Drug Users in California

Posted on July 06, 2009
California is thought to offer one of the more lenient sentencing schemes in the nation for casual drug users. Offenders charged with first-offense drug possession almost always can escape custody time (and get the charges dismissed) through Penal Code 1000...

California Marijuana Law: Easy on Users, Harsh on Sellers

Posted on July 03, 2009
California law draws a sharp distinction between marijuana for personal use versus cultivating marijuana or selling marijuana. The former triggers only a small fine and no jail time. The latter can land a person in state prison for years. Under...

"Resisting Arrest" is Broadly Defined

Posted on July 01, 2009
California Penal Code 148 (a)(1) defines the offense commonly known as "resisting arrest." This crime most frequently gets charged in a situation where a police officer goes to arrest someone, and the person struggles physically to avoid being taken into...

Michael Jackson Dies Four Years After Famed Acquittal

Posted on June 26, 2009
Doctors pronounced pop star Michael Jackson dead Thursday, just four years after a Santa Maria jury acquitted him of child molestation charges. In that case, the prosecution charged Jackson with seven counts of Penal Code 288 -- Lewd Acts with...

Vehicle Code 14601 and Vehicle Code 12500: Punishing Unlicensed Driving in California

Posted on May 22, 2009
California has two primary criminal laws that punish people for driving a motor vehicle when they are not properly licensed. California Vehicle Code 12500 makes it a misdemeanor to drive without a valid driver?s license. California Vehicle Code 14601 makes...

Twin Towers Jail in Los Angeles Serves Multiple Purposes

Posted on May 14, 2009
The Twin Towers Correctional Facility is known to be the world?s largest jail at approximately 1.5 million square feet complex. It is built on 10 acres of land consisting of two towers, hence the idea for the name evolved from...

Sheriffs Plead Guilty to ?Assaulting and Battering? a Firefighter

Posted on May 11, 2009
On April 23, two deputies from the L.A. County Sheriff?s Office plead guilty to beating a San Dimas firefighter. All three men were off-duty at the time of the attack. One of the deputies plead guilty to California misdemeanor assault...

California Domestic Battery: What You Need To Know

Posted on May 04, 2009
There are three ways someone can be prosecuted for battery under California?s domestic violence laws. ?Simple domestic battery?, ?willful infliction of corporal injury? and ?aggravated battery? each has a slightly different angle on when and how it would be filed...

Sex Offenses in California - Defined

Posted on April 28, 2009
Sexual battery, sexual assault, and rape are often used to describe a variety of sex crimes. Because these are ?legal? terms, their actual definitions are frequently misinterpreted. Unfortunately, celebrity tabloids, news sources and other media just add to the confusion...

Singer Chris Brown Charged With Aggravated Assault

Posted on April 24, 2009
The Los Angeles District Attorney?s Office charged singer Chris Brown with felony aggravated assault last month for the high-profile alleged attack on his girlfriend Rihanna that took place in February. News sources reported that he was being hit with a...

California and Nevada Possession of an Ounce of Marijuana

Posted on April 17, 2009
Although California marijuana Law and differ in many respects, both states take a relatively lax approach to citizens convicted of possessing marijuana as long as the amount weighs in at one ounce or less (California specifically says 28.5 grams or...

Attorney Darrell York Joins the Shouse Law Group

Posted on March 19, 2009
Attorney Darrell York Joins the Shouse Law Group Darrell York , a former 24-year veteran law enforcement officer with the Glendale Police Department , has joined the Los Angeles-based Shouse Law Group. During his police career, Darrell York undertook a...

Clark County Detention Center is Safe Without Segregation

Posted on March 13, 2009
Four years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. California that California may no longer segregate prisoners based on race except in the most extraordinary of circumstances. California argued that separating the races was sometimes the surest...

San Bernardino Cocaine Trafficking Probe

Posted on March 04, 2009
In November 2008, the Press-Enterprise reported in a story on the developments in a large-scale federal cocaine trafficking probe in San Bernardino County. A criminal complaint in San Bernardino Superior Court names 19 defendants and includes felony counts for a...

Southern California Welfare Fraud

Posted on February 25, 2009
In late December 2008, KABC-TV Los Angeles put out a report regarding the pending arrest of county in-home care employees allegedly involved in over 700 cases of fraud. Over 174,000 residents of Los Angeles County receive in-home care from the...

Los Angeles DNA Evidence Backlog: The Perfect Storm

Posted on February 18, 2009
According to a NPR report, a recent audit of the Los Angeles Police Department crime labs found that the department had missed legal deadlines to test DNA samples that were collected as evidence in over 200 rape cases. Police Chief...

Tustin Sex Crime Arrest of School Athletic trainer

Posted on February 11, 2009
On Christmas Day 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported in an article on the arrest of Hope Jacoby, a 23-year-old athletic trainer at Tustin High School for suspicion of committing sexual offenses that included illegal sex acts with an underage...

Comparing The Nevada and California Burglary Laws

Posted on February 06, 2009
The basic definition of burglary is the same in California and Nevada: entering a structure or vehicle intending to commit certain crimes once inside. But the two states differ in whether or not they distinguish between residential and commercial burglary...

Man Faces Vehicular Manslaughter in Fatal Street Racing Incident

Posted on January 27, 2009
Erin Mua, a 21-year-old, has been charged with vehicular manslaughter in connection with a speed racing auto accident that killed Mua?s cousin, 25-year-old Lee Liu Chan. According to this ABC news report, the two cousins were on their way home...

LAPD Officer Arrested On Suspicion of Sexual Assault

Posted on January 20, 2009
Eduardo Bermudez, a 29-year-old Los Angeles Police Department officer, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted rape, according to this NBC news report. The arrest was made in connection with an LAPD holiday party at a hotel near the Los...

Three Men Arrested In Connection with Robberies

Posted on January 13, 2009
Police have arrested three men in connection with a string of armed follow-home robberies from casinos in Gardena and Commerce, the Daily Breeze reports. John Atkins, 21, of Barstow and his cousins ? 18-year-old Raymond Little Jr. of Duarte and...

Man Pleads Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity

Posted on January 06, 2009
Miguel Ramos, a 28-year-old Chino man, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges that he murdered his cousin after finding out that his wife and cousin had an affair. According to this news report in the Inland...

Martial Arts Teacher Pleads Guilty to Molesting Boys

Posted on December 26, 2008
A karate instructor in Orange County pleaded guilty to molesting seven boys in his Westminster studio. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, 51-year-old Patrick Shawn Magnan could face up to 110 years to life in state...

Driving Under the Influence of Drugs Detection Tests on the Way

Posted on October 27, 2008
A recent Los Angeles Times blog by Susan Brink talks about new tests just like a Breathalyzer that researchers hope will detect drivers operating under the influence of illegal drugs. The National Institutes of Health has reportedly released guidelines on...

DUI Suspect Pursued By Police Strikes and Kills Pedestrian

Posted on October 20, 2008
Los Angeles Police officers arrested 41-year-old Robert Palacios on suspicion of murder in Lincoln Heights after he struck and killed a pedestrian during a police pursuit, the Los Angeles Times reports. Police say it was not considered a ?pursuit? because...

Camarillo Man Arrested on Suspicion of DUI and Vehicular Manslaughter

Posted on October 13, 2008
Nicholas Lagrotta, 23, of Camarillo was arrested Aug. 28 on suspicion of striking and killing a jogger on a Thousand Oaks street. Police say, Lagrotta, who hit 46-year-old Kerry Marsh as she was jogging in a bicycle lane on Lindero...

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