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Criminal Law

LA Criminal Defense Blog

Commentary, News, and Tips About Criminal Law
By Steven Rodriguez

Post Frequency: 1.5/day

Last Entry: October 05, 2009 at 07:26:31

Los Angeles, Where Violence is On the Rise

Posted on May 14, 2008
West Hollywood, known more for its gay bars and hip night-life than for its crime witnessed a terrible tragedy on March 9. An aging Kazakhstani man was stabbed and lay in the street bleeding for an hour before finally passing away. Weapons crimes, murder and attempted murder are on the rise in Los Angeles, and [...

New Cell Phone Law May Catch Drivers By Surprise

Posted on May 14, 2008
You don’t have to be a criminal to need a lawyer. As our society becomes increasingly complex, more aspects of our lives are being regulated. The chance that you’ll run afoul of the law at some point in your life is rising. New laws are created every day, and many of them regulate everyday activities...

California Mom to Be Extradited to Michigan

Posted on May 13, 2008
A respected Carmel Valley mother sits in prison awaiting extradition to Michigan. In what must seem like another lifetime, she was sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in prison for selling heroin in Saginaw, Michigan. Eight months into her sentence, she escaped over a barbed wire fence...

Sex Offenders as Teachers: Educators Betraying Trust

Posted on May 12, 2008
There is an unfortunately long history of teachers who take advantage of their male or female students, and commit either rape, statutory rape or some other sexual offense. There is also an unfortunate history of students making bogus claims against teachers because they have a grudge over a grade or some other lame excuse...

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Three Strikes and You’re Out!

Posted on May 09, 2008
In California, it’s three strikes and you’re out! The California Three Strikes Law gives you three chances to shape up. Slip up three times and you could spend your life in jail, even if that third offense is relatively minor. Determined to get tough on crime, California passed the harsh Three Strikes Law to keep violent [...

Burglary On the Rise: How to Cope

Posted on May 08, 2008
In the last year, burglary rates have jumped as much as 20% in some parts of the San Fernando Valley, and 6% overall in the Valley. Due in part to the crumbling economy, everything from air conditioners to plasma televisions have been reported stolen throughout the Valley...

More Drug Arrests at San Diego State

Posted on May 07, 2008
Fallout from the undercover drug sting at San Diego State University continues. More than 128 people have now been arrested for suspected drug crimes, most of them students. Six fraternities have been suspended and are under investigation. “Undercover agents purchased cocaine from fraternity members and confirmed that a hierarchy existed for the purpose of selling [...

Drug Sting Nets Students at San Diego State University

Posted on May 06, 2008
96 people were arrested, including 75 students, during a drug ring investigation at San Diego State University. The drug investigation began over a year ago after the death of a girl from cocaine overdose, and during the investigation 130 drug buys were made...

Woman Steals Thousands in Identity Theft Fraud

Posted on May 05, 2008
A 27-year-old Utah woman has been charged with defrauding people of thousands of dollars in California, Utah and Oregon. She bilked her own mother-in-law out of thousands of dollars in unauthorized credit card charges and illegally obtained loans. She swindled a California man out of $14,343 through fraudulent wire transfers to a bank account...

Gang Violence: A Target for Law Enforcement

Posted on May 05, 2008
The last few months have seen a huge rise in the attention put on gang violence in Los Angeles. Racial issues, weapons, drug offenses and more are all a part of what law enforcement faces when it comes to gangs. Police have begun focusing on how to deal with gang violence, and are cracking down [...

Paparazzi Files Hit and Run Suit

Posted on May 02, 2008
Generally it’s the celebrities who are filing suit against the paparazzi. Last week paparazzi Glen Gurniak turned the tables when he filed a hit and run suit against rocker Benji Madden and passenger Paris Hilton for allegedly driving over his foot before speeding away...

OnStar Helps Prevent Auto Theft

Posted on April 30, 2008
New technology is expected to help California police put the brakes on auto theft. Beginning with 2009 models, GM cars and trucks equipped with OnStar technology will have a new feature called Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. When an owner reports their vehicle as stolen, OnStar will send a signal to the vehicle that will alert police [...

Tips on On How to Avoid Being Another CSI Drug Arrest

Posted on April 30, 2008
CSI star Gary Dourdan was busted by police for possession of a variety of narcotics, including heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Drug charges can be serious, and can lead to fines, license suspensions, jail time and even count as a strike under California’s three strike rules...

Teachers Face License Suspension for Sex Crimes

Posted on April 29, 2008
Closing what Senator Jack Scott (D-Pasadena) called a loophole, the California Senate last week voted unanimously to automatically suspend a teacher’s license if their license had been revoked in another state for sexual misconduct. Previously teachers were allowed to remain in the classroom while the California Teacher Credentialing Commission investigated, a process that can take [...

Hall of Famer Guilty of Statutory Rape?

Posted on April 28, 2008
Roger Clemens, potential Hall of Fame pitcher (even with steroid allegations) was accused of having an affair with country music singer Mindy McReady.?? Besides the fact that Clemens is married and a father, there is nothing illegal about that, except for the fact that McReady was allegedly 15-years-old when the relationship began...

Expungement Can Clear Your Public Record

Posted on April 26, 2008
If you are falsely convicted of a crime and later exonerated, as in the case of James Ochoa who was chronicled in yesterday’s post, you will want to make sure your criminal record is expunged. Expungement is the legal process of erasing all eligible felony and misdemeanor charges from the public record...

Child + Cigarette + Car = Crime

Posted on April 24, 2008
California is the third state to make it a crime to smoke in your car when a minor is a passenger. Championed by Senator Jenny Oropeza, a cancer survivor, the law was passed as a cancer-prevention measure to protect children from second-hand smoke. It went into effect on January 1, 2008...

The Stress of Convictions Can Lead to Mistakes

Posted on April 24, 2008
A Buena Park man was recently awarded over $30,000 for being convicted of a serious crime he didn’t commit. James Ochoa was convicted of a felony, car-jacking, by very controversial methods, and spent 10-months in jail. It was only on appeal that he was able to deal with the false conviction and become reunited with his wife and [...

Sex Offenders Living at Day Care Homes

Posted on April 22, 2008
It’s every working parent’s worst nightmare. You leave your child with a person you trust to cherish and care for them as you would only to find they may have sexually abused your child. That’s the horror some California parents faced who sent their children to several different Los Angeles area day care homes...

“Black Widows” Found Guilty

Posted on April 21, 2008
Los Angeles has recently seen one of the most remarkable and horrendous murder cases ever. Dubbed the “Black Widow” case, two women, one 75-years-old (Olga Rutterschmidt) and one 77-years-old (Helen Golay), were charged with killing homeless people and collecting insurance policies they took out on these people...

Celebrities and Shoplifing: What Models, Actresses and Petty Thieves Have in Common

Posted on April 21, 2008
Theft and petty crime are a major issue in America. Over the last decade, NASA by itself has lost $94 million in office items that disappeared! Even celebrities have been caught in petty theft, with both Winona Ryder and Bai Ling getting arrested for taking things which were not necessarily theirs...

Weapons Laws Subject to Judicial Interpretation

Posted on April 19, 2008
Your home may be your castle, but in California that doesn’t necessarily give you the right to shoot at an intruder. Weapons laws are complex and place significant emphasis on certain judgmental issues, including the perceived seriousness of the threat, the degree of force necessary to meet the threat, and the assumed actions of a [...

The Filth and the Fury: Sex Offenders From Both Perspectives

Posted on April 17, 2008
Sex Offender laws are serious in California. A law on the books known as Megan’s Law states that sex offenders, on top of jail time, fines and probation, have to register with the state and their local communities as sex offenders. There has been a great deal of news lately over the Pope’s recent comments [...

Nanny’s Sexual Harassment Suit Badgers Rob Lowe

Posted on April 16, 2008
In a “he said, she said” nightmare, Rob Lowe’s nanny Jessica Gibson has filed a sexual harassment suit alleging that the actor repeatedly exposed himself and inappropriately touched both himself and her during the seven years she sporadically worked for the actor and his wife...

Tax Evasion Gone Wild

Posted on April 15, 2008
First Wesley Snipes, now this! Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild Videos and DVD’s was brought up on tax evasion charges a while back and now they have moved his hearing to Los Angeles. Francis is being charged with not reporting his income properly, which allowed him to pay less taxes...

Assembly Considers Tougher Penalties for Child Abuse

Posted on April 14, 2008
A 16-year-old Fresno County girl was arrested today for child abuse. Her severely injured 4-month-old step-sister was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Central California with multiple broken bones and head injuries. A 22-year-old Redding father was charged with cruelty to a child likely to cause great bodily injury...

Identity Theft: Tips to Protect Yourself

Posted on April 14, 2008
Identity theft is a scary reality that the entire country faces, and places like Los Angeles where people use credit and debit cards, the Internet and other electronic modes of communication quite often, it’s a serious issue. This isn’t a crime that wealth can protect you from, as the wealthy and those with good credit [...

Priest Guilty of Stalking Conan O’Brien

Posted on April 11, 2008
A Roman Catholic priest accused of stalking Conan O’Brien apologized during his New York court hearing during which he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The Rev. David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston was arrested last November at NBC’s New York City studios during a taping of O’Brien’s late night television show...

How Drinking Grounded this (Anaheim) Angel

Posted on April 11, 2008
Major League Baseball player, and former member of the Anaheim Angels’ 2002 World Series championship team, Scott Spiezio pleaded guilty to hit and run and DUI charges stemming from an incident that took place on December 30 when he drove through a fence...

Battle for Los Angeles: How to Deal with Weapons Charges

Posted on April 10, 2008
Weapons are a serious issue in and around Los Angeles, with everything from guns, knives and even brass knuckles playing a part in a variety of crimes. Not only does this up jail time for other felonies, but possession of a weapon can bring with it criminal charges in and of itself...

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