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As summer is officially here, more stories of individuals leaving children in hot vehicles start to appear. Even more unfortunate are the horrific stories of children who perish as a result of heatstroke due to rising ambient temperatures while trapped in the vehicle.
While it is extremely rare for the adult to intend the child harm, in many cases, the individual responsible for the child, in fact, intended to leave the child in the vehicle, and just may not have appreciated the danger of doing so.
Regardless of the circumstances leading to criminal charges for leaving a child in a vehicle, the individual responsible for doing so should engage the services of acriminal defense attorney to assist with the legal ramifications.
In this case, the mother’s attorney is asserting that the death, while obviously unfortunate, is an accident and that the child’s mother truly did not realize that she left her daughter in the vehicle, believing until she saw her daughter’s lifeless body, that she had taken her to daycare.
A discussion of California’s Unattended Child in Motor Vehicle Safety Act (USMVSA), as well as potential arguments against prosecution, will follow below.
What Age Can You Leave a Child in The Car?
In 2002, the California Legislature passed the USMVSA, which made it a fineable offense to leave a child, aged 6 or younger, in a vehicle without supervision of someone 12 years of age or older if:
doing so presents a significant risk to the child’s health and/or safety, or
the vehicle is running or the keys are left in the ignition.
Importantly, this Act does not prevent the individual responsible for the child from being charged with any other provision of the California Penal Code, such as manslaughter.
In any event, there are a number of precautions an individual responsible for a child can take to ensure that leaving a child in a vehicle unattended does not occur, even accidentally, including:
Practicing a “Look Before Lock” routine, to get into the habit of looking in the back seat before locking the vehicle;
Avoiding distractions;
Scheduling a call as a reminder to ensure the child arrives at his/her destination; and
Placing a reminder in the vehicle to check the back seat at one’s destination, such as placing a stuffed toy in the front seat, and getting into the habit of putting it in the child’s car seat every time the vehicle is emptied.
Are There Any Defenses to Leaving a Child Unattended in a Car?
While many believe there is no excuse for leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, there are countless stories of parents making honest mistakes that, unfortunately, have led to devastating consequences.
In some cases, children can remain so quiet or sleep so peacefully that it is easy to forget they are in the back seat. In other cases, an individual’s daily routine has changed, which can lead to honest forgetfulness about dropping off or picking up a child from daycare.
Unfortunately, the heat of the summer does not concern itself with the reasons why a child has been left unattended in a vehicle, and, as illustrated above, disastrous results can occur. While it will never erase the tragic loss of a child to vehicular heatstroke, an experienced criminal defense attorney may be able to help the individual responsible for the child if his/her actions were a truly honest mistake.
In addition, evidence the accused was not responsible for the child or caused the dangerous condition could also be used to combat this charge.
Should I Hire a Lawyer If I’m Criminally Charged for Leaving a Child in a Car?
If you have been charged with violating the Unattended Child in Motor Vehicle Safety Act, contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the Los Angeles law firm Manshoory Law Group, APC as soon as possible.
Although the results may, unfortunately, be tragic, extenuating circumstances may mitigate any punishment you can receive, and the attorneys at Manshoory will use their expertise to build a defense to obtain the best possible results.
Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
The ability to identify individuals is an important priority for law enforcement. As time goes by, the amount of cold cases only increases, and the potential to associate a suspect with a crime can go a long way toward solving these cases. To assist law enforcement in this endeavor, in 2004, California passed Proposition 69, the “DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime, and Innocence Protection Act.”
Essentially, this Act required law enforcement to take a DNA sample of everyone who is arrested on suspicion of a felony. The DNA sample is then checked against a national database to see if the arrestee was involved in another criminal matter. Anytime criminal charges are a possibility the services of an attorney experienced in criminal defense should be secured because defending against a charge in which DNA has implicated a person is almost impossible to do alone.
Further, the California Supreme Court recently upheld Proposition 69 as not violating either California or U.S. Constitutions. A discussion of this decision, and what it will mean going forward, will follow below.
People v. Buza
As alluded to above, in 2004, Proposition 69 was passed and codified into law, which directed law enforcement to obtain a DNA sample of every person arrested under suspicion of committing a felony.This direction applies to everyone arrested for a felony, including those apprehended without a warrant or any finding by a judge that there was sufficient cause for the arrest. The State then stores these DNA samples and allows these samples to be searched continuously by other law enforcement agencies around the country.
The primary issue people have with this law is that it is overreaching, in that it affects anyone arrested for suspicion of a felony, including those who are never charged with a crime, approximately 33% of all such arrestees.As a result, law enforcement agencies have this immensely private information at their disposal for an infinite amount of time. This, opponents assert, is a tremendous invasion of privacy.
The law does provide for a means by which one can have his/her sample destroyed and any registration of information contained within the sample purged from storage. However, it is a very complicated process to have it destroyed and purged, if not impossible.
The Aftermath
Initially, it is important to note that the holding in Buza is specifically limited to the facts of that particular case, and the California Supreme Court did not speculate on the constitutionality of the law as applied under different circumstances. In fact, the court noted that an individual arrested in the future without, as in Buza, probable cause, could have a valid challenge to the adequacy of the law’s expungement procedures or other aspect of the law.
The law does allow a person to refuse to submit to a DNA test. However, doing so is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to $500 in fines and up to 1 year in prison, and creates a criminal record that brings its own set of issues.
Additionally, also as mentioned above, there is a destruction and purge process. An experienced criminal defense attorney can definitely assist in this procedure to ensure the technicalities of the rules do not block a legitimate request.
The best scenario is the California Legislature corrects the serious privacy issues with the law, which it started to do in 2015, after the California Supreme Court initially granted review of this case. But, whether those revisions will materialize in the wake of the Court’s decision remains to be seen.
Hire A Criminal Defense Attorney
If you have been arrested on suspicion of a felony, and have been required to provide a sample of your DNA to law enforcement, contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the Los Angeles law firm Manshoory Law Group, APC as soon as possible. The attorneys at Manshoory will use their expertise to hopefully force law enforcement to destroy the sample, and help you keep your private information private.
Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
A sad reality is that anyone can be a victim of domestic violence. To protect these victims, domestic violence laws have been established. While such laws, as any law proscribing conduct which society has deemed to be detrimental, have gone a long way in punishing aggressors, in some cases, the laws, as written, cast such a wide net that unintended persons are caught.
An experienced domestic violence attorneycan help these individuals. California’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act is one of these such laws, written in such vague terms that unwarranted restraining orders have been levied against persons who are not the intended targets – that is, persons whose actions do not rise to the level of aggression intended by the California Legislature when drafting the statute.
A discussion of the vagueness of the California Domestic Violence Prevention Act, and the consequences of being accused of its violation, will follow below.
What Is California’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act?
In 1993, the California Legislature enacted the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, which is intended to prevent the abuse of a person by an aggressor with whom the person has a special (sometimes called intimate) relationship. Specifically, the law prohibits the following actions:
Intentionally or recklessly causing or attempting to cause bodily injury;
Sexual assault;
Placing a person in reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury to that person or to another;
Engaging in the following types of behavior: molesting, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, sexually assaulting, battering, harassing, telephoning, destroying the personal property of, contacting either directly or indirectly by mail or otherwise, and/or disturbing the peace of another party.
As mentioned above, there must be a special relationship between the aggressor and the victim. Specifically, the victim must be any of the following:
A current or former spouse;
A current or former cohabitant;
A person in or formerly in a dating or engagement relationship;
A co-parent (i.e., the two persons are parents of a child together);
A child of a party; or
Any other person related by blood, marriage, or adoption within two degrees.
What are the Consequences of Domestic Violence?
As written, the statute is very vague as to what specifically constitutes domestic violence. However, as noted by a Professor of Law in the story linked above, the statute should be vague so that a wide range of detrimental behavior can, in fact, qualify as domestic violence, but it is then up to a judge to make sure the language is being applied in a fair way to every particular situation.
However, this is not necessarily what occurs, and consequences of being found in violation of the statute – the imposition of a restraining order against the violator – can have a wide-ranging effect. In fact, the article notes that a phone call or calling someone a name can be considered domestic violence, assuming they qualify as an intimate partner or household member.
Restraining orders are public records, and any individual can conduct a search to find out who has a restraining order imposed against them, including potential employers. To this end, many employers will not hire such a person. Further, some professions require termination when such an order has been imposed. Additionally, security clearances can be revoked for these people. Such restraining orders also appear in law enforcement databases.
Another issue is that one may not own a firearm during the enforcement period of the restraining order, which typically would mean the loss of a job for someone who uses a weapon in their employment, not to mention a loss of rights for anyone who owns a weapon for self-defense or for hunting. Finally, a restraining order can have a material effect on custody and visitation, potentially preventing a parent from interacting with his/her child.
If you have been charged with violating California’s Domestic Violence Law, and do not believe your actions are consistent with the intent of the statute, contact an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. The attorneys at the Los Angeles law firm Manshoory Law Group, APC will use their skills to build a defense on your behalf to obtain the best possible results.
Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
When apprehending or subduing a suspect, law enforcement is allowed to use reasonable physical force. Typically, such use of force would include bracing a suspect against a wall or the ground as he/she handcuffs the suspect.
If a suspect resists, then law enforcement is authorized to counter the resistance with additional degrees of force, including lethal. In most cases, the use of force by a law enforcement officer is justified.
However, when the degree of force trips the reasonable line into excessive, and, in some cases, fatal, the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney may be needed. The California Legislature is currently considering legislation that would restrict the use of lethal force by law enforcement to those situations in which it is necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death.
A discussion of the excessive use of force by law enforcement, as well as the proposed law, will follow below.
Current Use of Force Law
The use of force generally means the amount of effort required by law enforcement to compel compliance by an unwilling individual. Use of force doctrines are employed by law enforcement in an effort to balance the needs of security with ethical concerns for the rights and well-being of individuals.
In other words, law enforcement is permitted to use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
Excessive force refers to situations where law enforcement, otherwise legally entitled to use force, exceed the minimum amount necessary to diffuse an incident or to protect themselves or others from harm.Constitutionally speaking, an individual’s right to be free from the excessive force is found in the reasonable search and seizure requirement of the Fourth Amendment and the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment.
Existing California law authorizes law enforcement to arrest individuals pursuant to a warrant or based upon probable cause. Under this law, an arrest may be made by the actual restraint of the individual or by submission to the custody of the arresting law enforcement officer. Further, this law authorizes a law enforcement officer to use reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape, or to overcome resistance.
Additionally, current law does not require a law enforcement officer to retreat or desist from an attempt to make an arrest because of resistance or threatened resistance of the individual being arrested.
If an arrestee dies due to excessive force, the homicide would most likely be justifiable if committed when the individual has committed a felony and is either fleeing or resisting the arrest.
California’s New Regulation on Excessive Force
AB 392, if passed, would redefine the situations in which a homicide by law enforcement is justifiable. Specifically, homicide would be justifiable if in self-defense or the defense of another, or when necessary to prevent the escape of a felon whose immediate apprehension is necessary to prevent death or serious injury.
Further, the bill would deem a homicide unjustifiable if law enforcement acted in a criminally negligent manner, including if the criminally negligent actions created the necessity for the use of deadly force.
How Much Force Can Police Use During an Arrest?
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the right of law enforcement to make an arrest or investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat. However, the degree of force used by law enforcement must be proportional to the threat and only escalate in response to the threat.
Excessive force refers to situations where law enforcement uses force that exceeds the amount necessary to diffuse an incident or to protect themselves or others from harm. The Constitutional right to be free from the excessive force is found in both the reasonable search and seizure requirement of the Fourth Amendment and the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment of the Eighth Amendment.
Again, turning to the Supreme Court, the Court has set the floor by noting that lethal force can only be used during an arrest if:
Such force is necessary to prevent the escape of the suspect; or
Law enforcement has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.
In California, the law notes that, when law enforcement has reasonable cause to believe a suspect has committed a crime, he/she “may use reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape or to overcome resistance.”
If the suspect flees or forcibly resists, law enforcement “may use all necessary means to effect the arrest.” Finally, it should be noted that, if a suspect is aware or should be aware that he/she is being arrested, they are required “to refrain from using force or any weapon to resist such arrest.”
Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that law enforcement, only with probable cause to believe a suspect poses a threat of serious harm to the officer or others, may use deadly force to prevent escape. However, law enforcement is instructed to warn a suspect before using deadly force.
Actions that Can Be Considered Excessive Force by Police
As mentioned above, the California Assembly is debating a bill that would raise the floor set by the U.S. Supreme Court, and permit law enforcement to use lethal force only when necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death to law enforcement or a third party.
Accordingly, the lethal force would only be justified in the following situations, given the totality of the circumstances:
There are no reasonable alternatives available, including warnings or other non-lethal means; or
Where law enforcement has probable cause to believe that the person has committed or intends to commit, a felony involving serious bodily injury or death, and there is an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death to the officer or to another person if the subject is not immediately apprehended.
Additionally, the bill would make a homicide committed by law enforcement justifiable only if, as stated above, the use of lethal force was necessary given the totality of the circumstances, but, importantly, would exclude those situations in which the gross negligence of law enforcement contributed to the necessity.
Can I Sue the Police for Excessive Force?
If you are the subject of the excessive use of force by law enforcement, engage the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. The Los Angeles attorneys at the Manshoory Law Group, APC handle a wide variety of criminal offenses and know how to use evidence of the excessive force to convince judges and prosecutors to dismiss, drop or reduce criminal charges.
Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
Typically, criminal trials occur in two phases – a first phase to determine guilt, and, if the determination is positive, a second phase to determine the sentence. While most people assume, due to the prevalence of trials in television dramas where the verdict ends the show, that the trial ends at this point, in reality, the trial of the now-convicted defendant moves to asentencing phase. In the sentencing phase, new and additional evidence may be presented to the court that could result in a reduced sentence.
However, there is also the possibility that the prosecution will present evidence that may have the opposite effect – increasing, or enhancing, the sentence. California has many statutes relating to sentence enhancements; its Habitual Offender Laws (also known as Three Strikes Laws) is one of the more well-known. As a result, over 80 percent of those incarcerated in California prisons are serving an extended period of time, due to at least one enhanced sentence provision.
However, the California Legislature is considering a bill to reform two of the more commonly used enhancements. A discussion of how sentence enhancements work, as well as what the bill is intended to reform, will follow below.
Sentencing Enhancements
Generally, an enhanced sentence is a sentence that is increased from one classification of offense to another, with higher classification, as a result of a prior conviction or the nature of the circumstances involved. Enhanced sentence laws are present in both federal and state laws, and, as such, vary by jurisdiction.
Looking at California, its Habitual Offender Law requires a defendant convicted of a felony, and who was previously convicted of a serious felony, to be sentenced to twice the prison term required by the newer felony. And, further, if a defendant is convicted of a serious or violent felony, with two or more prior convictions, the law mandated a prison term of at least 25 years to life, though, amendments passed in recent years allow for a sentence reduction if the third conviction was for a non-violent offense.
The intent of this law is to deter a convicted offender from committing new crimes upon release. However, and the primary reason the Legislature is considering these reform bills, there seems to be little evidence that the deterrence factor of sentence enhancing laws actually works (on the other side, proponents of sentence enhancement assert that they are necessary to allow sentences to accurately reflect one’s criminal history).
Specifically, research, including that by the National Institute of Justice, maintains that long sentences do not serve to deter people from committing further crimes, and, in fact, contribute, instead, to overcrowded prisons and cost taxpayers money.
Senate Bills 1392-1393
If enacted, the two bills, currently in the Appropriations Committee, would eliminate a one-year sentence enhancement for defendants with prior jail or prison terms, as well as allow a judge to ignore a defendant’s prior felony conviction for purposes of imposing additional sentence terms for serious felonies. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, these two enhancements affect 16,177 and 19,677 sentences, respectively, through Dec. 1, 2017.
It is to be noted, regarding the last aspect stated above, it is not as if the prior felony conviction will have no effect. Rather, it will be up to the judge’s discretion whether to include it when he/she is considering sentence enhancements. In this case, having an experienced criminal defense attorney on the side of a defendant is critical to convincing the judge to disregard the defendant’s prior criminal history.
Hire a Criminal Defense Attorney
If you have been charged with a crime, and have a previous criminal history, seek representation by an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. The attorneys at Manshoory Law Group have a breadth of knowledge regarding criminal law in California and will know what arguments and evidence will put you in the best possible situation. Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your calls. Contact our Los Angeles office today for an initial consultation.
So begins one of the more well-known speeches in American criminal jurisprudence. Whenever an individual is about to be interrogated, law enforcement officers must repeat this statement – known as one’s Miranda rights.
Further, after this statement has been read, the individual is given a choice – remain silent or waive his/her rights and speak. Unfortunately, criminal cases are full of stories about suspects who have been deemed to have waived these rights unknowingly or unwittingly.
To protect minors, who do not understand the gravity of such a waiver, the California Legislature enacted a law, which went into effect this year, prohibiting those under 16 from waiving these rights without consulting with legal counsel. A discussion of the Miranda Rights, generally, the need for this new law, and what to do if a minor is taken into police custody and interrogated, will follow below.
How Do Miranda Rights work?
The Miranda Rights have their modern incarnation in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision of Miranda v. Arizona. Generally speaking, before any law enforcement agency may question an individual whom they suspect has broken a law, that agency must inform the individual of some of his/her basic rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as other information that the individual should know prior to speaking to that law enforcement agency.
Specifically, the Miranda Rights include:
the right to remain silent;
the knowledge that anything the individual says or does, going forward, will be used against him/her in a court of law;
the right to have an attorney present before answering any questions; and
the right to have one appointed on his/her behalf if an individual cannot afford one.
How are Miranda Rights Different for Juveniles?
It is a common belief that those under 16 are not mature enough to fully comprehend their legal rights. Concerningly, law enforcement officers are trained to obtain admissions and confessions from individuals they believe have committed crimes. Part of this training includes offering false assurances (that the individuals will not be imprisoned if they speak), tricking individuals into confessing to crimes they did not commit, and questioning individuals for hours in an attempt to wear them down.
These strategies have been successful, resulting in many closed cases without great expenditure of time and money by law enforcement agencies. Their success is based, partially, on the fact that humans will generally wilt under the pressure of law enforcement interrogation, are looking for a way out of their failures, and/or will just become exhausted.
Unfortunately, while adults are able to freely make the decision whether to waive one’s rights of silence and legal counsel and fully comprehend the consequences of doing so, as mentioned above, minors under 16 typically do not possess this ability. Additionally, these children may more easily succumb to law enforcement tactics and may say something that, when used against them, and even if untrue, will have lifetime ramifications.
Accordingly, anew law was enacted and become effective this year that is intended to compensate for this lack of understanding by children under 16, through conditioning a valid waiver of Miranda Rights on prior consultation with legal counsel. This measure ensures the minors are fully aware of the consequences of any waiver of their Miranda Rights before negative effects attach, an act that calls for skilled legal representation by someone on their behalf.
Juvenile Legal Support with Miranda Rights
If a minor you know has been brought in for questioning by a law enforcement agency, contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at Manshoory Law Group as soon as possible.
They will ensure that the child is treated properly, and maintains all rights afforded to him/her by the Constitution. Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
An unfortunate reality of the American justice system is that not everyone convicted of a crime is actually guilty. Being accused of a crime is one of the worst things that can happen to a person, but if that false accusation turns into a conviction, the consequences are even direr and life-changing. Repercussions from losing one’s job to ostracization from society can truly catapult one into what seems like a never-ending downward spiral. Although our criminal justice system works in most cases and is held up as a standard to many other countries, not all juries get things right.
Unfortunately, in such cases, the consequences to the accused can be horrific, such as what happened to a Vallejo couple in 2015, where an abducted woman and her boyfriend were accused of staging a hoax similar to that presented in the movie, Gone Girl. While this example did have a happy ending, and no innocent people were incarcerated, this doesn’t happen in all cases, and innocent people do go to jail.
A man was recently released from prison after serving 20 years for an attempted murder and robbery conviction related to a shooting at a Compton gas station in 1996 after prosecutors were forced to admit the facts pointed to his innocence. His conviction largely rested on a witness misidentification, a known source of false accusations and wrongful convictions.
The 20 years this man lost in prison can never be recovered and highlights how an aggressive approach to challenging false accusations is essential to mitigating the potential consequences.
The best way to avoid such a situation is to do your best to ensure the proper outcome, which means immediately securing representation from experienced criminal defense attorneys. Anytime a person is a suspect in connection with or facing charges for a crime, a criminal defense attorney should be contacted to protect the accused’s rights and to limit the potential fallout.
Skilled criminal defense attorneys know and can navigate through the complex idiosyncrasies of the criminal justice system to ensure the fairest possible conclusion. An overview of what someone falsely accused of a crime should do in the immediate aftermath, and the options criminal defense counsel has to combat such claims, follows.
How to Respond to False Accusations
First and foremost, anyone accused of a crime should always assert his/her right to remain silent when arrested or questioned by police. Since the person accused is unlikely to know exactly what the accuser told police, offering information may inadvertently support the accusation. In addition, prosecutors usually have to decide whether or not to charge someone with a crime within a relatively short period of time, so the less information they have to work with, the better for the accused. The only information the accused should offer is his / her name, and a request to speak with an attorney.
Being falsely accused of a crime, unfortunately, does not alter the way the matter progresses through the criminal justice system. This is because the prosecution typically does not believe the defendant’s assertion. Consequently, one who is falsely accused should never think that, because he/she is innocent and has nothing to hide, there is no need to seek the counsel of an attorney. In fact, as a result of the false accusation, there is perhaps an even greater need for legal advocacy.
One tactic that should never occur without the presence of counsel is for the defendant to negotiate a plea agreement on his/her own. In other words, a defendant should also never agree to plead guilty to a lesser offense without the advice of counsel.
While, in some cases, agreeing to a lesser offense may be the best option, even for innocent defendants, an experienced criminal defense attorney will be in the best position to not only negotiate the best possible plea deal but to explain all the ramifications of an agreement to that plea deal to his/her client.
An attorney should be requested at the outset of any type of investigation, including arrest or questioning. In addition, the accused should make sure to restrict discussions about the case to communications with his/her attorney. Friends, relatives, and acquaintances can all be called to testify in court, but only if they have relevant information to share.
How Do You Defend Yourself Against False Accusations?
First, it is important to understand that cases involving false accusations should be not handled differently because the person is certain he/she is innocent. Competent criminal defense is just as necessary, and making plea bargains directly with prosecutors should be avoided. It may be tempting to accept a plea deal to avoid a trial and jail time, but there are still consequences to accepting responsibility for a criminal offense.
While it is true that it is difficult to prove one’s innocence against false accusations, it is not impossible. In cases, for example, where both parties are present at trial, unlike homicide, cases focus on the testimony of both parties involved. An experienced criminal trial attorney on your side will best be able to persuade the jury to believe your assertions. Specifically, your attorney should examine not only the evidence but the credibility of the witnesses, in their preparation for your defense.
Additionally, in all criminal trials, the prosecution must prove that the defendant committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. A skilled attorney will use all means at his/her disposal to combat this significant burden. In addition to that listed above, this would also involve a thorough discovery of all facts in an effort to dispute all the elements of the charged crime.
Another approach a criminal defense attorney can take to combat false allegations is to attack the legality of the underlying arrest. Police cannot arrest a person without probable cause, which requires police have a reasonable basis for believing a certain person committed a crime.
Being arrested for any of the following, on the other hand, would not satisfy the requirements of probable cause:
arrest based on age or race
arrest due to personal bias or dislike of a police officer
arrest due to high crime rates in the area
Hire a Lawyer to Defend Against Wrongful Accusations
Criminal accusations should not be tackled alone. And, when it comes to defending against false accusations, your best strategy is to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney who knows how to aggressively prove your innocence and protect your rights.
The Los Angeles Manshoory Law Group, APC will work to keep you involved in the legal proceedings and strive to find the best possible solution to your case. Attorneys are available 24/7. Contact us to schedule a consultation.
Watch any show on television about the criminal process, and it will quickly become apparent that the focus of any investigation and subsequent trial is the collection of evidence. In order to convict a person of a crime, the prosecution must produce evidence that demonstrates the accused committed the alleged act.
Evidence can take many forms, from a DNA test to a shoeprint to eyewitness testimony, but one thing that does not change is the State’s obligation to turn over its evidence to the defendant, so an adequate defense may be mounted. All criminal defendants have the right to know about the evidence that will be used against them, and the defense has a reciprocal obligation to provide the prosecution with its evidence as well.
This procedure is a central component of the discovery process and is a key element of the American legal system. One of the underlying purposes of this process is to ensure the criminal case is fair, and particularly, that a criminal defendant receives exculpatory evidence, i.e.evidence that proves one’s innocence. In fact, California prosecutors are bound by ethics rules that directly govern how they handle evidence.
A discussion of types of information the defense often receives during discovery, and the prosecutor’s specific duties regarding the disclosure of evidence will follow below.
What is the Criminal Discovery Process?
Generally, the discovery process is the gathering of information that a party will use to present their case at trial. There are two phases to this process – an informal and a formal phase, each of which occurs at different times during a criminal investigation and prosecution. Informal discovery occurs before charges are filed, and consists of the defense independently collecting information from the following sources:
witness interviews;
documents from government agencies, police, doctor, or other relevant entities; and
photos from the crime scene.
Once charges are filed and criminal prosecution initiated, the formal discovery process is triggered and entitles the defense to disclosures from the prosecution.
Examples of the types of information the defense receives include:
witness names, reports, and statements;
physical evidence, i.e., not what a witness or other person said, such as lab reports, audio/video recordings, and crime scene photos;
exculpatory evidence or information favorable to the defense;
felony convictions for potential witnesses that could be used to impeach (discredit) them at trial; and
relevant recorded or written statements.
California follows an open-file discovery model that obligates the State to give criminal defendants access to the prosecutor’s entire file, as well as a continuing duty to disclose new relevant evidence as it is discovered.
These rules are designed to make the process fair, but in practice, prosecutors are not always forthcoming, and a dedicated criminal defense attorney is essential in these situations to force the State to comply with the rules.
What Evidence Does the Prosecutor Have to Share With the Defense?
The failure to always turnover relevant evidence is illustrated in the special ethics rules issued to govern how prosecutors must conduct criminal cases, particularly when a prosecutor must provide evidence to the defense.
The rules specifically state prosecutors must:
timely disclose evidence the prosecutor knew or should have known would negate the defendant’s guilt, mitigate the sentence, or mitigate the offense;
promptly disclose new, credible, and material evidence that indicates the defendant did not commit the offense of which he/she was convicted to the court; additionally, the evidence must be provided to the defendant and an investigation initiated into the possibility of a wrongful conviction; and
seek to remedy a conviction the prosecutor has clear and convincing evidence a convicted defendant did not commit.
How Does the Discovery Process Help the Criminal Justice System?
Putting together a strong defense hinges on conducting discovery in an effective manner, and only experience will create this level of knowledge. Los Angeles’ Manshoory Law Group, APC knows how to assess and build a strong case that fights to fully protects your rights. Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us for a consultation.
Criminal charges, regardless of the circumstances, always bring negative attention to a person and puts them in an unflattering light among family and friends. However, certain allegations, particularly those that involve violence or forcing another person to engage in dangerous behavior, produce very strong and undesirable stigmas that often last, even if the charges are dropped or the individual acquitted.
A lot of focus among politicians and the public has emerged recently over the notion of violent versus non-violent crimes, as California seeks to reform its criminal justice system by reclassifying certain offenses from felonies to misdemeanors and allowing for the possibility of early release for others. Human trafficking is one offense that opponents of these measures often cite as an example of the risk the public faces from this approach.
However, criminal cases are rarely cut and dry, and even allegations as serious as human trafficking still have elements the government must prove to support a guilty verdict. A discussion of how the law in California defines human trafficking, and possible defenses to this charge, will follow below.
What Is Human Trafficking?
The crime of human trafficking is generally related to depriving another person of his/her liberty for the purpose of procuring forced labor or services, although it is more commonly associated with forcing a person to engage in acts of a sexual nature or the creation of child pornography.
Depriving another of his/her personal liberty requires substantial and sustained efforts to limit his/her movements and decision-making ability through:
fear or force
fraud or deceit
coercion
violence
duress (includes threatening or taking away an immigrant’s passport)
the threat of physical harm
Further, any forced labor or services, including sexual acts, do not necessarily need to be unpaid to fall under this offense – more accurately, the alleged victim must provide the labor or services because his/her will was overpowered. In addition, enticing or forcing a minor to engage in prostitution, child pornography, obscene live performance, or other specified crimes also trips this offense.
The penalties imposed on those convicted of a human trafficking offense are quite harsh and are always charged as felonies. The possible sentences range from five to twelve years in State prison and/or fines up to $500,000, as well as additional prison terms of up to 10 years if great bodily harm was inflicted on an alleged victim. Further, additional civil fines and penalties, including asset forfeiture, are also possible, depending upon the circumstances of the illegal acts.
What are the Possible Defenses of Human Trafficking Charges?
Given the serious consequences outlined above, having an experienced criminal defense attorney to fight these charges is essential to protecting one’s rights. While mounting a convincing argument against conviction can seem overwhelming, several options are available in human trafficking that may be effective.
First, an essential element of this charge requires the victim to be deprived of his/her liberty, and if that deprivation did not occur, either because the person was free to leave or he/she voluntarily participated in the labor or services, it would justify an acquittal.
Second, force must be involved in a human trafficking offense, and if the accused did not use force or never intended to receive a benefit from the labor or services provided, the State will not be able to prove human trafficking occurred.
Hire a Criminal Defense Attorney
The criminal justice system is stacked against criminal defendants, and if you are facing charges, having an experienced criminal defense attorney is the only effective way to limit the consequences.
The attorneys at the Manshoory Law Group, APC represent clients in the Los Angeles area in a variety of criminal matters and can help you challenge the State’s case. Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call. Contact us for a free consultation.
Religion has long been associated with accusations of violence and hatred, some of which are legitimate. The law views attack motivated by religious animus very seriously, and if a jury is convinced, can lead to significant consequences.
America is particularly sensitive to religious-based criminal offenses, given the broad freedoms individuals have in this country to practice their chosen belief system. Consequently, if a crime is connected with targeting a specific religion, the act may be labeled as a hate crime, which brings increased penalties.
A recent article in the Desert Sun discussed reports that criminal acts against Jewish communities rose 27 percent in California in 2017. In addition, there are separate offenses specifically related to acts against religious groups or their property. A discussion of how religion plays into the prosecution of criminal charges will follow below.
What is Hate Crime?
Hate crimes are not necessarily offenses in and of themselves. Instead, in many cases they serve to enhance the sentence a person may face if convicted of a crime, such as assault or harassment, where the commission of the crime is wholly or partially motivated by a perception that the victim has one of the following characteristics:
Disability;
Gender;
Nationality;
Race/ethnicity;
Religion; or
Sexual orientation.
Note that the addition of a hate crime classification to a criminal prosecution is possible even if the alleged victim did not possess the perceived characteristic.
To apply this additional punishment, a prosecutor would need to prove:
the defendant was biased against the alleged victim because of a perceived characteristic; and
that bias substantially motivated the commission of the crime; i.e., more than one motivation is permissible, as long as the primary mover was biased.
Usually, there is an underlying crime for which a person is convicted, with the hate crime enhancement only serving to subject him/her to a longer sentence.
However, a standalone hate crime offense also exists that prohibits:
interfering with the exercise of a person’s rights through intimidation, willful injury, or threats; or
knowingly damaging or destroying a person’s property to interfere with their rights.
Note that if convicted of the standalone offense, prosecutors cannot then apply sentencing enhancements, which can add two to four years to a prison term, as an additional measure of punishment.
Defending against hate crime charges usually takes one of three principal approaches:
attacking guilt of the underlying crime;
presenting evidence the crime was not motivated by bias; or
asserting that the act was protected free speech. Speech without an additional physical activity is commonly treated as protected speech, unless a defendant makes a threat against an individual with a recognized characteristic, and has the ability to carry it out.
What is an Offence Against Religion?
In addition to a hate crime related to character biases, California has several other laws that prohibit behavior that specifically targets religious groups, such as disturbing a religious meeting and vandalism of a religious site.
With the first offense, the tension between freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion is on display, with limits placed on permitted speech to protect religious worship.
To be found guilty of disturbing a religious meeting, a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and high fines, the prosecutor must show:
a disturbance which occurred at a place of worship during an assemblage;
the disturbance was accomplished through profanity, rude or indecent behavior, or unnecessary noise; and
the disturbance was intentional.
Vandalism of a religious site involves damaging, defacing, or destroying a place of worship, and while generally handled as a misdemeanor, it can be classified as a hate crime and elevated to a felony.
Hire a Criminal Defense Attorney
Being stigmatized as the perpetrator of a hate crime is a label that has significant consequences beyond the courtroom or penal system. Let Manshoory Law Group, APC fight to avoid this situation by allowing them to represent you in your criminal case.
Their dedicated and experienced approach can produce the best results, so you can move on with your life. Attorneys are available 24/7 to take your call.Contact the Los Angeles law firm for a free consultation.
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