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Restoration of Sanity for Defendants Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Our law firm has had several high-profile murder cases with successful, Not-Guilty-By-Insanity Verdicts (NGI). Both clients have been released from the mental hospital following treatment. When a criminal defendant in...

Ninth Circuit Panel Upholds Conviction for Former Correctional Officer Despite Government's Failure to Turn Over Exculpatory Evidence to Defense A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently handed down its opinion in the case of United States v. David G. Bruce II, Case No. ...

California Court of Appeals Upholds Conviction of Defendant Whose Attorney Failed to Move for Imposition of Mental Health Diversion Prior to Sentencing The California Court of Appeals, First Appellate District, recently upheld the conviction of a defendant whose attorney failed to move for impos...

Ninth Circuit Contributes to Circuit Split in Civil Rights Law, Holding Police Officer's Obtaining of Un-Mirandized Statement May Give Rise to Civil Action Under § 1983. In the recent case of Tekoh v. County of Los Angeles, Case No. 18-56414, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of App...

AB 1950 and Subsequent Case Law Provide Substantial Benefits to Probationers in California Criminal Cases In order to address an ineffective supervision system, California Assembly Bill 1950 deals with the difficult issue of probation reform by aiming to restructure the system. This reform will...

California Court of Appeals Strikes Gang Allegations Based on Improper Gang Expert Testimony The California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District recently struck gang allegations against defendant and appellant Leonard Lejohn Gonzalez in appellate case number B297509.  The court's holding ...

California Court of Appeals Grants New Trial for Defendant Based on Improper Prosecution Firearms Expert Testimony In the recent case of People v. Brad Azcona, appellate case number H045676, the California Court of Appeals, Sixth Appellate District, reversed several convictions of a Monterey man...

Review of How To Defend California Charges Related to Protesting In California, there are several different statutes that could be charged related to protesting. Obviously, it's illegal to participate in a riot, but the majority of protesters are peaceful. Penal Code 407 PC describes an unlawfu...

Review of Kidnapping Charges Under California Penal Code 207 and 209 PC California Penal Code 207 describes the crime of kidnapping as moving someone a substantial distance, against their will, by use of force or fear. PC 207 is often called “simple kidnapping” and a felony crime punishable by ...

Review of Assault and Battery Charges Under California Penal Code 240 and 242 PC California Penal Code 242 PC defines the crime of “battery” as a willful and unlawful use of force against another person. The victim does not have to sustain an injury and the primary element of the crime is that a...

Review of Burglary Charges Under California Penal Code 459 PC California Penal Code 459 PC describes the theft crime of burglary as entering a residential structure, commercial structure, or a locked vehicle with intent to commit to a petty theft, grand theft, or a felony offense. The moment ...

A Review of COVID-19 Emergency Bail Schedule and Recent Los Angeles District Attorney Policy Changes Regarding Bail In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, the State of California promulgated an emergency bail schedule which reset the presumptive bail for most offenses to $0.  Wh...

California Court of Appeals Confirms Lawful Possession of Marijuana Does Not Provide Police Probable Cause for Vehicle Search. This article is a review of the recent decision in Court of Appeal in California, People v. Hall (Cal. Ct. App., Nov. 24, 2020, No. A157868).

The new Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gascon, has committed his administration to massive changes in criminal sentencing for defendants. Immediately after winning the 2020 election for Los Angeles County District Attorney, he released nine “special directives” to all deputy district atto...

The state of California recently dramatically expanded the opportunities for diversion in misdemeanor cases with the enactment of Assembly Bill 3234.

Under Penal Code 198.5 PC, California’s criminal law principles of the “Castle Doctrine” and “stand your ground,” there is no duty to retreat if you come into contact with an intruder inside your home.

Health and Safety Code Section 11352 HS contains California’s criminal law prohibition on the sale or transportation for sale of controlled substances.

Unlike in civil court procedure, where a motion to dismiss, usually for failure to state a claim, is a commonly used mechanism, the opportunities to move to dismiss a California criminal case are generally much more limited. Nevertheless, an experienced criminal defense attorney will look for bo...

California law prohibits both engaging in acts of prostitution and soliciting, meaning requesting, encouraging, or attempting to pay for, acts of prostitution. In the common parlance, this means that both prostitutes and “Johns” can be prosecuted under Penal Code Section 647(b). Many prostitutes...

Health and Safety Code Section 11351 contains California's prohibition on possessing or purchasing certain controlled substances with the intent of selling them to others. If the prosecutor is able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you possessed the controlled substance with intent to sell...

California Penal Code Section 484 denies the crime of petty theft and includes multiple subdivisions which address the specific crime of committing various types of thefts using credit or debit cards. These statutes define and punish the offenses that comprise credit card and debit card fraud. P...

Penal Code Section 422 describes the crime of “criminal threats.” Under California law, it is unlawful to threaten to harm or kill another person when such threat places the victim in reasonable sustained fear for their safety or that of their loved ones. Specifically, the threat involved must b...

Domestic violence is described as physical or sexual violence against a current or former spouse, cohabitant, roommate, boyfriend, girlfriend, someone who has a child with the victim, or some other type of relationship that falls under the criminal domestic violence statute. In some cases, domest...

California Penal Code Section 261.5 defines the crime of statutory rape, which is also known as unlawful sex with a minor. The simplest way to understand this criminal statute is that it prohibits all sex with individuals under the age of 18. Given this broad definition, defendants and their love...

Penal Code Section 314 defines the California sex crime of “indecent exposure.” Based on the statutory definition, indecent exposure is the crime of exposing one's genitals in the presence of someone who might be offended or annoyed thereby when done in such a way that the defendant intends publi...