The police regularly use confidential informants to gather information about criminal activity. The use of confidential informants is legal and an important tool in law enforcement’s tool box. But the practice of recruiting jail house informants is often illegal. So what’s the difference? Most people in jail are represented…
California Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
New Program For High-Risk Juveniles
OFFERING A CARROT INSTEAD OF A STICK TO FIGHT CRIME Richmond California has been running an experimental anti-crime program for nine years that defies the traditional responses to crime and may offer a creative way to save a young person from a life in the criminal justice system before it’s…
Human Trafficking In California
HUMAN TRAFFICKING OR MODERN SLAVERY? Slavery may have been made illegal in this country 150 years ago, but it is still a wide-spread problem in this country. Yes, there are many people in the United States who are held captive and forced to work for no wages or worse, forced…
Is A Search Warrant Required to Access Cell Phone Records In California
“THE STINGRAY” STING Daniel Rigmaiden might have seemed a bit crazy to his attorneys. He was arrested in 2008 after he was caught in his elaborate and meticulous scheme filing fraudulent tax claims while living “off-grid” in the woods. He couldn’t understand how the authorities found him; he operated on…
Dashcam mayhem!
In recent years, technical tools that can record a cop’s every act have shined a bright light on police abuses. This is especially true now with the ubiquitous dashcams attached to almost every police cruiser in the nation. Apparently some cops don’t like this. As the police have become…
OFFENDERS SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE AS JUVENILES ARE GIVEN HOPE FOR PAROLE BY THE SUPREME COURT
In 1963 Henry Montgomery was a 17 year old living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was playing hooky from school when he was approached by a deputy sheriff assigned to round up truants. When the deputy frisked Henry, Henry pulled out a cheap .22 and fatally shot the deputy.…
THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SEX OFFENSE RECIDIVISM
California’s sex offender laws are among the strictest in the country. Even relatively minor sex offense convictions usually end up requiring a lifetime registration on the sex offender list. So what is a “relatively minor” sex offense you might ask. Well, consider the 18-year-old who is arrested for having consensual…
THE TEENAGE BRAIN
Ask any parent of a teenager whether teenagers think like adults and you are likely to get a hearty chuckle from the parent. It is self-evident that teenagers do not have the same reasoning and decision-making skills as an adult. We don’t need to be the parent of a…
Buena Park Hate Speech Through Vandalism
A young man from Buena Park now faces charges of vandalizing a Sikh temple, which he claims was not meant to be received as hate speech. The man faces felony vandalism of religious property and two misdemeanors on suspicion of vandalism. His defacement caused nearly $400 in damages. On Dec. 6th,…
THE DOCUMENTARY MAKING A MURDERER REMINDS US THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO AN ATTORNEY DURING A POLICE INTERVIEW.
The Netflix surprise hit over the recent holiday season was the documentary Making a Murderer. The story this documentary told was so engrossing that many people reported finishing all ten one-hour episodes within a day or two. Now that’s binge watching! What compelled so many to devour this docu-series…