Articles Posted in Criminal

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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 into prostitution. It’s not called slavery anymore; it’s called “human trafficking,” but it’s slavery just the same.

Human traffickers often lure their victims to the United States from third world countries. They prey on poor young men and women promising them a good job in a factory or similar work in the U.S., only to then smuggle the victim to this country and hold them captive while forcing them to provide free labor, such as domestic services, or to work in the sex trade, the proceeds of which go to the victim’s’ captors. Not all human traffickers’ victims are from other countries. Human traffickers also lure young runaways into the sex trade or coerce them into performing illegal activities for the trafficker .

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“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 fake IDs, had virtually no public identity and he ran his scam through anonymized web browsing. Mr. Rigmaiden surmised that the only way the authorities could have found him was through the cellular AirCard that he used to access the internet. He told his attorney, “I think they tracked me down by sending rays into my living room.” That may still sound a little kooky now but back in 2008, before Edward Snowden’s revelations, he sounded like a crazy person. After his fourth attorney withdrew from his case, he ended up representing himself.

Turns out Mr. Rigmaiden wasn’t crazy at all —at least not about the rays in his living room. While in prison, Mr. Rigmaiden spent countless hours poring over his case, reading tens of thousands of documents. He was able to piece together enough information to suspect the authorities caught him by using a secret technology that intercepted cell phones. In fact, what he found eventually led to the discovery of technology, known as the StingRay, that police agencies have been using for years, unbeknownst to anyone outside of the agencies using this technology.

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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 increasingly scrutinized by the public eye, their dash cams have become increasingly “broken.”

In Chicago, over 80% of the dash cams are not working properly and this isn’t a case of a lot of faulty equipment. Chicago police officials acknowledge that Chicago police are sabotaging the equipment! Reports include batteries being pulled out of the units, antennas broken or removed, and dashcam microphones missing. But, after all, it’s Chicago.

Well, it’s not just Chicago. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, an investigative reporter was pulled over by seven police cars as she was following a county official in pursuit of news regarding the misuse of public funds. The reporter alleged that she was roughed up by the officers and sued for injuries she claimed the officers caused. Lo and behold, all of seven the dashboard cameras in the seven police cars “malfunctioned” and the video the reporter subpoenaed for her lawsuit was “unavailable.” That’s right: the police claimed that all seven dashcams malfunctioned at the same time!

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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 is that it followed the true crime saga of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was exonerated of a rape he was convicted of committing and for which he spent 18 years in prison only to find himself back before the court a couple of years later convicted of a murder that he, to this day, insists he did not commit. Making a Murderer follows the murder trial and ultimately Mr. Avery’s conviction. What has gripped the nation is the questionable tactics used by law enforcement and the dubious evidence they presented in order to get a conviction – and from the documentary’s point of view – a conviction no matter what it took.

One key piece of evidence the prosecution used against Mr. Avery was the confession of his then 16-year-old intellectually challenged nephew. The detectives interviewed the nephew alone, no parent or attorney was present. The documentary shows extensive video clips from the nephew’s “interview” (read: interrogation). There is no question after viewing these clips that the nephew, unaware of his precarious situation, was manipulated and coerced into eventually “confessing” that he took part in the murder. Without divulging more, this is only one piece of evidence in a series of disturbing and suspicious facts presented by the prosecution. Watching the police “interview” of the nephew has opened up a firestorm of outrage and questions. Was this legal? Can the police interview a juvenile without any parent or attorney present? Is a police interview that results in a coerced confession legal?

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The California Attorney General is responsible for collecting and analyzing yearly crime data for the State of California. Guess what? Crime is down in California – way down! According to the Attorney General’s statistics for the most recent year studied (2014) crime has decreased in number and rate in almost every category. Some crimes have seen big rate decreases (per 100,000 population) from 2013 and when compared to earlier, the declines are even more pronounced. In fact, 2014’s violent crime rate is at its lowest since 1967!

If we compare the crime rates from 2009 to 2014, the decreases in some categories are dramatic. For example, the homicide rate has decreased 17 percent from 2009 to 2014, robbery has decreased in the same years by a whopping 26.8percent! In fact, for all the major violent crime categories (homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and major property crime categories (burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny) the rates have decreased substantially. Compared to 2013, all crime rates contimued to decrease in 2014 except aggravated assault, which saw a 2.4 percent rate increase.

So what could account for this continuing decrease in crime in the state? Is it better policing, more criminals imprisoned, an aging population? There is no easy answer to why the crime rates are declining. And this is occurring not just in California, but across the country.

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TV star Charlie Sheen recently revealed that he is HIV positive. Mr. Sheen’s lifestyle is no secret, for years the tabloids have chronicled his seemingly non-stop partying, his coterie of “goddesses” and his many sexual escapades. According to Mr. Sheen’s revelation, he has known he was HIV positive for at least four years. He claims that he informed all of his sexual partners that he was HIV positive, but at least several of Mr. Sheen’s alleged sexual partners have denied that Mr. Sheen informed them of his condition.

Could Mr. Sheen have violated California criminal law? Well, maybe. When specific conditions are met, California makes it a felony to expose another person to HIV by engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse. (Cal. Health and Safety Code §120291.) Mr. Sheen may have violated this statute if he knew he was HIV positive at the time he engaged in unprotected sex but did not disclose his condition to the other party. If, as some of Mr. Sheens sexual partners in the last four years are correct, he did not inform them of his HIV positive status prior to having unprotected sex with them.

However, that is not enough to make it a crime. The statute also requires that the Mr. Sheen not only had unprotected sex and failed to disclose the infection but that he had the specific intent to infect the other person with HIV. Specific intent is a legal construct that means not only did the person commit the criminal act but that he or she did so with the knowledge and desire to achieve the illegal act. Thus in order to find Mr. Sheen guilty of this felony, the State of California would need to prove that Mr. Sheen had the unprotected sex with the specific objective of infecting his partner or partners with the HIV virus. Completion of the crime does not require that the partner did, in fact, become infected.

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California’s Proposition 47, which was considered a controversial measure, appears to be producing the results it was intended for.  However, there are still those skeptics who question whether or not the desired results are being met.  But, according to reports by the Stanford Justice Advocacy Project, any criticism of Prop 47 seems to be based on anecdotes and scare tactics rather than evidence and data.

The report further went on to highlight the positive effects of Prop 47 which includes a 13,000 inmate decrease in jail and prison population in California.  This alone will save the state and counties more than $300 million per year.  Early releases from county jails has been reduced by 35 percent, which means that overcrowding in jails has gone down.  The report went on to say that of the prisoners released under Prop. 47, less than 5 percent have returned to prison or been convicted of a new crime.  This seems to support the claim that there is no connection between any increase in crime over the last year and  inmates being freed due to Prop. 47.

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DOES CRIME INCREASE WHEN THE WEATHER IS HOT?

With the seemingly endless summer in Southern California and a very hot autumn this year, should we be more concerned about crime? Everyone knows that crime increases in hot weather, right? Well, not so fast. Several studies have disputed that oft cited axiom.

Statistics for Los Angeles homicides show that the murder rate is highest in July and August, but almost as high during the cooler months of December and January.   In New York City, the Wall Street Journal conducted a study in which seven index crimes—murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and stolen vehicles— were reviewed month-by-month. The crimes were indexed by month for the years 2007 through 2009. The study found that New Yorkers are about as likely to be a victim of crime in the cold month of December or the cool month of October as they were in the hot summer months. A study on New Orleans shootings from January 2011 to June 2015 found virtually no relationship between hotter outside temperatures and the number of shootings.

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A bill recently signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown requires California’s public alert system to help in the effort to track down hit-and-run drivers. The new law uses emergency “yellow alerts” to broadcast the key details of fleeing hit-and-run vehicles. On digital freeway signs, the car’s color, make, model and license plate will be displayed in real-time. Hit-and-run collisions are on the rise, and especially in Southern California. In major cities like Los Angeles, nearly half of vehicular collisions involve a driver that flees the scene.  In 2014 alone, drivers of about 20,000 accidents left the scene and only 20 percent of the cases were ever solved.  According to state lawmakers that is about to change. In Colorado, this same program of “yellow alerts” quickly increased the arrest rate to 76 percent in hit-and-run cases. So what is a hit-and-run?

There are two types of hit-and-run crimes in California.  Penal Code 2001 applies to vehicle collisions that result in an injury or fatality, while Penal Code 2002 applies to accidents that result in damage to any property that is involved.  Both statutes require that any driver who is in an accident must immediately provide his or her name and current residence to the other driver. A hit and run crime involving any form of injury is punishable by fines between one thousand and ten thousand dollars and up to 4 years incarceration in state prison.  A hit and run crime involving only damage to property and no injury, is punishable by a fine of up to one thousand dollars and six months of county jail time.

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CALIFORNIA ENDS GRAND JURY HEARINGS IN FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS

California is the first state to announce that it will ban grand juries in the preliminary determination on whether a law enforcement office should face criminal charges after killing someone in the line of duty. The reasoning behind the ban, which goes into effect next year, is to end public suspicion fostered by the secrecy of the grand jury process. The new law only affects criminal hearings on matters in which a police officer has killed a person in the line of duty.

In California, a grand jury is composed of a panel of citizens from each county, who serve for a set period of time. Each California county selects and empanels grand juries according to that county’s rules and grand juries can hear both criminal and civil matters. In criminal matters, a grand jury hears evidence and testimony presented by the prosecution and then decides whether there is enough evidence to indict.

This process is different from the more common form of criminal prosecution in California wherein the district attorney files a complaint against the person accused of the crime and following that, a judge hears the evidence in a preliminary hearing. While the prosecutor presents the evidence, a defense attorney is present to represent the person charged and can cross-examine witnesses. The defense attorney is also able to argue to the court that the evidence is not sufficient to “bind over” the defendant for trial. The judge determines whether the evidence tends towards a reasonable suspicion that the person (or persons) committed the crime. If the judge finds the evidence sufficient, the prosecutor will then file the charging document. There are some variations on this process, but this is the general scheme.

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