This post examines an opinion from the California Court ofAppeal – Second District: People v. Thomas, 2017 WL 527379 (2017). The court begins the opinion by explaining that inNovember 2012, appellant was charged with seven counts of commercial burglary (§ 459), committed on separate occasions against separate businesses. There were additional charges of grand theft, attempted grand theft, and petty theft with priors, all stemming from the alleged burglaries. A number of prior felony convictions, including a prior strike conviction, also were alleged.Appellant pled no contest to count 1, burglary of the Law Offices of Gennady Lebedev, admitted a prior strike conviction, and was sentenced to six years in prison. The court dismissed the remaining counts after appellant gave a Harvey waiver, allowing for victim restitution on the dismissed counts. In March 2013, the court ordered restitution in stipulated amounts: $1,500 to Justin Trugman, $4,133.35 to…
The Law Office, Commercial Burglary and "Misdemeanor Shoplifting"
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"Joint Culpability: The Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws on Crime"
The title of this post is the title of this notable new article posted to SSRN authored by Yu-Wei Luke Chu and Wilbur Townsend. Here is the abstract: Most of the U.S. states have passed medical marijuana laws. In this paper, we study the effects of these laws on violent...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/JgrF2b66tgg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Aspiring Professional Poker Player gets Dealt 8 Years in Prison for Robbing Casino Customers
A Paramount man was convicted, on October 31, of four counts of second degree robbery and one count of attempted second degree robbery after he followed home customers from local casinos and robbed them. According to Deputy District Attorney Brian Kang, Dominick Roberson followed home and robbed three women from the Hawaiian Gardens casino. A 50 year old woman from Long beach was robbed of $1000 in cash and her purse. A 41 year old woman of Westminster was robbed of $3100 in cash and her purse. And a 51 year old woman of La Puente was robbed of $2000. He also followed home a man from the same casino, confronting him in his driveway, but the man was able to get away. Roberson reportedly also followed another woman from the Hollywood park casino to her home in Torrance, robbing her of at least $6000 in cash. Continue reading →
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Dangerous Truck Driving Contributors
Whether you’re driving to work, taking the kids to school, or running a few errands; chances are you’re commuting on a busy highway to reach your destination. Motorists put themselves behind the wheel each day and must watch out for any potential risks. As motorists, we strive to put safe driving habits into practice to ensure that we’re doing our part. Keeping the volume at a safe level, avoiding texting and driving, and following the speed limits are great practices; however how much can be done when you experience and accident with an 18-wheeler truck.Big rigs carrying thousands of pounds of freight increases the chances of a dangerous accident. When considering the significant weight, load being carried by these vehicles that can exceed 80,000 pounds versus the weight of a standard car, you can easily understand why an accident can be far more fatal than that of one with two standard sized cars.When dealing with big rigs, there is always a reason as to why…
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"Emotional Judges and Unlucky Juveniles"
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Virginia criminal law continues being backwards with crabbed discovery & low felony theft threshold
Virginia has long been backwards with crabbed criminal discovery rules and a decades-long $200 threshold to convict for felony theft. In this year’s Virginia legislative session, the Commonwealth remains backwards in the above respects, as follows: – The Virginia House of Delegates tabled the criminal discovery legislation, on February 15, 2017. This represents a huge reversal of the overwhelming Virginia Senate support for the same legislation. Apparently intervening was heavy lobbying against the bill by Virginia prosecutors. I admit that I did nothing to support this legislation beyond blogging about it and timely contacting my House and Senate members in support of the legislation. – Thanks to the Virginia legislature’s patrons of legislation to increase the felony theft threshold from $200 to $500.00. However, the House Subcommittee for Criminal Law on January 30 recommended tabling the legislation, and the Courts of Justice on February 7 approved…
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Can a “Consensual” Encounter With Police Lead to a DUI Charge?
Normally an Illinois police officer must have probable cause to stop you on suspicion of a DUI. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects all individuals against “unreasonable” seizures by the police. However, what if an officer stops to speak with you for another reason and subsequently discovers evidence that suggests drunk driving? Court Reinstated Driver's License Suspension The Fourth Amendment does not apply to “consensual encounters” with the police. In other words, if you speak to the police voluntarily, and not under coercion or detention, you cannot later invoke the Fourth Amendment to claim any evidence obtained against you was an illegal search. Of course, it may not be obvious to you at the time that an encounter was “consensual.” Consider the following case in point. Recently, an Illinois appeals court had to decide whether to reinstate a suspended driver's license. A trial court…
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Zalman on The Incidence of Wrongful Convictions
Marvin Zalman (Wayne State University) has posted Qualitatively Estimating the Incidence of Wrongful Convictions (Criminal Law Bulletin, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 221-279) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The article provides a qualitative methodology and estimate for a plausible...
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Delaware Supreme Court Wastes No Words: Summarily Affirms In re Volcano Corp. Stockholder Litigation, Upholding Business Judgment Rule and Dismissing Remaining Waste Claim
On February 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of Delaware summarily affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision in In re Volcano Corp. Stockholder Litigation which had dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint on defendants’ 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs, former stockholders of Volcano Corporation, had brought an action against defendants for breaches of fiduciary duty arising from the all-cash merger between Volcano and Philips Holding USA Inc. The parties had disputed what standard of review the Court of Chancery should apply: the Revlon test, as plaintiffs claimed, because Volcano’s stockholders received cash for their shares, or the irrebuttable business judgment rule, as defendants argued, because Volcano’s stockholders were “fully informed, uncoerced, and disinterested” when they approved the merger by tendering a majority of Volacano’s shares into a tender offer. As the Court of Chancery explained, if a business judgment rule…
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News Scan
Released Sex Offender Charged With Murder: A sex offender released from prison last November has been charged with raping and murdering an Ohio State college student. Fox News reports that 29-year-old Brian Golsby was arrested last Sunday for the murder of 21-year-old Reagan Tokes. Tokes' nude body was found at a park entrance last week. Golsby was released from prison last November after serving six years for the 2011 robbery and rape of a woman in front of her 2-year-old child. Without a plea bargain in that case, his conviction would have carried a sixteen-year sentence. Harrison Hove of WCMH in Columbus reports that Golsby has a record of committing crimes since he was a teenager. He was on GPS monitoring when he allegedly kidnapped, robbed, raped and murdered the young woman. Florida Could End Gun Free Zones: Two Florida State Legislators have introduced bills which would eliminate all state-imposed restrictions on the…
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Pennsylvania Appeals Court Rejects DUI Appellant’s Argument That He Was Merely Sleeping in Car
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently affirmed a defendant’s DUI conviction, rejecting his argument that he was merely sleeping in the car that his mother had driven. At around midnight in July 2015, a woman was driving on Route 743. She noticed a car driving erratically in the right shoulder of the road. Ms. Kortwright followed the car for a while and then called 911 with the car’s license plate number. She stopped following the car when it turned into the Hollywood Casino. A security supervisor at Hollywood Casino received a dispatch from the Pennsylvania State Police concerning a possibly intoxicated guest. Security footage showed the car turning into the casino and parking. The supervisor went to the parked car, where he observed the defendant sleeping in the driver’s seat. The engine was running, and the windshield wipers were activated. The supervisor knocked on the car window and attempted to rouse the defendant.…
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How Reliable Are Breathalyzer Tests?
From the “Drunkometer” used in the 1930s to today’s Breathalyzer, blood alcohol concentration (BAC) tests have made it very easy for police to charge Texas citizens with drunk driving. But are these tests always 100 percent correct in measuring a person’s level of intoxication? The answer is “no,” because many factors can affect a reading. Down the Hatch First, a general overview of what alcohol does once it’s in the body: Ethanol is a miniscule molecule that readily passes through bodily tissues. Once consumed, it goes through the walls of your small intestine and stomach and into your blood. Your body warmth helps it become vaporized through your lungs when you breathe. The faster and more you drink, the more you exhale. (It also oozes through the skin if the body can’t process it quickly enough, giving an over-indulger an alcohol scent.) How a Breathalyzer Works and What Can Go Wrong While home-use breathalyzers…
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"Accounting for Violence: How to Increase Safety and Break Our Failed Reliance on Mass Incarceration"
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AR: Knock-and-announce applies to parole searches, but Hudson adopted and exclusionary rule doesn’t apply
The knock-and-announce rule applies to parole searches, and violation of the rule is a substantial violation of the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. The court adopts Hudson, however, and finds that the exclusionary rule should not be applied. Lane … Continue reading →
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‘Reviving death penalty in PH a setback for Asean’
Source: The Manila Times (16 February 2017)http://www.manilatimes.net/reviving-death-penalty-ph-setback-asean/312522/THE revival of capital punishment will be an embarrassment for the Philippines and a setback for the rest of Southeast Asia, a number of lawmakers from the region said on Wednesday.Lawmakers Kasthuri Patto of Malaysia, Mu Sochua of Cambodia, and Filipino opposition lawmakers Edcel Lagman and Tom Villarin issued the warning in a forum organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Parliamentarians for Human Rights in Quezon City.“It would be a shame if the Asean nations [like the Philippines]will stand to say we have kept the death penalty. Does a nation lose face when it fights for its people by upholding freedom, justice, equality, democracy and right to life? A nation will lose its face when it listens to the masses of misinformed public and supports the corrosion of human rights,” Patto, a member of the parliament of Malaysia…
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Barbour on Retaining Video from Body-Worn Cameras
Bradley X. Barbour (Fordham University, School of Law, Students) has posted Big Budget Productions with Limited Release: Video Retention Issues with Body-Worn Cameras (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 85, No. 4, 2017) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since 2013, there...
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Harris DA: Cease arresting pot smokers
Grits was glad to see new Harris County DA Kim Ogg implementing more aggressive marijuana diversion policies, even than her predecessor Devon Anderson. Reported the Houston Chronicle:The policy, set to begin March 1, means that misdemeanor offenders with less than four ounces of marijuana will not be arrested, ticketed or required to appear in court if they agree to take a four-hour drug education class, officials said. Ogg said the county has spent $25 million a year for the past 10 years locking up people for having less than 4 ounces of marijuana. She said those resources would be better spent arresting serious criminals such as burglars, robbers and rapists. "We have spent in excess of $250 million, over a quarter-billion dollars, prosecuting a crime that has produced no tangible evidence of improved public safety," she said. "We have disqualified, unnecessarily, thousands of people from greater job, housing and educational opportunities by giving…
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Asset forfeiture trumping political opposition
Remarkably, President Trump's critical comments last week about Texas senators supporting asset-forfeiture reform legislation appear to have re-energized the push rather than harmed it. At a capitol press conference yesterday, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a poll showing that 88 percent of Texans favor requiring a criminal conviction before the government can forfeit personal property.Several different approaches have been suggested and prospects for reform are brighter than at any time in recent memory. Cops are becoming defensive and a police chief interrupted the press conference to complain about the use of the phrase "policing for profit." Of course, they could prove they're not policing for profit by supporting Sen. Don Huffines' bill to divert all forfeiture proceeds to crime victims. Or, they could follow this suggestion to spend forfeiture money on public defenders instead of letting cops and prosecutors eat what they kill.…
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The Pitfalls of Probation
It’s a common scene: a defense attorney sitting with a pile of paperwork balanced on his lap, his client next to him. The attorney takes each page in turn and reviews it with the client: the judgment, the stipulation of evidence, the waiver of the client’s constitutional right to have a full trial. This is the plea process, the way the majority of criminal cases end – with the defense attorney making sure his or her client truly understands what he is pleading to and understands what it all means. Often the most time-consuming and complicated part of the plea paperwork is explaining the terms of a client’s probation. It seems simple enough at first glance – just a list of things you have to do, and a list of things you can’t do. Pay some fees. Go see your probation officer. Don’t use controlled substances. What’s the big deal? Continue reading
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Anaheim Man Threatens ‘Suicide by Cop’ gets Arrested for Domestic Violence
Anaheim police Sgt. Darin Wyatt said that the police were called to the Friendly Village mobile home park on La Palma Ave. after a report of domestic violence. But, before the police had arrived, the suspect, a man in his 30’s, fled saying he wasn’t going to go quietly and threatening “suicide by cop.” According to Sgt. Wyatt the police set up a perimeter around the mobile home park to search for him. The people in the area were warned to shelter in place because it was unknown if the man was armed. Anaheim’s city police helicopter was sent in, to provide a spotlight and aerial surveillance. Soon after the police in the helicopter spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description hiding in the bushes around the search area. Officers were sent to that location and arrested the suspect “without incident,” Wyatt said. Continue reading →
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