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How can A Los Angeles Hit and Run Lawyer Mitigate the Consequences of my Case

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We get a lot of clients who call that have not yet been contacted by officers for a statement, or for an investigation for a Los Angeles Hit and Run. These clients always inform us that they are just looking for information, but since officers have not yet contacted them, there is no need to retain an attorney. This is a myth. The work on a Hit and Run case can begin before a case is ever filed. This allows a person to be prepared to speak to officers and to give a statement that could help reduce the charges or even lead to the case not being filed at all. Let’s consider an example and walk through the steps an experienced Los Angeles Hit and Run lawyer would take to help resolve the case. Dina calls Hoffman and Associates and speaks to one of our experienced lawyers. She was driving home from a holiday party and accidently hit a parked car in a neighborhood on her way home. She left a note on the windshield, with her contact information, but due to the high winds, the…

News Scan

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Criminal Who Caused 3 Strikes Gets 3rd Strike:  A habitual felon who avoided a murder conviction in 1992 by pleading to robbery was found guilty Wednesday of corporal injury to his girlfriend and three counts of dissuading her from testifying.  Pablo Lopez of the Fresno Bee reports that Douglas Walker was an accomplice in the murder of 18-year-old Kimber Reynolds in front of a popular restaurant in downtown Fresno.  While she was walking, two parolees, Joseph Davis and Douglas Walker, pulled up on a motorcycle and tried to snatch her purse. She fought. Davis pulled out a .357-caliber handgun and shot her in the head. She died two days later. Davis later died in a shootout with police. Walker pled to robbery and was sentenced to nine years in prison, but was released after 4 1/2 years.  It was Kimber's murder that inspired her father, Mike Reynolds, to qualify the "Three Strikes and You're Out" initiative for California's 1994…

USCIS Brings in the Delayed International Entrepreneur Rule

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A rule intended to make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States while they set up businesses is being implemented following a court decision. On December 14, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will be introducing the International Entrepreneur Rule. The International Entrepreneur Rule was created under the former Obama administration. However, the Trump administration sought to stall its implementation. A bid to delay the rule until March has been overturned by the courts. The IER gives an unlimited number of international entrepreneurs a new avenue to apply for parole, enter the United States and use American investments to create and grow start-up businesses, states USCIS. Parole is a discretionary grant made available by the Secretary of Homeland Security. It is awarded on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The rule was meant to come into effect on July 17, 2017. It was…

7 Ways A Criminal Defense Attorney Can Help You

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A criminal conviction can change your life in an instant. Whether you’ve been arrested for driving under the influence, theft, or another crime, your freedom and future are at stake. This is when a criminal defense attorney becomes essential. In a system where it feels like everyone is up against you, a defense lawyer can protect your rights and fight for the best possible outcome for your case. Specifically, here are seven ways a criminal defense attorney can help you: 1.Make full use of discovery to build a strong defense. An experienced criminal defense attorney will investigate your case to uncover every possible avenue of acquittal. This may include finding and hiring expert witnesses, obtaining surveillance video and documents, or questioning the police. 2.Advise you of your rights. The legal system is filled with nuances and intricacies that make defending yourself in a criminal trial nearly impossible. A criminal defense attorney with experience practicing law in…

Understanding Return Fraud in California – PC 484(a)

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The holiday shopping season is underway in Los Angeles and retailers are on the lookout for crimes of theft. This includes acts of return fraud, where items that have been stolen or purchased at another store are exchanged for cash. Return fraud is a crime of theft in Los Angeles and can carry significant criminal […]

Penney on Interrogating Uncounseled Detainees in Canada

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Steven Penney (University of Alberta - Faculty of Law) has posted Should Prosper Warnings Be Given to Non-Diligent Detainees Who Waive the Right to Counsel? (Criminal Reports (7th), vol. 39, p. 33 (2017)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In...

Court of Criminal Appeals on Furtive Gestures

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The Court of Criminal Appeals handed down a decision this week that revisits the significance of furtive gestures in establishing probable cause. In Marcopoulos v. State, the Court ruled that quickly leaving a bar that was known drug establishment coupled with furtive movements once the officer initiated a traffic stop was not sufficient to establish probable cause to search the vehicle. The Background While surveilling a bar that was well-known narcotics spot, an undercover officer witnessed Marcopoulos enter the bar for less than five minutes and leave. Finding this suspicious, the undercover officer followed him and radioed for uniformed officers to follow Marcopoulos. Officers observed Marcopoulos make “furtive gestures” around the center console of the vehicle and the uniformed officer initiated a traffic stop after Marcopoulos failed to signal a lane change. Marcopoulos was arrested for the traffic violation. His vehicle was searched based on probable cause…

Court of Criminal Appeals on Furtive Gestures

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The Court of Criminal Appeals handed down a decision this week that revisits the significance of furtive gestures in establishing probable cause. In Marcopoulos v. State, the Court ruled that quickly leaving a bar that was known drug establishment coupled with furtive movements once the officer initiated a traffic stop was not sufficient to establish probable cause to search the vehicle. The Background While surveilling a bar that was well-known narcotics spot, an undercover officer witnessed Marcopoulos enter the bar for less than five minutes and leave. Finding this suspicious, the undercover officer followed him and radioed for uniformed officers to follow Marcopoulos. Officers observed Marcopoulos make “furtive gestures” around the center console of the vehicle and the uniformed officer initiated a traffic stop after Marcopoulos failed to signal a lane change. Marcopoulos was arrested for the traffic violation. His vehicle was searched based on probable cause…

Student Recants Previous Refusal to Report Alleged Sex with Teacher

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A Beaumont, California teacher is facing charges for allegations that she had sexual relations with a student on various occasions. She was also reported to have supplied alcohol for the encounters. Samantha Ciotta began working as an English teacher at Beaumont High School in 2015. In August this year, a student discovered a Snapchat video believed to contain footage of Ciotta scantily clad and inebriated with two shirtless minors When the Beaumont Unified School District caught wind of the rumored video they reported it to the police, which launched an official investigation. According to documents, when authorities questioned one of the alleged victims he aggressively refused to talk to them about Ciotta, and he stated that he had moved on. Continue reading →

Collateral Consequences Of The Unseen Child

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Bexar County deputies feel horrible about killing 6-year-old Kameron Prescott. No one meant to shoot him. No one meant to kill him. But he’s dead, nonetheless. A stray bullet entered a mobile home. Kameron was inside the mobile him, and the stray bullet entered him. A 6-year-old boy was fatally shot when Bexar County sheriff’s deputies opened fire on a woman at a Schertz mobile home park after a lengthy manhunt Thursday. The woman — a wanted felon and a suspect in a car theft — also was killed by the gunfire at the Pecan Grove Manufactured Home Community, located off FM 78 on the banks of Cibolo Creek. She had been trying to break into a mobile home while the child was inside when deputies caught up to her on the front porch. Police claimed the woman had a gun, although not at the time she was killed. “Something in the way that the suspect presented to the deputies placed these deputies in direct fear for their lives,” Salazar explained.…

The J-Dog Prize? Not This Year

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For the past eight years, there was a friendly competition for the Best Criminal Law Blawg Post, which in 2012 was renamed the J-Dog Memorial Prize after our dear friend, Joel Rosenberg. In 2015, I wondered whether there would still be enough of a criminal law blawgosphere to sustain the contest. I decided there was. As it turns out, there is not only life remaining in the criminal law blawgosphere, but some damn fine writing out there, as reflected in the nominations (as well as some truly excellent criminal law blogs that, inexplicably, didn’t muster a nomination but are still doing great work). The point of the competition was to provide a way to promote writing by practitioners, by the people who did what others merely talked about, and who knew what they were saying. The next year, the problem was exacerbated by my being managing editor of Fault Lines. It seems most likely that the robust criminal law community that once existed is gone. Whether that means the…

Short Take: The Yates Method

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A few short years ago, Sally Yates would have been burned at the stake for her crimes against humanity as a prosecutor.  But one cool trick changed everything. Betray your duty as acting Attorney General, play to the institutionally ignorant resistance, and be recreated overnight as a hero of the miserable, who know nothing about anything you’ve ever done before. It’s like one-hour Martinizing, except it didn’t take that long. All anyone needed to know was that Yates used her moment in the sun of being fired by Darth Cheeto for using her interim post to embarrass him under the guise of being all justice-y, and every bad thing she ever did magically disappeared. Now, Yates gets to pretend she’s a warrior. Over the course of our nation’s history, we have faced inflection points — times when we had to decide who we are as a country and what we stand for. Now is such a time. Beyond policy disagreements and partisan gamesmanship, there is…

Service of Process for Divorce Actions

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Once you have filed your divorce complaint with your county courthouse, you must provide service of process on the defendant, your spouse. Service is required to give notice to someone that they are a party to a legal action. Your divorce cannot proceed until your spouse has been served using one of the methods allowed by North Carolina law. North Carolina Service of Process Methods Service by certified mail is the most common method of serving divorce papers on your spouse. This is usually a cost-effective and convenient way to provide service of process. There are two downsides to this method. The first is that your spouse can refuse to sign the form indicating that they have accepted the divorce papers. If you know your spouse won’t sign the certified mail receipt, you may want to use another method. The other drawback of this method is that you have to know where your spouse is located. If you aren’t sure where your spouse is, you’ll have to try a…

How Do I Get a UConn Providing Alcohol to a Minor Arrest Dismissed?

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Any top UConn criminal lawyer will tell you that one of the most common reasons UConn students are being arrested is for providing alcohol to their underage classmates. While these arrests are common at UConn, they can be a challenge to get dismissed in Rockville Superior Court where all UConn criminal arrests are litigated. And they can also get you suspended or expelled from UConn if not handled properly. What makes these UConn alcohol possession and distribution cases so serious? They are felonies, punishable by up to 5 years in jail… How are UConn Students Getting Arrested for Providing & Delivering Alcohol to Minors? As a result of several tragic alcohol-related deaths on the nation’s campuses, UConn police officers have been cracking down on underage drinking, which means they are heavily monitoring UConn area liquor and package stores. UConn police have taken to surveiling these stores in plain clothing, watching any students who enter, and more…

What is a Class C Misdemeanor in Illinois?

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Under Illinois law, there are three classes of misdemeanor offenses: A, B, and C. Class A misdemeanor penalties are the most severe, while Class C misdemeanors carry lesser potential penalties. A Class C misdemeanor in Illinois carries a maximum penalty of up to 30 days in county jail and a maximum fine of $1,500 plus any mandatory court costs. The defendant may be placed on a period of court supervision, conditional discharge or probation for up to 2-years. Specific sentencing guidelines for Class C misdemeanors can be found under Illinois law 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-65. Two of the most common Class C misdemeanors are Disorderly Conduct and Assault. Continue Reading The post What is a Class C Misdemeanor in Illinois? appeared first on Chicago DUI Lawyer Blog.

Solutions sought to abolish death penalty

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Source: The Jakarta Post (22 December 2017)http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/12/22/solutions-sought-abolish-death-penalty.htmlCivil society in Southeast Asia must work on more engagement, smarter solutions and data transparency in order to stem the tide of regression in efforts to abolish the death penalty in the region."The kind of change we want, we need to make it happen," international law expert Seree Nonthasoot said in a speech in Jakarta on Thursday at the Regional Conference on the Situation of the Death Penalty in ASEAN held by the Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in ASEAN (CAPDA).He proposed several things for the fight to abolish the death penalty, such as using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to attract ASEAN's attention. "Everyone in ASEAN loves SDGs. Goal 16 on access to justice will give you ammunition," he said. "Electrocution, gas, hanging, lethal injection, firing squad: Are these techniques for…

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

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One does not criticize a sitting federal judge without repercussions...even a blogger of world-wide renown.... thus we received this...Rump, you got your facts wrong. Way wrong. We represented the defendants. Judge Bloom did not express displeasure at the sentence. Judge Bloom did not suggest that it was too lenient. Judge Bloom did not take the plea reluctantly. This was a very difficult case and Judge Bloom was always completely professional, fair, respectful, patient, thoughtful, impartial, cordial and just. Bill Barzee Marc Seitles Sabrina Puglisi First of all we did not get "our" facts wrong. We posted the summary of emails to us. We are rarely wrong. However, there is another side to this story in particualar and perhaps the Judge in general. We report...you decide...(or does someone else already use that?)From Occupied America where Truth is more than you make it, Fight The Power. Site Feed

S.D.Ohio: Def’s girlfriend’s standing testimony rejected because it sounded “scripted” and because she didn’t smell the 100 pds of MJ she was standing near regularly for days

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Defendant claimed standing in his girlfriend’s house because he regularly spent the night there. Her testimony was rejected because it sounded “scripted” and inherently unreliable because she claimed she didn’t smell 100 pounds of marijuana in her basement even though … Continue reading →

Army Ct.Crim.App.: Search authorization for cell phone text messages did not permit looking at pictures

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The search authorization here was for text messages on a servicemember’s cell phone. The searchers, however, looked for pictures, too. The military good faith exception, Mil. R. Evid. 311(c)(3), specifically addresses the scenario when officers rely on a subsequently invalidated … Continue reading →

NYTimes: Privacy Complaints Mount Over Phone Searches at U.S. Border Since 2011

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NYTimes: Privacy Complaints Mount Over Phone Searches at U.S. Border Since 2011 by Charlie Savage and Ron Nixon: Grievances over lost privacy run through a trove of roughly 250 complaints by people whose laptops and phones were searched without a … Continue reading →
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