California Criminal Defense Lawyers

Apparently Derek Fisher has had a stalker for years and he was just granted a restraining order against her. Symone Fisher, who had her name legally changed to match his, calls herself the “real Mrs. Fisher” and has been hounding both Derek and his family for quite some time.

According to the L.A. Times, she uses her social networking profiles and accounts to show her affection for the Laker guard. She began with notes and emails and has progressed to showing up at the LA Laker’s training facilities and even Fisher’s home.

Initial contacts began in about 2001 when Symone sent Fisher CD compilations and love letters. She has grown increasingly “delusional” and claims that God wants her and Fisher to be together.  All of these actions and their increasing strangeness prompted the restraining order. [Read More...]

The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department is one of many law enforcement agencies across the country that have a program allowing gun owners to turn over their weapons with no questions asked. A similar program in New York gives cash in exchange for firearms. The L.A. program uses gift cards.

No matter the exchange, the goal is the same: to keep extra firearms off the streets and to keep the community safer. The L.A Sherriff’s Department prefers to exchange $200 Wal-Mart gift cards for the surrendered weapons and the people are agreeable to this.

According to this report from the LA Times, the most recent exchange in the Hawaiian Gardens community brought in nearly 350 weapons. This cache included several assault weapons and even a Mac 10 machine gun. This highly successful exchange had nothing at the similar one in Compton last year that brought in over 1,000 weapons in four days.

At first glance programs like these seem to be a great solution. Critics question their motivation however. After all, people who use illegal weapons won’t likely use this type of program, and if they do, finding a replacement firearm is not that tough of a job. The firearms brought to these exchanges wouldn’t likely be used in the commission of a crime anyways, in other words. [Read More...]

According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of L.A. County Sherriff’s Deputies being charged with alcohol related crimes is on the rise. In 2008, 70 sworn officers were arrested, mostly for DUI. This is compared with 24 in 2004.

What is frightening about this trend is that in many of the cases, the officers were carrying firearms at the time. While most of the arrests didn’t end with additional firearm related charges, some did and these are what has prompted Sherriff Baca to put tougher policies in place, perhaps the toughest in the nation.

In the high stress career of law enforcement, drinking has always had its place. Now, however, attitudes towards drinking to excess have changed. Both colleagues and upper management are less likely to turn a blind eye to an officer’s drinking problems or incidences leading to arrest.

In situations where the deputy was armed and intoxicated, it creates a frightening scenario both for the public and for the department looking to uphold an air of respect and professionalism. The incident described in this article where an officer kissed a bar patron and showed his weapon before kissing her again likely put her in serious  fear and forever changed her view of law enforcement. [Read More...]

New York has just decided to put an end to the seriously harsh Rockefeller laws designed to get tough on drug offenses. Other states are reconsidering mandatory minimum sentences and release procedures. Some of these most recent re-evaluations are due to a failing economy. Some, however, are based on the fact that many of these laws are ineffective in preventing future crimes.

Te revolving door of the criminal justice system doesn’t stop and these harsh sentences seem to have little effect on recidivism. However, California law makers don’t think that’s a sufficient reason for change and have no plans on altering anything about the states tough sentencing laws.

Our state has gained national publicity for the extreme 3 strikes laws. Three felony convictions can land you in prison for 25 years to life. It doesn’t matter if your 3^rd charge was for stealing golf clubs at a country club or shoplifting.  In our overcrowded and failing prisons, one-third of all inmates are “three strikes” offenders. [Read More...]

A common belief in the world of criminology as well as among the general public, is that crime will rise as people struggle financially. This trend can be found as many cities across the country have experienced spikes in crime over the past year. Some cities, including New York and Los Angeles have toppled this belief in posting a decrease in criminal activity in 2008.

It seems common sense that when people are desperate, unemployed, and financially stressed they would be more likely to commit crimes to keep their standard of living acceptable. This isn’t always the case, as is shown by the crime rates throughout the past year.

The L.A. Times reports that last year saw an overall reduction in property crimes with offenses like auto theft and burglary falling 6.4%. Property crimes aren’t the only things falling. Violent offenses like assault and rape declined as well, by 4.9%. Throughout the county, the Sherriff’s Department reports a overall crime decrease of 10%. These numbers are great for any year but particularly pleasing considering the financial hardships being experienced by Los Angeles residents. [Read More...]

The community justice center opened its doors for the first time this past week in S.F. While the scheduled cases didn’t happen because all defendants failed to appear, this court marks a push by Mayor Gavin Newsome to try and find a system that will turn around petty crimes and keep offenders from cycling through the system.

The court, originally voted down by the community is an attempt to decrease crime in the immediate areas by speeding the court process and also providing offenders with options other than incarceration. Because the court only serves misdemeanors and less serious felonies, people convicted within those walls will be more likely to be sentenced to community service.

In fact, increasing the level of community service and community supervision is part of the goals of the center. By having someone convicted of graffiti clean the neighborhood or encouraging other community service acts by the offenders, the programs supporters hope to not only deter the criminals, but also keep the neighborhoods cleaner and more welcoming.

The center will also help address drug addiction and alcoholism issues, helping offenders overcome the hurdles that led them down the criminal path. [Read More...]