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At the Leslie Legal Group our criminal defense attorneys are extremely knowledgeable and experienced in defending restraining order violations. Restraining orders can have a devastating effect on the person restrained. They may not be able to have contact with their loved ones and may even be forced to leave their home in order to comply. If you have been charged with violating a restraining order, we are committed to defending your case aggressively and protecting your rights.

What is a Restraining Order?

A restraining order, also known as a protective order, is a court order designed to protect someone from continued abuse, harassment, threats, or stalking. Generally, the restrained party is prohibited from any type of contact with the individual requesting the restraining order. Contact includes all forms of communication, including social media contact.

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California’s law penalizing minors in possession of alcohol aims to discourage those under 21 from illegally consuming alcoholic beverages. Minors can be charged with this offense if they consume alcoholic beverages, purchase alcoholic beverages, or possess alcohol, including carrying an unopened container containing an alcoholic beverage. California’s minor in possession laws are governed by Business and Professions Code Section 25662.

Penalties for Violating the Minor in Possession Law

If any person under the age of 21 is caught drinking or possessing alcohol, the following penalties will result:

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Past convictions can be expunged to help you better your future. Often, a criminal record can be a barrier to certain schooling, obtaining licenses, and certain employment. The Leslie Legal Group can help expunge your criminal convictions and clear your record. If you have been convicted of a felony, then we will first work to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor prior to obtaining an expungement. In many cases, this is an easy process, and all you will need to do is provide your name, date of birth, and the court in which you were convicted. And you may never have to go to court to clear your record. We have handled hundreds of criminal record expungements for clients in and out of San Diego.

Expungement: What You Should Understand

In California, criminal record expungement is governed by Penal Code 1203.4. One of the most important things to understand about expungement is that once it is granted, your case is not sealed. Expungement doesn’t actually mean erasure, as if the crime had never been committed. It is more equivalent to dismissal; your conviction will stay on your record for certain purposes, including sex offender registration and immigration. Penal Code 1203.4 states that the defendant is “released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense.” This statement, however, has limitations.

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California’s Three Strikes sentencing law was enacted in 1994. The law enacted a life sentence for essentially any offense, even an extremely minor one, if the offender has two previous convictions for “serious” or “violent” crimes (according to the California Penal Code). Under the law, if a defendant is convicted of any felony, and already has a prior conviction of a serious or violent felony, the defendant will be sentenced to twice the prison term originally provided for the felony. If a defendant is convicted of any felony with two or more prior felony convictions (or “strikes”), the sentence is a prison term of at least 25 years to life. The three strikes sentencing structure was enacted to ensure that violent offenders are kept off the streets. However, an unfortunate side effect of this law has sentenced over half of inmates convicted under it for nonviolent crimes.

How is a “Serious” or “Violent” Felony defined?

Serious and violent felonies are defined in California Penal Code sections 667.5(c) and 1192.7(c). These types of felonies include burglary, robbery, kidnapping, murder, sex crimes, any offense in which a weapon was used and/or serious bodily injury occurred, arson, crimes involving the use of explosives, or any attempt to commit the aforementioned crimes.

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A probation violation occurs when you break the conditions of probation. This may result in serious punishment, depending upon the nature and gravity of the violation, whether or not this is your first violation, and whether there are factors that may lessen or increase the severity of the situation. The penalties that may result include (but are not limited to) extended probation period, incarceration, or monetary fines. Probation is part of the sentencing process in California, and can be a privilege that allows you to avoid or shorten jail time. The goal of probation is to rehabilitate an offender. California Penal Code 1203 is the governing law, which provides California judges with broad discretion to set probation terms on a case by case basis. Some common probation terms include:

  •         Monetary fines
  •         Abstaining from alcohol or drug use, participation in a drug or alcohol program, or drug or alcohol testing
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Prior to the U.S. Department of Justice uncovering a history of racial profiling and discrimination in Ferguson, MO, a group of attorneys filed suit claiming that municipal courts in the town were arresting and imprisoning a large number of people for unpaid traffic tickets and other minor offenses. In 2013, 33,000 arrest warrants were issued for residents, earning the city $2.6 million. Ferguson is not the only town in America profiting off of residents’ debt. This is a problem here in California as well. Four million people in the state have suspended licenses for failing to pay citations, and are deeply in debt because of this.

Traffic Courts & Inequality

A coalition of civil rights groups issued a report entitled “Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California.” The report found that a driver who commits offenses as small as littering or driving without a seatbelt is subject to a $490 fine. Many Americans are not able to afford such a fine, and if the driver does not pay the fine in full quickly enough or misses a court appearance; the punishment is a suspended license. This creates a real problem for many Californians – they only way they can pay off their fine and lift the suspension on their driver’s license is to drive without a license to work. They then risk even more fines ($300-$1,000) and six months in prison for getting caught driving with a suspended license. This creates a cycle of debt that many are unable to break.

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According to MADD (Mother’s Against Drunk Driving), in 2014, drivers operating vehicles under the influence of drugs or alcohol killed around 10,500 people; 345,000 were injured. The statistics for the number of accidents occurring in San Diego County due to drunken driving are staggering and most of these accidents occur on or around holidays. The most common holidays where accidents are most likely to occur due to irresponsible post-party practices are the Fourth of July, New Year’s and St. Patrick’s Day.

         Focusing on New Year’s, the San Diego County authorities did what they could to ensure the safety of the roads to prevent New Year’s DUI cases for 2015, but to no avail. Statewide in the State of California, DUI arrests were down from 2014; but this wasn’t the case for San Diego County specifically. Blocking out just a 12-hour window from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day 2013-2014, there were 324 DUI arrests in the state of California and 14 in San Diego County. The same time frame for 2014-2015 New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day netted 309 DUI arrests in the state of California and 20 in San Diego County. It may not seem like much of an increase, but percentage wise it’s a 42.9% jump for San Diego County. Last New Year’s there were no fatalities while this year there was one; statewide there were 5 fatalities this year.

         In an attempt to lower the statistics for those not only driving under the influence (DUI) but also driving without a valid license, authorities publicized their plans to increase DUI checkpoints starting right after Christmas (Dec. 26) through New Year’s. Studies in San Diego County have shown that well published reports stating the intention of having increased police presence can lower irresponsible acts of partygoers by up to 20 percent. San Diego County police ran several DUI checkpoints from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Christmas Weekend, inspired by the nearly 2,300 injuries that occurred last year around the same time. The checkpoints proved successful in finding and arresting drunken drivers but also increased the statistics from last year. A report released by CHP said 18 people were arrested and two died in San Diego County between 6 p.m. Christmas Eve and 8 a.m. the day after Christmas. That’s six more arrests than last year and the same number of fatalities. The New Year’s statistics also went up from last year as a result of increased DUI checkpoints throughout San Diego County; officers arrested 34 impaired drivers in San Diego County between New Year’s Eve and that Friday morning, compared to 20 DUI arrests in the same holiday period a year ago. During the same weekend, continuing from Friday to Sunday (New Year’s weekend) the statistic increased dramatically, doubling the total number of drunken drivers taken off of the streets. Officers arrested 69 drivers driving under the influence (DUI) in San Diego County between New Year’s Eve and that Sunday on the weekend following New Year’s.

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Back in the early 1970’s, during the Nixon era, a new phrase became commonplace in the United States. The War on Drugs was the phrase, and while the idea to combat the sale and use of illegal drugs may have seemed like a good one, it had led to problems that no-one really saw coming 40 years ago. The biggest problem caused by the “war” was the overpopulation of the jails in the United States, with California being one of the hardest hit. The California jail system is designed to house around 80,000 inmates, but is currently running at double that capacity. Something had to give and Prop 47 is what many feel may be the answer.

What happened in the years after the War on Drugs began was that the users of drugs were essentially hammered with the same sentences doled out to the dealers. Rather than trying to treat addicts, it became common practice to simply lock them up and throw away the key. Simple drug possession, which is viewed as a misdemeanor in many other places, was viewed by the California justice system as a felony, with the end result being long jail terms. It wasn’t long before the jails started to fill up and burst at the seams.

Proposition 47 was put before California voters and sold as a way to reduce the overpopulation problems currently being seen across the state. It didn’t help that the state was starting to face a wave of civil suits filed by prisoners claiming to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment due to the conditions in the jails. It is not uncommon to find inmates housed in gymnasiums and other parts of the jail that are simply not designed to hold them. The Proposition passed during the recent mid-term elections, and now some big changes are afoot in California.

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A three car pileup occurred last night around the 1100 block of East Washington Avenue in Escondido. According to police, a black truck driving around 9p.m. crashed into a silver sedan; makes and models of the vehicles aren’t released. When the truck rammed into the silver sedan, the impact propelled the sedan to roll over and smash into another sedan, white in color. The truck driver, the driver at fault, attempted to escape and make it a hit-n-run case, but he was immediately taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI). Luckily, none of the individuals involved were harmed by the accident/rolling vehicles, but particles on the street were a hazard to other drivers on the road. The impact caused dangerous debris to slide across the road to the extent that police had to close the road to traffic while the scene was investigated and the shards and scrap metals were removed from the road.

Sources:
“Suspected DUI Driver Causes 3-Car Crash” – NBC San Diego

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Alan Long was re-elected into the Murrieta city council last week after choosing to step down from his position as mayor. A type of scandal erupted when Long was caught driving under the influence (DUI) and mishandling his pickup truck, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and ram into the car in front of him. The car he hit contained four teenage girls, all high school cheerleaders ranging from the ages of 14 to 17; they came out of the accident with injuries. Long was already being charged with one count of felony DUI causing injury and now the girls who were injured are suing him as well. Long, who has a job working as a battalion chief for the Anaheim Fire Department, is in over his head and is scheduled for arraignment on December 11. Long’s attorney, apparently, still hasn’t seen the lawsuit being brought against him. In the upcoming weeks more about the story will unfold and the perspective of the injured girls from the accident will be heard.

Sources:
“Councilman Sued For Alleged DUI Crash With Teens” – UT San Diego

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Carlsbad, CA 92008
Phone: 760-579-0380

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