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Two California raids allegedly net alligator and over 5000 marijuana plants
Police in Los Angeles closed down a portion of a freeway after law enforcement executed a search warrant at a warehouse over the weekend. Police raided a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night. The warrant reportedly was related to suspicions regarding a single suspect.
When police arrived at the warehouse to serve the warrant, they say they found over 3,000 marijuana plants in the building. Law enforcement says that as many as 20 people were detained during execution of the search warrant. Police say that no arrests have been made. However, police say that potential California drug charges are pending.
Police continue to process the information and evidence seized during the search. Police claim that they gathered evidence including traces of chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. The freeway was closed while police and hazardous materials teams investigated the area.
The Saturday raid came just days after police in Hemet raided a house. Police say they received an anonymous tip that someone in the East Hemet house might have been dealing drugs. Police reportedly went to the home to question the owner. Upon arrival, police say they found a drug operation in the home and then sought a search warrant.
Sources say Gibson to plead no contest to California assault charge
Allegations of domestic violence have followed actor Mel Gibson for some time now. Prosecutors have had the matter under consideration since last year. Sources indicate that Gibson and prosecutors have reached a plea agreement in the matter, which reportedly will be resolved in court this afternoon.
No felony domestic violence charges have been filed in the matter. Sources indicated earlier this week that prosecutors and Gibson reached an agreement for Gibson to plead no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in the matter. A no contest plea has the same legal effect as a guilty plea in a California criminal court. Prosecutors are expected to file the charge today, with a hearing later in the day to enter the no contest plea.
The allegations originally arose last year. Gibson's former girlfriend -- the mother of a daughter with Gibson--raised accusations that the actor hit her in their Malibu home. The ex-girlfriend also claimed that Gibson threatened her with a gun.
Several California criminal cases dropped in police scandal
In the cases that have already been dropped, individuals were charged with a variety of California crimes. The dropped charges range from grand theft to felony California drug charges.
Four videos have been released that appear to contradict details that officers wrote in police reports in a number of criminal cases. Officers reportedly also testified in court inconsistently with what appears in the videos. Two of the videos show plainclothes officers making illegal entries into rooms at a San Francisco residential hotel. A third video depicts plainclothes officers kicking in a hotel door. The hotel room reportedly was occupied by a disabled man.
A fourth video, released Monday, apparently obtained from security video recorded at the Henry Hotel shows a man wearing a black coat entering the hotel. Police reported they had seen the man enter the hotel wearing a white and tan jacket. Police seized a white and tan jacket in the hotel room. Police had claimed they discovered crack cocaine and marijuana in the light colored jacket. Later, police arrested the man.
35 mile freeway ride results in serious California criminal charges
An alleged dispute between man and wife evolved into serious charges earlier this week. A 36-year-old Manteca man reportedly hopped into the family minivan after he had an argument with his wife. She then jumped onto the hood of the van in an effort to stop him from leaving. Witnesses claim the man drove at excessive speeds for 35 miles Saturday, just after 12:30 a.m., with his wife on the hood of the vehicle.
Police reportedly arrested the man later Saturday morning at his home on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and domestic violence.
Law enforcement claims at least two people called 911 to report a minivan racing down a Northern California freeway in the middle of the night. The witnesses say the van was travelling at speeds up to 100 miles per hour during the 35 mile drive from Manteca to Pleasanton. All during the event, the 25-year-old woman reportedly was sprawled across the hood of the minivan as it raced down the freeway, hanging on to the windshield wiper blades.
Court rules against defendant on Sixth Amendment issue
The United States Supreme Court ruled on Monday that statements made during an ongoing emergency may be introduced as evidence in a criminal trial even if the person that made the statements has died before the trial. Santa Cruz criminal defense attorneys know that the Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the right to confront the witnesses against the defendant at trial. The right to confrontation includes the right to cross examine the witness.
Monday's Supreme Court ruling says the statements introduced at trial of an alleged murder victim through the testimony of police officers did not violate the defendant's right to confrontation. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a scathing dissent. Justice Scalia says Monday's ruling distorts the high court's "Confrontation Clause jurisprudence and leaves it in a shambles." Justice Scalia goes on to say majority opinion demeans the Supreme Court.
The case arose out of an incident that happened in Detroit in 2001. Police responded to a report of a shooting. Several police officers responded and found a man who had been shot lying near his car in a gas station parking lot. Each officer asked the man several questions. The man reportedly told police the identity of the man who allegedly shot him. The man died later that morning at the hospital.
Teen enters plea agreement to three California burglaries
An 18-year-old Fallbrook man entered a plea agreement that may expose him in the future to California's three strikes law. The 18-year-old agreed to plead guilty to three separate counts of California burglary charges. Each separate conviction qualifies as a strike under the California three strikes law.
Prosecutors reportedly dropped other charges pending against the teen in exchange for the three strikes plea agreement. The teen agreed to a three and a half year prison sentence under the current plea agreement. Actual sentencing in the matter is scheduled for April 6.
Prosecutors will have the ability to seek a sentence of 30 years to life if the teen is charged with any offenses in the future that qualify under the California three strikes law.
The current allegations arose early in the morning on January 4. Law enforcement received a call reporting a residential burglary was in progress. Residents of the home reportedly were inside the house during the alleged burglary. Before deputies arrived at the home, the 18-year-old is alleged to have fled from the residence. Police say the teen stole a television set, Blue Ray DVD player and a purse from the residence.
Judge to Lohan: Any plea will involve jail time
Actress Lindsay Lohan appeared before Judge Keith Schwartz in Del Aire Court this morning to face a felony charge of grand theft. Prosecutors allege Lohan stole a $2,500 necklace from a Venice jewelry store. Lohan entered a not guilty plea to the California theft charge in February.
At the Wednesday morning court appearance Judge Schwartz told Lohan that if she accepts a plea agreement from prosecutors she will face jail time. "If you plead in front of me, if this case resolves in front of me, you are going to jail. Period. It may be an issue as to amount of time," Judge Schwartz told Lohan.
Law enforcement claims they have video of Lohan wearing a necklace at the Venice, California jewelry store, obtained from store surveillance cameras. The Los Angeles Times reports that police also obtained paparazzi photos taken days after the alleged incident showing Lohan wearing the necklace in public. Law enforcement claims they have statements from witnesses who allegedly were present in the store.
FBI to Congress: Wiretap access in new technology too difficult
FBI agents and police officers testified at a congressional hearing Thursday regarding increasing difficulties that law enforcement is experiencing in attempting to gather evidence against people they suspect of committing offenses. Law enforcement claims that new forms of communication inhibit their ability to conduct wiretaps.
California criminal defense attorneys know that evidence cannot be used to convict an individual if law enforcement gathers evidence in an unconstitutional manner. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Members of law enforcement, however, told congressional leaders yesterday that many new forms of communication provide law enforcement with increased difficulty in placing wiretaps even where the wiretap is authorized under a warrant.
Speaking before a House Judiciary subcommittee, FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said it is "exponentially more difficult" to place a court-authorized wiretap on some forms of new technology. She says people can communicate via anonymous avatars and through wireless technology that evades wiretaps.
Man faces California three strikes law for theft of gloves
Prosecutors alleged the man placed a pair of gloves and some wire in his waistband at a Home Depot store in Lake Elsinore in 2009. A witness testified that the man pulled his sweatshirt over his waist line and then left the store with the items still in his waistband.
The defendant exercised his right to testify in his own defense at trial. The 44-year-old told the jury he intended to steal the items, but changed his mind before leaving the store. The defendant told the jury that he turned around inside the store.
The jury deliberated for only fifteen minutes before rendering its guilty verdict to felony level petty theft. The jury was not aware that prosecutors are seeking the 30 years to life sentence under the three strikes law. Jurors are not allowed to consider the potential sentencing that could be imposed in they render a guilty verdict.
The Lake Elsinore man reportedly has three California burglary convictions on his record dating from 1991.
Federal appeals court reverses three strikes sentence for South Bay man
In 1999, the man again faced a California DUI charge. A jury convicted the man of the charge at trial. The Santa Clara County judge in the case sentenced the man in 1999 to 30 years to life under California's three strikes law. The judge relied on the two prior DUI convictions as the first two strikes. The California Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and the California Supreme Court denied review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the lower courts concluding that the judge made additional findings of fact regarding the prior convictions in violation of the South Bay man's due process rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a number of decisions spanning more than a decade regarding a defendant's right to a jury.
At the 1999 sentencing, the prosecutor submitted documents to the court while arguing that the 1993 convictions should serve as two strikes. At issue was the conviction for inflicting bodily injury. The federal appeals court determined the trial judge found facts beyond the scope of the mere fact that the man had a previous conviction.
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