California Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

The Pasadena Star News is reporting that Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives who were staking out a robbery suspect on Thursday stopped an alleged rape in progress and captured the suspect. Kenneth Parker of San Gabriel was booked on suspicion of kidnapping to commit rape, attempted rape, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.

Detectives from the Major Crimes Bureau were conducting surveillance looking for a serial robbery suspect when they saw Parker grab and attempt to rape a woman, a Sheriff’s statement said. The woman escaped before the detectives could intervene, but Parker then grabbed second woman moments later and dragged her into a business in on East Valley Boulevard, took the woman into a rear bathroom of the business and locked the door. Detectives rescued the woman and were able to take Parker into custody.

Parker is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is due for arraignment at Alhambra Superior Court Monday.

Continue reading " LAPD Detectives rescue two women from alleged rapist " »

The Los Angeles Times has posted breaking news in the George Torres case. On Monday, Torres, an entrepreneur who built the multimillion-dollar Numero Uno grocery store chain, was convicted by a jury of racketeering, solicitation of murder, bribery in federal court.

In the trial, he U.S Attorney’s Office argued that Torres hired illegal immigrants at his stores, bribed a Los Angeles City planning commissioner and arranged to have people killed. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of two former Torres associates--both convicted drug dealers serving lengthy federal prison sentences who were cooperating with authorities in hopes of having the sentences reduced. Despite credibility issues with the prosecution's star witnesses, jurors ultimately concluded that Torres arranged for the murder of a local gang member who tried to extort protection money. The man, Jose "Shorty" Maldonado was fatally shot as he walked with his girlfriend near Torres' main market in 1994.

Torres’ legal team plans on asking the Judge for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict—or that despite the verdict, the government had not met its burden of proof. This post-trial hearing is set for June 1. He faces life in prison.

Continue reading " L.A. supermarket chain owner guilty of bribery, racketeering, soliciting murder " »

Last week I posted on the sexting “epidemic” among U.S. teens, citing a statistic that one of five teenagers have shared nude pictures of themselves via cell phone or online. Now, reports are surfacing that show that those alarming statistics are inflated.

The Wall Street Journal reports claim that statistic, which was generated by CosmoGirl.com and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, may be exaggerated because the same teenagers who have engaged in such behavior could be the ones most likely to say they have done so in an online poll. In other words, the sample was skewed towards those likely to be on the internet to begin with. Sources say that cohort might two to four times more likely to send nude photos of themselves than the average teen. The criticism of the study is that it didn’t poll teens by phone or by mail, which would make the group sampled more representative of the population.

So what’s the reality of teens and texting? Probably something probably less than the one in five statistic, but it may be nearly impossible to get information from teens by any other means but the internet. The chance that Janie or Johnnie will respond to a phone call on Mom and Dad’s landline regarding posting nude pictures of themselves on the web seems unlikely.

Regardless of what the statistics say, teens caught texting are being charged by prosecutor offices across the U.S. for crimes ranging from indecent exposure to child pornography. If your child has been charged in the Orange County Juvenile system, please contact me for a consultation at (714) 834-1400.

According to the New York Times, one in five teens may be a child pornographer risking life in prison — for the crime of taking and distributing naked pictures of themselves.

According to a recent study commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, 20 percent of teenagers have taken nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves and sent them to someone or posted them online. Most send these gifts to their boyfriend or girlfriend (69 percent) or someone they want to date or hook up with (30 percent).

These statistics are alarming, but so is the fact that ‘sexting” is now a crime. So what may seem on the surface to be puppy love in the information age now could put kids in jeopardy for prison time- as child pornographers no less.

It’s illegal under federal and state child-porn laws to create explicit images of a minor and to posses them or distribute them. These laws were drafted to address adult abuse of minors, but it turns out they don’t exempt minors who create and distribute images, even if the pictures are of them. In fact, prosecutors in several states are going after creator-victims, in both federal and state court. Some kids are being charged as juveniles but under Federal law, there is no such equivalent.

So when a 16-year-old with takes pictures of herself and sends them to a boy to seduce him, she could get life in federal prison under current sentencing guidelines. If she does manage to get out, she may have to register as a sex offender.

Continue reading " Sexting can result in Orange County child pornography charges " »