California Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

California AB 1771: Myra Spearman, Domestic ViolenceSurvivor's Point of View

2008-04-11T17:35:33Z

By Alexis Moore(Marcella Chester)
Are any of us that ignorant to believe that all of the sex offenders in the country are listed in the sex offender's registry? We know that not all domestic abusers will be listed in the database; however, some method of prevention is ...read more: Support for AB 1771: Myra Spearman a survivor's point of view

California Sex Offender Housing Crisis

2008-04-10T17:32:05Z

Like so many other states, California has a registered sex offender housing crisis on it's hands. KFWB's Lori Kelman says no one wants them, and state officials don't know what to do about that...read more: KFWB's series on 290 crisis

San Bernardino May Bar Sex Offender from Driving Ice Cream Trucks

2008-04-09T17:27:03Z

A jurisdiction in California may join Illinois and New York in barring sex offenders from driving an ice cream truck:. Boratbearicecream_1161708771_5 Last July, Perris residents learned that a registered sex offender was working as an ... read more: Beware of the Ice Cream Truck

California ASH Patient Worried about Alleged Killer

2008-04-08T17:22:11Z

Peggy Phaklides, a litigation manager for ASH, said in January the hospital is considering appealing Smith's civil judgment. read more: CA- Murdered ASH patient worried about alleged killer who just lost major court appeal

Attempted Abduction of 4 Year Old Santa Cruz Girl Avoided

2008-04-08T16:18:59Z

By Eric Swedlund A convicted sex offender attempted to abduct a 4-year-old girl from Santa Cruz Catholic Church Sunday morning but was stopped by alert...read more: Attempted abduction of girl, 4, thwarted

Public Outrage Over Folsom Man Arrest

2008-04-07T16:17:01Z

Since when is it a crime to talk to children? The guy isn't a sex offender, has no criminal record and was under no order not to speak to children...read more: Widespread ire over decision to arrest Folsom man

DNA Profiles Help Solve Cases

2008-04-06T16:13:15Z

Washington will at this point require DNA samples from all registered sex
offenders only. Other states are targeting even juveniles and illegal
immigrants.... read more: DNA profiles can clear up crimes

Johnny Depp the Face of Trojan Condoms?

2008-04-06T16:09:15Z

The heartthrob actor has felt strongly about sex education since starring in TV's teen crime series "21 Jump Street" in the '80s...read more: Johnny Depp Spokeswoman Denies Trojan Report

Widespread Problems of Abuse in Religious Orders

2008-04-05T16:07:23Z

There, according to allegations in a lawsuit, Presenti masturbated and had oral sex with boys who stayed overnight in the infirmary...read more: Abuse was common in religious orders

Study Shows Illegal Immigrants Commit Almost One Million Sex Crimes

2008-04-04T16:02:25Z

After conducting a 12 month in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders for ...read more: Dark side of illegal immigration

Jessica's Law Pushes Sex Offenders to Rural Counties

2008-04-03T15:58:13Z

Tehama County Supervisor Ron Warner is a member of the California State Association of Counties' sex offender working group that monitors legislative bills regarding sex offenders...read more: Sex offenders moving to rural counties

GOP Seeks Drinking Law Exception

2008-04-02T15:14:42Z

Today’s New York Times reported that the Republican Party has asked St. Paul, MN, officials to keep the city’s bars open two hours longer than normal, from 2 to 4 AM—for the eleven days preceding, during, and after the September Republican national convention this fall.
Read more from original article: Let’s Par-Tay Till 4 A.M.
This news item appears on this blog because of the author’s experience with holier-than-thou piousness commonly assumed by prosecutors of the Republican persuasion in Bay Area superior courts when talking to the judges about my DUI clients. [Ok, some of these deputy D.A.s are Democrats, but not many.]

Republican hypocrisy among northern CA district attorneys is so blatant in the sex crimes and child porn area of my practice I barely take note. But drinking until almost sunup while taking responsibility for electing the leader of the free world?

The GOP thinks it so important that their delegates be allowed to drink almost all night that they ask the convention host city to make an exception of long-established booze laws during this world-important event?

Time and time again I have heard a deputy DA appearing in my San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo or Santa Clara county DUI cases go on and on and on about how everyone knows the dangers of drinking and driving.

I realize there are taxis available at 2 AM in St. Paul (there are, aren’t they?), but somehow this news item really grated on me as someone defending DUI cases on a regular basis.

I guarantee you that one or more of those GOP delegates will drive drunk in St. Paul during 2 and 4 AM between September 1 and September 11, 2008, due in part to the exception to the MN law that the GOP has requested.

Most likely no GOP delegate(s) will get stopped for driving drunk (statistically less than .09% of drunk drivers actually do get stopped) but still . . .

Picnic Table Sexually Violated Near Elementary School

2008-04-01T17:39:50Z

Arthur Price, 39, of Bellevue, Ohio, has been charged with a sex crime: putting his erect penis through the middle of his own picnic table on his own property, with no one watching—but three blocks from a school!
Read more about Police: Man Had Sex With Picnic Table
Between January and March 2008 Mr. Price, with no prior record of sexual assault on any other steel and plastic objects, or on children or on adults or on anything else, apparently violated Ohio sex laws when he made love to his picnic table on a number of occasions, both inside his house and outside his house on his deck.

A neighbor’s DVDs show Mr. Price making love to the table, first in his living room, to climax, and then lugging his picnic table out to his deck, where he repeatedly confirmed his passion and commitment with multiple climaxes—as the neighbor’s DVDs confirm.

Criminal problem? The poor guy was doing this whatever-nonsense was 3 blocks from an elementary school and this is America with a prosecutorial disease of needing to show how protective we are of our children, especially when it comes to ANYTHING relating to sex.

[Editorial note: the author is one of the few California criminal defense lawyer who has spent over a decade in third-world countries—and as a result he is appreciative of the U.S. criminal justice system compared to most others; for instance, he spent many hours and too much money helping Australian, New Zealand, and American drug defendants in Thailand jails (where oral and anal sex is permitted if the jailers get to participate or at least watch].

The victim, lacking English-speaking skills, and the arresting officers not speaking table talk, had no comment to the arresting officers and will not be put on the witness stand.

This post appears on my blog on April’s Fools Day—but it is not a joke; this is real, this is Ohio; this is America.

Sexually Violent Predator Avoids Civil Commitment

2008-04-01T17:31:50Z

The California Supreme Court ruled last week that a SVP (sexually violent predator) could avoid civil commitment otherwise required by Welfare & Institutions Code section 6600 et seq. under certain circumstances.

Under People v. Smith (2004) 32 Cal.4th 792, 796-799 (Smith), a person can be civilly committed as a SVP after serving his full prison term if he has been convicted of certain crimes and a jury finds he may engage in sexually violent behavior in the future.

In this case the defendant had been convicted in 1982 of four counts of oral copulation on a child under 14 and one count of sodomy of a child under 14; again, in 1988 he was convicted of 15 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14.

Seven years later he was released on parole and three years later, in 1998, he completed parole. When he moved away from California to New York the following year he sent a change of address card to the Long Beach police, but it was not received (?!).

Failing to keep California authorities informed led to his arrest in New York and his return to the Golden State for five years in state prison. At this point the Los Angeles D.A. (for the first time) decided the defendant should be placed into civil custody as a SVP when he completed the five years.

However, meanwhile, Smith was appealing the conviction and he won! The Supremes apparently decided the police might have received that change of address card after all, or at least it was a close enough question to make the court wonder if five years in state prison was the appropriate consequence of a mail mishap.

So Smith won—but the D.A. STILL DEMANDED HE BE PUT INTO CIVIL CUSTODY AS A SVP immediately because the D.A. could demand it. By that I mean this: the D.A. “could” because, incredibly, the operative language reads: “An SVP petition shall not be dismissed on the basis of a later judicial or administrative determination that the individual’s custody was unlawful, if the unlawful custody was the result of a good faith mistake of fact or law.”

In this case our California Supreme Court made a decision that may lack political correctness but it absolutely was the right decision. The court concluded that, despite the above italicized language, it was not going to let the People (the D.A.’s office) twist the meaning of the language into something different than what the legislators must have intended (or what the Supremes thought was fair).

Accordingly, the court held an SVP commitment in this case was not authorized, reversing the Court of Appeal.

Sex Sting of 93-year Old No Laughing Matter

2008-04-01T17:18:15Z

Frank Milio learned the prosecutor wasn’t joking even if Letterman and Leno were.

The subject of recent late night comedy skits, Mr. Milio, one of two 93-year old men arrested in an increasingly common form of Internet sex sting, is actually going to trial on the charges, according to the prosecutor in Manatee County, Florida.
Read more about 93 Year Old Man Charged In Prostitution sting

As a California criminal defense lawyer specializing in sex crimes, this story says it all. Not really, but it does maybe help you understand why some “sex perverts” should be legally represented after all!

I will continue to follow the case and let you know if Mr. Milio goes to jail.