Los Angeles County Criminal Lawyer Blog

The Ventura County Star recently reported about a 15-year-old who was arrested and charged with stealing a vehicle.

A Ventura Juvenile Criminal Defense Attorney is critical when dealing with allegations of auto theft. We continue to report on enforcement activity aimed at juvenile crime in general and the rash of car thefts in particular. Auto theft charges in Ventura, as well as cases involving juvenile crime, require the touch of an experienced attorney.

In this case, the newspaper reports, officers were called to a disturbance in the 200 block of West Vince Street and spotted a vehicle driving without its headlights on. When officers tried to stop the vehicle, the driver refused and tried to drive away. After allegedly eluding police, the driver lost control and crashed into a car rounding a turn.

The 15-year-old driver wasn't injured, but he was arrested on suspicion of theft of a vehicle, evading police and on outstanding warrants for his arrest.

As Fox News reported this summer, California leads the nation in metropolitan areas with the highest rate of vehicle theft in 2010. According to the news story, the West Coast dominates the top 10 list, with eight of the cities with the highest rates from California and the other two from Washington State:

1. Fresno, Calif.


2. Modesto, Calif.


3. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.


4. Spokane, Wash.


5. Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.


6. Sacramento/Arden-Arcade/Roseville, Calif.


7. Stockton, Calif.


8. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.


9. San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, Calif.


10. Yakima, Wash.

For this reason, there are other California cities where auto thefts have become common and some have decided to commit the crime as a money-making scheme. This has become especially attractive to juveniles.

But while some have committed the crime for the excitement or the potential monetary gains, they don't take into consideration the possible punishments. Juveniles have a lot on the line when they commit a crime. Being sent into the criminal justice system rather than being tried as a juvenile means the difference between prison sentences and boot camps.

Their record can be hidden as a juvenile, but is exposed for the world as an adult. A conviction can lead to disqualification from scholarships, college, military service and jobs. And for all these reasons and more, hiring an experienced Ventura Criminal Defense Lawyer who will fight to protect the defendant's rights and explore every avenue of defense is critical.

Seeking to have a teenager prosecuted in the juvenile justice system is the first job of a good attorney. But it doesn't stop there. Seeking to suppress key evidence and fight off the word of witnesses, police and physical evidence are all important elements to a strong defense. Whether charged as a juvenile or adult, auto crimes can have severe consequences, including prison time, so they must be taken seriously.

Continue reading "Ventura Juvenile Charged in Auto Theft Case" »

Charges of car theft in Ventura are pending against a 23-year-old defendant who was arrested early Saturday morning, the Ventura County Star reported.

A defense attorney in Ventura, Pasadena or the surrounding areas understands the many issues surrounding theft cases. A conviction can be quite serious. In addition to the criminal consequences, having a theft conviction on your record can make it difficult to get a job or even qualify for an apartment. In many cases, these charges are defensible.

In this case, a woman told police shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday that her car went missing after she misplaced her keys at the bar. A police officer spotted the defendant driving the car and initiated a traffic stop. He reportedly fled the vehicle and was found hiding in the area by a K-9 Unit.

In this case, a defense attorney may reasonably question whether the defendant was driving the car. And let's just say the testimony of an alleged victim at a bar at 2 a.m. might not be rock solid.

In other theft news, the Star reported a teenager is facing possible robbery charges in Ventura for reportedly fighting with a store security guard after allegedly stealing a pair of shoes.

Loss prevention officers say the teen became aggressive and assaulted them -- though neither was injured. He was taken to juvenile hall on suspicion of robbery and resisting arrest.

This is classic. Robbery is a very serious charge, which alleges force or the threat of force to carry out a theft crime. Used in this context, it can result in a strike under California's three-strikes law and can result in a very, very serious criminal conviction for what is essentially a shoplifting allegation.

Under California Law (Penal Code Sections 211-215 Chapter 4), first-degree robbery committed by a lone individual can be either a first-degree or second-degree felony and is punishable by up to six years in prison.

Hiring a Ventura juvenile defense lawyer may help prevent a teen from being saddled for life with an unwarranted criminal conviction. It doesn't matter what law enforcement charges you with -- what you are convicted of is all that counts.

Continue reading "Defendants facing charges of auto theft, robbery in Ventura" »

The Ventura County Star reports the sheriff's department has used the state's DNA database to solve a 2009 vehicle burglary.

Ventura criminal defense attorneys know that DNA evidence is not all it's cracked up to be on TV shows like CSI. For starters, state labs are often overwhelmed and getting evidence tested can take months. And, for the most part, the technology has only been used in cases involving violence, like rape and murder.

Yet, with each passing year the number of cases increases as more and more samples are added to the system. If defendants needed another reason to fight a criminal conviction, keeping their DNA out of the state database would certainly be high on the list.

In November 2009, a Moorpark man reported his vehicle had been broken into -- the sheriff's crime lab collected a blood sample on shattered glass. That sample has reportedly been linked to a 52-year-old Moorpark man whose profile was already in the database.

He was arrested March 12 -- about 18 months after the crime -- and booked into Ventura County Jail.

Proposition 69, the "DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act" was passed in 2004 and now permits a DNA sample to be collected from all felony offenders and certain misdemeanor offenders, according to the California Department of Justice.

As of the end of 2010, more than 1.7 million samples had been entered into California's DNA database. They are also made part of the Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS), the national database of criminal DNA samples.

And many of those being flagged as previously unknown defendants in unsolved crimes find themselves facing far more serious charges than the charge for which they were convicted and ordered to submit a DNA sample.

Of those whose DNA profile has been linked to a murder, rape or robbery, 25 percent had their profile submitted to the database for a drug offense and 18 percent for property crimes. Throw in certain DUI convictions, fraud and other criminal convictions, and only 39 percent had been convicted of an underlying violent crime.

Continue reading "DNA Database Another Reason to Fight Felony Charges in Ventura County" »