Bribery Charges In California – Penal Code Section 85 And 86
When it comes to a bribery case in one of the Los Angeles courthouses, typically where I see these cases, it has to do with someone trying to bribe an elected official in order to do something that they want to be done. Therefore, if someone is charged with this white collar crime of bribery, it's typically very serious because someone is trying to tamper with some part of a government function.
Typically where these bribery charge cases are coming up, as for example, trying to bribe a councilman to vote a certain way or trying to bribe some sort of elected official to do something that you want them to do and it's usually people who are business people with big money attempting to get individuals to do things that they normally wouldn't otherwise do.
If you're charged with bribery in Los Angeles pursuant to Penal Code Section 85 or 86, obviously you are going to want to get an attorney who has handled these type of cases before, who has a sophistication level to be able to defend these type of cases, and obviously who has connections in the prosecutor's office, because a lot of times the prosecutors and law enforcement agencies that investigate these cases are very serious, have tape recordings of the subject bribes and have other evidence that makes it very difficult to defend these cases.
Therefore, you're going to want a criminal defense lawyer who can negotiate with the prosecutors on these bribery cases and really show them that you're a good person and give them the back story behind whatever caused this case to come about.
Legal Defenses To Bribery Cases
Most of the defenses in a bribery case spin around the particular facts and circumstances surrounding that case. Did the police do a thorough investigation? Did they get all the information they needed? Did the prosecutors properly look at everything in the witnesses and get the full story of exactly what happened?
Sometimes they only get part of the information and your version of events needs to be told either to the prosecutors and police or judge, or even to a jury to show the jury that listens, you didn't do anything wrong and that there's another version of events that hasn't been considered by the police and prosecutors, and therefore, you should not be charged if convicted of bribery and the case should be dismissed.
This is where a seasoned criminal defense attorney comes in who has been practicing criminal defense for a long time, done a lot of jury trials and knows how to pick a jury and how to persuade a jury into finding the case in favor of their client.
What I typically do is I have you come into the office, we go over everything under the cloak of the attorney/client privilege, I get all the details of your case and then we really get down to the nitty-gritty as to whether or not you can defend the case successfully and what's going to need to be investigated and shown to a jury in order for you to be successful when you're charged with a crime such as bribery.
Protecting Your Legal Rights and Freedom
Obviously, our aim is to protect your record, your future, your freedom and your rights when we sit down and try to figure out what to do in your bribery case in Los Angeles. One thing I'm very good at is letting you know what you can do to help and giving you an idea of what you're facing and what I'm going to do to get you the best possible result. And sometimes we do have a good defense and we can really argue the case and get a very positive result for you.
Other times, we don't have a good defense and we're going to need to negotiate and work out some sort of a resolution that protects all your important interests. The key is having an attorney who has the wisdom to know when to fight and when to negotiate and to be able to explain things to you so you understand so you can make an informed decision as to how you handle your case, because the bottom line is, you are the final decision maker when it comes to your case and whether or not the case will be fought or whether the case will be resolved.
