Fortunately, with all the Propositions that have passed and the new mentality of the police, prosecutors and judges related to drug crimes in Los Angeles, there's a lot of drug-related offenses that can be taken care of now in a much easier manner than they have been in the past. Still people who are selling drugs, using weapons and who the police, prosecutors and judges consider the most dangerous criminals are still being treated harshly and are still being prosecuted.
But those individuals who are more along the lines of using drugs and not trying to profit by thousands of dollars in drugs are going to be treated much better, especially if they've got a good attorney by their sides that can utilize some of these programs that are available that have been passed in this Propositions by the California voters.
Drug Diversion Programs
I've seen prosecutors be very tough on drug crimes over the last twenty-five years. But since the Propositions have been passed, I now see they realize that society doesn't want this. Society doesn't want people going to prison for drug possession cases. They don't want people cramming up all of our prisons so they can't put any of the violent offenders in there. So, if we can get your case in that pocket of cases that are being treated in a much better manner, a lot of times we can avoid convictions, we can avoid jail time, we can avoid prison time, we can avoid your good name being dragged through the mud because we can get you into one of these programs. We can do one of these diversion programs or deferred entry of judgment resolutions which allows you to get a dismissal, and a lot of times allows you to do everything possible to protect your criminal record which is crucial. Nobody wants to have some sort of a drug charge on their criminal record. Nobody wants to go to jail behind a drug-related charge;
Convincing the prosecutors and judge that you are one of those people who needs to be taken care of related to the law because you're not a bad danger to the community. Another thing that is important in these drug-related offenses is that whatever punishment you get, you stay out of jail because jail is a big issue for people. They've got lives, they've got joss, they've got families. So, that's one thing we really try to key in on is keeping individuals out of jail related to some of these drug-related offenses.
Filing Legal Motions
I think the last thing that needs to be talked about when you're talking about how to handle a drug-related offense in Los Angeles, you've got to look to see if any motions can be filed that can help the defendant. For example, if the police just come up to you and illegally stop you, we can file a motion basically arguing that's an illegal stop and any search that flowed from that stop and they found anything shouldn't be able to be used against the person because the have Fourth Amendment rights against being unreasonably stopped.
If the police illegally search someone's car or get a search warrant for the person's home and find a bunch of drugs or guns or anything like that, a lot of times we're looking, did they have probable cause to be able to do that search of the car? Did they have probable cause to be able to get that search warrant and search the person's home? So these are all issues that we look at when we're defending drug-related offenses in Los Angeles, because a lot of time we can either use these issues to get the case dismissed or we can use these issues to mitigate the case down to something less than what you're charged with a put you in a position to protect your rights, your freedom, your reputation and your criminal record.
So, if you've got a drug-related offense in Los Angeles county, pick up the phone and call a criminal defense lawyer at our office.. Give me a call well talk about it and we will design a plan that takes into account everything related to your case and your life.
