Most extortion cases under California Penal Code 518 that are serious and occur in Los Angeles are going to be prosecuted at 210 West Temple.
This is the main downtown courthouse in Los Angeles, which is called the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
It's the hub court where the prosecution main office is. They handle most of the serious cases. An extortion case, if it's filed as a felony and it involves trying to extort money or goods, it's sophisticated, it's high-profile, the downtown LA court is going to deal with it.
The first question to look at when we're evaluating one of these extortion cases — I've been handling them now for 26 years in the downtown LA court — is do the prosecutors have the evidence against you?
Review of Prosecutor's Evidence in Extortion Cases
Do the have the goods to be able to prove the case or are you innocent and is there something else going on? Is there something that the police failed to investigate and you shouldn't be charged with an extortion charge?
That's what the question becomes. That's what I like to talk about with my clients right from the beginning.
I think the best thing to do if you're charged with extortion, which basically means that you are accused of extorting somebody for some sort of money, some sort of goods, some sort of favor.
Then, you are threatening either them or their family to reveal some sort of information, and the prosecutors and police take these cases very serious. The judges will sentence very harshly when it comes to these cases where people are extorting at the criminal level.
So, once we kind of have an idea of how we want to handle the case, then that will dictate the moves that we make going forward.
A lot of times I like to get all the evidence related to the case, whether it be audios, videos, surveillance, witness statements, your statement, the statement of the alleged victim, and we evaluate that.
You're going to look at it. I'm going to look at it and then we're going to sit down and we're going to talk about it.
Develop a Defense Strategy to Fight Extortion Charges
You're either going to be in custody if it's a serious enough case. Hopefully, we'll be able to get you bailed out so you can fight the case form the street.
We're going to talk about all the angles related to the Penal Code 518 extortion case, such as:
- what the prosecutors have to prove,
- what evidence the police have gathered for the prosecutors, and
- what we're able to gather as a defense team in our own investigation.
Then we're going to decide what the best move is for you going forward. You obviously don't want to fight an extortion case in the downtown Los Angeles court with the best prosecutors with a big sentence if you're going to lose.
You only fight the case; you only take it to jury trial if you have a chance to win. Or, you might not be able to win the whole case, but you could do some damage to the case.
Contact the Hedding Law Firm If Charged with Extortion
A lot of times we'll do the preliminary hearing in order to show the prosecutors the lack of credibility with some of their witnesses, poor police investigation if that's the case, and our side of the story if that's going to make a big difference in the case.
So, if you or a loved one is charged with extortion in downtown Los Angeles, pick up the phone. Ask to speak to Ron Hedding. We'll go over everything in the privacy of my office.
If your loved on is in custody, I'll go out and visit them with all the evidence in hand. We'll talk about everything and we will get a game plan together that makes sense.
A game plan from an attorney who's been doing this since the early 1990s, worked for a Superior Court Judge, worked for the DA, and has been defending my clients for the last 26 years.
Hedding Law Firm is a criminal defense law firm located at 16000 Ventura Blvd #1208 Encino, CA 91436. Contact us for a free case evaluation at (213) 542-0979.
