I've been handling domestic violence cases in the downtown Los Angeles court, 210 West Temple, for the past 26 years. Those cases are prosecuted very frequently because domestic violence occurs all across Los Angeles County, California, and the United States.
Stiff new penalties have come into place since I started practicing criminal defense in 1994 when O.J. Simpson's domestic violence case.
He was ultimately charged with murder, which really dominated the headlines, and a lot of evidence was there to suggest that the police had done nothing about domestic violence in not only that case but across LA county.
Police Policy on Making Domestic Violence Arrest
Since that time, the police now have a policy in LA where, if they come to a residence — for example, of a domestic violence call — they can see that somebody is injured. If the person who is the alleged defendant hits that person in some way or causes that person to be hurt, they will arrest the offender.
If there has been violence between two parties, what they will do is figure out who the aggressor is between the two sides.
Police will :
- arrest that person,
- book them,
- set a $50,000.00 bail, and
- give them a court date, usually within 72 hours unless they post bail.
The Coronavirus in LA County could be a week before someone can hit the courtroom. You must have an attorney if you're charged with domestic violence in the LA County courthouse because you lose a lot of rights.
You will be ordered to stay away from the alleged victim. If you live with that person, you won't be able to go back home. You'll have to find another place to live while the case is pending.
That's one colossal right that's under attack in a domestic violence case. Also, depending on what happened, you can get up to six months, even a year, in the county jail, and in some cases, if there's a bad injury, it can go as high as six years in prison.
Alleged Victim Changing Their Story
So, you start to get the feel of the LA county courts; they take domestic violence cases very seriously.
It's pretty standard that the alleged victim will change their story and try to help the other party once they realizes the terrible circumstances.
The person is in custody; they have to post bail, and they're looking at many different consequences. The alleged victim starts to have second thoughts about the person being prosecuted for domestic violence.
Unfortunately, because this is so common, the prosecutors don't care, and even if the person changes their story and claims that they lied before, most of the time, the prosecutors don't believe it.
It's only on rare occasions that the original story is messed up, and now the new story is messed up as well.
Now the prosecutors start saying, wait a minute, we have somebody here who didn't tell the truth. It's up to the domestic violence defense attorney — me — who's been doing this for over 26 years.
I will point out some inconsistencies and problems with the statements and the story. It's not easy to convince these prosecutors to dismiss a case, give a diversion, or even a lesser charge than a domestic violence charge.
While the situation may seem daunting, remember that with a great attorney by your side, a clean criminal record, and hopefully, no severe injuries, a positive outcome is possible.
These are some of the most significant factors in domestic violence cases in the downtown Los Angeles courthouse—the Clara Shortridge Foltz Courthouse. It used to be called the Criminal Courthouse or CCB, but it has changed its name in recent years.
The bottom line is that it is located in downtown Los Angeles at 210 West Temple Street and handles most domestic violence and criminal cases in Los Angeles County.
This is because of its extensive jurisdiction and because it is the main downtown courthouse with the most courthouses of the 38 courts in Los Angeles County.
