Criminal Threats Case in Los Angeles
I've been handling these domestic violence cases for over twenty-five years and have had a lot of success. When I first started practicing criminal defense, these criminal threats or terrorist threats cases, as they were called way back when were not nearly as serious as they are now. The legislature, the prosecutors, and the judges have taken these cases to an extreme in how they prosecute them and how they deal with them.
For example, when these crimes were prosecuted years ago, many people would be looking at misdemeanors, and now, prosecutors are filing felonies. They're trying to get people in prison. It's just amazing to me that somebody's words could be used against them in such a way that it puts them in a horrible position for the rest of their lives if they get one of these convictions.
Criminal Threat Cases Under California Penal Code 422
If you're convicted of criminal threats as a felony, you can have a strike on your record for the rest of your life in California. The legislature has made these crimes strikes, and the judges and prosecutors treat them this way. Of course, you will have to be charged with a felony for it to be a strike.
If it's a misdemeanor, it's not a strike. So, a lot of times when I handle these cases, if the person did threaten somebody, then we're trying to get these cases down to a misdemeanor, so the person doesn't have a strike or isn't facing prison, and a lot of the other punishments that come along with a strike offense.
Also, if you get convicted of a strike, the time you serve is usually increased if it's a criminal threats case. So, we want to ensure you don't get convicted of a criminal threats case.
A wobbler in Los Angeles, California, is an offense that can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. So, it's up to the prosecutor's discretion to charge these criminal threats cases as either felonies or misdemeanors.
A lot of times, I see them charged as felonies, and they shouldn't be charged as felonies because the person just became angry and said some things they shouldn't have said, but they shouldn't now be facing prison time and a mark on their record for the rest of their lives.
I often get your version of events to the prosecutor and say, wait a minute, you guys only have part of the story. You don't know what this person did to my client. You don't know what this person said to my client, and now they're just taking a little snippet in time and trying to prosecute the person for a very serious criminal offense.
So, motions can be filed to reduce criminal threat cases in LA to misdemeanors and expunge them from your record, but the bottom line is that you're going to need an attorney who has been down this road before, has had success, and knows how to deal with a criminal threats case.
Defenses to Criminal Threats Cases
There are often built-in defenses in these cases because the police are only coming in halfway through whatever happened. They don't get your version of events. The other party is trying to use the criminal justice system as a sword in what's a civil matter.
The other party has cheated you, stolen your money, done something unsavory to you, and then tries to quickly hide behind law enforcement and say you're threatening them; you said you're going to come and get them when law enforcement doesn't even have the full story.
If they had the full story and the prosecutors knew what happened behind everything, they would never have prosecuted the case criminally and told the other part.
Listen, you have to deal with this civilly. Don't bring this into the criminal arena. So, this is where your criminal defense attorney is invaluable, to be able to attack some of these people who are claiming that this is a criminal case and get them in court and get them under cross-examination under penalty of perjury and start to rip apart their version of events and begin to rip apart the prosecution's case.
So, if you're charged with a criminal threats case in Los Angeles, you are going to have to get to somebody who has been doing this a long time, who's got the credentials, who's got the background, knows how to win these cases and knows how to fight them.
If the case can't be won because you threaten a person on tape, and they've got the threat, then we at least need to get your version of events across.
We need to get the person you are to show them this is an aberration. It's not going to happen again, and get this case taken care of so you can get out of the criminal justice system as fast as possible and protect your rights, your freedom, and your reputation.
