Drugging A Victim To Commit A Felony – California Penal Code Section 222
This particular crime is one that authorities prosecute very severely. There are several scenarios where victims are being drugged with some roofie or even PCP or other hallucinatory drug. Then, the defendant is taking advantage of that person either for purposes of having sex or kidnapping them or for some other illegal reason.
If the prosecutors can prove that someone drugged another person to commit a felony against that person, whether it's a sex crime or some other felony, they will try to put them in prison, and there are scenarios where they can put them in prison for a very long time, depending on what happens – even for life if they can get the right elements proved and the person commits acts that are serious enough to warrant this type of an enhancement being filed against them.
Early Intervention by a Criminal Lawyer
So, if you're charged with California Penal Code Section 222, basically trying to drug somebody with a roofie or some other substance and commit a felony, obviously you want to get an attorney as soon as possible who can investigate the case and get down to the nitty-gritty as to whether or not the prosecutors can prove the elements that are necessary for a Penal Code Section 222 violation.
For example, if it can't be shown that the person was going to commit some felony, then obviously, that could be a potential defense to the crime of drugging somebody to commit a felony against them.
If the person was going to commit a misdemeanor, or they couldn't show that they committed a crime at all—or were going to commit a felony—then that would be a defense to this violation, and it could either be dismissed by way of a jury trial or even if prosecutors realize they're not going to be able to prove it, they can dismiss it themselves.
Defenses To Drugging Somebody To Commit A Felony
One defense is you're not the person that drugged them or that how do they prove that the person was drugged?
Sometimes, people become so intoxicated that they're in a black-out state, and they try to blame the other party that they were with for that black-out state and say they must have drugged them.
A lot of times, roofies, Hypnol, or some of these other date-rape-type drugs cannot be found in a person's system.
If they don't get tested right away, or even if they do get tested very quickly, a lot of substances don't stay in there, or sometimes, again, there is no substance, and the person is just assuming from the facts and circumstances that they must have been drugged in some way.
However, in reality, they either mixed alcohol with certain drugs they might have taken that were prescribed to them or otherwise, or they got some hallucinatory drug that they took themselves voluntarily and had a bad reaction to, or they drank way too much alcohol and now are having “buyer's remorse” so-to-speak about what happened the night before.
I can't tell you how many times defendants are charged with this serious charge of Penal Code Section 222 drugging somebody. Once we get into the investigation and uncover everything, the reality is the other person got very drunk and can't remember what happened the night before and is just assuming the worst without any evidence to back it up.
As the prosecutor, you need collaborative evidence to bolster this alleged victim's claims.
What I do is I get you in – I use my twenty-five years of experience – to really go over everything, investigate things and we're looking for what would be there if this was true – if you did drug somebody, what would we see?
If you did rape somebody, what would we see? There has to be a SART exam where they check to see if there are any injuries or signs of force. You would think there would be some remnants of the drugs that are in there.
Maybe some witnesses saw the person who's claiming they were drugged that night at a bar, a club, or a nightclub. So, many things can be done to defend these cases, but of course, it depends on the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.
Sex Offender Registration
This is so important in these cases because of the potential down-size – the penalties of possibly being put away for a significant period – having to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life, and a host of other penalties.
It's important to sit down and go over everything with your attorney; let them be your champion and your guide. Let them figure out how to navigate through a sometimes treacherous criminal justice system, defend you the right way, and get your version of events out there.
You can get your evidence out there. Sometimes, the police do a one-sided investigation and don't get the other side. That's where a good criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles who knows what they're doing can investigate and get your side – not just you saying it – but also get evidence to support what you're saying, even to get their case dismissed, lessened or get some mitigation package together so you can get the right result for your case.
