Illegal Possession Of Fireworks In Los Angeles County
The bottom line is that fireworks have been deemed illegal in Los Angeles County. You cannot possess or sell fireworks in Los Angeles County; if you do, you will likely be prosecuted. So why do we see a bunch of people shooting fireworks off on the 4th of July? It's probably because they either have a permit to shoot the fireworks off, or they're just ignoring the law and assume that nobody will enforce it and they won't get caught.
Typically, most illegal possession of fireworks is going to be charged as a misdemeanor, and you could be facing up to a year in the county jail in Los Angeles. However, if you possess significant amounts of fireworks and make a lot of money off the sale of fireworks, you could be charged with a felony. You're looking up to three years in prison.
That's a sixteen, two years – three years charge range for a felony, and I've done a bunch of felony cases where people are making a lot of money on the illegal sale of fireworks. The problem is people are getting hurt – blowing their hands off, blowing their eyes out, and other horrible injuries from fireworks – so they've been outlawed in Los Angeles County. If somebody is caught selling them, they will be prosecuted. If they're selling them to a large degree and making a lot of money or possessing a lot of fireworks, the authorities are going to assume that they're selling them, and then obviously, they're going to prosecute them.
So, suppose you're caught up in a bunch of fireworks. In that case, you'll need a good criminal defense attorney who has been down this road before and knows how to handle these cases and how to counter some of the tactics that the prosecutors use with the judge to try to get prison sentences against people.
It's public safety that is at issue. So, if we can show that you're not a danger to the public and that even though you do possess fireworks, they're not the type of fireworks that are going to cause any significant damage to anybody, or you were just going to shoot them off yourself from a safe location, then obviously we're in a much stronger position.
On the other hand, if we're in a position where we can't show these things and the person is selling them and making big money and the authorities are concerned people are going to get hurt, another issue, even in Los Angeles County and other rural counties, is that you could cause a fire—set somebody's house on fire, shoot some fireworks into some brush that causes a big fire.
I've seen cases where people are messing around with fireworks, and they light somebody's house on fire, and people are injured and killed. Now, the authorities are going to come after you for a felony. You'll be considering going to prison and have some big trouble.
The reality is that the police know that people are shooting fireworks off all over Los Angeles County even though it's illegal.
They're usually not going to mess with people unless they're doing it out in public where it could catch fire, or they're shooting off a type of dangerous fireworks that are not just little ones that kids can shoot off like sparklers and various other safe and sane fireworks. If that's the case, a lot of times, the authorities are going to be fine with that. They've got bigger fish to fry.
But if you're doing stuff that's perceived as dangerous and it relates to fireworks, you're going to get arrested, prosecuted, post bail, and need a good criminal defense attorney. You don't want fireworks to mark up your record and cause you to go to county jail or even state prison.
California's State Fireworks Law
So, if you've got a case where you're charged with possessing or selling fireworks and they're using the Health & Safety Code 12500 in Los Angeles to prosecute you, come and sit down with me. We'll go over everything.
We'll get down to the nitty-gritty of what happened with your case and why you possess the fireworks and try to show your version of events, your story, the fact that you're not a dangerous person, that you shouldn't have to have a felony on your record.
We can use all sorts of tactics with character letters, witnesses who know you, and the surrounding circumstances of possessing the fireworks. So, if you have a fireworks case in LA County, let's sit down. Please give me the story. Please give it to me truthfully.
Don't put a spin on it. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty about how the case is going to be handled, what we're going to do to help you, and give you an idea of what you're facing. We can also give you an idea of what you can do to help yourself so that an illegal possession of fireworks case does not haunt you and stay with you for the rest of your life.
So, there are also defenses to these cases, depending again on the circumstances of the case. So, that's where you have to get to a criminal defense attorney who's been handling these types of cases where fireworks have been an issue, knows the defenses, and knows how to use them.
They're real fact-specific, meaning obviously, we have to look at the facts of your case before we can have a real good feel for what the defense will be.
