Impersonating a Police Officer - Penal Code 146 PC
It is illegal and a crime to impersonate an officer in Los Angeles, and it can subject the person to custody time and other restrictions being placed on them, along with having a criminal record. Basically, those individuals who pretend to be officers and are caught will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
If you're being charged with Penal Code Section 146, you must get to a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. Prosecutors and judges take these types of offenses very seriously because police officers testify in their court all the time.
They do not want people impersonating officers, and if you violate Penal Code Section 146, they will attempt to put a conviction on your record, put you on probation, and maybe even give you some jail time. and if the impersonation is serious enough and you are attempting to gain some sort of value property or
commit some other crime; they will attempt to charge you with a felony and put you in prison.
If you're being charged with impersonating an officer, you must get in front of a criminal defense attorney. I've been doing these types of cases for the past twenty-five years. I get you into the office and we go over everything. We talk about whether or not you really did impersonate an officer and what potential defenses and strategies we can employ in order to protect all of your rights and interests.
Defenses To Impersonating A Police Officer
There are several different defenses to Penal Code Section 145, where the prosecutors claim that you impersonated an officer. Usually, the defense is centered around the facts and circumstances of a particular case.
I have had circumstances where people were dressed like officers for reasons other than to impersonate—whether it was part of their job or some sort of costume—and they really were just joking around and did not intend to impersonate an officer.
This could be a potential defense to the crime. In other words, you have to actually knowingly be doing it with the intent to gain something by pretenses. So, there are defenses to impersonating an officer, it just depends on what the facts and circumstances are related to your case.
A lot of times, I see a rush to judgment by police—especially in these types of cases—where they just want to arrest a person, take a one-sided story, not listen to what the individual has to say, or do any type of investigation whatsoever.
That's where my job comes in: I get your side of the story across to the prosecutor and judge. If it's a case where you're innocent, we'll get it in front of a jury and show the jury that you were not impersonating an officer. You had no intent to defraud anybody, and you should, therefore, not be convicted of this very serious crime.
Reviewing Defense Strategy for Best Outcome
If you are charged with impersonating an officer and they're using Penal Code Section 146 and the elements of that Penal Code Section to try to convict you, we sit down and go over everything in the privacy of my office. You lay out everything for me from your vantage point.
I will review all the discovery, paperwork, and arrest reports in the case, speak to the prosecutor, and see what they have to say. Then, we will put our heads together and decide what exactly needs to happen to best defend you, whether that be taking the case to a jury trial or me negotiating a plea bargain and doing damage control.
This is where a good criminal defense attorney comes in. If the prosecutors can meet the elements of Penal Code Section 146, then obviously, that's not a case that you want to take to trial. But if they can't meet those elements, then it either is a case you want to take to trial, or maybe they need to offer you some sort of lesser defense.
So, we put together a mitigation package to show them all the good things about you and your life and to show them you're not a bad person. The biggest thing in these impersonating an officer case pursuant to Penal Code Section 146 is that you're really not trying to pretend that you're a police officer, and you're not trying to gain any advantage, steal something, or commit some other offense.
If we can show that, then the policy behind Penal Code Section 146 is not really being violated. The prosecutors and judge will certainly take this into consideration, and we can use this information and evidence to get you out of the criminal justice system as fast as possible.
