Los Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Some have said that like the Civil Rights movement of the last half century, the battle against homosexual prejudice will be at the center of this generation's fight for social justice. If recent events are any indication, it will be another long, hard fight.

Two men and two teens have been arrested in the San Francisco Bay area on suspicion of gang-raping a 28-year-old woman. The woman was attacked as she exited her car which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. Her attackers taunted her for being a lesbian as they raped her. Hitting and raping the woman on the sidewalk as she got out of her car, her attackers shoved her back into the car when someone approached. They drove her to an abandoned building where they raped her repeatedly before stealing her wallet and driving away in her car. Her attackers are being held without bail on charges of gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking. Police indicated that tips from local residents led to the arrests. Police have characterized the crime as a hate crime, noting that the victim's attackers knew she lived with a female partner.

All three of the heinous crimes these men are charged with come under California's tough Three Strikes Law. Under California's Three Strikes Law, anyone convicted of two or more prior strike offenses faces a life-term sentence if convicted of a third felony, even if that felony is not a strike offense. Once convicted of a strike offense, penalties are doubled for subsequent convictions. As explained by expert criminal defense attorney Stephen Rodriguez, "Those defendants who have been convicted of a prior strike must be sentenced to prison for twice the determinate term or twice the minimum for the indeterminate term."

In tough-on-crime California, the Three Strikes Law was instituted to keep violent repeat offenders behind bars. Strikes apply to violent and serious felonies as defined by the state's Penal Code. Strike penalties can also apply to juvenile offenders who are 16 or 17 years old at the time of the offense. Examples of strike offenses include murder, rape, mayhem (serious and deliberate injury that disfigures or disables), grand theft involving a firearm, kidnapping, carjacking with a deadly weapon, any felony involving a firearm, any felony inflicting great bodily injury and a list of other serious crimes.

For more information about California's Three Strikes Law, contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the law offices of Stephen Rodriguez.

With the election countdown in its final days, charges of voter fraud are heating up, particularly in key swing-vote states in America's heartland. Fictitious voter registrations in Ohio, an absentee ballot mailed to a goldfish in Illinois and campaign workers voting illegally in Indiana have topped Midwestern headlines in the final weeks of what has become an increasingly contentious presidential campaign.

• In an attempt to lure more voters, some states have set up facilities where people can register to vote and then vote immediately. Law suits have been filed in Ohio, one of the states adopting the new tactic, questioning the validity of thousands of newly registered voters. A court has ordered the Ohio Secretary of State to verify the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of new voters before election day. However, with time running out, the state appears to lack the time or manpower to match that many voter registration records against motor vehicle and other data bases to verify length of residency and other voter eligibility requirements before the deadline. While the Ohio Secretary of State has said that most of the registration abnormalities found to date appear to be data input errors, both national parties have expressed concern about potential voter fraud.


• Presidential campaign workers in several states registered to vote and some then voted illegally. To prevent out-of-staters from stuffing the ballot box, most states have at least a 30-day residency requirement that must be met before registering to vote. Many also require that registered voters intend to live in the state for some time. Unaware of these requirements, a number of campaign workers from both parties registered to vote in several states. Some have already voted in states that allow pre-election voting. When apprised of state law, most campaign workers who were living in the state temporarily rescinded their voter's registration and allowed their vote to be cancelled. Some workers, however, maintained their intent to take up permanent residency and demanded that their vote stand. It is doubtful that states will such track residency intent.


• ACORN, a grassroots organization that promotes community betterment, has been questioned about voter fraud in several states. ACORN efforts to register voters was undermined when some workers, who are paid by the number of voters registered, were found to be fabricating or duplicating registrations to boost their income. Thousands of potential voters may be affected as states attempt to ferret out fraudulent registrations before the election.

In many states, registering to vote or requesting an absentee ballot inappropriately does not become fraud unless you actually follow through and vote. However, voting in a state where you don't meet the specified residency requirements is illegal and can result in a felony charge. In California, fraud is a felony offense that can result in a prison sentence.

Hate crimes in the Los Angeles area increased by 28% from 2006 to 2007, according to a recently released report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. In 2007, 763 hate crimes were reported, a five-year high. Blacks were the most-targeted group, subjected to 39% (310) of hate crimes; followed by gays and lesbians (102 crimes), then Jews (78), Mexicans (71), Latinos (50), whites (31) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (18). Hate crimes against Moslems dropped from 11 in 2006 to 3 in 2007.

Violence between blacks and Latinos appears to be at the heart of the hate crime increase. Latinos were police suspects in 71% of the crimes against blacks. Blacks were suspects in 56% of the crimes against Latinos. Assault and vandalism were the most reported crimes. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation most often led to Latino suspects, while whites were most often suspected in religion-based crimes.

In California, a hate crime is defined as "bias, hatred or prejudice based on the victim's real or perceived race/ethnicity, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender or sexual orientation," according to the commission's report. Hate crimes increased despite a 6% drop in overall crime in Los Angeles County.

Hate crimes are illegal in California. Even when a crime is not committed, the treat of violence can be a crime. Criminal threat is the threat to hurt, injure or kill with the intent of intimidating or frightening another person. The law protects people not only from hate crimes but from criminal threat.

Sometimes, however, the circumstances surrounding a hate crime or criminal threat incident are murky. Disagreements between people can get out of hand. Hot tempers can lead to angry words and sometimes escalate to physical violence against a person or property. It can be difficult to determine who started things and who is at fault. And some unfortunate people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you are charged with a hate crime or criminal threat, seek immediate counsel from an experienced criminal defense attorney.

For information in Spanish, visit our Spanish language website.

-LegalPro

Hate Crimes: A Maze, A Web, A Quandary

Hate crime statutes in California can be complicated. Wait, let's rephrase that, hate crime statutes in California are a maze of tangled loopholes and agendas spread throughout the law. The laws, for the most part, are well intentioned and are designed to protect anyone from being discriminated against based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or other factors. However, there have not only been grossly inappropriate applications of laws, but few understand when/where they are to be implemented. As a result, since no one wants to offend any particular special interest group, many are suffering the abuse of a legal system without direction.

Here are a few examples:

1. Over a year ago in Long Beach some African American teens were charged with beating up a few white students. However, because one or more of the teens uttered " I hate whites" during the incident, they were charged with a hate crime. The reason is that they law allows attorneys to piggyback penalties, meaning if you are charged with crime X and then it comes out during the investigation that racial slurs or something if that nature were uttered, then they prosecuter can piggyback a hate crime penalty onto the other charges.

2. An incident was reported this past summer in West Hollywood wherein two homosexual men were attacked while walking along the sidewalk. The incident was obviously the type of event that would fall under the hate crime statutes, however the Sheriff's department published the name's of the victims against their will. The victim's may sue, but the overarching issue is that the Sheriff's Department has certain procedures which may not gel with what the statutes are, meaning the Sheriff in question may need to post a victim's name in order to move a process along while the statute may call for the victim to be protected. In the end, there's a disconnect between statutes and the enforcement of the law.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office defines a hate crime as :

* Criminal acts or attempted criminal acts against an individual or group of individuals because of their actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or disability. Because they are targeted for who they are, victims of hate crimes continue to feel threatened long after an attack. These crimes victimize everyone - individuals and our entire community.

These crimes can fall under three umbrellas, felonies, misdemeanors or enhancements.

Felonies are appropriate when:
# P.C. 422.7 - Commission of a crime for the purpose of interfering with another's exercise of civil rights.
# P.C. 594.3
# - Vandalism of place of worship based on racial or religious bias. P.C. 11412
# - Threats obstructing exercise of religion. P.C. 11413
- Use of destructive device or explosive or commission of arson in certain places.

Misdemeanors are appropriate when:

* P.C. 302
* - Disorderly conduct during an assemblage of people gathered for religious worship at a tax-exempt place of worship. P.C. 422.6 - Use of force, threats or destruction of property to interfere with another's exercise of civil rights.
* P.C. 422.9 - Violation of civil order (Bane Act) protecting the exercise of civil rights.
* P.C. 538(c)
* - Unauthorized insertion of advertisements in newspapers and redistribution to the public. P.C. 640.2
* - Placing handbill, notice or advertisement on a consumer product or product package without authorization. P.C. 11411
- Terrorism of owner or occupant of real property. Placement or display of sign, symbol or other physical impression without authorization, engagement in pattern of conduct, or burning or desecration of religious symbols.

Enhancements come into play when:

* P.C. 190.2(a)(16) - Special circumstances imposing the Death Penalty or Life Without possibility of Parole if the victim was intentionally killed because of race, color, religion, nationality, country of origin.
* P.C. 190.3 - Special circumstances imposing Life Without possibility of Parole if the victim was intentionally killed because of sexual orientation, gender or disability.
* P.C. 422.75 - Penalty for felony committed because of victim's race, color, religion, nationality, country of origin, ancestry, disability or sexual orientation shall be enhanced one, two or three years in prison, if the person acts alone; and 2, 3 or 4 years if the person commits the act with another.