COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES

When pleading guilty to a criminal charge, there are various obvious consequences that will flow from such a guilty plea.  Prison, jail time with probation, loss of various civil rights, etc.  If the defendant is not a citizen, he may face serious deportation issues as well.  But there are also collateral consequences that are not so obvious, and are never mentioned in court when a defendant pleads guilty.  I am talking about serious consequences that might result for a defendant who has a profession which is licensed by the state.  For example, if a lawyer or doctor pleads guilty to a crime involving moral turpitude, the defendant might have his professional license suspended or even revoked, depending on the seriousness of the offense.

I recently represented a client before an administrative judge who pled guilty to petty theft, paid a fine, and received a three year unsupervised probation.  Just about as minimal offense as there is, but because it involved a theft it is defined as a crime of moral turpitude.  The client was a car salesman, and as such had to be licensed by the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles.  Incredibly, his license to work was suspended by the DMV once the agency received notice of the conviction, and he has not been able to work for months since the suspension.  A hearing was set before an administrative judge last month to determine when, if ever, he will get his license back.  The deputy Attorney General representing the DMV was extremely aggressive in trying to convince the judge that the client should not be allowed to recover his license.  It was like something out of a Charles Dickens novel...the crime the defendant committed has nothing to do with being a car salesman.  The client is married and has an a two year old daughter with cerebral palsy; his wife can't work because she has an abdominal hernia and also has to take care of her daughter.  Right now the client is living off the kindness of relatives, and who knows when, if ever, he will be allowed to work in this states as his chosen profession.  The deputy A.G.'s recommendation was that the client should move to Arizona where there are no licensing requirements for car salesmen!

This kind of insane government regulation is enough to make any sentient being join the Tea Party.  I'm sure if the client's trial lawyer had realized the severity of the collateral consequence resulting from the client's guilty plea another more humane disposition might well have been achieved.  The moral of the story?...make sure before pleading guilty in a criminal case that you are aware of all possible collateral consequences which might result from the guilty plea and which might very well ruin the rest of your life, even if there is no jail time involved in the conviction.  

YOU CAN'T TRUST THE GOVERNMENT

I have been representing a restaurant in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, called The Bungalow, which is being prosecuted by the City of Los Angeles for operating with tables and chairs in violation of some crazy zoning regulation.  The prosecutor has agreed to dismiss the case if the City will grant a variance so that the restaurant, which is extremely successful, employing over 30 people and paying lots of taxes to the City, can continue to operate with tables and chairs.

Unfortunately, the City  keeps changing the rules on the process for obtaining the variance.  The owner spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours following the procedure required by the City...suddenly, with no explanation, the City changed the requirements and now the owner must pay many more thousands of dollars and expend many more hours to comply with the new requirements.  Meanwhile, the City, which has agreed to numerous continuances of the criminal case in order for the owner to obtain his variance, now is insisting on going to trial, even though the owner has done everything humanly possible to comply with the requirements for obtaining a permit to operate with tables and chairs.  As i said, you cannot trust Government to behave rationally.  Closing this restaurant would be a disaster for everybody, including its customers.  Over 3500 neighbors have signed a petition to keep the restaurant operating!

DISMISSING PHONY CRIMINAL CASES

Recently I represented a young woman charged with grand theft who was innocent.  She was renting a house in Malibu, California, when problems developed with the mortgage holder, causing her to be concerned about her rent payments. Eventually she moved, and the owner of the property went to the police and claimed that she had stolen various items from the house.  The owner never followed the requirements of California law regarding a walk-through of the property when a tenant leaves.  The police, of course, in their usual disregard of proper protocol, arrested the client and she was charged by the District Attorney with stealing thousands of dollars of property from the house.  The owner even testified at preliminary hearing as to numerous items that were removed.

I was hired at the trial level.  Amazingly, the property owner listed her house for sale, and an investigator went to an open house and took pictures of various items of furniture which the owner had previously claimed were stolen!  The D.A. handling the case was shown the photos.  Incredibly, at first he did not want to dismiss the case, even though it was obvious that his "victim" was a liar.  He said the client could still have possessed other items claimed to be stolen.  It took several more court appearances to convince the prosecutor that he had no chance to win his case, and finally he dismissed all charges.  What is fascinating about this case is how reluctant the prosecutor was to dismiss even though it was clear that his "victim" was a liar.  In Los Angeles at least prosecutors are brainwashed not to dismiss cases even against innocent defendants!