The Los Angeles County sheriff has responded angrily to the news that several Los Angeles prison guards are under federal investigation. The investigation centers on allegations that inmates have been mistreated. Volunteers who help at the prisons and jails have stated that they witnessed guards beating the prisoners. Sheriff L.B. wants to improve the way that inmates are treated, but he does not…
On Monday, October 3rd, H.G. was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for accepting bribes. This Los Angeles building inspector had been systematically accepting bribes while working for the Department of Building and Safety. H.G. is not the only one who had been under investigation; this case is part of a larger investigation that has led to other arrests and…
On Saturday October 1st, two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department were working undercover in Koreatown, LA. At around 9.15 p.m. near Vermont Avenue and Leeward, they observed what appeared to be a gang-related shooting. They interfered in an attempt stop the shooting, but their intervention sparked a gun battle. Both officers were shot as a result. One officer was shot in…
What exactly arewhite collar crimes? According to the Nolo Law Dictionary, white collar crimes involve “a variety of nonviolent financial crimes, generally committed by businesspeople or public officials, involving commercial fraud, consumer fraud, swindles, insider trading on the stock market, embezzlement, bribery, or other dishonest schemes.” Many of these crimes are committed by an individual who was in a place of trust. For…
Six children were injured in a crash that took place in the early hours of Sunday morning in Lancaster. S.A. is a thirty-one-year-old mother and foster mother who was driving six children when she drifted off the road and overturned her SUV several times. What makes this case so shocking is that S.A. was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Her four-year-old…
A Santa Rosa, CA legislator has written a bill that would require advance warning on all DUI checkpoints. The exact location would be announced two hours before and residents would be notified two days in advance of the general location. While this may seem like good news to some, local law enforcement is strongly opposing this bill. They say that is would greatly…
On Monday, September 19th, a Los Angeles man was sentenced to a year in jail forsexual assault. A.W. met his victim on an online dating website. After their second date, sixty-seven year old A.W. drove the woman home and then proceeded to follow her inside. The man pled guilty to sexually assaulting her and will have to undergo five years of probation. He…
An unknown gunman murdered a three-year-old girl and seriously injured a pregnant mother and her toddler last Monday evening. The girl was shot in the head and was pronounced dead when she arrived at the hospital. The unnamed mother was shot in the neck and jaw and her daughter was also shot in the head. Although the unborn child is unharmed, the mother…
In the criminal system, crimes that are often persecuted the harshest are those that involve homicide. The law is extremely severe on defendants who have been criminally charged with the taking of another human life. Does this mean that every case of homicide is the same? Actually, not at all. According to the law, the two largest categories of homicide involvemurder andmanslaughter. These…
Drug crimes and their corresponding penalties vary depending upon the type of drug, the quantity and what the drug was intended for. They can range from simplepossession for personal use, to manufacturing, todistribution, to trafficking. Some drug crimes are prosecuted as misdemeanors, while others are prosecuted as felonies. Certain drug crimes are “wobblers” in the state of California, meaning they can be prosecuted…
