In passing Assembly Bill 813, California has now joined 44 other states nationwide in allowing a person who has suffered a criminal conviction to challenge that conviction, even though he or she is no longer in custody. The new statutes allows relief based on 1) a claim of actual innocence;…
Until recently, the Federal Government and the State of California defined criminal “misdemeanors” differently. While the federal government defined a misdemeanor as a crime punishable by up to 364 days, California defined it as one punishable by up to 365 days. This one-day difference often proved disastrous for immigrants with convictions, however,…
According to prosecutors, 29 year-old Rico Christopher Clayton, of Carson, had allegedly recruited a woman to participate in prostitution on February 8th. He allegedly advertised her sex services online. On that same day, officers on the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force had responded to an online ad and arranged…
A 36 year old man named Scott Patrick Cole of Newport Beach was booked into Orange County Jail on the suspicion of battery with serious bodily injury, trespassing, causing harm to an elder/dependent adult, and assault with a deadly weapon. At around 4:30 p.m. officers got an assault call to…
Herbert Granados Calderon, 26, pleaded guilty this week to causing a fatal collision between three cars while intoxicated. An 18-year-old was killed and five others were injured in this crash. The crash occurred in Santa Ana, when Calderon was speeding on Bristol and ran a red light. He broadsided a…
The parents of an 8 year old boy have been charged with child endangerment after their son survived an overdose of heroin last month, according to police. On January 11th the police responded to a call of a child not breathing at a home in a suburb of southwest Cleveland,…
Sherri Lynn Wilkins, a substance abuse counselor in California, hit a man with her vehicle and drove two miles with his body plastered to her windshield. Wilkins was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The 55 year old Wilkins had pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and two…
Two men, Jonathan Cephus, 36, and Melvin Collins, 33, are allegedly responsible for a long list of robberies that began on July 5, 2013. Cephus held up a Little Caesars in Fullerton, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon. Cephus later pistol-whipped a man as he robbed a Del…
Angel Bronsgeest, a 55 year old woman from Lake Forest, plead guilty on Monday to federal charges of being involved in a real estate scam that cost Southern California investors $3.5 million, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. Bronsgeest admitted that she, along with Shawn Watkins, a 46 year old man…
Jane Maria Nicholson, a 25 year old transgender woman, was sentenced to more the 5 years in prison on Wednesday for engaging in sex acts with teenage boys, one of them only 13. She propositioned the boys on a street in North Torrance. Authorities said that the boys did not…