A 36-year old Laguna Niguel man is being held on $1 million bail for one count of attempted murder and one count of elder abuse.
He and the unnamed victim, a 91-year old patient at Fountain Valley Hospital, were sharing the same hospital room when the younger man reportedly attacked the elderly patient, covering the man’s nose and mouth with his hands and punching him repeatedly.
In 2011, Laguna Hills became the 7th city in the county to pass a law banning sex offenders from city parks and private parks run by homeowners associations. This went a step further than the existing Orange County ban on sex offenders from parks, beaches, and harbors. The DA was optimistic that such a move would increase public safety, especially for children. They were also confident that the ban was constitutional.
The citywide ban instituted by Laguna Hills contained additional provisions, requiring the posting of signs at parks referencing the new law and establishing criteria for waivers. These provisions were meant to help defend the new ordinances in court. The ban of sex offenders from private, homeowners association-owned parks required the associations to specifically request that the law be enforced in their own parks. No associations had made such a request since the ban was instituted.
On Monday, police received an anonymous tip that a student at Jordan Intermediate School in Garden Grove had a weapon. They responded and discovered an eighth grade student at that school had a .38 caliber semiautomatic handgun in his possession along with a loaded clip in his pocket. Nobody was injured.
The child was arrested and sent to Orange County Juvenile Hall on weapons charges. Police discovered that the handgun was registered to a member of his family. They quickly obtained a warrant and searched his home, where they found a .22 caliber firearm that was not registered. The owner of that gun was cited and released.
A 23-year old Anaheim man allegedly logged onto Facebook using a profile of a male high school-age student. He would then use the account to persuade underage girls to send him sexually-explicit photos and videos, which he would then use as blackmail, threatening to forward those photos on to other high school students if the girl did not agree to send more. He is alleged to have contacted at least six girls in this manner.
Only one day after the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, Marcos Gurrola allegedly took out a .40-caliber Glock handgun in a crowded Orange County mall parking lot and fired 54 rounds toward the Macy’s building. He stopped shooting and surrendered when two Newport Beach police officers on bicycles arrived. Gurrola was in possession of six magazines for his handgun, with even more in his car.
He was charged with 54 felony counts of firing a weapon at an inhabited dwelling, 2 counts of assault, plus two firearm enhancements. The reasons for Gurrola’s actions are inconclusive. He reportedly claimed that when he fired his gun, it made him feel better. Police said in 2012 that Gurrola told a detective he fired his gun because he was angry, but was not aiming at anybody.
When a judge orders you not to drive, it’s a good idea to not immediately get behind the wheel as you’re leaving court.
At Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, individuals charged with driving-related crimes such as DUI were brought before a judge who notified them that their licenses had been suspended. As such, they were no longer permitted to drive. As they were leaving, deputies followed them out of the courtroom to find out how they were getting home.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is warning residents of Orange County to plan ahead for festivities tonight that involve alcohol. The agency will be deploying multiple DUI checkpoints throughout the area with the intention of arresting anybody who is driving a vehicle who is under the influence of alcohol.
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens recommends planning ahead to get a safe ride home at the end of the night. Such plans can include designating a sober driver, using a taxi service, or calling a sober friend or family member to give you a ride home. They also recommend taking car keys away from any individual who appears to be intoxicated so they are unable to drive.
If there is one thing that being an Orange County criminal defense attorney has taught me it is that good people do bad things. And all people have reasons for doing what they do. When a loved one has come into contact with the criminal justice system, it is the role of his criminal defense attorney to make the prosecutor and/or judge understand why. Few actions can be accurately summarized by knee-jerk or one-word responses such as “greed,” “anger” or “lust.” Like the fictional Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables who stole a loaf of bread for his starving sister, many have motives that most would find sympathetic. It is the criminal defense lawyer’s job to find out what, in particular, was going on in a defendant’s life when an incident occurred.
Was he subject to unusual pressures?
With the holidays approaching, more shoppers will come out in force to pick up a holiday gift for their loved ones. Understandably, retailers will be keeping a closer eye on their products to ensure that the shoppers don’t become shoplifters.
Shoppers can unwittingly become victims of the criminal justice system, even if they’re not shoplifters. High-end retailers have been under recent scrutiny for acts of discrimination against potential buyers, in one circumstance even telling a black woman that she would not be able to afford the item she was looking at, before the clerk realized she was Oprah Winfrey.
What to do when Social Services has been called—
You and your husband were arguing the other night. Neighbors called the police. The police told you that they had to arrest one of you and he chose you. You’ve bailed out of jail, you’ve contacted an experienced Orange County domestic violence or criminal defense attorney, you are prepared for court and then you come home and there it is out of left field- a business card left on your door from the Department of Child and Family Services with a note that you must call a social worker. You call as instructed and are told that “your social worker” needs to investigate “your case.”
The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog