One of my biggest frustrations when watching high profile cases in the news is the impatience often voiced over delays by prosecutors in making filing decisions. The calls for justice, while important in order to keep the tragedy of the events in the public eye are often misplaced. A full and complete investigation is always…
Worker's compensation fraud doesn't get the credit it deserves by my fellow prosecutors. The general public, on the other hand, eats these cases up. My opinion is that the public knows that those are are defrauding the system in this way are harming everyone: insurance premiums rise meaning the costs of goods and services also…
Don't ring the bell if you don't want to follow the rules. And never punch a bouncer in the face.
The laws relating to Driving Under the Influence (DUI) have provided a standard formula when it comes to prosecuting defendants who have consumed too much alcohol and chose to get behind the wheel of the car. We have two ways to proceed, and we often proceed with both routes: (1) the defendant's blood alcohol content…
Eye witness identification is a tricky thing. So many variables come into play that there is an entire jury instruction given. Things like: whether the witness knew the person, race, length of contact, stress of event, lighting conditions, proximity, suggestability of line up, and how closely the witness was paying attention are just a few…
Murphy riding passenger with Paradise Animal Control in 2015 The biggest takeaway from jury trial #11 was that people in our neck of the woods care about animals, a lot. Animal cruelty was the only charge the defendant in this trial faced and it involved a pit bull puppy named Murphy who sustained multiple injuries…
#10 was my first jury trial with significant media exposure. It involved a victim who went onto property that defendant was squatting at in Chico. He and his dog were attacked by the defendant with a knife and eventually chased off the property. The victim screamed for help as he ran away. One witness opened…
There have been multiple times in my experiences as a prosecutor where I have had to dig deep into some very non-criminal law areas in order to both and proceed with prosecution. Crimes that happen in California that impact our natural resources is one of those areas. In California we have complicated regulatory schemes involving…
A lot of effort is involved in keeping our jurors insulated from any outside influences that could affect their opinion of the case. The Court gives them instructions that jurors cannot do any independent investigation, cannot look up or research the people involed on the internet, or do any research on legal concepts. Lawyers and…
When you are first learning how to be a trial lawyer you often get encouraged to try different techniques. It can be as simple as using a different method to introduce photos, or maybe using your body language and positioning to suggest important details as a witness testifies. Techniques also include your own tone as…
Hopelessly Devoted 