Theft/Dishonest crimes

The next series of blogs will cover theft/dishonest crimes. For example, theft, embezzlement, forgery, possession of stolen property, etc. These crimes can carry significant jail time, but they also have the added detriment of being crimes involving moral turpitude when dealing with immigration. It is important to note that if an individual is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude it may prevent any immigration benefits for the alien or the alien's spouse.

CA Penal Code 472 states as follows:

Every person who, with intent to defraud another, forges, or counterfeits the seal of this State, the seal of any public officer authorized by law, the seal of any Court of record, or the seal of any corporation, or any other public seal authorized or recognized by the laws of this State, or of any other State, Government, or country, or who falsely makes, forges, or counterfeits any impression purporting to be an impression of any such seal, or who has in his possession any such counterfeited seal or impression thereof, knowing it to be counterfeited, and willfully conceals the same, is guilty of forgery.

One of the key elements of forgery is that a person intents to defraud, forge or counterfeit the seal of certain organizations/corporations of public institutions that are recognized by the state of California. PC 472 further includes any impressions of these seals. Lastly, anyone who has in his/her possession of the counterfeited seal or impression, knows it is counterfeited and willfully conceals it is guilty of forgery.

As you can see the list is pretty expansive and can include some innocent sounding activities. Anyone that is in possession of a forged social security number or driver's license could be charged with this crime.

Violating Probation

Probation is often granted in misdemeanor and felony cases. Probation is generally preferable to incarceration. During probation the defendant must abide by the terms and conditions of probation. If you fail to abide by these terms and conditions you have violated your probation. You only need to violate one of your terms and conditions to be in trouble, you do not need to violate them all.

A violation can be something as small as drinking a beer or as big as violating a restraining order! Either of these will get you in trouble. Once you have violated your probation you are looking at possible jail time. Depending on the terms and conditions and your underlying crime you may look at getting probation reinstated or you are looking at incarceration. A great deal of this depends on your D.A. and the court you are in. Sometimes it is possible to get a serious violation dropped and a minor one to replace it and you go back on probation. Other times you are going to go to jail no matter what your attorney does. Remember, you broke the terms and conditions of your probation and while your attorney may be good they cannot change the fact that you violated probation.

If you are accused of violating probation you have the right to a Vickers hearing. This is a hearing in which the state has to prove by a preponderance of the evidence (50.01%) that you violated the probation. Furthermore, the rules of evidence are much more lax and hearsay and other forms of evidence can be admitted into the hearing. It is uncommon for a person to prove that they did not violate probation.

One of the worst things about violating probation is that you may be facing more time in custody than you would have than if you had done straight time after sentencing.