Posts tagged "criminal defense"

A program developed by correctional officials and implemented in the last few years since 2007 appears to have reduced the rate at which parolees in California previously convicted of felonies are rearrested after their release.

Parolees from San Jose and throughout the state who are regarded as a high risk for committing additional offenses are being targeted by the program.

A non-violent group of graffiti artists, or "taggers," have been charged by the Santa Clara County prosecutors as a criminal street gang, putting them in the same category as the notorious Bloods and Crips. Their weapons of choice aren't guns or knives, but rather spray paint used in elaborate graffiti across the Bay Area.

There are those who recognize that graffiti is a costly issue for communities, though the taggers themselves likely think that they are contributing to the culture of the area. This marks the first time that the gang enhancement has been used against a nonviolent group. The enhancement means that any sentences would be significantly longer as felonies: 5 to 22 years. Not to mention the "three strikes," which would lead to even more serious consequences.

San Jose police officers said a woman suspected of fraud was wearing an electronic monitoring anklet when she tried to run from them last Friday at her home.

The woman, 53, was wearing the anklet as a condition of her release on bail as she awaited trial on previous fraud charges.

Investigators have ordered a California man to hand over his eye charts and close up shop. The owner and operator of a San Jose optical store is charged with a white collar crime that could send the 73-year-old to prison for over a decade.

The elderly optician is accused of conducting eye exams and dispensing prescriptions. Those are jobs that only licensed ophthalmologists and optometrists legally can perform. Opticians are like pharmacists; they can interpret and fill prescriptions but are not allowed to examine patients or prescribe eye treatments.

A 15-year-old Santa Clara County girl has been missing over two months. The last time the teenager was seen in her Morgan Hill neighborhood was before she left home to catch a bus for school.

The search for the high school girl has evolved into a homicide investigation. The county sheriff told reporters at a news conference that an arrest of a 21-year-old Morgan Hill man was made based on physical evidence. The official said she believes investigators have probable cause that the girl was killed and that the pair didn't know each other.

A San Jose man has several charges, including a charge for a violent crime, pending against him in different cases. In one case, he is accused of purposely running over a woman with his car when he was 19 years old.

The man is now 23 years old. Witnesses at his trial testified that they warned him that his reckless driving was going to get someone hurt or killed.

San Jose police arrested a 39-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman on March 17, accusing them of involvement in a robbery and carjacking. Officers asserted that the couple had taken a gold-colored Cadillac Escalade at approximately 9:50 p.m. on March 15.

They allegedly took the car from a Calco gas station at 6095 Cahalan Avenue.

According to KTVU TV, San Jose police have taken into custody three teenagers suspected of beating a man and killing his dog in February.

The trio faces an array of criminal charges, including assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and a gang enhancement. They might also face animal cruelty charges, according to law enforcement officials.

The case began on San Jose's Stevens Creek Boulevard last September. That's when police pulled over the driver of a 2003 Nissan 350Z and leveled drug charges against him.

But the case has turned into a full-blown scandal for California state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, 70, and his wife, Nadia, 40, an Alameda County supervisor who was reportedly having an affair with the 35-year-old man now free on $15,000 bail.