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A well-respected 33-year-old teacher from one of Burbank’s public schools recently confessed to having an sexual relations with a 14-year-old boy. The affair began in March 2009 and continued until last December. According to an article from the Burbank Leader, the woman walked into the local police station, allegedly full of guilt, and confessed to the crime with her attorney present. Police and school officials were unaware of the Los Angeles sexual crime beforehand. The former student, now 15, confirmed the woman’s story.

The Burbank teacher is currently being charged with five counts of engaging in sex acts with a person under 16 and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. The criminal arraignment was scheduled for March 25. She has made no effort to post her $175,000 bail. Psychologists have been provided by officials for students at the school.
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Because of California’s ongoing budget crisis and overcrowded prisons; California has decided to relax parole regulations for convicted nonviolent felony offenders, including no random drug tests, travel stipulations or check-in requirements. Currently, eleven percent of the California budget goes to prison costs, accounting for $8.6 billion this year alone. Officials believe that the initiative will save $500 million the first year, helping to close the $20 billion gap. This new measure is said to reduce prison populations by reducing the number of minor California parole violations that re-imprison parolees.

According to an article from the Associated Press, around 24,000 nonviolent parolees are expected to qualify for less supervision; including many who are already on parole. Although those eligible for parole in the next year in California are required to register their addresses, parole officers are not required to conduct unannounced home visits or searches. Instead, this task will be left to local law enforcement; who have expressed fears that the deregulation would lead to an increase in crime, thereby compounding the problem.
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Two women and one man were cited for prostitution as a result of a Craigslist posting on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. According to an article by The Signal, the man is 50-years-old. He was arrested and charged with supervising prostitution while the women, ages 46 and 47, were arrested for prostitution.

A lieutenant from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station indicated that the arrests were not connected to a two-year ongoing investigation beginning in 2008 on local illegal massage establishments. The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau has conducted 58 undercover sting operations at various massage businesses in the area, which resulted in 20 arrests for prostitution and 30 for licensing violations.

In November 2009, as a result of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigation, a multi-agency task force has also targeted 28 massage businesses in Santa Clarita for violations including labor laws, business licensing and violations of the California Penal Code. Seven of the investigated businesses were charged with operating without a license while nine others were in violation of the city’s municipal codes. Numerous others were not in compliance with building and state labor codes and five were ordered to close operations.

Prostitution, Pimping and Solicitation charges in Los Angeles require special attention as these charges can sometimes be based on very broad assumptions. If you are an owner of a massage parlor and have been charged with prostitution, solicitation, pimping or other sex offenses, do not hesitate to talk to an experienced Los Angeles prostitution criminal defense attorney.
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Last Wednesday, March 10, 2010, federal prosecutors charged Hump, a popular sushi restaurant in the Santa Monica owned by Typhoon Restaurant Inc., for selling endangered whale meat. Also being charged is the restaurant’s head chef. The investigation surfaced when the New York Times accused the restaurant and chef of serving endangered Sei whale meat out of the trunk of a white Mercedes.

This incident has shocked many environmental organizations and animal activists, especially since Santa Monica is known for its progressive environmentalism. Federal agents and animal activists worked together in a sting operation that orchestrated by the associate producer of Oscar-winning documentary, “The Cove.”

According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, both the restaurant and the chef are being charged with the illegal sale of a marine mammal product, a misdemeanor that holds a maximum sentence of one year in prison and fines up to $100,000 for an individual and $200,000 for an organization.

The attorney for Hump said in a statement that the restaurant “accepts responsibility for the wrongdoing charged by the U.S. attorney and will agree to pay a fine and resolve this matter in court.”
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Officials announced Wednesday, March 24, 2010 that next November, California voters will be able to vote on the legalization of marijuana. The initiative would allow the drug to be sold and taxed. According to an article on Silicon Valley Mercury News, Measure supporters collected 694,248 signatures, well over the 433,971 required. An estimated 523,531 signatures were valid.

“We’re one step closer to ending cannabis prohibition and the unjust laws that lock people up for cannabis while alcohol is not only sold openly but advertised on television to kids every day,” said Richard Lee, the main advocate for the initiative and an Oakland marijuana entrepreneur.

This bill, known as the Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, would allow adults age 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use. This significantly changes California law that currently indicates that possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor offense punishable by $100 fine, a law that was enacted in 1975. Before that date, judges were allowed to impose sentences of up to ten years in prison.
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According to a CBS2 report, a 22-year-old man was arrested for felony DUI for causing the death of a 20-year-old woman in Costa Mesa on Sunday, February 15, 2010, at 2:30 in the morning. The accused drunk driver had been driving a Toyota pickup truck, when he went through a red light and slammed into the passenger side of a Corolla sedan at Sunflower Avenue and Sakioka Drive. The passenger in the Corolla died at the scene.

Police suspect that the alleged DUI driver was fleeing the site of an earlier hit and run non-injury crash in Santa Ana when the accident occurred. He is being held in lieu of a $1,050,000 bail and is being charged with murder and vehicular manslaughter in addition to felony DUI. In regards to the earlier crash, Santa Ana police are conducting a separate hit and run investigation.

The driver of the Corolla, a 21-year-old man, was treated at a nearby hospital for minor injuries and was charged with a misdemeanor DUI. He was released from custody at the hospital.
Being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs is often an overwhelming experienced for an accused individual. A person charged with DUI faces serious penalties that can impose a wide range of life-changing consequences. However, a skilled DUI defense lawyer in California can help determine whether a person’s rights were violated during their arrest or interrogation.
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A Long Beach man has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts, including driving under the influence of alcohol that resulted in the death of a one-year-old baby girl, and a serious injury to her two-year-old brother. According to a Daily Breeze report, the accused allegedly drove his Dodge Durango into a wagon carrying the two children. As a result, the wagon was taken a full block before being stopped by a bystander. Fortunately, the bystander was able to grab one child from beneath the car; however, the driver sped off dragging the other child. The man apparently continued driving in spite of numerous witnesses screaming for him to stop. His vehicle dragged the girl for more than a mile before he stopped the car at his girlfriends’ house.

Upon his arrest, the blood alcohol content of the alleged was nearly three times the legal limit of .08%. Allegations of great bodily injury accompany several of the charges levied against the accused. Because he had a previous felony strike on his record, the man’s bail amount has been set at $1.49 million. The man remains in custody as he awaits trial.
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A 32-year-old San Diego man pleaded guilty to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and felony DUI causing injury for an accident that resulted in the deaths of two teenage brothers. Apparently, the man was returning home from Tijuana when his vehicle collided with a sedan which was transporting three brothers in Chula Vista. According to a San Diego News Network article, one of the brothers was declared dead at the hospital three hours following the crash. The second brother suffered brain death the next day, while the third suffered minor injuries.

The convicted man fled the scene of the fatal traffic collision but was arrested for DUI when he returned later to retrieve his wallet. He will serve 17 years in a state prison for vehicular manslaughter and felony DUI causing injury, a violation of California Vehicle Code section 23153 (a). Police said that he also has a previous robbery conviction on record in 1999.

DUI offenses are some of the most common crimes in the United States and often threaten the toughest of sentencing guidelines. Fines, probation and jail time aside, having a DUI on record can subject a person to skyrocketing insurance premiums, which can frequently be more expensive than the fines in the court’s DUI sentence.
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Based on a recent OC Register story, the city of Seal Beach settled a lawsuit filed against the police department in which an Orange County resident alleged that the Seal Beach Police Department unlawfully confiscated 40 to 50 medical marijuana plants and coerced him into becoming a drug informant. The City Manager said that the lawsuit was settled for $32,500.

The man says that he legally grew and distributed medical marijuana under California state law. Seal Beach police officers entered his apartment and took photographs of his marijuana plants, despite his having produced documentation showing that he possessed the plants legally. The police department later turned the evidence over to federal authorities.

The man was arrested under federal drug laws and he alleged that he was forced to become a drug informant for the department, providing information about other marijuana providers and setting up drug deals. In spite of the settlement, the police department contends that the plaintiff volunteered to become an informant to avoid federal drug charges; and that he was an informant for the DEA and not for the Seal Beach Police Department.
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Huntington Beach police have arrested and charged a 40-year-old Anaheim man for two counts of attempted lewd acts with a child under 14. He allegedly attempted to contact a fictitious child over the Internet with the intent to commit a specific lewd act and went to meet the minor to engage in lewd conduct. According to the OC Register, the arrest was made possible by a sting operation put on by the Huntington Beach police department.

The police posted an ad on craigslist.com. They posed as a 13-year-old girl soliciting favors. The defendant responded and arranged to meet with the girl, who turned out to be a Huntington Beach police officer. In their correspondence, the defendant supposedly instructed the girl to have red underwear on when they were to meet.

The defendant had been convicted of a sex-related offense in 1989 in Arizona. After his recent sex crimes arrest, police found child pornography in his home; which will likely be used as additional evidence in his case. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if he is found guilty of the sex offenses.
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