CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE: ATTORNEYS-YOU MUST HAVE INVESTIGATORS
NEED ABSOLUTE NEED FOR INVESTIGATORS
Terrific case, even though the lawyer here was found ineffective. Lake County has 12 contract Public Defenders. hey have only one investigator for the entire office. So the investigator was way too busy to work on this trivial transportation of meth case, on which the defendant got over 10 years.
The defense made a California Penal Code sec. 1538.5 motion, claiming that the layout of the intersection at issue made it impossible for the officer to see what he claimed to have seen, that the defendant didn't stop at the stop sign. It turns out that it's an unusual intersection, and if the ofrficer was where he said he was, he couldn't have seen the area of the stop sign.
The California Court of Appeal finds ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) here, for the failure to use an investigator. There's an excellent discussion about the need for trained, professional investigators. The defense had some photographs taken by the defendant, and even some civilian witnesses, but these were no substitute for a real investigator. I think that we can use this to fully staff investigator units in PD offices, and to get more investigators in offices or contract groups without enough investigators. I even think we can use this to get all sorts of
experts.
Jones v. Superior Court; 2010 DJ DAR 10216; DJ, 7/1/10; C/A 1st, Div. 2
california criminal law, california drug crimes, possession of drugs, california criminal procedure, california criminal law
