San Jose Criminal Defense Law Blog

A California dad was recently in the national news talking about criminal charges and fines he is facing because of underage drinking that went on in his house while he was home. The Stanford professor said that he prohibited drinking at the party and checked on the party in the basement twice to make sure there was no alcohol involved.

A call to police tipping them off that underage drinking may be occurring at the party sent law enforcement to the home where they indeed found alcohol being consumed by minors. Under social host laws, the dad was responsible for the drinking of the minors and had to spend a night in jail. He also is facing 44 counts of suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Each count carries up to a year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.

Prosecutors and law enforcement units across the country are devoting more and more resources toward investigating and prosecuting Internet crimes. So called cybercrime has been increasing exponentially with the development of new technologies and the ubiquitousness of these technologies now in everyday life.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal notes how entire investigative units are now devoted toward gathering evidence for the prosecution of these crimes. Analysts troll the Internet and people's smartphones, iPads and laptops for evidence that crimes are being committed, such as computer hacking, child pornography, identity theft or cyber fraud.

A study of the years between 1997 and 2008 recently published in Pediatrics revealed that an increasing number of young people are being arrested.

The survey did not distinguish whether the arrests were for nonviolent or violent crimes, but it found that between 25 and 41 percent of the young people who responded to the national survey had been arrested before the age of 23. Between 16 and 27 percent of the young people who responded to the survey had been arrested before the age of 18.

The fact that so many young people are being arrested early in life could point to other problems that are not being addressed, such as getting young people with mental and emotional problems the help they need. According to ABC News, between 50 and 75 percent of young people who are incarcerated are suffering from undiagnosed and untreated mental health conditions.

The previous post began to discuss the story of a woman who is seeking a presidential pardon for a felony drug conspiracy conviction. The woman was convicted in 1989 by a jury and sentenced to 15 years in prison under mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

The sentencing judge supported her petition for a commutation of her sentence from President Clinton because he said he would not have sentenced her to 15 years if it hadn't been required because she was young, minimally involved in the drug crimes of her boyfriend and had no criminal record.

The woman's sentence was commuted in 2000. She graduated four years later from college. When she graduated from law school in 2006, President Clinton sent a hand-written letter to offer his congratulations.

A recent piece in ProPublica tells the story of a woman who is seeking a presidential pardon for a felony drug conviction. When the woman was 19, she was convicted of drug conspiracy crimes and sentenced to 15 years in prison under mandatory sentencing laws. Eleven years into her sentence, she had the remainder commuted by President Bill Clinton so that she could leave prison and attend law school.

The case at the time was an example of how mandatory minimums put the judge in a tough place. The woman was convicted of aiding and abetting cocaine distribution because her boyfriend was a drug dealer and she knew what was happening. She was only 19, was minimally involved in the crimes and had no prior criminal convictions. She was convicted by a jury and a 15-year minimum sentence was required by law, even though it seemed unduly harsh.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to reduce the number of car accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver over the upcoming holidays and is directing a coordinated local and national effort to crack down on drunk drivers. Ray LaHood last week launched the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign to remind any would-be drunk drivers that if they choose to drive drunk they will be pulled over.

Local law enforcement will be on the look-out for people who are driving under the influence of alcohol through increased troopers on the roads and sobriety checkpoints. This means that law enforcement will be stepping up efforts to catch drunk drivers and, thus, will be making more DUI arrests.

Rapper Flo Rida will be allowed to avoid jail time for his first DUI arrest. The musician behind the club hit, "Low," will be enrolled in the "Back on Track" program in his state. The program includes DUI classes. He will also have to complete community service in addition to paying court fees and fines.

If Flo Rida successfully completes the DUI program, the DUI arrest on his record will be downgraded to a reckless driving charge. He will also have no points on his license if he successfully finishes the program. His defense attorney reported that Flo Rida is happy with the result of his case. The outcome came about through a deal with prosecutors that would allow the rapper to avoid jail.

A new survey released yesterday by the National Institutes of Health revealed that 1 in 9 high school seniors admitted last spring to trying synthetic marijuana sometime during the previous year.

The study further demonstrates that the popularity of synthetic drugs is on the rise even as California lawmakers and the federal government are taking steps to crack down on the manufacture and sale of the drugs.

Synthetic drugs such as synthetic pot (which is sold as "incense") and synthetic cocaine (which is sold as "bath salts") have become increasingly common as a "legal" drug that won't show up on drug tests, but the products can have dangerous side effects.