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Law Office of Rita O. White - Criminal Law Attorney
Lawyer News |
2013/06/22 20:30
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Anyone who may be accused of a criminal act and have been arrested is inclined to feel scared or alone. If you have recently found yourself in this situation and are charged with a crime, you don't have to deal with it all alone. It is important to know who to contact during these difficult times and seek legal help from the Law Office of Rita O. White. Our criminal attorney has the years and knowledge to fight for any case.
Our criminal defense lawyers can handle all types of criminal law cases, including:
Drug crimes
Violent crimes
Sex crimes
White collar crimes
Juvenile crimes
DUI
Whether you’re facing a traffic infraction at the state level or have been arrested for a federal crime, the Law Office of Rita O. White will be prepared to litigate your case. Legal jargon may make it difficult to understand completely but our attorneys will serve as your advocates and offer you ongoing support throughout the entire process. We will fight so that you receive a fair trial, challenge any evidence that is illegally obtained, and make sure that your defense is presented as strongly as possible. We are the aggressive advocates you will need for any type of criminal defense.
For any inquiries about our criminal law services and the types of cases we handle, contact us at our law office today to set up an initial case evaluation. |
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Court reverses verdict in Calif. baby-selling case
Headline News |
2013/06/20 22:19
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A midlevel California appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Salinas man who allegedly tried to sell his 8-month-old baby in a Walmart parking lot.
The state's 6th District Court of Appeal ruled Friday that the judge who originally heard the case gave incomplete instructions to the jury that ultimately convicted 41-year-old Patrick Fousek of child endangerment, The Monterey Herald reports.
Both Fousek and his girlfriend, Samantha Tomasini, were arrested two years ago when two women reported that Fousek had approached them and asked if they wanted to buy his infant daughter for $25. Fousek's lawyers argued during his 2011 trial that the offer had not been serious, but the appeals court said Monterey County prosecutors had presented enough evidence to support a guilty verdict.
But the court, in its unpublished opinion, said Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler should have been told they needed to agree unanimously on the specific act or acts on which they based their verdict. In Fousek's case, that could have been the proposed sale of the baby, the squalid home in which she was being raised, or the fact that Tomasini allegedly breastfed the little girl while high on methamphetamine. |
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State's largest court poised for staff cutbac
Headline News |
2013/06/19 18:19
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Los Angeles court officials will layoff or cut 539 jobs, likely resulting in long lines and reduced services.
Presiding Superior Court Judge David Wesley made the announcement Thursday, further restricting a court system that began facing cuts with the budget crisis in 2008.
"We have reached the new normal, and there is nothing to like about it," said Wesley.
He said the cuts will save $56 million a year but undermine the goal of a court system serving all areas of the county.
"This is not the neighborhood court we worked so hard to build," Wesley said in a written statement. "It is not our vision for access to justice. But this is the court the state is willing and able to support."
By the time July 1 rolls around, Wesley said the court will have eliminated 30 percent of its budgeted staff positions since 2002. It marks a 24 percent reduction since the state budget crisis began in 2008. |
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Court: Texas inmate's decades-old sentence invalid
Class Action News |
2013/06/14 06:49
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The life sentence given to a Texas man who has remained in prison for 33 years since being pulled off of death row isn't valid, Texas' highest criminal court said Wednesday, possibly paving the way for a new trial or the inmate's release.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said once it overturned Jerry Hartfield's murder conviction in 1980 for the killing of a bus station worker four years earlier, there was no longer a death sentence for then-Gov. Mark White to commute.
The opinion was given in response to a rare formal request by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to confirm the validity of its ruling overturning Hartfield's conviction, in light of the governor's 1983 commutation. The New Orleans-based federal court made the request, which upheld a lower state court's ruling that the sentence was invalid.
"The status of the judgment of conviction is that (Hartfield) is under no conviction or sentence," Judge Lawrence Meyers wrote in a decision supported by the court's other eight judges. "Because there was no longer a death sentence to commute, the governor's order had no effect."
Hartfield, now 57, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1976 robbery and killing of a Southeast Texas bus station employee. The criminal appeals court overturned his murder conviction, ruling that a potential juror improperly was dismissed after expressing reservations about the death penalty.
White commuted Hartfield's sentence in 1983 at the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and he has remained in prison since then, unaware until a few years ago that his case was in legal limbo. Court documents in his case described him as an illiterate 5th-grade dropout with in IQ of 51, although Hartfield says he's learned to read and write while in prison.
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Conn. court declines to address email warrants
Headline News |
2013/06/10 17:26
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The Connecticut Supreme Court has declined to address whether state judges can issue search warrants for email accounts maintained by out-of-state companies like Google.
The court took up the issue in the case of former Monroe youth minister David Esarey, who was sentenced in May 2010 to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and trading nude photos with her.
Justices upheld Esarey's convictions Friday. But they decided not to address his appeal argument that a state judge had no authority to issue a search warrant for his Google Gmail account because Google is based in California.
The court ruled instead that the issuing of the search warrant didn't affect the jury's verdict. |
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Intel chair says NSA court order is renewal
Court Feed News |
2013/06/07 04:12
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The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence committee says the top secret court order for telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon is a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California spoke to reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference on Thursday after the Obama administration defended the National Security Agency's need to collect the records.
Other lawmakers have said previously that the practice is legal under the Patriot Act although civil libertarians have complained about U.S. snooping on American citizens. |
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