Rizio and Nelson California Law Blog

California Obscenity Laws

Displaying obscene content on your adult website or home page is a punishable crime in most parts of the United States. Truth be told, which images or ideas are “obscene” varies widely within different minds and communities even just in the United States, and adult site webmasters should be aware that they can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for violating obscenity laws. The...

Prostitution

Prostitution convictions often result in a criminal record and a social stigma that can decrease your ability to find a job, home, and hurts your personal reputation and relationships. Convictions can also result in prison sentences. A prostitution defense is different from other types of defense, even other types of sex crimes. A defense team must conduct extensive and thorough witness interviews...

Home Invasion Legal Issues

Desperate times sometimes result in drastic actions.  Desperate times, desperate measures. That’s how the saying goes, and most of the time, we say it lightly. However, it is a sign of these difficult economic times when we see in the papers and on the news more and more crimes of theft, robbery, and home invasion. With unemployment rates still high, the chances are that many people will...

Juvenile Justice

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the primary goals of the juvenile justice system are public safety and rehabilitation for the offender. Depending on the crime committed and the background of the juvenile, a treatment and education program is provided to service the juvenile’s needs. Many of these children are themselves victims of abuse and neglect, and wind up making unwise...

About Parole

If you are on parole, or may be eligible for parole soon, it is very important to understand the rules and regulations that define the conditions of your parole. All parolees, no matter what the crime, have many conditions they have to meet. They include: responsibility to initiate communication with the parole officer where the parolee has to live, including which county, and sometimes excluding...

CA Gun Laws – More Confusion

According to an article posted recently on pe.com of the Press-Enterprise, new federal gun laws allow visitors to bring firearms into national parks. However, the federal law left it up to each individual state to apply the new law. The author, John Asbury, writes, “…how the new federal law will be applied in California is unclear, according to the state attorney general’s office.”...

When in trouble – know where to turn

The criminal justice system categorizes crimes by two types for statistical purposes: Part I crimes and Part II crimes. The FBI records the information in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Agencies that contribute to this data, such as police departments, submit the information to the FBI once a month. They write, “In 2002, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented...

Juvenile Facilities are Downsizing Too

According to a February 22 article on the Department of Justice Website, the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility has been closed. The article states, “At its peak, it housed approximately 2,000 youth, nearly a fifth of the 10,000 youth committed to state custody.” Gordon Hinkle and Bill Sessa write, “Closure of the facility in Chino, which had been the state’s largest for juvenile...

Terrorism – The Importance Of A Solid Defence

The United States of America is aggressively pursuing prosecution of anyone they suspect is involved in terrorist activity. The punishments are harsh, with some states employing the death penalty in severe cases (the Timothy McVeigh case, for example). Even pranksters can find themselves in front of a jury for making criminal threats and face up to $250,000 USD and five years in a federal correctional...