Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Arrested for violating CA penal code section 647(f) - no prior offenses

I was arrested for violating CA penal code section 647(f) and spent 9 hours at the jail at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station. I need to appear at LASC West Beverly Hills Courthouse on Tuesday, December 30th. The offense occured on Halloween night in West Hollywood, there was a lot of people around (mostly in costume) and I lost track of where my friends were at. The cop that arrested me was fairly vulgar and from what I remembered was on a power trip. I have no prior offenses (clean record) as well as a clean driving record. My friends and I arrived via taxi so I had no intentions of driving home that night. Do I need an attorney to get a copy of the police report? Do I need legal representation? I am on an extremely tight budget right now so not having that extra expense will be beneficial if possible. What are the chances that I can get my record expunged? Again, other than this offense I have a clean record.


Asked on 12/28/08, 3:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathan Berger

Re: Arrested for violating CA penal code section 647(f) - no prior offenses

If you specifically tell the court you're representing yourself, they'll give you the police report. You'd be way better off with a lawyer, though. If you can't afford one, they'll appoint a public defender to represent you.

How they'll handle this depends a lot on the judge. Given your lack of a record and the fact that it was Halloween and probably half the city was 647(f)'ing, I'd guess that there's a good chance that the judge might let you off with attending some AA meetings or something like that. It would depend on what the police report says, of course: if it says that you were standing up on a trash can screaming "let's kill all the cops and judges," they might be a little severe with you, but if you were just staggering around being a typical inebriated person, you might not get much worse than a finger wag.

Try to get a public defender, though. It will make the whole process at least a bit less intimidating.

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Answered on 12/28/08, 4:31 pm


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