Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: case dismissed

Withdrawing your plea and vacating the judgement is never easy. You need to have legal grounds to do it. If you simply had a change of heart about your plea, buyer's remorse so to speak, it will not be sufficient.

To overturn a conviction there needs to a statutory or constitutional error in procedure or substance at the time of your plea. Do you have grounds to believe that something went wrong in your case, such as your attorney was ineffective (in the constitutional sense of the word)? Have you discovered any new facts relating to your case which were not known at the time you plead?

Also, keep in mind that your case will not go away and be dismissed just because you manage to withdraw your plea. Your case will simply re-open and be re-litigated which might expose you to a worse outcome than the first time around.

Feel free to contact me if you have additional questions.

Jacek W. Lentz, Esq.

310.273.1361

www.lentzlawfirm.com

Re: case dismissed

It is possible but it is difficult and you will need an attorney to assist you. I can't tell from your question if you are talking about a felony or a misdemeanor. I am going to assume it is a misdemeanor. There are two ways to change the outcome, either by an appeal or by a motion to vacate the judgment. If your desire is to appeal the decision you will need to speak with attorney to determine if you fall under Cal Penal Code 1466. Your attorney will need to take a look at the facts and probably some case law to make this determination. If the attorney does a lot of these motions they may not need to look at the case law and will give you an answer right away. If you want to vacate the judgment you will still need an attorney but if you believe there is newly discovered evidence of fraud by the government or misconduct by the government then you may be able to proceed. However, the legal definition of newly discovered evidence is evidence that could not have been discovered with reasonable diligence prior to the judgement. The next hurdle is the timing. The moving party (in this case that would be you) has one year to file after the date of discovery of the newly discovered evidence or one year after you could have discovered the evidence using due diligence. An attorney will be able to advise you as to your specific situation. There is also a section that provides that if the evidence regarding the government misconduct was beyond the moving party's personal knowledge then there also exists a possibility of something you can do. In other words if the court thinks you could not have personal knowledge of the information they may consider it.

The only way to determine if you have a situation where something can be done is to go to an attorney and discuss the matter. It is difficult situation. Go talk with an attorney and get some professional advice that is based on your specific situation and the specific facts you have in your situation. It is the only way you will know for sure. Good Luck.