Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Evading Police

Call us to discuss whether or not the specific charge alleged in your case is a misdemeanor or a felony as there are distinctions to how the filing agency could have filed the case and we do not want to mislead you with a blanket answer without knowing all the facts. This is the answer to the question regarding whether or not the incident which occurred constitutes a strike; call us to further discuss. We do not file lawsuits against police agencies, but we are aware that such lawsuits can be filed: this would be the vehicle to sue the police agency involved.

Re: Evading Police

Evading the police is usually filed as a misdemeanor under penal code section 148. The police will usually call obstructing a police officer of his duty.

However, it can be charged as a felony such as when there is a high speed pursuit.

The officers can be sued under federal statute 42 U.S.C. 1983 for excessive use of force. This provides that a person should be free from unreasonable search and seizure according to the 4th amendment.

The idea here is that even if you commit a crime, which the police can lawfully seize you for, they cannot seize you in a manner that is unreasonable. Beating someone who is not resisting or challenging the police is considered unreasonable. The police are only allowed to use that amount of force that is necessary to take the suspect into custody.

It is quite common for the police to rough people up when taking them into custody. Your recourse is to file an action in court. You can do this in state of federal, but I highly recommend the federal court.