Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

federal conviction using previous name

I wsas convicted for mailfraud and santenced to 10 month prision and was asked not to use any other name but your true legal name. Now the conviction used my previous name that was changed 10 years ago after reciving my US citisenship. Techinically the name on my conviction was not a US citizen and all my records had my new name. Federal authorities knowingly never bothered to tell the court as they wanted the judge to refuse bail due to flight risk.

What can happen in this circumstance? Techinically i can loose my house and be deported.


Asked on 6/15/07, 6:25 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: federal conviction using previous name

"Techinically the name on my conviction was not a US citizen and all my records had my new name." Names are not citizens, nor are they parties to legal disputes. Regardless of the name that appears in the records, you are the one who was convicted.

If giving the trial court this information would have helped you then you should have done so. You can't complain that the prosecutor didn't do this for you, and you don't really know why she didn't anyway.

What can happen to you? The same thing that can happen to anyone convicted of the same crimes. You haven't made it clear why you think something unusual might happen in your case.

If you are worried about immigration consequences you should post your question under that heading. My sense is that the government would have to revoke your citizenship before it could deport you, though I could be wrong on that point. I also don't know whether a criminal conviction like yours is grounds for such revocation, but an immigration specialist probably would.

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Answered on 6/15/07, 7:07 pm


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