Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Set up by ex-boyfriend for possession of drugs and intent to sell

The police nail these informants for charges that they are dead bang guilty of. Then they leave them on the street for awhile to feed information to the police. After awhile the police pick them up and prosecute the informant(s). Their testimony is always very suspect. And since they usually don't know very much. It appears your friend tried to nail you to get off the hook himself. The evidence that you mentioned about the mail, etc. are things brought up at the trial to discredit the informant's testimony. Talk to your attorney, and collect as much evidence as possible from friends, neighbors, and relatives as possible.

Re: Set up by ex-boyfriend for possession of drugs and intent to sell

Your question leads me to more questions than answers, but I'll do my best.

First, I assume that you are currently charged with the possession for sale as a result of your ex-boyfriend's information. If so, he, as the informant will be a witness at your trial (and probably the preliminary hearing). A 402 hearing is "Evidence Code - speak" for a motion in limine (during or immediately preceding trial) for a ruling of one sort or another. I will assume for the moment that the 402 hearing you spoke of was your own, in which case you are currently MID TRIAL?!? If so, you really need to communicate your concerns to your attorney. Evidence to impeach the informant is crucial in any circumstance. (In other words, if he said under oath that his shoe size was an 11 and you can prove it's an 8 1/2, then you can show him to be a liar and his veracity is very important to your defense.) However, even more crucial than this is evidence that the informant had the opportunity to plant the contraband and set you up. Most informants have a motive to see someone else charged as this will shave time or charges off of themselves. Rats are often scared and bullied into turning over, say three busts, and taking the heat off of themselves. So there's your motive as to your affirmative defense. The importance of any evidence of opportunity (he lived with you, received mail there, others knew of his residence there, etc.) could not be overstated.

I'm more than a bit concerned, however, that you are asking these - sorry- basic questions DURING your trial, if you are. These are great questions, but I would expect to have been all through this with my client at the intake interview and during the weeks that followed, PRE-trial.

If you are in the early stages of the proceedings against you, I suggest you go over all of this with your attorney and assist him or her in obtaining evidence and witness statements that you can turn over to the prosecutor as early as possible. Other lawyers may well disagre with this approach, but my experience has been that (especially with informant cases) my extraordinarily good offers come when the prosecutor sees that he is going to have a tough time convicting my client, if he does so at all. The idea that they can get geared up to meet our proof if we show our hand too early is something I really have yet to experience. In theory it's true, but they're just not that on the ball.

My biggest question (but it's close) is what you mean when you say that he wrote a letter to the judge admitting to planting evidence. To YOUR judge? He admitted that he actually planted evidence in THIS CASE? If you can clarify that issue, there may be a wealth of information I can add on that. You can email me at [email protected] for more info.

Otherwise, good luck to you.

Kindest regards,

JACQUELINE GOODMAN RUBIO

Attorney at Law