Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

My son, 26 was arrested in july 09. He and his fiance were for the first time at a bowling alley establishment. While his fiance bowled he and friend went into the bar area to drink beer. It was crowded, my son got into an altercation and his friend noticed that he was being choked. His friend got him outside to safety. At the end of the block were three police cars, one police jumped out of the car and yelled "Stop mother Fuckers" both men put up their hands and my son also raised his middle fingers. He was instantly tazed, handcuffed and eventually landed at santa rita jail. While there he was never given his rights,kicked in the sides, thrown around and his calves stepped on. We were able to bail him out the following evening. He has been charged with sexual battery, resisting arrest, and brandishing a weapon. We are currently in the long process using a public defender and awaiting the disclosure phase. He has tried contacting the public defender for info and they are unresponsive. My question should we take out a loan to hire a private attorney or are we in capable hands and justice will prevail. One theory, after the officer tazed without provocation, they had to pin wahatever charges they could on him to justify the tazing. He has never been arrested or in any kind of trouble. He is a physics/math major senior at a highly accredited local university. He also does research for a professor there. He is a big sweet nerdy guy who has had his belief in this country's judicial system seriously rocked. My son's future, life is at stake, so far the public defenders have said things like you screwed up, lets see if we can save your career. I don't know if any of them have really heard or listened to his story, and tried to find out what happened. Any help /advice would be appreciated.


Asked on 1/20/10, 7:14 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brian McGinity McGinity Law Office

Hi, it sounds like your son is involved in quite a mess. Public Defenders are generally very good attorneys however they are overworked and have very large case loads. So it is very hard for them to spend a lot of time with individual clients. A lot of public defenders get excellent results. However, in my opinion it is always better to hire a private attorney under these type of circumstances. First, it does not sound like you have done much investigation into the cost of an attorney. So I would suggest you start shopping. Second, you need a attorney that has good working relationship with the DA's office but also one that is well respected. Your sons future is on the line. The charges against him are very serious and in my opinion a private attorney would give you a better chance at getting the best final results.

If you do not know any criminal defense attorneys in your area. Call the local county bar association and ask for some names and numbers off their referral list. They will be happy to give you some names. After shopping around a few names will keep popping up and I would check out those attorneys first.

The information supplied here is general information and does not constitute legal advice. The information exchanged between the parties has not created an attorney client relationship and there is no attorney client privilege associated with any information exchanged.

Good Luck

Brian

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Answered on 1/25/10, 3:37 pm


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