What to Do If Charged with Stalking in San Diego - Criminal Lawyer David P. Shapiro

Описание: Criminal Lawyer David P. Shapiro discusses the steps to take if you or a loved one has been charged with stalking in San Diego. Stalking is a serious offense and hiring an experienced attorney for assistance would be your best defense.

Law Office of David P. Shapiro
3500 5th Avenue
Suite 304
San Diego, CA 92103
619-295-3555
https://www.davidpshapirolaw.com/expe...

Hi, my name is David P. Shapiro. I am a San Diego criminal attorney and I'm also the owner and managing partner of the Law Office of David P. Shapiro. In this video I want to provide some tips on what you should be doing if you or a loved one are charged with stalking.

Stalking in California is defined under Penal Code Section 646.9 and stalking is a very serious charge because the term is something that is alarming to the public. It's alarming to potential jurors. It's alarming to judges, and it's something certainly the prosecutors take seriously. The first piece of advice if you're charged with stalking is stop talking to the person who is accusing you of stalking them. Cease all communication even if they're contacting you. Cut it off entirely. Save all previous communications if they were being … if you think it's something that could be exonerating to you. If there's good communication you want to certainly save it. Now you can't be going around deleting bad communication, evidence ... if it has some evidentiary value you can't be doing that or certainly should not be doing that, but at the very least you want to make affirmative steps to make sure you save the good communication.

You want to; in addition to stop talking to that person at all costs, you want to be able to have in your head sort of a timeline or a biography of your relationship and your encounters with that person. That's one of the first things that we do at my firm is when someone comes into our firm and hires my firm to represent them on a stalking charge, we're like, “Okay, I need to know and we need to know the timeline of this relationship.” Who are they, how you met, how you communicate with them, all these things to get us up to speed because sometimes you can know someone for 20, 30 years, and then all of a sudden they get involved in a new relationship and they want to find an easy way to cut you out of their life and then they hit you with a stalking charge. So, you want to be able to document the history of your relationship. Certainly, something you want to talk to your potential attorney about.

And then there's also the element of stalking that requires that they be proven beyond a reasonable doubt the elements of the offenses of stalking. So, a lot of times we’ve … I've had success at trial. I've taken stalking cases to trial and had Not Guilty verdicts after trial where a jury has come back and said, "Listen, we think this was alarming conduct. We don't like these text messages. We don't like this behavior, but you know what? You held the prosecution to their burden and they were unable to show beyond a reasonable doubt that this was stalking. It's something, but it wasn't what your client was charged with." And that client got to go home. That client got to preserve their reputation without having suffering a misdemeanor conviction, without being labeled someone who's been convicted of stalking, and without being placed on probation, without facing time in custody.

If you're accused of stalking, we encourage you to give my firm a call. 619-295-3555. If you're accused of stalking and you're alleged to have violated a prior protective order or if you have a prior stalking conviction, the stakes have literally gone up through the roof. You're now facing felony charges possibly. Even more of a need to invest in the best locally experienced San Diego based criminal defense firm that you can afford. My firm can be reached at 619-295-3555.