San Pedro, Arrest for Brandishing a Replica Firearm, No File
Our client, age 23, had two friends who asked our client to participate in a “photo shoot” in Sant Pedro for one friend’s portfolio to get into photography school at Yale.
An onlooker, however, apparently thought the “photo shoot” involved actual shooting.
The three friends, all in their early twenties, selected an area of grass near North Beacon Street and West O’Farrell Street. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon at about 2:30 p.m.
Our client’s friend who was applying to photography school brought several tripods to mount lights upon and assembled them around the grassy area. Our client and one of the other friends would serve as models for the photography student, who methodically set up the location and then the three discussed how our client and the other young man would pose.
For one of the photographs, our client would lay prone and hold a fake rifle while pretending to aim it at a target far away. In this series of photos, the other friend would crouch nearby, as it he was helping our client locate the target, as if a sniper team. The lighting on the tripods nearby and the photographer holding a camera and taking photographs should have made it obvious that this was not a person preparing to really shoot a gun.
Nonetheless, someone apparently observing the three young adults called 911 to report someone shooting a gun at their location. The Harbor Division of the Los Angeles Police Department rushed to the scene, but by this time, the replica firearm had been stored back in a box and our client and his friends were disassembling the photograph lighting, having finished the photo shoot.
Police asked our client and his friends if they were aiming a gun at anyone and our client and his friends explained the photo shoot. The gun was aimed at a location about a mile away, so any intended target would not have even known the fake gun was being aimed at him or her.
Apparently, officers felt a strong obligation to detain all three young men and take them to the Los Angeles Police Department, Harbor Station. After a few hours of being held, the officers decided to release the photographer and our client’s friend who did not hold the replica firearm.
Our client, however, was booked and therefore, arrested while officers asked each other, “Hey, what can we arrest him for?” “What can we pin on him?”
Eventually, officers agreed upon Penal Code § 417.4, brandishing a replica firearm. It was a misdemeanor. However, this was a mistake because our client did not do so with the intent to cause fear or anxiety in anyone else. He did not do so to suggest a threat or to intimidate anyone.
After our client was released (after signing a promise to appear in the Long Beach Superior Court in about two months), he called Greg Hill & Associates and discussed the arrest with Greg.
Greg looked up Penal Code § 417.4 and realized the officers’ mistake. Greg explained this to the client and suggested he write a letter to the Los Angeles City Prosecutor’s Office, enclosing with the letter a declaration from our client and separate declarations from each of his friends, explaining the photo shoot and how no target was involved.
Greg then prepared such declarations and each young man signed his declaration. Greg then prepared a cover letter to the filing attorney at the Long Beach Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, requesting a no file, or at the most, a referral of our client to an office hearing or the Neighborhood Justice Program (NJP).
Greg then mailed out the letter and also emailed it, with the declarations, to the filing attorney at the Long Beach office of the Los Angeles City Attorney.
No response was made, so on the day before the arraignment, Greg called the filing attorney and asked her if she had any questions about our client’s case. She replied that she did not have any questions and complimented Greg on his letter and the declarations submitted. She said she had decided to reject the case for filing. Greg thanked her for reading the letter and the declarations.
The client was overjoyed by the good news.
For more information about brandishing a weapon and assault in general, please click on the following articles:
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