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Redondo Beach, Domestic Violence and Revenge Porn, Jail
In a Nutshell: Our client charged with misdemeanor domestic violence under Penal Code § 273.5(a) in the Torrance Courthouse. The case was resolved with a plea bargain requiring 60 days in county jail, which our client served in a private jail, the Hawthorne City Jail.
Our client, age 31, was married and had three boys. He owned his own construction company and seemed to have it all.
He even had a mistress live in the same house with his family. She was a childhood friend who our client met up with by chance. She was married, but separated.
He allegedly did not have good impulse control, at least according to the mistress, who repeatedly filed police reports for domestic violence, but then recanted each one. One time, she reported to the Torrance Police Department injuries from our client and the police came to the home to investigate. They found several firearms that were not properly stored. Our client was then arrested for improper storage of a firearm (Penal Code § 25100), but retained our office and luckily, no case was filed.
Several months later, the mistress again alleged domestic violence and reported this to the Redondo Beach Police Department. The mistress had bruises to the side of her face and her legs. She claimed the injuries took place at the Redondo Pier while she was there with our client, his wife and their three boys.
Torrance CourthouseThe Redondo Beach Police Department prepared a police report and recommended charges of felony domestic violence, but the Torrance District Attorney’s Office deferred on filing such a complaint. So the case was referred to the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s Office, which filed a misdemeanor complaint for domestic violence (Penal Code § 273.5(a)).
The client’s mom discovered there was a bench warrant for her son and called our office extremely worried about the charge.
Our office then appeared with our client in the Torrance Superior Court and had the arrest warrant recalled a few days later.
The charges arose, our client explained, from a fight between his wife and his mistress at his parents’ ranch in Riverside. This was corroborated by the client’s wife, who explained she was taller and stronger than the other woman, and conceded that she “really got in a few good punches.”
Our office then retained a private investigator to interview both the wife and the mistress, who corroborated the wife’s explanation. The private investigator then called each woman and prepared declarations from each that both explained how our client did not inflict any of the injuries whatsoever.
Curiously, when our office provided such statements to the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor, she discounted each by saying the mistress had a long history of making false claims of domestic violence, recanting such claims and then making them again. This case, however, was real, the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor said, because both women were trying to “cover” for our client.
While the case was pending against our client, but proceeding slowly, the mistress again went to the Redondo Beach police, this time claiming that our client had posted “revenge porn” of her having sex on the “Fans Only” website. The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor was advised of the new case, which would be for a violation of Penal Code § 647(j)(4), a misdemeanor.
The Torrance District Attorney’s Office declined to file the case, explaining that the IP address from which the video was posted was in Tuscon, Arizona and our client had never been to Tuscon and had an alibi for the same day, explaining that he was in Torrance all day at a youth baseball tournament for one of his sons.
The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s Office decided to file the case for revenge porn anyways, again curiously saying, “the IP address does not matter.”
Our office was able to resolve the domestic violence case, which included a violation of the protective order in the case due to the client allegedly having sex with the victim, as the posted video on “Fans Only” documented.
The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s offer started at 90 days in county jail, but we were able to negotiate this down to 60 days, which was still very harsh punishment. Our client was permitted to serve this time, which would be a maximum of 30 days actual time, in city jail on weekends. While pleased to avoid 90 days in county jail, the resolution was still a bitter pill to swallow because he knew he never laid a hand in anger on the alleged victim.
For more information about domestic violence, please click on the following articles:
