Will Bruzzo’s Blog

Being arrested and taken into police custody can be a jarring experience, especially if this is your first interaction with the criminal justice system. Once you’ve been placed under arrest by law enforcement, specific procedures need to be followed by the police officer who is arresting you. When your constitutional rights are violated, your attorney…

An Orange County criminal case is filed at the justice center assigned to the city where the offense allegedly occurred, not where you live. Four courthouses handle adult criminal matters: Central in Santa Ana, North in Fullerton, West in Westminster, and Harbor in Newport Beach. Geography does not always predict the answer, and felony trials can move again.

A criminal protective order can only be changed or ended by the court that issued it. The protected person cannot drop it, and neither can the prosecutor acting alone. The realistic request is a change from no contact to peaceful contact, made in court through your attorney, which can let a defendant return home while the case is open.

A California domestic violence case can continue after the complaining witness recants, because a criminal action is prosecuted in the name of the People of the State of California. The 911 recording, body camera footage and statements taken in the first hour do not disappear. The later account becomes one more piece of evidence for the prosecutor to compare.

Firearms are surrendered after a California domestic violence arrest because the protective order is the trigger, not the verdict. An order can issue at arraignment, months before a case resolves. You generally have 24 hours to relinquish and 48 hours to file the receipt with the court, and the state and federal

If your California charges were dropped, the arrest itself can often still be cleared, either automatically by the state or through a petition you file in court. Here is how the two routes differ, who qualifies, and what a sealing order actually changes.

California holds commercial drivers to a 0.04 percent blood alcohol limit, and a DUI conviction in any vehicle, including your own car on a day off, can disqualify a commercial license for a year. Here is how the criminal and licensing tracks run at the same time.

California holds commercial drivers to a 0.04 percent limit, and a DUI in your own car on a day off still reaches your CDL. Here is what is at stake.

A prosecutor has to prove you willfully obtained and used someone else’s identifying information for an unlawful purpose. Here is what each element means.

The dollar value of the damage decides whether a vandalism charge stays a misdemeanor or moves into felony territory. Here’s how Penal Code 594 draws that line.