For many people charged with simple drug possession, the most important question is not whether they can win at trial — it is whether they can get into a program that ends with the charge dismissed and no conviction on their record. California gives that path real teeth: through drug diversion, an eligible person facing…
A prescription fraud charge often starts in an ordinary place — a pharmacy counter, where a pharmacist calls a doctor’s office to verify a prescription and is told it was never written. What follows is not treated as a minor drug case. California prosecutes forging, altering, or fraudulently obtaining a prescription as a serious offense…
“Sexual assault” is not a single crime in California. It is an umbrella term for a group of separate felony offenses, and the most serious of them — forcible rape under Penal Code § 261 — is among the gravest charges a person can face in this state. A conviction is a strike, requires lifetime…
Stalking under California Penal Code § 646.9 is the crime of repeatedly following or harassing another person while making a credible threat that places them in reasonable fear for their safety or their family’s safety. It is one of the most fact-specific charges in California law — and one of the most commonly misunderstood, because…
The call usually comes from a dean or a school resource officer, not from a detective. Your child has been pulled out of class — over a fight, a vape pen, a pocketknife in a backpack, a comment someone took as a threat — and suddenly what felt like a school discipline problem is a…
A photo taken at a party, a video shared in a group chat, an image sent between two teenagers who are dating — under California law, any of these can be charged as child pornography, even when every person involved is a minor and no adult ever saw the material. Parents are almost always stunned…
A DUI checkpoint — also called a sobriety checkpoint — is a roadblock where officers stop drivers without any individual suspicion, look briefly for signs of impairment, and wave most people through in under a minute. They are legal in California, but only conditionally: the law treats them as a narrow exception to the usual…
Being accused of embezzlement is its own kind of crisis, because it usually does not start with the police — it starts at work. An employer, a business partner, or a family member who trusted you with money confronts you, and what happens in the days after that confrontation, before anything is ever filed, often…
It’s one of the first questions people ask after a domestic violence arrest: if my spouse doesn’t want to go forward — if they refuse to testify, or tell the prosecutor they want to drop it — does the case just go away? It’s a reasonable hope, and an understandable one. The honest answer is…
For a physician, dentist, chiropractor, pharmacist, clinic owner, or billing company, a healthcare fraud investigation rarely begins with handcuffs. It begins with a records subpoena, an unannounced audit, a request for an “interview,” or a letter from a payer demanding repayment — and by the time those arrive, the government has usually been building the…
An arrest record can follow a person long after a case ends, affecting employment, housing, professional licensing, social status, and immigration status. Fortunately, California law provides several legal remedies that may limit or even remove the impact of past arrests and convictions. Depending on how a case was resolved, individuals may be eligible to seal…
A preliminary hearing is the most important pretrial proceeding in any California felony case. It is the point at which the prosecution must show — for the first time, on the record, in open court — that it has enough evidence to require the defendant to face trial. It is also one of the few…
If you or a loved one is facing criminal charges in Southwest Riverside County, time is critical. Contact the Law Office of Nic Cocis today for a free, no-obligation case evaluation.
