If your child has just been arrested, the first thing you need to know is that California’s juvenile system has changed substantially in the past several years. The state-run youth prison closed in 2023. The minimum age for juvenile court is now 12, with limited exceptions. Direct-file prosecutorial transfers to adult court have been eliminated….
We recently filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court asking it to stand by its previous ruling that Penal Code section 632 (unlawful recording of confidential communications) is a specific intent rather than general intent crime. The Court’s ruling will be key to many defenses we intend to raise at an upcoming jury trial….
Sandra Merritt has filed a motion asking the San Francisco Superior Court to dismiss the 10 criminal charges brought against her by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for her undercover journalism work which exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in baby body parts. Liberty Counsel and the Law Office of Nic Cocis, a Murrieta Calif. based criminal defense…
At the beginning of September 2019, Nic Cocis, a Murrieta, CA, criminal defense attorney and Liberty Counsel went to court in San Francisco to defend pro-life hero Sandra Merritt in a crucial two-week preliminary hearing. It began with a retired late-term abortionist describing the unborn baby as a “tough little object” in an undercover video…
You won’t be surprised to learn that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra welcomes the intervention of Planned Parenthood. He is a hired gun for Planned Parenthood, which has showered him with campaign cash. Becerra is prosecuting Sandra on 15 criminal felony counts. If convicted, Sandra faces huge fines and years behind bars. Sandra’s alleged “crime” is going undercover to…
(The following article was published on April 23, 2019 in the Daily Journal.) In rare move, state high court stays criminal case against anti-abortion activists. The state Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay blocking a hearing to decide whether California’s top prosecutor has enough evidence to take the case of two anti-abortion activists charged with secretly…
If you’ve been arrested for vandalism in Riverside County — or your son or daughter has been — the first question is usually: how bad is this, really? The answer depends almost entirely on one number: the dollar value of the damage. The short version: if the damage is less than $400, vandalism is a…
If you’ve been notified that you’re under investigation for workers’ compensation fraud, or if you’ve already been charged, the first thing to understand is that California treats most of these cases as wobblers — meaning the prosecutor decides whether to file as a misdemeanor or as a felony. The second thing is that fraud requires…
Had a good, long day in San Francisco Superior Court, but still no decision on whether Sandra Merritt’s upcoming Preliminary Hearing will be secret or open to the public. The only reason the attorney general wants to have the evidence sealed and kept from the public eye is because it provides damning evidence that these…
Parents prepare their kids for almost everything — first day of school, driving lessons, peer pressure, social media. The conversation about what to do if police stop them or arrest them rarely happens, and when it does, it’s often built on outdated assumptions or advice that sounds reasonable but actively hurts a juvenile case if…
If you’ve had an accidental firearm discharge — your gun went off when you didn’t intend to fire it — the question that brought you here is probably the right one to be asking: is this a crime in California, and am I going to be charged? The short answer is that California’s negligent discharge…
If you’ve been charged with assault, battery, or both, the first thing to understand is that they are two completely separate crimes under California law — not two names for the same thing, and not always charged together. Assault under Penal Code § 240 is the attempt. Battery under Penal Code § 242 is the…
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.
