How to shift the power from the district attorney to the defense attorney.

When you start any type of criminal case there is always an imbalance between the powers to be. On one hand you have the district attorney who start off with all the power and on the other hand you have the defense team who starts off with almost no power. Through proper planning and investigation of a criminal matter a well trained defense lawyer can shift those powers which ultimately can result in a successful resolution of your matter. In one case we had a felony matter, with a felony child endangerment charge along with reckless driving. Back when the case started we did a discovery request under penal code 1054 for specific documentation that would help our case. Six months later none of the documents, none of the videos had been produced. What we did next was filed a motion to produce also known a motion to compel under evidence code 1054. We served it upon the District Attorney and what this forced was an evidentiary hearing in front of the judge. We took it one step further, I subpoenaed the police officer who might have had all this information to be present at the hearing. At today’s hearing the officer never showed, which then allowed me to issue a bench warrant for his arrest if I so choose. And the District Attorney did not have any of the additional documents I had requested. We negotiated the matter and the end result my client had all her felony charges dismissed and she plead to a simple misdemeanor charge which will have no ramifications in her current life situations. Again there is no guarantee as to the out come of your case but this is what a well trained and well prepared criminal lawyer could achieve.

San Bernardino & Riverside Counties

                     909-798-1500                   ​​​

                                            Patrick Silva