Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

This week the California Attorney General updated Medical Marijuana policy in Los Angeles and California. More specifically, after the passage of Proposition 215 there have been contradictions on how the Federal Government and California law enforcement officials treat medical marijuana dispensaries in the Los Angeles area as well as throughout the state. It seems odd that the state has passed laws allowing marijuana to be dispensed to those who legitimately need medical marijuana, but the Feds still prosecute those same sellers. This week things have changed on this issue once again. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has stated that he now believes that many "legal" dispensaries are not really operating legally.

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This past week there was a new turn of events on the recent crime wave of robberies on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. For the eighth time in recent weeks a group of young men have held up shoppers taking their personal possessions and scaring these victims. Some news reporters have incorrectly stated that the culprits were committing armed burglaries.

In California, robbery is defined by Penal Code Section 211 as the taking of personal property of some value, no matter how slight, from the immediate presence of another person, by the use of force or fear. The force could be a gun or other weapon. The fear element means that the person being robbed felt fear for their safety, or the safety of another person. It is punishable by jail or prison and and fines.

There are two types of robberies, first degree robbery and second degree robbery. Robbery of the first degree is when the person commits a robbery as defined previously, but the robbery occurs either at an ATM, in the home of a person, or of a taxi or bus driver. The more common form of robbery is robbery of the second degree. These are all other types of robberies, such as street muggings.

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