Recently, at the Norwalk Courthouse in Los Angeles County, Attorney Steve Escovar was able to successfully litigate a post-conviction Penal Code section 1473.7 Motion to vacate our client’s Penal Code section 273.5(a), “Domestic Violence” conviction from 2006 in which our client was sentenced to serve 365 days in the county jail.
The immigration consequences of a domestic violence conviction for a non-citizen are mandatory, permanent, and dire. This conviction subjects our client to mandatory and permanent deportation, denial of naturalization, and exclusion from admission to the United States. Thus, our client hired our office to assist him with seeking post-conviction relief.
According to the transcript of the plea for this offense, at the time of our client’s plea he was orally advised that if he was not a citizen immigration consequences “will” result. However, according to the Tahl waiver form, the immigration advisement section was crossed off, indicating that it was not read and explained to our client by his prior defense counsel. In this particular circumstance, our client spoke English well and, therefore, his prior defense counsel assumed he was a citizen and did not appropriately inquire or advise him of the immigration consequences that would result from his conviction. Each post-conviction case is unique and must be evaluated individually to assess each client’s true understanding of the immigration consequences of their pleas.
After filing the motion, we provided the prosecution with an equities package detailing our client’s work history, commitment to family, and dedication to his community. The prosecution agreed to submit on our motion and renegotiate to a Penal Code section 243(e)(1) offense.
This is a great result for our client that will allow him to proceed with his immigration matter!
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