Recently, in Los Angeles County at the Norwalk Courthouse our office successfully litigated a Penal Code § 1473.7 motion arguing that our client failed to meaningfully understand the immigration consequences that would result from his 2002 Penal Code § 273.5(a), “Domestic Violence - Corporal Injury of a Spouse” offense and his Penal Code § 422, “Criminal Threats” offense.
We began our representation of this client by requesting the court file and any other documents still in existence relating to the plea date. According to an affidavit of the court reporter, the transcript of the plea is no longer available. However, the plea waiver in this matter still exists and shows that our client initialed next to an advisement stating that if he was not a citizen the plea “may” have immigration consequences of deportation, exclusion from admission, and denial of naturalization.
We believed that based on this documentation, we had a strong motion to withdraw his plea pursuant to Penal Code section 1473.7. In this motion, we argued that the advisement provided to our client failed to accurately advise him of the certain and permanent immigration consequences of his conviction. Our client was not advised that his conviction to an offense involving domestic violence would result in his mandatory deportation and permanent inadmissibility to the United States.
The prosecution filed a written opposition to our motion arguing that our client was not entitled to relief.
At the hearing on the motion, the prosecution expressed their intent to oppose the relief requested. However, after diligent negotiation and presentation of our client’s equities, the prosecution agreed to submit on the motion if our client re-pled to an immigration neutral offense. The court then granted our motion to vacate the plea pursuant to Penal Code section 1473.7 and we entered a new plea to an immigration safe offense on behalf of our client.
This is a great result for our client and he will no longer suffer adverse immigration consequences as a result of his 2002 pleas!
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