Recently, at the Clara Shortridge Foltz 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 Health and Safety Code § 11351 “Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Sell” felony conviction from 1989.
Despite the fact that thirty-one (31) years had passed since this conviction, we were able to obtain a copy of the transcript of our client’s plea. According to the transcript, at the time of our client’s plea she was provided with the following advisement, “If you are not a citizen of this country, a plea to this charge could cause your deportation, denial of reentry into the country and denial of citizenship of naturalization in the future.”
In our motion, we argued that a controlled substance charge causes permanent and mandatory federal immigration consequences and, at the time of our client’s plea, she should have been advised of these consequences in order for her to meaningfully understand and knowingly accept the immigration consequences of her plea.
At the hearing on the motion, after providing the prosecution with favorable equitable documentation, the prosecution submitted on our motion and the court granted it. The prosecutor then announced he was “unable to proceed” with prosecuting the underlying charges and the case was completely dismissed pursuant to Penal Code section 1382.
This is a great result for our client! She can now proceed with moving forward on her immigration matter with her immigration attorney.
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