Recently, at the Downey 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 273a(b), “Child Endangerment” conviction from 2001.
Originally, our client pled to the Penal Code section 273a(b) offense at his arraignment in 2001. Our client was sentenced to serve three years of summary probation, serve 7 days in county jail, credit for time served, and complete a six (6) month batterers program. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to our client, pursuant to federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(I), a conviction for a crime involving child abuse results in deportation. Thus, we evaluated his matter for possible post-conviction relief.
Given the age of the case, the only document still available relating to the plea date was the docket which purports that our client was advised that the conviction “may” cause immigration consequences. For this particular client, this advisement regarding the immigration consequences was insufficient and led to his failure to meaningfully understand the actual adverse immigration consequences of his sentence. Thus, we filed a Penal Code section 1473.7 motion to vacate the plea on his behalf.
After oral argument on the Penal Code section 1473.7 motion, the motion was granted by the court and the client’s 2001 plea was vacated. The prosecution believed that they could still “prove up” the underlying charges so we then set the matter for a bench trial on the merits of the underlying charges.
At the trial date, we announced ready for trial and the prosecution announced unable to proceed and moved to dismiss the case pursuant to Penal Code section 1382.
This is an amazing result for our client that will allow him to remain in the United States!
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