In the Santa Ana Superior Court, attorney Steve Escovar successfully litigated a motion to vacate per Penal Code section 1473.7. The client had previously suffered two felony convictions. One for a violation of Health and Safety code section 11360 (Transportation for sale of Marijuana) and the other for a violation of Health and Safety code section 11359 (Possession of Marijuana for Sale). The convictions occurred in the year 2000 and both convictions were preventing the client from adjusting his status to lawfully immigrate into the United States.
In order to help the client we first obtained a copy of the court file, a copy of the Docket, a copy of the “Tahl” waiver forms and we attempted to obtain a copy of the Transcript of the Plea (it had been destroyed ten years after the convictions).
We then filed a motion to reduce the felonies to misdemeanors under Proposition 64. This would theoretically position the case for less opposition from the prosecution. The motion to reduce the matters to misdemeanors was granted.
We noted that the Tahl waiver form indicated that the client had been advised that “. . . if he was not a citizen of the United States . . . he will be deported, excluded and denied naturalization . . . .” Yet, based on our legal research we believed we could still establish that he did not “meaningfully understand the immigration consequences at the time of his plea”. Based on a case named Manzanilla, we were able to persuade the prosecutor and the court that the conviction must be vacated because despite the “will” be deported advisement, the mandatory and permanent nature of the consequence was not meaningfully understood by the client, they both agreed, and the conviction was vacated and the charges were later dismissed under Penal Code section 1385 in the interest of justice!
Another fantastic result, one that will now allow a family to stay united!
Results will vary, cases are fact specific and there are no guarantees for similar future results.