Recently, at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys, attorney Steve Escovar, once again successfully litigated two cases in the same courtroom on the same day. This time it involved one client who had suffered two separate misdemeanor convictions related to domestic violence. At that particular courthouse, there are typically two prosecuting offices: The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office (DA) and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office (CA). The DA’s office typically handles felonies and the CA only handles misdemeanors. However, there are some select jurisdictions in the Valley in which the DA prosecutes the misdemeanors.
The CA often seeks a re-plea a vacated conviction/ charge to an immigration neutral charge while the DA is more likely to dismiss the vacated charge, particularly if it is an older offense.
One of the matters was handled by the DA, the Penal Code section 1473.7 motion was compelling and they agreed to submit on the motion. The judge then granted the motion to vacate and proceeded to dismiss both cases per Penal Code section 1385.
Another great day in court for our clients!
