San Diego Criminal Defense Blog

Lance Armstrong is currently under investigation for illegal, performance-enhancing drug use and doping during his bicycle career with the U.S. Postal Service Team. Armstrong came under investigation after disgraced former professional cyclist Floyd Landis accused his former teammate of using drugs and doping throughout their time on the U.S. Postal Team.

Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after it was found that he used performance-enhancing drugs, and while he continually tried to fight the accusation and finding, he eventually admitted cheating and, at the same time, sent letters to investigators accusing other cyclists of cheating.

The seven-time Tour de France winner is also under investigation for fraud because Landis accused him and the members of the U.S. Postal Service team of selling bikes given to them by the Postal Service to fund their doping program.

Lindsay Lohan was booked into a Lynwood, California, jail on Tuesday to begin serving a 90-day sentence for violating the terms of her DUI probation. Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials said that because the actress is a nonviolent offender, she will be released early to ease overcrowding in California's prisons. The officials said Lohan will serve 13 days of the 90-day sentence.

Two weeks ago, Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel sentenced Lohan to 90 days in jail, to be followed by 90 days in rehab, for failing to complete her court-mandated weekly alcohol-education classes. Lohan was on probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor drug charges and no contest to three driving charges after a 2007 DUI arrest.

State lawmakers early this monthy voted to pay Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family a $20-million settlement for the state's failure to rescue Dugard earlier than the 18 years she was held captive by a paroled sex offender. California's Department of Justice prepared a report for lawmakers with legal analysis of the case prior to the vote. The report concluded that the California Department of Corrections and Rebabilitation and parole agents did meet Dugard on a supervised visit with her captor and could have rescued her, but failed to identify her.

Dugard was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido in 1991 while she walked to school. Garrido kept her for 18 years in a shack in the back of his ramshackle compound outside of Oakland. Dugard was raped repeatedly and gave birth to two daughters, now 12 and 15. Dugard, now 30, and her daughters were all denied access to school and medical services. Garrido was eventually arrested after a UC Berkeley police officer became suspicious when he saw Garrido with the two young girls passing out religious fliers on campus and called police.

Swiss officials said Monday that they had refused a request by the U.S. to extradite Roman Polanski to face sentencing for sex crime charges. In 1978, the Oscar-winning film director fled to Europe hours before he was to be sentenced after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor. California and U.S. authorities have been pursuing him for the last 30 years.

The guilty plea was a result of a deal and Polanski served 42 days in a Los Angeles jail under psychiatric evaluation before his formal sentencing. Swiss authorities say that they were not provided with the documents that would have helped them determine whether the time already served by Polanski was enough to fulfill his sentence.

Superior Court Judge Marsha N. Revel sentenced Lindsay Lohan yesterday to 90 days in jail for repeatedly violating her parole. After she is released from jail, Lohan will also be required by the Beverly Hills judge to spend 90 days in a residential substance-abuse rehabiliation program. Lohan was arrested on two occasions in 2007 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. She will surrender and begin her jail sentence on July 20.

In determining the punishment for Lohan, Judge Revel said she considered Lohan's failure to attend her required weekly alcohol education classes. Lohan's DUI probation was extended for a year last fall to give her more time to complete them, but a class operator testified that she had missed several.

Lohan's defense attorney told the judge that, although her client had not completed her program yet or perfectly, she had changed her behavior. Lohan pleaded for another chance and told the judge that she was taking the court and her program seriously, but the judge was not swayed and believed her apology to be insincere.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that local emergency room directors are calling for an end to raves like last weekend's Electric Daisy Carnival. They say that they prepared for the 2-day electronic music festival as a "multi-casualty incident," or the same way they would respond to a disaster such as the Chatsworth Metrolink train crash. The rave last weekend led to at least 63 arrests for drug possession, sale of narcotics, trespassing, and drinking in public, and scores of traumatic and drug-related injuries.

The Electric Daisy Carnival was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum and Exposition Park and drew 185,000 revelers. The company organizing the event, Insomniac, said it was the largest party of its kind in North America. The Coliseum is located on state land and is operated jointly by the city, county and state commission. The venue's manager says raves like the Electric Daisy Carnival are twice as profitable as a USC game. Emergency room directors, however, liken the raves to government-sanctioned drug fests that unnecessarily risk people's health and put a strain on emergency services. 

The Electric Daisy Carnival last weekend was filled to capacity. The electronic music festival was held Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and at Exposition Park, and drew 185,000 people ages 16 and older. No deaths were reported at the event, but more than 226 injuries were reported. Of those injuries, 114 required care at hospitals. Since the event was so large, paramedics were stationed at the site.

The Los Angeles Police Department was also present at the event and reported 63 people arrested on Saturday night. Nine of those arrested were juveniles. Those arrested were charged with drug possession, sale of narcotics, trespassing, and drinking in public. Members of the LAPD were positioned in two helicopters and around the perimeter of the event site.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced this week that at least 30 people, including many white supremacists, have been arrested and charged in connection with a credit-card fraud ring. The fraud ring committed multiple crimes across the county including counterfeit, robbery and burglary, and drug possession. The group created fake $100 dollar bills, tapped into credit-card accounts by re-encoding the magnetic strips on gift cards, and traded methamphetamine and heroine for credit card information from hotel employees.   

The investigation into the ring, known as "Operation Blue Ray," was conducted from October 2009 until last month and involved the District Attorney's Office, the Secret Service, the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the San Diego Police Department. Dumanis said that the credit-card fraud ring was "one of the most organized counterfeiting operations" ever in San Diego County.

SoCal actress Lisette Lee, who starred in the 2008 movie, "The Doorman," has been arrested on drug charges after Drug Enforcement Administration Agents in an Ohio airport found 506 pounds of marijuana in her luggage. She has been charged with conspiracy and possession of drugs with the intent to distribute. She is being held without bail until a hearing Friday. She was traveling with two personal assistants and a bodyguard. The members of her entourage have been released, but may also face charges.

She and her entourage took off from Van Nuys on a charted flight to Columbus. They had aroused suspicion because of their copious amount of heavy luggage, and DEA investigators met them when their plane landed. The group was carrying 13 suitcases, some so heavy that it took two men to carry them, and it took three vehicles to transport them.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Los Angeles Police Department may have solved a decades-old murder case. On Tuesday, the LAPD announced that they have issued an arrest warrant for the 1983 sexual assault and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Watts, California. Detectives in the LAPD's cold case homicide unit said they matched DNA evidence from the crime to Luis Garcia Villalvazo, a Mexican citizen. Prosecutors have filed murder charges against Villalvazo.

Victoria Denise Brown was snatched by a man in a blue van while a half block from her house on her walk home from school. Police found her body in the trunk of an abandoned car in a gritty industrial area 26 hours after she disappeared. Victoria had been sexually assaulted and strangled.