Alameda County Criminal Law Blog

A Japanese diplomat is facing up to 15 years in jail for allegedly committing multiple acts of spousal abuse against his wife of 18 months. Although the domestic violence charges have not resulted in the loss of his job, he is not eligible for diplomatic immunity and will face trial in California.

According to court documents, the diplomat's wife went to police in late March, alleging that her husband had physically abused her. Among her allegations of abuse were claims that he had stomped on her, hitting her with a ceramic coffee mug and knocking out one of her teeth, stabbing her with a screwdriver and pushing her from a moving car in a parking garage. The diplomat has not made any statements indicating the truth or falsity of his wife's claims against him.

A former California private investigator is facing both criminal charges and civil lawsuits for allegedly running a "Dirty DUI" scheme that resulted in the improper arrests of at least five men, most of whom have now had their convictions overturned.

In the scheme, the private investigator reportedly targeted men who were enmeshed in divorce, child custody and other family law proceedings. According to court documents, the investigator hired "seductive women" to get the men intoxicated and persuade them to get behind the wheel. If the women succeeded, the investigator called police to tell them of the vehicle's whereabouts so that the men would be arrested for driving under the influence and related crimes. Those arrests and convictions would then be used by the men's estranged spouses in their family law cases.

Last month, a California sheriff's detective reportedly pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges in connection with two alleged drunk driving crashes dating back to last summer. She has not been sentenced, and remains an employee of the San Diego Sheriff's Department, according to a department spokesperson.

The series of events at issue in the case reportedly began on August 30 when a vehicle driven by a woman allegedly crashed into several parked cars in an apartment complex parking lot before driving over a nearby pedestrian's foot. The vehicle did not stop when the pedestrian and others yelled at the driver, police reports indicate, but continued to drive "without stopping to render aid or see if he was injured."

In the next few months, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether juvenile offenders should receive criminal sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the debate over the issue, one unexpected group has stood up against life sentences: the families of people killed by teenagers.

These families have reportedly come together as part of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, a nonprofit organization that works with families and offenders to ensure that juvenile crimes are met with fair sentences. The families in the group say that they are sometimes met with resistance and accusations from people who believe that they do not love their deceased family members enough. But they believe in eliminating life sentences for juveniles, stating that meeting the offenders and helping them make amends has brought peace to all involved.