Greg Hill & Associates

11/04/2026

On this Day in California Criminal Law History, Twelve Years Ago: On November 4, 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which reduced certain low-level felony theft offenses and certain low-level felony drug possession offenses to misdemeanors.

The law permitted those with such convictions to ask a judge to reduce the conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor. The law’s provision allowing one to seek reduction of such felonies to a misdemeanor has since expired, but how courts interpret its public safety exception (of being likely to commit a ”Super Strike”) has been adopted by other new laws with similar exception provisions in California.

Former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne is co-author of Pro...

11/03/2026

On this Day in U.S. Legal History: We often get phone calls from clients seeking or defending a civil restraining order and the underlying conflict may be something quite unusual. On November 3, 2001, however, the conflict was not unusual, but the award was: a North Carolina jury concluded a three-year neighbor dispute by ordering a millionaire to pay $1 in damages over barking dogs.

11/02/2026

On this Day in Criminal Law History, November 2, 1953, then-President Harry S. Truman signed the Boggs Act into law, which amended the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act and established mandatory minimum federal prison sentences for drug offenses.

In 1951 Congress passed the Boggs Act to establish mandatory minimu...

11/01/2026

On November 1, 1987, Kitty Dukakis reveals a 26-year long addiction to amphetamines. The revelation increased public awareness of drug addiction, even to those who did not meet the stereotype of a drug addict. Kitty’s husband, Michael Dukakis, was a long-time governor of Massachusetts and a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate.

Kitty Dukakis, wife of 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis,...

10/31/2026

This Day in U.S. Legal History 63 Years Ago: On October 31, 1963, a Cleveland Police Department detective patted down and arrested John W. Terry. This seemingly minor arrest would become the basis for one of the most significant Fourth Amendment cases, perhaps of all such cases, Terry v. Ohio (1968) 392 U.S. 1, which every law student has read since perhaps 1975.

Terry and two other men were observed by a plain-clothes police officer in what he believed was “a casing job, a stick up.” The police officer stopped and frisked the three men, finding weapons on two of them. Terry was later convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to three years in state prison.

Terry challenged the search of him and the seizure of the weapon as a violation of the Fourth Amendment and the case worked its way all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which found, by an 8-1 ruling, that the search and seizure was reasonable and not a Fourth Amendment violation because the officer acted on “more than a hunch” and “that a reasonably prudent person would have believed that Terry was armed” given his “suspicious behavior.” The search, moreover, was limited in scope and only for the officer’s safety, so it was not a Constitutional violation.

From reasonable suspicion to courtroom scrutiny, here’s an introduc...

10/30/2026

This Day in Criminal History 19 Years Ago: On October 30, 2007, Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona was indicted on conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering.

He and others allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for political favors. In 2009 a jury convicted him of witness-tampering, but acquitted him of bribery.

He gained national prominence during the hunt for the killer of Samantha Runnion. After the quick capture of her murderer, Alejandro Avila, late night television host Larry King dubbed him "America's Sheriff" during an interview.

In late 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Carona, his wife, and his alleged longtime mistress on corruption charges. He resigned effective January 14, 2008, and was convicted on one count of witness tampering, a year later. He was sentenced to 66 months in prison and on January 25, 2011, turned himself in to a federal prison in Colorado to start serving time on the conviction.

In May 2015, he was released to his Orange, California, home for home confinement after being released from Federal Medical Center, Lexington and spending time at a halfway house in Los Angeles County.

The story of Michael S. Carona, the former Sheriff of Orange County...

10/29/2026

On This Day in California Criminal Law History, the California Supreme Court (photo below) decided Ingersoll v. Palmer (1987) 43 Cal. 3d 1321 concerning the legal standards used to evaluate the Fourth Amendment issues in a DUI check-point stop. Now when an attorney is defending someone involved in such an arrest, the attorney should request “an Ingersoll packet” from the prosecuting agency, containing the items this case requires. Our office has had several DUI arrests arising from a check-point stop dismissed (in Torance, Inglewood, for example) based on violation(s) of Ingersoll.

More info at https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/dui/laws/checkpoints/or ...

10/28/2026

On this Day in U.S. History: On October 28, 1793, Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, which was granted. This machine would transform the economy of the South and, many say, encourage slavery, which would in turn, lead to the Civil War, which would in turn, lead to many emancipation for slaves and many new laws.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

10/27/2026

On This Day in California Criminal History 136 Years Ago: On October 27, 1890, the first signal box for the San Francisco Police Department went into operation. With this development, the public regarded police as more available and responsive to public safety, something that has no doubt increased since then.
(Source - ThisWeekInCaliforniaHistory.com)

10/26/2026

On this Day in Los Angeles History 157 Years Ago: On October 26, 1869, the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad opened. This 21-mile line connected L.A. with the San Pedro Bay shipping harbor.
(Source - ThisWeekInCaliforniaHistory.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6YZJW7zUJ8

A video history of the early beginnings of Los Angeles and the men ...