California Stalking Laws
In California, you can be convicted of stalking even if you have never engaged in actively pursuing a victim as they went about their daily activities. It’s even possible to be found guilty of California’s stalking laws if you’ve never had a face-to-face encounter with the victim. The reason for this is because California lawmakers have written the state’s stalking laws in such a way that they encompass a variety of acts that include harassment, even if that harassment only takes place in the form of letters, social media posts, or phone calls.
The issue of stalking in California is addressed in Penal Code 646.9 PC. The laws states, “Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking.”
The interesting thing about California’s stalking laws is that contacting someone via social media posts, making phone calls, and following them around isn’t always considered stalking. While these things may result in a police report getting filed, to convict you of stalking, the prosecution must prove that your actions/words threatened the victim so that they feared for either their life or their safety.
One of the interesting things about California’s stalking laws is that they are wobbler offenses. That means you could be charged with misdemeanor or felony stalking. There have even been instances where a person was charged with both misdemeanor and felony stalking. The bulk of stalking convictions in California are misdemeanors.
If you’re convicted of one count of misdemeanor stalking in California, the judge can sentence you to a full year in county jail, fine you up to $1,000, and misdemeanor probation. If convicted of felony stalking, your sentence can include up to five years in a state prison, felony probation, and a fine.
While stalking charges involve threatening a victim, if that victim is hurt as a result of your actions, you’ll likely be charged with assault and intimidation in addition to stalking.
Criminal charges could represent one of the problems you face following a California stalking case. Many stalking victims also decide to file a civil case against their stalker. The purpose of the civil case is to gain financial compensation for the mental anguish they suffered as a result of the stalking episode.
What is Felony Stalking
While everyone knows that stalking is a crime, few realize that it can be a felony or a misdemeanor and in some cases, the accused might be charged with both a felony and a misdemeanor.
Every single state has stalking laws. While the nuances of stalking laws vary from one state to another, for the most part, each state has the same description of what can be considered stalking. As a rule, any behavior that can be considered prolonged harassment, an obvious attempt to frighten someone, the unwanted monitoring of a person, using proximity to threaten a person, or actions that lead to emotional distress is covered by stalking laws.
Anyone who engages in the following types of behavior will likely be charged and convicted of stalking in California:
- Going out of your way to follow a person
- Frequently showing up at locations where you know a specific person will be
- Using GPS to monitor a person’s movements
- Constantly filming/photographing someone without their permission
- Obsessively monitoring someone’s social media accounts, phone calls/texts, reading their emails, and studying their computer activities
- Going out of your way to gather as much information as you can about a specific person
- Leveling threats against a person or their loved ones (including pets) if they don’t spend time with you
- Instigating property damage
- Sending gifts and other forms of communication after you’ve been told to stop doing so
While it’s true that it can sometimes be difficult to determine when stalking crosses the line from a misdemeanor and becomes a felony, the general rule of thumb is that anything that seems more intense than simple harassment will likely be considered a case of felony stalking.
The exact punishment a person receives following a stalking conviction in California often varies from one case to the next. When handing down a sentence, the judge looks at a variety of factors, including:
- Your criminal history
- The type/intensity of the stalking episodes
- If the victim had a POP order that you ignored
- If anyone was hurt because of your actions
The sentence for a misdemeanor conviction can include spending a maximum of one year in county jail and being required to pay a fine that doesn’t exceed $1,000. In most cases, you’ll also be told that you’re legally required to stay away from your victim and that you’re also not allowed to contact them.
The sentence for a felony stalking conviction in California can include spending three years in state prison. If you have prior stalking convictions on your record, you could be sentenced to five years in prison.
Documenting a Car Accident
If you haven’t been in a car accident yet, you should consider yourself lucky. Considering how much time we spend behind the wheel, the odds are good that sooner or later you’ll be involved in one. Because of the likelihood of getting into a car accident, it’s important to know what the proper protocol is during an accident.
The first thing you need to do is make sure neither you nor anyone else is hurt. If there are injuries, call for medical help and do as much first aid as possible. During this, you should also contact the police.
When there are injuries, dealing with those should always be your first priority. Let the police handle writing up the details of the accident.
If there aren’t any injuries, you should still call the police, but while you’re waiting for them to arrive on the scene, take some time to create your own documentation of the accident. Thanks to the installed camera inside your smartphone this is easier than ever. All you have to do is whip it out and start snapping photos.
Having clear accident scene photos is extremely important. Unlike a police report that can be dismissed by a judge as hearsay, the photos you snap at the accident can be used during a civil trial. Your insurance company might even use them as they try to determine how the accident happened and who is at fault. The photos also help provide proof of who actually witnessed the accident.
When you’re snapping photos, you’ll want to take pictures of both vehicles, anyone who is standing nearby, and the local landscape. Make sure you include shots of road signs, objects that could have helped cause the accidents, intersections, and traffic lights.
As soon as you can, sit down and write your own account of what happened in the moments leading up to the car accident. You should do this even if you believe the accident was your fault. Once you’ve completed writing your own report, save it and the photos you snapped somewhere safe. It’s really in your best interest to store copies in multiple places, such as one set in a cloud storage unit, a few more saved to various email locations, and maybe a hard copy in your filing cabinet.
You need to keep the photos and your account of the accident for a full two years. After two years, California’s statute of limitations for car accidents kicks in and you’ll no longer have to worry about a civil lawsuit.
Post Bail Online
In today’s world, realizing that you can’t do something online can be extremely disappointing. In some instances, people may actually be discouraged from buying a product or using a service if they cannot get it online. Some people may mistakenly assume this to be the case with bail, but they are wrong.
Here at Absolute Bail Bonds, our goal is to make the bail bond process as simple as possible for our clients. One of the ways we do this is by letting our clients apply for a bail bond online. Using the chat feature on our website, our clients can talk to a bail agent no matter where they are or what time it is.
With the chat feature, our bail agents can answer all of your questions and collect all of the information they need to locate your loved one in the county database. All they need to get started is your loved one’s name, birthday, and county of arrest. Once they have that information in hand, they can get to work.
The only thing that can’t be done online, is showing us proof of ID documents and the signing of the paperwork. For that, you will need to meet one of our bail agents in person. Luckily, there are dozens of bail agents located across California who will drive to meet you.
Some of the other services we provide for our clients include:
- 24/7 Bail bond service
- 20% Discount
- Phone approvals
- 0% Interest payment plans
- No hidden fees
- No collateral with working signer
- Se habla Español
At Absolute Bail Bonds, we want to do everything that we can to make the bail process as simple as possible. One of the best ways to do that is by allowing our clients to apply and fill out the paperwork for the bail bond online.
What are you waiting for? You can get started right now by clicking Chat With Us or calling 1-800-793-2245.
Don’t Let Bail Ruin Your Day
One call can ruin your day. Finding out that someone you care about has been arrested is horrible. Luckily, one phone call is all it takes to fix the problem too. Just talk to the professionals here at Absolute Bail Bonds. For over 30 years we have helped Californians face bail. We can help you too.
Since Absolute Bail Bonds’ founding in 1987, we have helped thousands of clients face bail. With all of their years of training, our bail agents know everything about bail. With just a small bit of information about your loved one, our agents can answer all of your questions. All they need to get started is your loved one’s name, birthday, and county of arrest.
Once our agents have that information in hand, they can locate your loved one in the county database. There they can get the rest of the information they need and find the details on the arrest itself. This allows our agents to simultaneously answer your questions and fill out the paperwork for the bail bond.
When it comes to the bond itself, our bail bonds only cost 10% of the bail that they are for. This means you get a 90% discount just by coming to us. On top of this discount, we create personalized payment plans for all of our clients. This helps reduce the upfront cost of bailing someone out of jail, making it much more manageable.
- 24/7 Bail bond service
- 20% Discount
- Phone approvals
- 0% Interest payment plans
- No hidden fees
- No collateral with working signer
- Se habla Español
Signing for the bail bond is a piece of cake. So long as one of the co-signers for the bond is working, then we can use that signature as collateral. Plus, with Absolute Bail Bonds, you will never have to worry about hidden fees. The price we tell you is the price you will pay. We never try to milk more money out of our clients.
Don’t let your day be ruined. Make it better by contacting Absolute Bail Bonds at 1-800-793-2245 or by clicking Chat With Us now.
What Is the Booking Process Like?
When it comes to arrests and bail, most people have a lot of questions. For instance, many people wonder what happens when a person is arrested. They often expect the arrest to happen quickly, however that is rarely the case. There is a whole process to booking someone into jail and it usually takes some time to complete.
The booking process proceeds as follows:
- Information is recorded. When a person is brought into a police station, their information is recorded. This includes things such as why the person was arrested, as well as their name, birthday, and home address.
- Picture time. Next the person’s mug shot is taken. The picture is important for identifying two different people who may share the same name. The mugshot also establishes the person’s physical condition at the time of arrest
- Fingers get dirty. After that, fingerprints are taken. These are typically entered into the national database maintained by the FBI.
- Belongings are confiscated. After the mugshot, officers will confiscate anything that is on the person, which can include clothes, which will be replaced with an orange jumpsuit. This also includes a full-body search to ensure that no contraband enters the jail. Any belongings taken from the arrested individual will be returned when the person is released, provided the item wasn’t contraband.
- In for anything else? As all the other stuff is going on, someone else will use the given information to check for any warrants out for the person’s arrest. If a person does have other warrants out for their arrest, they likely won’t be given bail.
- Time for a checkup. Next comes a health checkup to make sure the person is healthy and not bringing any diseases into the jail. A DNA sample may be taken and added to the national database.
- Play well with others? Lastly, officers will make sure that the arrested person won’t cause trouble in the jail. This is done by asking if the person has ever had any gang affiliations, or other outside relationships, that might pose a problem with other inmates.
There are a lot of steps to booking someone into jail, and not every station does them in the same exact order. On top of that, different stations are dealing with more arrests than others. This means that the booking process can be done in under an hour at some stations, but take several at others. It all depends on when and where the person was arrested.
Once a person has been booked in, they may be given a bail amount. Once that happens, Absolute Bail Bonds can help you bail that person out of jail. All you have to do to get started is talk to one of our bail agents. They will help you with the bail and answer all of your questions about the bail process.
You can talk to an agent for free at any time, just call 1-800-793-2245 or click Chat With Us now.
Don’t Ignore This Discount for Bail
Bail is not something that people ever really consider. Most people hope that they will never have to bail themselves, or even a loved one, out of jail. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes things happen, and people end up in jail. This usually means that people who never planned on needing bail, need to learn about the subject in a hurry. After all, the longer they take to post bail, the more time someone spends in jail.
Luckily, as intimidating as bail may seem, it is relatively easy. Provided you have the right help because while the act of bail is easy, getting enough money for the bail can be difficult. That is where Absolute Bail Bonds comes in to help out. We provide our clients with affordable bail bonds that work with their distinct budgets.
Here at Absolute Bail Bonds, we provide bail bonds that only cost 10% of the full bail price, which gives our clients a 90% discount. This means that a bail that is set at $20,000 will only cost our clients $2,000. That is a discount that cannot be ignored. It even comes with a personalized payment plan that breaks down the cost over several months.
Aside from simply making bail more affordable, our agents are always there to guide clients through the process. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to talk with you and get you through each step of the bail process. You will never have to face this alone.
- 20% Discount
- Phone approvals
- 0% Interest payment plans
- No hidden fees
- No collateral with working signer
- Se habla Espanol
You may not have planned on ever needing bail, but life had other plans for you. Luckily Absolute Bail Bonds is here to lend you a hand. Our bail agents are experts in their fields and are more than willing to share their expertise with you. All you need to do to get started is talk to one of our bail agents.