Bribery
Orange County Bribery Defense Attorney
If you’ve recently been charged with bribery you need to call the Orange County white collar criminal defense attorneys at the Law Office of Michael L. Guisti right away so we can clear your name and protect your reputation.
Bribery of a public official or by a public official is taken very seriously by the courts and is often charged as a felony, not to mention the court of public opinion. Public officials include politicians, police officers, court clerks, judges or anybody who holds a position of public trust. If you or somebody you know is being accused of bribery you need to call our Orange County criminal defense attorneys right now, because this isn’t something to brush aside as punishment includes possible state prison time.
What is Bribery?
As our Orange County criminal attorneys at the Law Offices of Michael Guisti explain, bribery is broadly defined and highly complex that encompasses several laws, but essentially bribery is when an elected lawmaker from the governor down to a local city council representative trades their vote for money or something else of value under Penal Code (PC) 137 and PC 138.
As well, as an elected lawmaker can be charged for asking for a bribe.
It’s very important to understand for most bribery laws in California it doesn’t matter if you received or gave the bribe, only that you thought about it and did something to act upon it.
In fact, as Westminster criminal attorneys at the Law Offices of Michael Guisti stress, all that is needed is circumstantial evidence to charge and convict you on bribery charges. The implications of your actions is enough to send you to prison, which is why if you’re facing this charge you must contact an experienced Orange County defense attorney immediately.
It’s also very important to understand you’ll still face charges of bribery even if the person you bribed doesn’t accept the bribe.
The Value
Unlike certain crimes, especially theft crimes like petty theft and grand theft, the value the bribe doesn’t matter just as long as either the intent was there or action took place.
Also, general favors, rather than personal, direct favors, can be prosecuted under California’s bribery laws.
Official Matter
As an Irvine criminal lawyers at the Law Offices of Michael Guisti explain that an “official matter” is when a bribe is taken by a public official and an official favor is done in return.
For example, if you’re a housing developer and bribe city council members to change the city’s long standing zoning law of allowing single-family home to apartments, condos and dense housing, and the city council passes such an act changing the housing zoning laws because of your bribe that is an official matter.
Another example is if you’re pulled over by police and the police officer says he’ll “make your problems go away” if you pay him $1,000 and in return the officer doesn’t arrest you, that is considered an official matter.
The Difference between Bribery and Extortion
Both bribery and extortion have the same goal, to get something of value from somebody.
The difference between bribery and extortion is, for example, if you offer a large sum of money to a city official to “help” approve a development you’re company is in charge of, then that is bribery, regardless if the city official accepted the money or not. Now if you threaten to post explicit photographs of the city official having an affair unless the city official does what you want, then it’s extortion.
Defending Bribery Charges
As our experienced Orange County criminal defense lawyers explain, bribery is a specific intent crime, which basically means if you had no corrupt or nefarious intent then it becomes a difficult case the prosecution has against you, which can possibly result in your case being dismissed.
A Misunderstanding
Our Orange County criminal attorneys have seen many cases where it simply comes down to the alleged bribery being a misunderstanding.
Maybe if you’re a land developer who happens to live in the same city where your latest project is taking place and there is an elected official who you’ve supported over the years and your latest political donation may have been viewed by somebody as a bribe since the elected official accepted it and happened to support your project.
As long as your campaign donations were within the law you’re not guilty of this crime.
Wrongly Accused
Using the misunderstanding example above they’ve been cases where a political opponent hears the land developer donated money to an elected official and begins accusing both the land developer and elected official of bribery.
While some in the “court of public opinion” may say it doesn’t look good if you legally donated to the elected official’s campaign and that public official happened to approve the land developer’s project, as long as the donation was within campaign finance law and it’s shown both the land developer and public official’s action didn’t violate any laws then there is no crime.
If Convicted
Depending on what aspect of California’s bribery law you broke you could face between two to four years in a California State Prison and thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.
If you’re an elected official you will have to resign.
Call our Orange County White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyer Now!
Whether you have been charged with bribery in Newport Beach, Irvine, Tustin, Westminster, Santa Ana, Fullerton, Yorba Linda, or any cities in Orange County and Los Angeles, bribery laws are very strict and complex, and can have devastating consequences for your career if you’re convicted, and that is why you need to call and set up an appointment with the Orange County white collar criminal defense attorney specialists at the Law Office of Michael L. Guisti at 888-478-8999 for a free consultation.
Your freedom and reputation is very important to us.
