How To Handle Kidnapping Charges Under California Criminal Law

 Kidnapping should never be considered a minor offense. The California courts take such a crime very seriously and are likely to press charges against you quickly and harshly. Kidnapping, in reality, carries a potential life sentence, so being accused of it is no laughing matter. The legal system is perplexing and daunting, and even though you are "innocent until proven guilty," your liberty is in jeopardy. You might need the help of a California Criminal Defense Attorney to help you through the complicated process.

Find A California Criminal Defense Attorney for Kidnapping Charges

Kidnapping is described as taking another person a significant distance against their will by using intimidation, threats, or other means of coercion, as defined by California Penal Code 207 PC. A kidnapping charge needs a lot of intimidation. For an act to be legally called kidnapping, it must include force or threat, deception, or other restraint forms. There must be a lack of consent as well. You cannot be charged with kidnapping if someone voluntarily gives their consent to be taken to a different venue.

While most people think of kidnapping as a blanket word, California law recognizes four distinct types of kidnapping charges. Aggravated kidnapping, plain kidnapping, false imprisonment, and child kidnapping are the four types of kidnapping. Each charge has its own meaning, as well as its own set of consequences. When it comes to defending yourself in court, knowing which one you've been charged with is important.

Kidnapping Charges

• Simple Kidnapping

• Simple kidnapping is a criminal offense that occurs when you use coercion or fear to drive another person a significant distance without their permission.

• Aggravated Kidnapping

• If you demand a ransom or cause serious bodily harm or death on the victim during the abduction, you could be charged with aggravated kidnapping, a more serious crime. Kidnappings involving extortion, theft, carjacking, or certain sex offenses can be charged as aggravated kidnappings. This form of kidnapping has the potential to result in a life sentence.

• False Imprisonment

• False imprisonment is described as restraining, detaining, or confining another person without their consent. It could be preferable to reduce a kidnapping charge to false imprisonment because the fines are less severe.

• Child Abduction

• Child abduction is a form of kidnapping that does not necessitate transporting the victim over a long distance. The crime consists of intentionally withholding the child from someone who has custody rights.

Common Kidnapping Defenses

Kidnapping is a difficult crime to overcome. Even the smallest sentence described is at least a year in jail, and most are much longer. That means you'll be gone for at least a year from your family, house, work, and any other obligations you've taken on. Furthermore, since these types of crimes are widely known, your credibility, even among people you meet and care for, may be totally destroyed. All of this is justification enough to devise the most effective defense possible. The following are some of the most widely used protections for kidnapping-related crimes:

• You were guarding or attempting to guard a child or adult victim from damage.
• You were behaving within the bounds of the law, such as in the case of a citizen's arrest.
• The person gave their permission to be moved or kept.
• You were defending yourself.

Thanks to shopkeeper's privilege, which is a special statute that allows store workers to detain a customer accused of shoplifting for a fair period of time, you were within your rights.

• The victim just moved by accident, and it was not done on purpose.
• You are not the kidnapper, and there is a case of mistaken identity.

Building a good defense, on the other hand, is a difficult challenge. It takes hours and hours of work, as well as several late nights, to sift through potential facts and claims. Working with an experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer will give you the best chance of getting your charges reduced or dismissed entirely.

Simple Kidnapping

Simple kidnapping is described as the act of moving another person across a significant distance without their permission, using force, or fear. "More than a slight or trivial distance" is known as a significant distance. In California, a judge must determine whether or not the gap is "considerable." Forcibly relocating an individual within the same home, for example, may not be considered a "considerable distance," whereas relocating them to another part of the city may be.

In California, there are many ways to define what kidnapping is, including:

• Any person who steals or takes, holds, detains, or arrests any person in this state forcefully or by any other means of instilling fear, and transports the person into another nation, state, or county, or simply into another part of the same county;
• Any person who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces any child under the age of fourteen years to travel out of the country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, for the purpose of committing any act described as lewd, is guilty of kidnapping;
• Any person who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces any person to leave this state by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, or who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces any person to leave this state by forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, takes or holds, detains, or arrests any person with the intent to take the person out.
• Any person who, when out of state, abducts or takes a person by force or fraud in violation of the law of the place where the act is performed, and then brings, sends, or conveys that person within the confines of this state, and is later found within those confines.
• The amount of force needed to kidnap an unresisting baby or child for certain types of kidnappings that involve force is the amount of physical force required to take and transport the child a significant distance for an illegal reason or with an illegal intent.

When most people hear the word "kidnapping," they immediately think of this incident. However, just because the word "easy" is used does not imply that the offense isn't significant. Even a minor kidnapping conviction will result in serious consequences, such as:

• Prison sentences range from three to eight years.
• If the perpetrator is under the age of 14, the punishment ranges from a fight to 11 years in jail.

The amount of force used and the intent of the kidnapping are what distinguish simple kidnapping from aggravated kidnapping. The victim of a simple kidnapping will not have suffered much damage, and the kidnapper will not have benefited personally from the crime. Of course, simple kidnapping can easily escalate to aggravated kidnapping, or other offenses, such as false imprisonment, can be used to increase the penalties.

Aggravated Kidnapping

The most serious kidnapping crime is aggravated kidnapping. It is taken very seriously, and anyone accused of aggravated kidnapping will almost certainly face severe consequences. It must, in general, meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Kidnapping for ransom, remuneration, or blackmail
• Kidnapping for the purpose of committing kidnapping, rape, or other sexual crimes
• Kidnapping while carrying out a carjacking
• Kidnapping in which the victim causes or has a good chance of suffering, death, or bodily harm

The level of violence used and the motive for the kidnapping are what distinguish aggravated kidnapping from other kidnapping crimes. Although all types of kidnapping must include forced movement, aggravated kidnapping does so with the intent of causing serious harm to the victim or obtaining personal gain. Because of these factors, it is normally severely punished. If you are charged with aggravated kidnapping, you can face the following penalties:

• If the victim was not seriously injured, life in state prison with the chance of parole.
• If the victim was seriously injured, life in state prison without the possibility of parole.

If you are sentenced in either case, you should expect to spend a long time in prison. That is why, as soon as you suspect you are being prosecuted, you can contact an experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer. The more time your Criminal Defense Lawyer has to build your case, the more likely you are to avoid a conviction.

What's the Difference Between Simple and Aggravated Kidnapping?

The prosecutor must show that the accused is guilty of simple kidnapping under Penal Code 207(a):

• Using force or fear, the accused kidnapper took, put, or detained another person;
• Using force or fear, the accused pushed or forced the other person to travel a significant distance;
• The other party did not approve of the movement.

Consent implies that an individual acted freely and willingly while also being aware of the essence of the act. The term "substantial distance" refers to a distance that is greater than a small or insignificant distance.

During the commission of the crime, a person is guilty of aggravated kidnapping if they:

• kidnapping for ransom, reward, or to extort money
• kidnapping for the purpose of committing kidnapping, rape, or other sexual offenses
• if the victim dies, or there is a significant risk of suffering, death, or serious bodily injury, kidnap another individual (third-person) during the event of a carjacking (as an example being if the defendant used heavy force or a deadly weapon to subdue the victim).

The forcible movement or asportation in cases of aggravated abduction for the intent of robbery, rape, or other sexual offenses:

• must be more than a byproduct of committing the theft or sex offense;
• Must pose a greater risk of physical or psychological damage to the victim than the theft or sex offense alone—people v. Rayford, 9 Cal. 4th 1 (1994).

Please keep in mind that a person may be kidnapped for ransom or extortion if they are not moved but instead taken, confined, or kept.

Only aggravated kidnapping is associated with the term "fraud." Any form of deliberate or malicious misrepresentation (i.e., a trick) for the defendant's own advantage is specified. This form of behavior is typical in rape and lewd acts involving minors, where the defendant tells the victim that he will take her home but does not intend to do so.

What are the most common 207 PC defenses?

A strong legal argument may also minimize or even eliminate a kidnapping allegation. Fortunately, a professional Criminal Defense Lawyer may provide a number of legal defenses that are applicable to California kidnapping charges on your behalf. These can involve (but are not limited to) the following:

• The suspected victim agreed to be moved.
• There wasn't enough action to be considered a kidnapping.
• You weren't the kidnapper; you were just there.
• Inadequate proof / false accusations
• Parents' rights to accompany their children on trips

Exceptions to the law

There are a couple of defenses written into California's kidnapping laws in addition to the ones mentioned above. If the following conditions are met, you are not guilty of kidnapping:

If you steal, take, hide, or otherwise harbor a child under the age of 14, you must do so to protect the child from imminent harm.

According to Penal Code 837, you put the suspected victim under citizen's arrest.

When you lawfully put another person under a "people" detention, you must do the following:

• observing the person committing a felony
• have fair grounds to suspect the person of committing a felony
• to be aware that the person has actually committed a felony

False Imprisonment

False imprisonment is described as wrongfully restraining, confining, or detaining a person without his or her consent and without a lawful means of escape under California Penal Code Section 236, which is a felony.

False imprisonment is a wobbler, which means that depending on the circumstances surrounding the false imprisonment and the criminal background of the suspected perpetrator, the crime can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony.

If the prosecutor can show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant False Imprisonment knowingly restrained, confined, or detained another person without their permission, the offense is charged as a misdemeanor.

If the court also shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the restriction, imprisonment, or incarceration was carried out by intimidation, fraud, or deception, it is prosecuted as a felony.

If you're convicted of a misdemeanor, you could face the following penalties:

• A year in prison is possible
• A fine

On the other hand, if you're charged with a crime, you may face the following penalties:

• In county jail for 16 months, two years, or three years
• Additional penalties can be imposed

Bear in mind that a conviction of false imprisonment on top of a charge of kidnapping will lengthen the sentence. False imprisonment is sometimes used as a bargaining chip. Suppose it becomes apparent that you have no hope of beating the charges outright. A conviction of false arrest, whether a misdemeanor or felony, could be preferable to a conviction of simple or aggravated kidnapping. False imprisonment carries far less serious penalties than kidnapping, and it could be the best-case situation for you and your case.

If their acts were deliberately unlawful or reckless and resulted in an arrest or incarceration, businesses and individuals could be responsible for false arrests, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution. In fact, the majority of false arrest cases involve private companies whose employees overreacted to a situation or simply did not follow appropriate procedures when reporting what they perceived to be a crime to law enforcement.

Simple Kidnapping vs. False Imprisonment

False imprisonment can be difficult to tell apart from abduction. After all, it's close to kidnapping in that it involves taking others against their will. On the other hand, false imprisonment is the act of holding someone in one place without their permission, if abduction is the act of transferring someone without their consent. False imprisonment is described as the "unlawful deprivation of another's personal liberty" under California Penal Code 236 PC. False imprisonment is when you prevent someone from leaving a place by confining, restraining, or detaining them.

For instance, if a husband refuses to let his wife leave their home despite her pleadings, he is guilty of false imprisonment. This could be as simple as locking all the doors and windows and never allowing her to leave the building during a heated argument, or it could be as extreme as locking up all the doors and windows and never allowing the victim to leave the building. While one is unquestionably more understandable than the other, they both have the potential to lead to a fee. It is not necessary for the defendant to assault or injure the victim for it to be unlawful. The only stipulation is that one person prevents the other from leaving a specific area.

PC 210.5 Penal Code False detention to avoid being arrested

The Penal Code, Section 210.5 PC, forbids

1. falsely imprisoning someone else in order to prevent being arrested
2. enlisting the support of another individual as a "shield."

When the risk of harm to that person is significantly increased as a result of the false imprisonment, if you are convicted of this crime, you will be sentenced to three, five, or eight years in county prison.

The Kidnapping of a Child

Child abduction is the unlawful removal of a child under the age of 18 from the custody of his or her legal guardian. Depending on the circumstances, the crime may be charged as a felony or a misdemeanor. The main distinction between the misdemeanor and felony charges, as in most of the crimes we've mentioned so far, is the motive behind the abduction, as well as the harm done to the infant. Other offenses, such as robbery, rape of a minor, and false imprisonment, will aggravate this crime.

The love that a parent has for their children knows no bounds. When an infant is abducted by someone who has no legal authority to do so, there is no doubt that a crime has been committed. Unlike kidnapping (which is a crime against the victim), child abduction is a crime against the child's parents or legal guardians. You are presumed innocent unless proved guilty under the constitution, but it won't feel that way when you're accused of kidnapping a child. Any case involving children will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Child abduction convictions will result in years in state prison, fines, and restitution. If you are accused of kidnapping a child, you should contact a Criminal Defense Lawyer right away because a conviction will significantly impact your life. Consider one of our prescreened California Lawyers in your Cal Bar Attorney Search.

California Penal Code 278 PC defines child kidnapping as follows:

"Any person who takes entices away, keeps, withholds, or conceals any child with the intent to detain or hide that child from a lawful custodian shall be punished..."

Baby abduction, unlike kidnapping, is a crime committed against a child's legal guardian. To fully comprehend this crime and its defense, you must first comprehend the elements of the crime:

• "having no legal right to custody": To commit this crime, you must have no legal right to custody. This crime cannot be prosecuted against parents or other legal guardians.
• "maliciously" means with the intent to annoy, hurt, kill, or otherwise harm in any way.
• "takes, entices away, keeps, withholds, or conceals": The infant must be taken from their rightful custodians and either hidden or concealed. It makes no difference if the child goes voluntarily or is coerced; the crime is committed against the lawful custodians, not the child.
• "intentionally detaining or concealing the child from a legitimate custodian": The crime must be committed with the intention of delaying or preventing the child's return to their legal guardian. It's important to note that this is an intent – it doesn't matter whether you really did it or not; all that matters is that you wanted to.

Child abduction may be prosecuted on its own or in conjunction with other crimes such as robbery, loitering at a school, and so on.

Child Abduction and Parental Kidnapping

Parental kidnapping and child abduction are two crimes that have a lot in common. As the child's parent, you will believe that you have the legal authority to transport them anywhere you want. Only if you have legal custody of your child is this valid. If custody of your child has been taken away from you, you are not permitted to take your child anywhere without the permission of the party that retains custody.

Parental kidnapping occurs when you take your child without the consent and knowledge of the party who has legal custody. Kidnapping and child kidnapping are two different offenses, but if you are the child's parent and take them away from their legal guardian, you may be charged with both. This means that you will face child abduction charges in addition to parental kidnapping charges.

You could face an additional five to eight years in jail as well as a fine of up to $10,000 if you are convicted of parental kidnapping. Since parental kidnapping and child abduction are often attempted together, parental kidnapping may be viewed as a contributing factor to child abduction. It's important to remember that this isn't the only thing to consider.

PC 278.5 Penal Code Deprivation of a custody order of a child

Abducting a child as a violation of a custody order or visitation right is illegal under Penal Code 278.5 PC. When you take or conceal a child from their lawful custodian or someone who has a right of visitation with the child, you breach this rule, which is also known as "child detention."

Unlike child kidnapping, anyone can commit this crime, regardless of whether or not they have a right to custody. You can break this law without breaking California's kidnapping law if you're a parent or legal custodian of a child because parents can't legally abduct their own children unless they "take" them with unlawful intent.

If, on the other hand, you do not have a right of custody and take a child to prohibit another person from exercising his or her right of visitation with the child, you may be charged with this crime and abduction.

This is also a wobbler, with a misdemeanor penalty of up to one year in prison and a felony penalty of up to three years in jail.

Factors to Be Aware Of That Are Aggravating

When you've been convicted for kidnapping a child, the prosecutor will often use what's known as aggravating circumstances to increase your jail term. Aggravating circumstances are circumstances surrounding a prosecution that make the crime more severe, resulting in tougher penalties.

The following are some aggravating factors in child abduction:

• The age of the child
• Whether or not the child was hurt
• The distance traveled by the child
• How long was the child held?
• Whether or not the child was abused
• Your criminal background

The prosecutor can also attempt to convict you of similar crimes in addition to these factors. Some offenses are related to the initial allegation or the circumstances surrounding the crime you are accused of committing. There are some similar offenses that you might be charged with if you kidnap a child. If you are convicted, the court could extend your initial jail term for several years, if not decades. The following are some examples of similar offenses:

• Kidnapping
• False imprisonment
• Contributing to a minor's delinquency
• The minor has been assaulted

If you've been charged with kidnapping a girl, don't think that's what you'll be found guilty of. The penalties you could face are likely to be much more severe than those mentioned in this article. That is why you need to consult with an experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer who can put together the best case possible on your behalf.

Kidnapping is not the same as kidnapping; in some circumstances, a prosecutor will press charges for both kidnapping and kidnapping. Separate charges may be brought if a parent or legal guardian hides a child from someone with legal custody or visitation rights, in which case the child is unlawfully retained, and the parent or legal guardian faces criminal charges. This suggests that even the child's own parent may be charged with abduction. When it comes to child kidnapping, it's important to think of who has complete custody. In addition to your own custody rights, you may be charged with breaking a court order, traveling out of state or country, or breaching any custody arrangement. The court decides custody in these cases, and the court would not be pleased if their order is disobeyed.

Hague Abduction Convention

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which entered into force on October 25, 1980, is a multilateral treaty that specifically discusses international abductions and spells out remedies. The treaty's aim is to provide clear guidelines about what should happen if there are disputes over child custody between parents who live in separate countries.

Despite these efforts, there is a great deal of bureaucracy in these situations. There may be countries that are not protected by the convention in some cases, leading to even more uncertainty about what will happen in a custody dispute.

The other parent is planning to abduct my child?

If you're in a custody battle, it's a good idea to give the judge as much information as possible to back up your suspicions that the other parent is planning to steal the boy. The judge will weigh the following factors to decide whether or not there is a possibility of abduction:

• has previously taken or concealed the child in breach of your custody or visitation rights, or has threatened to do so
• has no strong ties to the state of California ("ties" could include friends, relatives, a career, a home, etc. )
• has no strong ties to California
• has close familial, mental, or cultural links to another state or nation, including citizenship in that state or country,
• If the party is unemployed, willing to work elsewhere, or financially self-sufficient, there is no financial incentive for them to remain in this state,
• Have activities designed to assist you in removing your child from the state (such as applying for a visa, attempting to obtain birth certificates or other documents, purchasing plane tickets, closing his or her bank account, selling his or her home, and so on).

• has a history of parental disobedience or child neglect, or has engaged in domestic violence;
• has been convicted of a crime

If a judge suspects that a child is in danger of being kidnapped, the following are some of the steps he or she may take and try to avoid the kidnapping:

• a court order requiring supervised visitation
• as a financial deterrent to kidnapping, requiring a parent to post a bond
• limiting the right of the parent who has custody of the child (custodial parent) to travel with the child only unless the custodial parent gives notice to the parent who does not have custody of the child (non-custodial parent) and obtain written consent from the non-custodial parent, or obtains court permission before moving with the child.
• limiting the custodial or non-custodial parent's ability to withdraw the child from the county, state, or country.
• requiring passports and other travel documents to be surrendered
• prohibiting a parent from applying for the child's new or replacement passport

obtaining guarantees that a group can return from international visits by requiring the traveling parent to give any of the following to the court or the other parent or guardian:

• the child's travel itinerary;
• a collection of round-trip airline tickets; a set of round-trip airline tickets;
• a list of phone numbers and addresses where the child can be called at all times;
• an open airline ticket for the parent who has been left behind in the event that the child is not returned

Common Child Abduction Defenses

You don't have to bear the burden of evidence, thankfully. The prosecutor is in charge of this. This means that instead of proving your innocence, your prosecution must raise fair doubt in the minds of the jurors. You can use a variety of defenses to achieve this, including:

• As a parent or someone who was given legal custody by a judge, you had legal custody of the child in question.
• Your acts were motivated by good intentions, such as removing the child from an unhealthy or unsafe situation. You must have done something to corroborate this story, such as calling child services or the police until the child was healthy, for this defense to be true.
• There was no malice in your actions; you actually made a mistake doing what you believed was right and good for the boy.
• The accusation is false, and the child was never kidnapped. In the event of a serious parental feud, it is not unusual for one parent to make false claims against the other in order to obtain full custody of the child.

However, it would be best if you never constructed a defense on the basis of a webpage you find online. Instead, you can consult a Criminal Defense Lawyer who will investigate your alleged crime, the police who arrested you, and the prosecution's facts.

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