False Report of Emergency – California Penal Code 148.3

“(a) Any individual who reports, or causes any report to be made, to any city, county, city and county, or state department, district, agency, division, commission, or board, that an “emergency” exists, knowing that the report is false, is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.”

Application of the California Penal Code 148.3

In California, an individual who makes a false emergency report may be found guilty of a misdemeanor.  False Emergency reports primarily come in play during domestic violence disputes in Los Angeles.  For example, if the father has taken the child to a baseball game and his phone is out of juice, a mother may  report kidnapping if their relationship was on the verge of separation.  Mistrust of relationship usually in domestic violence circumstances may rise to the level of making a police report that may be false. Other instances include a person may make a false police report as to obtain leverage in a collateral civil or family lawsuit.  Trying to obtain a conviction in the criminal case may provide an advantage to the claimant in another civil or family dispute.  If you are being accused of making a false emergency report, you need a qualified attorney at the Khachatourians Law Group to piece the missing facts as to demonstrate to the court that you had reasonable grounds for making the report and it was not false.  

A Private Citizen’s Arrest – California Penal Code Section 837

California Penal Code 837.  A private person may arrest another:

1. For a public offense committed or attempted in his presence.
2. When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in his presence.
3. When a felony has been in fact committed, and he has reasonable cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it.

Sometimes instead of a false emergency report, you have a private citizen making an arrest.  If the incident did not happen in front of the police officers and the alleged victim wants to press charges, the private citizen may wish to exercise his right to make a private citizen’s arrest.  The private citizen needs to sign an affidavit of responsibility assuming that they will assume the liability of a falsely accused arrest.  If the defendant wins the criminal case that arose from a private citizen’s arrest, the defendant now may file a civil lawsuit for false imprisonment and falsification against the person who claimed a citizen’s arrest.  

Arthur Khachatourians has successfully handled false reports and private citizen’s arrests cases arising in domestic violence and battery cases.  Often times, these types of cases also come about in bar fights when the private bar owner will make a citizen’s arrest against a person who was not the aggressor and was acting in self-defense.  The bar owner attempts to use the criminal proceedings as a sword to prevent a premises liability action against him.