is when you take possession of property that you know

is stolen or that you reasonably should know is stolen,

and I'll give you an example.

Let's say my buddy Jim goes down to Best Buy

and he steals a laptop.

Now, Jim could be charged with theft or burglary

because he actually stole the laptop.

But let's say he brings it over to my house and he says, look,

I just stole this laptop.

Can I keep it here?

Will you hold it for me for a while?

And I say, yeah, sure, I'll hold it for you.

The police later come to my house, they discover it.

Now I'm not liable for theft or burglary,

because I didn't actually steal it.

But I could be liable for receiving stolen property,

since I took possession of the stolen goods knowing

that they were stolen.

Now Penal Code 496, Receiving Stolen Property,

used to be a wobbler, and that meant

that the prosecutor was able to file it as a felony regardless

of the value of the merchandise.

That all changed in November 2014 under Proposition 47.

Under Proposition 47, if you receive

stolen property and the value of that property is $950 or less,

then it can only be filed as a misdemeanor

and it carries a maximum sentence

of one year in county jail.

If the value of the property is more than $950,

then it can be filed as a felony and as a felony

carries up to three years in county jail or state prison.

Moreover, a conviction for receiving stolen property,

whether a misdemeanor or a felony,

looks really bad on your record.

It's a red flag for employers.

Because a prospective employer sees it and thinks,

well, is this person dishonest?

Are they trustworthy?

Are they up to no good?

Would they be a liability in the workplace?

So to the extent that you've been charged with receiving

stolen property, you want to do everything

you can to fight that case and keep it off your record.

And here at Shouse Law Group, we've

had a lot of success in defending clients

who were facing these charges.

So first of all, it may be that the police discovered

the stolen property by way of an illegal search or seizure.

Maybe they searched your house without a warrant.

Maybe they pulled you over and searched your car

without probable cause.

In these situations, many times we

can run what's called a suppression motion in court

and convince the judge to exclude the evidence.

Moreover, it may be that you didn't even know or realize

that the property was stolen.

We had a case where the police found some bicycles

at our client's home and they turned out to be stolen.

Our client was arrested for receiving stolen property.

The fact is that our client was merely holding

these bikes for a friend and didn't realize

that the friend had stolen them.

We were able to convince the prosecutor in the court of this

and ultimately get the charges dismissed

and keep it off of his record.