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Call Us NowWhen is it a crime to use a “False ID” in California?
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Penal Code 148.9 PC - Busted for giving cops a false ID?
Penal Code 148.9 PC is a crime of presenting false identification to a peace officer or a police officer in California, and it’s a crime when you do so with the purpose of evading the process of the court or preventing the police officer from properly identifying you. So this could be presenting a false name, a false date of birth, a false address. Presenting a fictitious driver’s license. Anything that would prevent the police officer from properly identifying you as yourself.
And the crime is charged together with or distinguished from the crime of false personation. And the big difference is that false personation could only be charged if you are trying to assume the identity of a real person. Whereas Penal Code 148.9 could be charged if you’re trying to assume the identity of a real person or a fictitious person that you’ve made up.
About the Author
Neil Shouse
A former Los Angeles prosecutor, attorney Neil Shouse graduated with honors from UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School (and completed additional graduate studies at MIT). He has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Dr Phil, Court TV, The Today Show and Court TV. Mr Shouse has been recognized by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Criminal and Top 100 Civil Attorneys.
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Criminal Defense Blog Posts:
Wrongful convictions based on coerced confessions, unreliable eyewitness testimony, prosecutorial misconduct or other reasons are a widespread tragedy in California. Such injustices cost innocent Californians years of their freedom. They also cost California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars according to a new report. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, a recent study of ...
A police officer is authorized to arrest a person without an arrest warrant when the person commits an offense in the presence of the officer and when a peace officer has probable cause to believe that a suspect committed a felony. Technically, police officers can also make a warrantless arrest if they have probable cause ...