Shasta County Criminal Defense Lawyer

Who Makes Arrests in Shasta County?

It depends on where you were standing. City police handle Redding and Anderson. The Sheriff’s Office covers roughly 3,700 square miles of unincorporated county and, by contract, the City of Shasta Lake. The California Highway Patrol covers Interstate 5, the state routes and about 1,200 miles of unincorporated county roads.

The Sheriff’s Enforcement Division works from three patrol stations. The South County Station on Lockheed Drive in Redding serves the Redding Basin. The Burney Station serves the intermountain area, including Burney, Fall River Mills and McArthur. The City of Shasta Lake Station primarily serves that city. The Sheriff’s headquarters is at 300 Park Marina Circle.

The CHP’s Redding Area office, at 2503 Cascade Boulevard, patrols Interstate 5 and State Routes 44, 273 and 299, and runs the Burney resident post. Above it, the CHP Northern Division oversees the 14 northernmost counties in California from its headquarters at 2485 Sonoma Street in Redding.

For the defense this is not trivia. In a county this size, distance itself can become evidence: how long a unit took to arrive, when a breath or blood sample was actually collected, who held the evidence on the drive back to town, and whether the times on the report match the times in dispatch. Those questions are answered in records each agency keeps separately, and they are worth asking in every case from outside the city.

One District Attorney, One Courthouse

The Shasta County District Attorney is the public prosecutor for all crimes committed in the county. The Superior Court’s criminal division hears infraction, misdemeanor and felony cases, and its own page names Redding, Shasta Lake, Anderson and Burney among the places those cases come from.

The building is the Redding Main Courthouse at 1515 Court Street. The court’s locations page places its courtrooms, Departments 21 through 64, on the second, fourth, fifth and sixth floors. The Criminal Clerk’s Office is open from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM.

For a client from Burney or Shingletown, that means planning travel. The court tells defendants to expect to spend a substantial portion of the day in court, and says courtroom doors generally open at 8:00 AM. That is worth arranging before the first date, not the morning of it.

The court also publishes remote appearance calendars, using Webex, department by department.

Programs a Shasta County Criminal Defense Lawyer Raises Early

Some of the most useful outcomes in a Shasta County case come from programs the court and the Sheriff run, not from the charge. Knowing who decides eligibility, and when, is part of the defense.

Addicted Offender Program. The court describes this as a program for repeat offenders whose drug abuse or addiction motivated the offense. A participant must be at least 18 and not on parole. Offenses involving a firearm, death or serious bodily injury, or sexual misconduct disqualify. The District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department decide eligibility, and admission is at the court’s discretion. Participants plead guilty, appear for regular status hearings and are monitored by probation. Graduates have all criminal charges dismissed; those who do not complete it are returned to custody and the case resumes. The court is explicit that the program is not a bargaining tool in plea negotiations.

Sheriff’s work release. An alternative to continuous confinement in the main jail. The judge orders it at sentencing, and the Sheriff’s Office decides who is eligible.

Petition for dismissal. After a case ends, a person who was not sentenced to state prison and has finished probation or the sentence, including fines and fees, can petition the court. If it is granted, the record shows a dismissal rather than a conviction.

The cost of a missed date. Distance raises the stakes of every appearance. The court may issue a warrant, the prosecution may ask to add a failure to appear charge, and under Penal Code section 1214.1 the court may impose a civil assessment of up to $100 on a defendant who fails, after notice and without good cause, to appear.

Charges We Defend Across the County

The charges are the same in Burney as they are in Redding.

We defend DUI charges, domestic violence, drug charges, assault and violent crimes and sex crime allegations, along with the restraining orders that sometimes run beside them. The criminal defense overview explains how each case is prepared. For an arrest inside city limits, see Redding criminal defense attorney.

Jacob Levin has written about the path a case takes after an arrest anywhere in the county, from booking through discovery, in What Happens After an Arrest?, and about the three things to do first in You’ve Been Arrested or Charged With a Crime. What Is the First Step? For each hearing and its deadline, see the Shasta County Superior Court guide.