Los Angeles Federal Criminal Defense: Central District of California

Los Angeles Federal Criminal Defense: Central District of California

Your phone rings. Its the FBI. Or maybe DEA agents are at you’re door *right now*. Your hands shake as you try to understand what their saying—this isn’t a misunderstanding that’ll get cleared up at the police station. This is federal. The United States of America versus you.

And irregardless of what you think you know about criminal law from watching TV or maybe even from a past state court case, federal prosecution is a completly different animal. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California doesn’t investigate unless they’re already pretty sure, and the resources their bringing against you—forensic accountants, wiretaps you didn’t even know existed, cooperating witnesses already lined up—its not something you can face alone.

When Does a Los Angeles Case Become Federal? The Thresholds No One Explains

Here’s what most people don’t get: not every crime in Los Angeles goes to federal court. The vast majority of criminal cases—assaults, thefts, even alot of drug cases—their handled in state court by the LA County District Attorney. So why is *your* case different? Why is the Central District of California involved instead of state prosecutors?

The Central District of California covers seven countys: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. That’s over 19 million people—the largest federal district by population in the country. But size alone doesn’t explain federal jurisdiction.

Their are specific triggers that make a case federal rather then state. Dollar thresholds matter more then most people realize. Wire fraud cases under $150,000 is almost never prosecuted federally—the U.S. Attorney’s Office refers them to state prosecutors or declines them entirely. But cross that $150,000 line, and your suddenly in federal territory. Bank fraud follows a similiar pattern, with $100,000 being the unofficial threshold. This isn’t written down anywhere in the statute books, but its how prosecutorial resources get allocated in 2025.

Drug quantities trigger federal mandatory minimums that state courts don’t have. Five grams of methamphetamine gets you a five-year mandatory minimum in federal court. Fifty grams is a ten-year mandatory minimum. The weights are what determines weather your case stays in state court (where judges have more sentencing discretion) or goes federal (where the judge *has* to impose at least the mandatory minimum, period).

Interstate commerce is the magic hook that expands federal jurisdiction. Did you wire money across state lines? Ship something via FedEx? Make a phone call that crossed state borders? Use the internet (which by definition crosses state lines)? Any of these things can make your case federal, even if you never left Los Angeles County. The federal goverment uses the Commerce Clause aggresively—a fraud victim in California, defendant in California, but the bank wire went through New York means federal jurisdiction is available.

Which agency investigated you matters enormously. If the FBI investigated, your going to federal court—they don’t refer cases to state DA’s. Same with the DEA, ATF, and Secret Service. These are federal agencies and they feed cases to federal prosecutors. But if LAPD or the LA County Sheriff investigated, its probly going to state court unless they were working on a federal task force.

Here’s something almost no one talks about: the U.S. Attorney’s Office declines to prosecute 30-35% of cases that federal agents refer to them. They have limited resources—about 200 Assistant U.S. Attorneys handling more then 2,000 criminal cases a year. They prioritize cases with high sentencing exposure, identifiable victims (especially elderly victims), media value, or cooperation potential. If your case doesn’t meet there priorities, it might get declined or sent to state prosecutors, which is actually a better outcome for you because state sentencing is generally less harsh then federal.

The First 48 Hours: What to Do When Federal Agents Contact You

Look, here’s the deal—the single biggest mistake people make is talking to federal agents before they have an attorney. I mean, seriously, this is where cases get made. Not at trial. Not even at the grand jury. Right here, in your living room or at there field office, when they say they “just want to hear your side of the story.”

They’ll be friendly. They’ll act like their doing you a favor. “We’re talking to everyone involved, and we want to give you a chance to explain before we make any decisions.” It sounds reasonable. Your thinking, “If I just tell them the truth, they’ll see this is a misunderstanding.” But that’s not how it works.

Federal agents aren’t there to clear things up. If there talking to you, they’ve already been investigating for weeks or months. They’ve already reviewed bank records, phone records, surveillance video. Their not looking for information—they’re looking to lock you into a statement that they can later prove is false.

Because lying to a federal agent is itself a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, even if your not under oath. Five years in federal prison just for misspeaking during what you thought was a casual conversation.

The words you need to say are simple: “I want to speak to my attorney before answering any questions.” That’s it. Not “I don’t have anything to hide, but…” Not “Can I call you back after I think about it?” Just invoke your right to counsel and then *stop talking*.

They’ll push back. “If you don’t have anything to hide, why do you need an attorney?” “This is your chance to clear yourself—if you lawyer up, we’ll assume your guilty.” “We’re trying to help you, but we can’t do that if you don’t cooperate.”

All of this is psychologicle pressure designed to get you talking. Don’t fall for it.

Hiring an attorney doesn’t make you look guilty—it makes you look smart. Federal judges, prosecutors, even the agents themselves would never answer questions without an attorney present. Why should you?

If you already talked to agents before you knew better, don’t panic. The damage might be containable, but you need a federal criminal defense attorney immediantly to assess what you said and whether it contradicts other evidence. Sometimes statements to agents can be suppressed if you weren’t properly advised of your rights, or if the agents continued questioning after you invoked your right to remain silent. But you need a lawyer who knows federal procedure to make those arguments.

Finding a federal criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles is different then finding a state criminal attorney. Federal practice is specialized—different rules, different courts, different prosecutors. The Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California handles cases for defendants who can’t afford a private attorney (generally those earning under about $40,000 per year). If you don’t qualify for a federal public defender, you need a private attorney with federal experience. Not your family law attorney. Not your DUI guy. Someone who practices regularly in the First Street Courthouse or Roybal Federal Building and knows the Assistant U.S. Attorneys and judges in the Central District.

What Happens After You’re Charged: The Federal Court Process

Once your indicted, everything moves quickly. Your initial appearance has to happen within three days if your arrested, or you can arrange to surrender yourself if you have an attorney negotiating on your behalf.

The initial appearance is in front of a magistrate judge, not the district judge who’ll eventually handle your trial. This confuses alot of people because there assuming the same judge makes all the decisions. But the federal system splits responsibilities—magistrate judges handle preliminary matters like detention hearings and discovery disputes, while district judges handle trials and sentencing.

The detention hearing is critical. This is where the magistrate judge decides weather you stay in jail while your case is pending or weather you get released on conditions.

And here’s the reality: about 60% of federal defendants are detained pretrial, compared to only 30% in state court. Federal court presumes you should be detained if your charged with certain crimes (like drug trafficking) or if your considered a flight risk.

Why does detention matter so much? Because detained defendants plead guilty at higher rates then released defendants. When your sitting in county jail for months waiting for trial, separated from your family, unable to work, the pressure to accept a plea offer becomes enormous. The prosecutors know this, which is why they fight hard to keep defendants detained.

Magistrate judges in the Central District vary widely in how often they release defendants. Some magistrate judges release defendants in 60% of detention hearings if the defense presents a solid plan (third-party custodian, GPS monitoring, home detention). Other magistrate judges detain almost everyone. Your attorney should know which magistrate your in front of and what arguments work with that particular judge.

Conditions of release can include GPS ankle monitors, home detention, third-party custody (where a family member is responsable for you), travel restrictions, and regular check-ins with pretrial services. For drug cases, expect random drug testing. For fraud cases, expect restrictions on opening bank accounts or using the internet.

After the initial appearance comes arraignment, where you formally enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Almost everyone pleads not guilty at arraignment, even if there planning to plead guilty later. This preserves your rights and gives your attorney time to review discovery and negotiate with prosecutors.

Discovery in federal court is different then state court in crucial ways. There’s no preliminary hearing where you get to see the prosecution’s evidence early. Instead, the grand jury indicts you in secret, and you don’t see most of the evidence until after your indicted. The prosecutor has to turn over “material exculpatory evidence” under Brady v. Maryland, but what counts as “material” is narrowly defined. Witness statements often don’t get disclosed until right before trial under the Jencks Act.

If your case involves digital evidence—and in 2025, most federal cases do—expect massive amounts of discovery. Forty gigabytes of cell phone data is common. Financial records going back years. Surveillance video. Wiretap recordings.

Your attorney needs time to review all of this, which is why the Speedy Trial Act (which requires trial within 70 days of indictment) is almost always waived. You can’t prepare a defense without reviewing the evidence.

The Cooperation Decision: Should You Work With the Government?

This is the hardest choice you’ll face. I mean, the absolute hardest.

Your attorney’s telling you the government’s case is strong. The prosecutor’s offering a cooperation agreement. If you testify against others, your 10-year sentence could become 3 or 4 years. But cooperating means wearing a wire. Testifying in court. Becoming a snitch.

Let’s talk about what cooperation actually means, because most people have no idea what there signing up for. It’s not just “answer some questions and we’ll reduce your sentence.” Cooperation is ongoing. It’s intensive. And it’s risky.

The process starts with a proffer session. You and your attorney meet with prosecutors and agents, and you tell them everything you know. The government offers a “proffer agreement” that says your statements can’t be used against you in there case-in-chief. Sounds good, right?

But here’s the trap: your statements *can* be used if you lie during the proffer, or if you testify differently at trial, or at sentencing. Which means if you make even one misstatement during the proffer—and your stressed, your memory’s not perfect, your trying to remember events from months ago—you’ve basically eliminated your ability to testify at your own trial. The prosecutors will impeach you with your proffer statements if you try.

What information is actually valuable to prosecutors? This is where alot of people make mistakes. They think any cooperation is valuable. But prosecutors want one thing: bigger fish.

If your a low-level defendant and you can give up your supplier, that’s valuable. If your supplier can give up his source, that’s valuable. But if your the source—the person at the top of the chain—you have nothing to trade. Your cooperation value is zero.

Timing matters enormously. Early cooperation is worth more then late cooperation. If you come in before your indicted, when the investigation is still developing, your information can shape the entire case. But if you wait until after trial, when the government’s already convicted you and everyone else, what are you gonna tell them that they don’t already know?

The formal mechanism for cooperation is called a 5K1.1 substantial assistance departure. This is a motion the prosecutor files at sentencing asking the judge to depart below the sentencing guidelines because you provided substantial assistance. Only the prosecutor can file this motion—your attorney can’t. So if you cooperate but the prosecutor doesn’t think your assistance was substantial enough, you get no sentencing reduction at all.

Your at there mercy.

How much reduction can you actually get? It depends on the value of your cooperation. If you wore a wire that led to multiple arrests, testified at trial, and helped prosecute major targets, you might get 60-70% off your sentence. A 10-year sentence becomes 3-4 years. But if your cooperation was minimal—you gave some information that the government already knew, didn’t testify, didn’t wear a wire—you might get 10-20% off. Or nothing.

And then their’s the safety issue. No one wants to talk about this, but it’s real. If you testify against drug traffickers or gang members, there’s risk of retaliation. The federal witness protection program exists, but its not like the movies. Your not getting a new identity and a house in suburbia. Your getting relocated to a different prison unit. Maybe protective custody, which means 23-hour lockdown. After your released, your on your own.

When does cooperation make sense? Your attorney should help you think through this, but here are some factors: (1) You have meaningful information the government doesn’t already have. (2) Your facing 10+ years and cooperation can cut that to 3-5 years. (3) The government’s case against you is strong—your not gonna win at trial. (4) Your early enough in the investigation that your information has value. (5) You can handle the emotional and safety risks of testifying.

When should you fight instead of cooperate? (1) You don’t actually have useful information, and you’d just be making things up to get a deal. (2) Your the top target, so you have no one to give up. (3) The government’s case is weak and you have a legitimate chance at trial. (4) The people you’d have to testify against are dangerous, and your family’s safety is at risk. (5) You can’t live with yourself being a cooperator—and this is real. Some people can’t do it.

The prosecutor might pressure you to decide quickly. “This offer expires in 48 hours.” “If you don’t cooperate now, we’re indicting your wife too.” This is a negotiation tactic. Don’t make this decision under panic. Talk to your attorney. Think about the longterm consequences.

Because once you start cooperating, you can’t really go back.

Trial vs. Plea: Understanding the Mathematics of Your Decision

Let’s be honest about the numbers. The federal conviction rate is over 95%. If you go to trial, the government wins 83% of the time. These aren’t good odds.

But that doesn’t mean you should automaticly plead guilty—it means you need to understand what your risking.

The “trial tax” is real, and its brutal. Here’s how it works: If you plead guilty early and accept responsibility, you get a three-point reduction on your offense level under the federal sentencing guidelines. Three points typically translates to a 25-35% sentence reduction. So if your guideline range is 63-78 months, accepting responsibility brings it down to 41-51 months.

But if you go to trial and lose, you don’t get those three points. And worse, if the judge thinks you lied on the witness stand, you can get a two-level obstruction enhancement. So now your guideline range isn’t 41-51 months—its 97 months or more. The difference between pleading guilty and going to trial and losing can be 50-60 months.

That’s five years of your life.

Why do federal defendants lose at trial so often? Resources. The government has unlimited resources—investigators, forensic accountants, expert witnesses, crime labs. You have whatever your attorney can afford to hire. Jury psychology is also a factor. When the jury sees “United States of America vs. [Your Name],” there’s an inherent credibility advantage for the government. Jurors assume the government wouldn’t bring a case unless they were sure.

Cooperating witnesses are another reason. The government doesn’t need physical evidence if they have three people testifying that you committed the crime. Sure, your attorney can cross-examine them and point out they got sentence reductions for cooperating. But juries often believe cooperators anyway, especially when there’s corroborating evidence.

So when does it make sense to go to trial? (1) The government’s case has major holes—missing evidence, unreliable witnesses, constitutional violations. (2) Your actually innocent and you have evidence to prove it. (3) The mandatory minimum your facing is so long that the trial tax doesn’t matter—20 years vs. 15 years is still 15 years. (4) Your facing deportation if you plead guilty, so you have to fight. (5) You have a defense that resonates with juries, like entrapment or lack of criminal intent.

Federal sentencing is based on the sentencing guidelines, which is a complex mathematical formula. Your base offense level depends on what crime you commited. Then enhancements get added: weapon involved (+2 levels), leadership role (+4 levels), more than minimal planning (+2 levels), vulnerable victims (+2 levels). Each level increase means more prison time.

Your criminal history category also matters. If you have prior convictions, your in a higher criminal history category, which increases your sentencing range. The guidelines create a grid where your offense level and criminal history intersect to give a sentencing range in months.

But here’s what alot of people don’t know: the sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory. After a Supreme Court case called United States v. Booker, judges can depart from the guidelines based on 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. This includes your personal history, family circumstances, the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities, and the parsimony principle (imposing no more punishment than neccessary).

Some district judges in the Central District sentence below the guidelines 60% of the time. Other judges follow the guidelines rigidly and only depart 10% of the time. Once you know which judge your assigned to (its random), your attorney should research that judge’s sentencing history to understand what arguments might work.

Fast-track programs exist in some districts for certain crimes (like immigration offenses), where you get a reduced sentence for pleading guilty quickly. The Central District has limited fast-track options, so check with your attorney weather your case qualifys.

Sentencing and What Comes After: The Hidden Sentence of Supervised Release

Sentencing day is when the judge imposes your prison term, but its not just about the years you’ll serve in federal prison. Their are other consequences most people don’t think about untill its to late.

Before sentencing, a probation officer prepares a Presentence Investigation Report (PSR). This document calculates your guideline range, includes your criminal history, personal background, and sometimes victim impact statements. Your attorney gets a chance to object to anything in the PSR that’s inaccurate or that overstates your offense level.

At the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor argues for a sentence at the top of the guidelines (or above). Your attorney files a sentencing memorandum arguing for a variance below the guidelines, highlighting mitigating factors like family circumstances, lack of criminal history, acceptance of responsibility, mental health issues, or the fact that your behavior was aberant and out of character. Victims can give impact statements. You’ll have a chance to address the judge directly—this is called allocution.

What you say at allocution matters. The judge wants to see genuine remorse, acceptance of responsibility (not minimizing what you did or blaming others), and a plan for how you’ll reintegrate into society. Saying “I’m sorry” isn’t enough. You need to show you understand the harm you caused and that your committed to changing.

After the judge imposes your sentence, you’ll be designated to a federal prison. The Bureau of Prisons decides where you serve your time based on your security level, the length of your sentence, and where you lived before incarceration. Federal prisons range from minimum-security camps (no fences, dormitory-style housing) to high-security penitentiarys. Most nonviolent offenders go to low or medium security facilities.

Here’s what almost no one tells you about: supervised release. This is the “hidden sentence” that comes after your prison time. For most federal crimes, the judge imposes 3-5 years of supervised release, which is basically probation after you get out of prison. You’ll have conditions: drug testing, employment requirements, travel restrictions, regular meetings with a probation officer, no contact with convicted felons.

If you violate any of these conditions, you can be sent back to prison.

Supervised release violations are common. You test positive for drugs, your back in prison. You miss a meeting with your probation officer, your back in prison. You travel out of state without permission, your back in prison. The judge can revoke your supervised release and impose up to the maximum term originally available—which for some crimes is years.

For non-citizens, the immigration consequences of a federal conviction can be worse then the prison time. Certain crimes are “aggravated felonys” under immigration law, which trigger automatic deportation. Drug trafficking, firearms offenses, fraud over $10,000—these can all be aggravated felonys. Even if you’ve lived in the United States for decades and have a green card, a federal conviction can mean deportation to a country you barely remember.

Your attorney should be advising you about immigration consequences before you plead guilty. Under Padilla v. Kentucky, its ineffective assistance of counsel if your attorney doesn’t warn you.

Post-sentencing relief options exist, but there difficult. The First Step Act (passed in 2018) created some avenues for sentence reductions. If your serving time for a crack cocaine offense, you might be eligible for a sentence reduction because the guidelines for crack were lowered. The First Step Act also increased good time credits from 47 days per year to 54 days per year, which means you get out a little earlier.

Compassionate release is another option, but its only for extraordinary circumstances like terminal illness or severe family hardship. During COVID, compassionate release standards expanded temporarily, but as of 2025 there tightening up again.

A 2255 motion (habeas corpus petition) challenges your conviction or sentence based on constitutional violations, usually ineffective assistance of counsel. But the standard is high—you have to show your attorney made serious errors that prejudiced the outcome of your case. And you can’t raise issues on a 2255 that you could of raised on direct appeal but didn’t.

Halfway house placement happens in the last 6-12 months of your sentence. You transition from prison to a residential reentry center where you can work in the community during the day but have to return at night. Then home confinement for the last few months, where your at home with an ankle monitor. These programs help you reintegrate, but there not automatic—you have to qualify and maintain good behavior.

You Can’t Face the Federal Government Alone

Look, if there’s one thing you take from this, its this: federal criminal defense is not something you can handle on your own, and its not something you can trust to an attorney who doesn’t practice in federal court regularly.

The Central District of California has its own procedures, its own prosecutors, its own judges. The stakes—mandatory minimums, sentencing guidelines, no parole—are to high to take chances.

Whether your under investigation or already charged, whether you’ve been contacted by the FBI or just received a target letter, you need a federal criminal defense attorney who knows the Central District and has relationships with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Someone who can evaluate weather cooperation makes sense for your situation. Someone who can calculate your guideline range and fight for a variance. Someone who knows which magistrate judges release defendants and which ones don’t.

The decisions you make in the next few days and weeks will effect the rest of your life.

Don’t make them alone.