Boo-TAY!

A thief cannot be convicted of concealing his booty. People v. Tatum (1962) 209 Cal.App.2d 179. So my "Grand Theft Marijuana" client finally dodged a felony receiving and got a mere misdemeanor petty theft, after the judge decided that backyard homegrown marijuana is not a farm crop, and that there was insufficient "divorcement" between the theft and the concealment to permit a felony conviction for receiving stolen property.

The sad part is that my client got 180 days---the same amount of time that the probation department had recommended prior to the judge's ruling today when they thought he had committed two felonies (grand theft and receiving). This happens a lot in juvenile cases when felonies are reduced to misdemeanors. The reasoning is that in the juvenile system, the primary goal is rehabilitation, and that the length of "rehabilitation" in juvenile hall depends only on the minor's conduct and not how that conduct is classified (i.e., as a misdemeanor or as a felony). Whatever.