If you have been arrested for the crime of Child Abduction, call experienced criminal defense lawyer Max Gorby at (323) 477-2819.

•  Penal Code 278 PC – Child Abduction

Penal Code 278 PC – California’s child abduction law. (“Every person, not having a right to custody, who maliciously takes, entices away, keeps, withholds, or conceals any child with the intent to detain or conceal that child from a lawful custodian shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for two, three, or four years, a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both that fine and imprisonment.”

Criminal “CALJIC” 9.72 – Definitions used in Penal Code 278 PC California’s child abduction law. (“As used in the crime of child abduction: “Lawful custodian” means a person, guardian, or public agency having a right to custody of a child. [A “right of custody” means the right to physical care, custody, and control of a child pursuant to a custody order or operation of law. [In the absence of a court order to the contrary, a parent loses his or her right of custody of the child to the other parent if the parent having the right to custody is dead, is unable or refuses to take the custody, or has abandoned his or her family.]] [A natural parent whose parental rights have been terminated by court order is no longer a lawful custodian and no longer has a right to physical custody.] [“Visitation” means the time for access to the child allotted to any person by court order.]”

California Penal Code 207 PC – California’s kidnapping law. (“(a) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any person in this state, and carries the person into another country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping. (b) Every person, who for the purpose of committing any act defined in Section 288, hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any child under the age of 14 years to go out of this country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping. (c) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, takes or holds, detains, or arrests any person, with a design to take the person out of this state, without having established a claim, according to the laws of the United States, or of this state, or who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any person to go out of this state, or to be taken or removed therefrom, for the purpose and with the intent to sell that person into slavery or involuntary servitude, or otherwise to employ that person for his or her own use, or to the use of another, without the free will and consent of that persuaded person, is guilty of kidnapping. (d) Every person who, being out of this state, abducts or takes by force or fraud any person contrary to the law of the place where that act is committed, and brings, sends, or conveys that person within the limits of this state, and is afterwards found within the limits thereof, is guilty of kidnapping. (e) For purposes of those types of kidnapping requiring force, the amount of force required to kidnap an unresisting infant or child is the amount of physical force required to take and carry the child away a substantial distance for an illegal purpose or with an illegal intent. (f) Subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, do not apply to any of the following: (1) To any person who steals, takes, entices away, detains, conceals, or harbors any child under the age of 14 years, if that act is taken to protect the child from danger of imminent harm. (2) To any person acting under Section 834 or 837.”

California Penal Code 278.6 PC — Sentencing; relevant factors and circumstances; aggravation; mitigation; expenses and costs in recovering child. (“(c) In addition to any other penalties provided for a violation of Section 278 or 278.5, a court shall order the defendant to pay restitution to the district attorney for any costs incurred in locating and returning the child as provided in Section 3134 of the Family Code, and to the victim for those expenses and costs reasonably incurred by, or on behalf of, the victim in locating and recovering the child. An award made pursuant to this section shall constitute a final judgment and shall be enforceable as such.”

CALJIC 9.70 – Child abduction. (“[Defendant is accused [in Count[s] ] of having committed the crime of child abduction, a violation of section 278 of the Penal Code.] Every person, not having a right of custody, who maliciously takes, entices away, keeps, withholds, or conceals any child with the specific intent to detain or conceal the child from a lawful custodian is guilty of the crime of child abduction in violation of Penal Code section 278. In order to prove this crime, each of the following elements must be proved: [1 A person took, enticed away, kept, withheld, or concealed a child; [2 That person did not have a right of custody of the child; [3 That person acted maliciously; and [4 With the specific intent to detain or conceal the child from a lawful custodian.”

CALJIC 9.72 – Definitions used in Penal Code 278 PC California’s child abduction law. (“As used in the crime of child abduction: “Child” means a person under the age of 18 years. “Maliciously” means with intent to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act. [“Fraudulently” includes all surprise, trick, cunning, and unfair ways by which one person deceives or attempts to deceive another.] “Keeps” or “withholds” means retains physical possession of a child whether or not the child resists or objects. “To entice” means to allure, to attract, to draw on, or to lead astray by exciting hope or desire. It does not necessarily include any domination over the child’s will. “Detain” means to delay, to hinder, or to retard. It does not necessarily include force or menace. “Lawful custodian” means a person, guardian, or public agency having a right to custody of a child. [A “right of custody” means the right to physical care, custody, and control of a child pursuant to a custody order or operation of law. [In the absence of a court order to the contrary, a parent loses his or her right of custody of the child to the other parent if the parent having the right to custody is dead, is unable or refuses to take the custody, or has abandoned his or her family.]] [A natural parent whose parental rights have been terminated by court order is no longer a lawful custodian and no longer has a right to physical custody.] [“Visitation” means the time for access to the child allotted to any person by court order.] [“Abduct” means take, entice away, keep, withhold, or conceal.] [[“Abandonment” is defined generally as an actual desertion, accompanied with an intention to entirely sever, so far as it is possible to do so, the parental relation and throw off all obligations growing out of that relationship.] [A child is also abandoned by a parent, when the child has been left by both parents or the sole parent in the care and custody of another for a period of six months or by one parent in the care and custody of the other parent for a period of one year without any provision for the child’s support, or without communication from the parent or parents, with the intent on the part of the parent or parents to abandon the child.] [If you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that a parent failed to provide identification, failed to provide support, or failed to communicate, other than by token efforts to support or communicate with the child, you may, but are not required to, infer that the parent intended to abandon the child.

California Penal Code 209 PC — Kidnapping for ransom, reward, or extortion, or to commit robbery or rape; punishment. (“(a) Any person who seizes, confines, inveigles, entices, decoys, abducts, conceals, kidnaps or carries away another person [thereby violating California’s kidnapping law] by any means whatsoever with intent to hold or detain, or who holds or detains, that person for ransom, reward or to commit extortion [under Penal Code 518 PC California’s extortion law] or to exact from another person any money or valuable thing, or any person who aids or abets any such act, is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life without possibility of parole in cases in which any person subjected to any such act suffers death or bodily harm, or is intentionally confined in a manner which exposes that person to a substantial likelihood of death, or shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole in cases where no such person suffers death or bodily harm. (b)(1) Any person who kidnaps or carries away any individual to commit robbery [under Penal Code 211 PC California’s robbery law], [certain California sex crimes, including] rape [under Penal Code 261 PC California’s rape law], spousal rape [under Penal Code 262 PC California’s spousal rape law], oral copulation [under Penal Code 288a PC California’s oral copulation by force law], sodomy [under Penal Code 286 PC California’s illegal acts of sodomy law], or any violation of Section 264.1, 288 [under Penal Code 288 PC California’s lewd acts with a minor law], or 289, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole. (2) This subdivision shall only apply if the movement of the victim is beyond that merely incidental to the commission of, and increases the risk of harm to the victim over and above that necessarily present in, the intended underlying offense. (c) In all cases in which probation is granted, the court shall, except in unusual cases where the interests of justice would best be served by a lesser penalty, require as a condition of the probation that the person be confined in the county jail for 12 months. If the court grants probation without requiring the defendant to be confined in the county jail for 12 months, it shall specify its reason or reasons for imposing a lesser penalty. (d) Subdivision (b) shall not be construed to supersede or affect Section 667.61. A person may be charged with a violation of subdivision (b) and Section 667.61. However, a person may not be punished under subdivision (b) and Section 667.61 for the same act that constitutes a violation of both subdivision (b) and Section 667.61.”

Please contact Attorney Max Gorby at (323) 477-2819 regarding any questions related to California Penal Code section  278 Child Abuction.