Girl Taken from Mission Viejo Mall Under Suspicious Circumstances
Irvine, Orange County - A girl was reportedly taken from The Shops at Mission Viejo "kicking and screaming" last Sunday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
The incident reportedly happened around 4 p.m. when the sheriffs' received a call of a girl screaming she wants her parents after allegedly being taken by an unknown man and woman, according to authorities.
Irvine criminal attorney Michael L. Guisti says they're still a lot of unknown questions to this incident, such as if the man and woman who allegedly took the girl knew the girl, or even if this was an arranged pick up the girl wasn't happy with.
Now let's assume this is the worse, says Guisti, the man and woman involved could easily face kidnapping and/or false imprisonment charges.
As a side note, Guisti says, kidnapping and false imprisonment charges are very common in domestic violence situations and it's certainly possible this incident in Mission Viejo could've been apart of a larger domestic violence situation.
Many people understandably think kidnapping and false imprisonment are the same thing, but they're very different charges, says Guisti.
Kidnapping is defined by Penal Code (PC) 207 as the use of force or fear to take a person and move that person a "substantial distance," while false imprisonment under PC 236 is the unlawful detaining of a person on the street, or forcing a person to move from one place to another, says Guisti.
Basically, if you unlawfully restrict somebody's personal freedom and movement for any amount of time, no matter how long or little, you can potentially be charged with false imprisonment, according to Guisti.
The main difference between the two crimes is the distance one is moved, says Guisti, and if you unlawfully move a person a significant distance it's generally charged as a kidnapping.
Typically to warrant kidnapping charges the move has to be significant, however the suspect could still be charged with kidnapping if the suspect moved the victim a slight distant and that slight movement increased the risk of harm, gave the suspect a better opportunity to commit additional crimes, or decreased the likelihood of being caught, according to Guisti.
A reason many suspects are charged with both kidnapping and false imprisonment charges is, for example, when a suspect moved somebody a significant distance once at the location the suspect restricted the person's personal movement and freedom, says Guisti.
If it's a case where a suspect kidnaps somebody, drives a significant distant and drops the person off and takes off, then false imprisonment charges shouldn't be filed, according to Guisti.
Where the line is drawn on what constitutes kidnapping and false imprisonment is not always very clear, which is why if you're facing such charges it's very important to contact the Orange County domestic violence attorney experts at the Law Offices of Michael L. Guisti right now at 888-478-8999.
Our Orange County criminal defense law firm has over a decade of experience successfully defending our clients against charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment in the courts of Orange County, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.
From the moment you first meet with us we prepare a successful defense to get your charges dismissed, reduced or even found not guilty, because our goal is to win for you, and we never, ever settle for anything less.



