Federal and state statutes prohibit blackmail, which refers to obtaining property, services, or money from another person using coercion or fear. In California, blackmail is also known as theft through coercion or extortion, which falls under the broader scope of extortion under PEN 518.  If you have been arrested for blackmail, you will wonder if it is a crime. Yes, blackmail is a felony violation that carries severe penalties, including lengthy incarceration, hence the need to protect yourself and your reputation by hiring an experienced criminal attorney.

Blackmail Overview

Blackmail is unlawful conduct involving threatening to release a person's confidential secret to coerce or force them into particular actions unless they agree to your demands. From this definition, blackmail is an act of extortion. You can face extortion charges if you threaten to expose a person’s secrets or embarrassing details, threaten to use physical force, or dent the victim’s image.

The threats can only be acted upon if the victim does not comply with the blackmailer’s demands. If they do as requested, the threats are not acted upon. The blackmailing party demands that the victim pay a certain amount of money, take certain actions, or refrain from action.

For instance, you can threaten your employer to expose a workplace sexual affair or harassment incident if they do not consider you for an upcoming promotion.

You should know states have varying blackmail statutes. In many states, including California, blackmail is prescribed under the extortion statute. In others, the offense is outlined in a separate statute as a separate offense.

Blackmail Under Federal Statutes

The Hobbs Act addresses individuals who engage in blackmail activities affecting interstate or foreign commerce. For you, the defendant, to be deemed to violate the Act, you must have obtained property or money from the victim. Therefore, you are innocent of the allegations if you threatened an accuser and they agreed to your demands because of the threats or coercion. Still, you never obtained any property or money.

The Act addresses low-degree blackmail offenses that involve threats to reveal embarrassing or name-denting details on an individual unless they comply with your instructions.

Washington Statutes

Blackmail is also a form of extortion under Washington laws. Nevertheless, the offenses encompass both successful and unsuccessful blackmail. It means you are criminally liable for blackmail even if the victim disagreed with your demands.

Extortion vs. Blackmail

Extortion utilizing intimidation or fear is the same as blackmail. So, many states criminalize blackmail in statutes prescribing extortion. The only difference between the two terms is that blackmail involves threatening to reveal damaging details, factual or not, while extortion involves threatening the victim with bodily harm or property destruction if they do not comply with your demands. The substance of the intimidation is very similar to blackmail and extortion, which is why many states have outlined the offenses under the same statute.

California Extortion Laws

Blackmail is a type of extortion in California, and both offenses are regulated under PEN 518. In the offense, victims of blackmail feel that they have no other option but to agree to the demands of the extortionist to avoid the threats. The threats, written or verbal, in extortion all constitute blackmail. Therefore, the elements the prosecutor proves to obtain a guilty verdict for blackmail are the same as those of extortion. The penalties for blackmail are also as prescribed under PEN 518.

Legal Definition of Extortion

Otherwise called blackmail, extortion under PEN 518 refers to the willful and unlawful use of physical force, fear, or threats to compel someone else to surrender their money, something valuable, property, or asset, or force or coerce a police officer to engage in an official duty they would have otherwise not performed or abandon official duty.

Something valuable for purposes of this statute refers to sensual favors or pictures of intimate parts. With widespread internet use, it is easy to commit blackmail after accessing an individual’s information online, even when you had no plans to use the information for extortion.

Behavior that amounts to blackmail or extortion includes:

  • Threatening to disclose your boss’s extramarital affair if they do not give you a promotion or pay your $800.
  • Breaking into a person's home and taking their assets after making threats that cause them to fear for their safety or that of their family reasonably
  • Borrowing someone’s vehicle but failing to return it. Instead, you demand payment to return the automobile; otherwise, they will permanently lose it.

Many of these behaviors seem lawful, which begs the question: is blackmail a criminal offense? Yes. Blackmail is a crime. However, if you have already engaged in any of these conducts, assuming it is legal, you can still avoid the consequences of an extortion conviction. When you inform the right criminal attorney about your conduct, they can take early measures to have the charges dropped or convince the court to impose a lenient punishment if a conviction is inevitable.

Blackmail Elements

Blackmail causes serious harm to victims by damaging their reputations and names, embarrassing them, and leading to huge losses of money and property. Therefore, the DA takes these offenses seriously, and a conviction usually results in maximum punishment. However, the prosecutor should prove all the case’s facts or elements for a guilty verdict. The evidentiary standard for these cases is beyond moral certainty, meaning they should compel the jury or any other sober individual that the accusations are true and that there is no doubt you engaged in the alleged extortion. The evidentiary standard in criminal cases is high to ensure that no person is wrongfully found guilty for a crime they did not commit.

The elements the DA demonstrates are:

You Threatened the Accuser

The prosecutor should show that you, the accused, threatened to:

  • Injure the victim or someone else or damage their property
  • Accuse the accuser or their immediate family of offenses severely punished by law
  • Expose embarrassing secrets or details about the accuser or their family

You Had Specific Intent to Compel the Victim to Comply or Consent to your Demands

Blackmail is a specific intent offense, meaning that the DA must prove your intent or motive to obtain a guilty verdict. The motive could be acquiring property, money, or an official duty. Note that consent means doing something willfully. Nevertheless, under blackmail, it means forcing someone to perform an act or surrender property they are unwilling to.

Additionally, the prosecutor demonstrates that because of your threats, the victim complied or agreed to your demands.

Extortion statutes are complex, and the circumstances differ from one case to another. Therefore, the prosecutor should demonstrate the specific facts of your case, leaving no room for doubt. It is difficult to prove all these elements, giving you an advantage as the defendant, to mount solid defenses to poke holes in the arguments and make the jury or bench doubt that you committed the crime. If there is doubt on whether the accusations are true, the court will find you innocent.

Obtaining a Charge Reduction

If you are in police custody for alleged blackmail, your defense attorney can negotiate with the prosecutor to reduce the charge to a lesser offense with lower penalties. Extortion or blackmail is a felony, and a guilty verdict not only results in harsh legal penalties, but the collateral ramifications are life-altering. So, your attorney should focus on reducing the crime to a misdemeanor for less severe consequences.

If you hire an attorney early in the case, they could gather compelling evidence to convince the DA to reduce the charges even before the arraignment proceeding. When the attorney presents convincing mitigating factors like arguing that you never threatened the victim before unlawfully entering their house, the DA can lower the extortion charge to trespass, which carries lesser penalties.

Obtaining a charge reduction has other benefits, including:

  • You can easily obtain a record expungement, improving your chances of employment after leaving jail
  • You will still be eligible for multiple professional licenses after a misdemeanor or infraction guilty verdict
  • You will retain your firearm ownership rights

A guilty verdict for felony violation can have lasting consequences. Nevertheless, if your attorney convinces the prosecutor to lower the charge to a misdemeanor, you will face fewer collateral consequences even if you are convicted.

Having understood what a proficient attorney can do for you even before the case goes to trial, you should consider retaining the services of one immediately after you are apprehended or learn of the impending arrest.

Extortion or Blackmail Legal Penalties

A PEN 518 violation attracts 24 to 48 months of jail incarceration and a monetary court fine of no more than $10,000.

Additionally, you risk sentence enhancement that involves additional confinement if:

  • Your conduct mentally or physically impaired the  victim
  • The victim of your criminal conduct is a senior citizen
  • You engaged in blackmail to benefit a criminal gang

Extortion in furtherance of gang activity is a strikeable offense under PEN 622. You risk 25 years to life confinement after a conviction if you have a prior criminal conviction record for a felony.

The court could agree to sentence you to felony probation if it is your offense. The formal probationary terms you must comply with in exchange for staying out of jail are:

  • Compensate your victims for the losses or property damage
  • Participate in community labor
  • Agree not to commit another crime while on probation
  • Agree to regular meetings with your probation officer (PO)

The PO supervises you throughout the probationary term to ensure you adhere to the court instructions. When you violate these terms, the court could revoke the probation and impose the initial jail sentence for the extortion offense. You should do everything to avoid incarceration. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to be sentenced to formal probation, talk to your attorney to clarify some of the terms you do not understand to avoid jeopardizing your freedom because of a violation you could have avoided.

  1. Immigration Consequences

Blackmail is a moral turpitude crime, meaning it can lead to removal if you are a repeat offender.  Therefore, if you are an alien, you want to work with a criminal attorney with knowledge of immigration laws. That way, even if the court finds you guilty and you are set for deportation, the attorney can fight to cancel the removal.

  1. Expunging a Blackmail Record

A guilty verdict for a felony offense cannot be expunged. An expunction is a procedure that enables you to request the court to erase or remove from your record a conviction. Expungement keeps the record from the public, meaning property managers or employers cannot use the record to discriminate against you. 

Extortion is a felony that carries 72 months of prison confinement. Unfortunately, expungement statutes do not allow the setting aside of convictions that are punished by prison sentences. You can only expunge an offense that attracts a jail sentence.

  1. Gun Rights

Blackmail or extortion is a felony, meaning that the court will suspend your gun ownership rights. If you own a firearm, you must return it to the dealer or hand it over to the authorities until the suspension period ends. After the end of the period, you can apply for license reinstatement if you can prove that your gun possession does not jeopardize the public’s safety.

  1. Blackmail Civil Lawsuits

Your accuser or victim can file a civil lawsuit seeking compensation. Unlike a criminal charge, a civil suit is pursued by an individual in a separate case in the civil court.

So, on top of a criminal charge, you could have to deal with a civil proceeding from an accuser seeking compensatory damages for their losses. In civil suits, the victim has the burden of proof and must show with a preponderance of the proof that:

  • You, the accused, threatened or utilized unlawful conduct to coerce the victim into consenting to surrender their property or money
  • The accuser complied with your demands because of fear or threats
  • The accuser suffered losses or harm for agreeing to your demands

If the lawsuit is successful, the court requires you to compensate the victim for financial damages, emotional or mental distress, and other damages stemming from the blackmail.

Common Blackmail Defenses

You can use several defenses to defeat the blackmail charges. These include:

  1. Lack of Intent to Blackmail

Extortion is a specific intent offense, meaning the prosecutor must demonstrate that you had specific motives to extort or blackmail. Therefore, you must demonstrate your state of mind during the alleged violation and convince the court that the misconduct was unintentional or a mistake of fact. The judge can dismiss the case or lower the charges if you present evidence to support your argument.

  1. You Had the Victim’s Consent

You have not engaged in blackmail if the accuser knowingly and voluntarily surrendered property ownership without using threats, fear, or intimidation. Blackmail only happens when the victim unwillingly surrenders their money or property. If the alleged accuser’s actions were willful, you are innocent.

  1. Insufficient Proof

The DA relies a lot on circumstantial evidence to prove intent. Also, they depend on witness testimony to show that you engaged in blackmail. It is difficult to satisfy all the case’s elements beyond moral certainty with evidence like this. This leaves room for you to argue that the evidence presented by the prosecutor is inadequate or cannot corroborate all the extortion elements.

  1. You were Entrapped

You can also argue that the police induced you into extortion, a crime you would not have otherwise committed willfully.

  1. False Accusation

It is common for people to falsely accuse others of crimes they did not commit to seek revenge or out of anger. It is always difficult for the prosecutor to prove false accusations are true, creating room for your attorney to share your side of the story and demonstrate that the charges are based on false allegations. The attorney will focus on your motive during the conduct, which is alleged to be blackmail, and show that the accusations are not credible.

You should know that you cannot argue that the information you threatened the victim with is true to contest the charges. If you threatened to release the accuser’s factual information, you are still guilty of blackmail. The law does not allow defendants to use this argument as a defense because if it did, everyone with a secret or mistake of the past they would like to stay hidden would be constantly subjected to blackmail.

Speak to your criminal defense attorney early in the case to evaluate your charges and prepare appropriate defenses to help you obtain a fair outcome, including case dismissal and charge or sentence reduction.

Related Offenses

Several crimes can be lodged alongside or in place of extortion. These include:

  • Robbery
  • Grand theft
  • Burglary
  • Carjacking
  • Criminal threats
  • Bribery
  • False imprisonment

These offenses are similar to blackmail, although the legal definition and case’s facts differ. Your particular charge depends on the case’s special circumstances.

Find a Competent Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me 

A blackmail charge or accusations can cause a severe dent in your reputation, particularly if your position or work requires transparency or you are a public figure. Building trust once gone is an impossible task, so you should focus more on defeating the charges. A lot can be done after arrest for less severe charges or penalty reduction, but you need an attorney’s help. At Los Angeles Criminal Attorney, we will improve your chances of a fair outcome by evaluating the case’s facts and crafting solid defenses. Call us at 424-333-0943 to discuss your case.