Crime and the Full Moon

By:  Orange County Criminal Defense Attorney

Dyke Huish

 

When I was a young lawyer many years ago I was working in the old Orange County South Court in Laguna Niguel.  It started off normal, but I quickly realized that this was a very odd day.  We had more people in Courtroom than I had ever seen before.   The tank was full, the audience was full and the calandar was full.  Someone joked that the moon must be full.  It was.  From that day forward I began to notice that whenver there was a  full moon the courtrrom seemed to get busier.  Not only busier but also crazier.

 

Instead of the normal DUI and drug cases we had all kinds of bizzare and unusual cases.  We once had a guy out stealing Lobster from traps off Dana Point.  No big deal you say, well he was fully naked and insted of keeping them for an upcomming Lobster Bake, he was just letting the go free.  You guessed it, full moon.  I had a case where to grown men with no criminal record got into a full blow fist fight over who got to pay the bill.  Right again, full moon.   We had a case where the woman stole 30 bags of Brown Gravy MIx from Ralphs with no explination other than she liked Brown Gravy.  She did not even take a single avacado, when asked how she was going to make guacamole she replied with sour cream.  Makes no sense - Full Moon.  My favorite was three guys that decided to steal surfboard out of their neighbors garage.  Nothing crazy about that one excpet they knew it was the house of a police officer and he was in the garage at the time - they actually though if they gave him enough beer the could hypontize him into giving them the surfboard.  Funny thing, none of the guys surfed.   Full moon again.

 

Now I'm not suggesting that the moon actually makes people go a little crazy.  And I am not saying that on dark nights with no moon that crazy things don't happen.  I am just saying that over the past 20 years of practice as a Deputy District Attorney, Deputy Public Defender and a Private Criminal Defense Attorney I am still amazed at how thing get a little nuttier when the moon is full.  

 

What good is this information to you.  Well maybe nothing, then again when the next full moon cycle comes up maybe you should make sure that you play it cool and avoid attempting things out of your normal comfort zone - like lobster trap raiding in the buff.

 

Just to make sure you know when the next full moon is up here is a link to a full moon calandar.   

 

Year	Month	Day	Time	Day of Week
2013	Jan	27	05:38	Sun
2013	Feb	25	21:26	Mon
2013	Mar	27	10:27	Wed
2013	Apr	25	21:57	Thu
2013	May	25	06:25	Sat
2013	Jun	23	13:32	Sun
2013	Jul	22	10:15	Mon
2013	Aug	21	03:44	Wed
2013	Sep	19	13:12	Thu
2013	Oct	19	01:37	Sat
2013	Nov	17	16:15	Sun
2013	Dec	17	10:28	Tue

 

 

Or click on the moon for a link to a Full Moon Calandar for the next 20 years.