The Legislation Your Defenders Legislative Arm Is Working On, Which Is Drawn From Actual Experiences

THE AREZOU ACT

(Public Name: Arezou Law)

A Comprehensive California Public Safety, Elder Protection, Equal Enforcement & Racial Justice Reform

Executive Purpose

The Arezou Act modernizes California law to close enforcement gaps that allow coordinated terrorization of the vulnerable households and victims including women and elderly, tool-enabled trespass, contractor and construction worker bias and hate fueled misconduct and criminal behavior, elder abuse, retaliatory legal tactics, weaponization of the restraining order process towards victim and witness tampering and intimidation, and discriminatory non-enforcement to persist without accountability.

The Act integrates Public Safety reform, Elder Justice, Contractor and Construction Worker and Construction Company Accountability, Victim Protection, Equal Justice, and Racial Justice Act alignment, ensuring that justice does not depend on who commits the crime and/ or who reports it, the aggressor’s occupation, or institutional convenience.

I. Core Legislative Reforms

1. Felony Aggravated Trespass (Non-Location-Limited)

Trespass shall be classified as a felony when:

• Conduct is committed by two or more people acting in coordination and in concert, OR
• Hammers, drills, construction, demolition, or industrial tools are used, exhibited, displayed, or employed, OR
• Conduct is prolonged or accompanied by intimidation, vandalism, verbal assault, or threats, OR
• The conduct targets or occurs in the presence of an elder or vulnerable person. OR
• The conduct is hate and bias fueled, for example, committed against a female only household
• Lawful demands to leave are persistently refused

This provision applies regardless of whether the conduct occurs in residential, commercial, public, or mixed-use spaces.

2. Enhanced Felony Elder Abuse – Emotional Harm

Elder abuse statutes shall expressly include:

• Organized and/ or coordinated intimidation
• Psychological terror
• Prolonged trespass and/ or surveillance
• Invasion of privacy via any means
• Entry into private premises, including via tools, parts of the body, and/ or physically via use of hammers, drills and/ or other tools
• Property destruction occurring in the elder’s presence
• Trespass in the presence of elder and refusal to leave
• Recording of the elder and/ or elder’s private premises
• Destruction of elder’s property including plants, flowers, trees, and garden
• Pattern of stalking

There should be enhancements for aggressors who continue to victimize their elder victims.

3. Contractor & CSLB Accountability

(Closing the “No Contract” Loophole)

The Business & Professions Code is amended to clarify that:

• CSLB jurisdiction applies when a licensee, employee, or agent engages in criminal conduct
• Contract privity with the victim is not required for enforcement
• License discipline may follow findings of intimidation, trespass, vandalism, or abuse

This restores CSLB’s public-safety and consumer-protection mandate. When CSLB is put on notice of criminal behavior of construction workers/ construction companies, CSLB in collaboration with the district attorney’s office shall ensure that there are criminal consequences and that construction workers and companies are held to the same standards.

4. Anti-Weaponized Restraining Order Reform

Courts are authorized to impose considerable sanctions and mandatory referrals to the prosecutors office where restraining orders are:

• Knowingly false
• Retaliatory
• Used to silence and/ or punish crime victims
• Used as a further tool towards a pattern of victim and witness tampering
• Used as a weapon to destroy victim’s reputation
• Used as a tool to intimidate victims into ceasing to report criminal and unlawful acts
• Used by aggressors to pose as the victim after commission of crimes
• An elderly and/ or vulnerable victim is involved

Special safeguards shall apply where restraining orders are used to interfere with civil-rights reporting, victim and witness tampering and/ or victim testimony.

There shall be pre-screening procedures to ensure the restraining order is not weaponized by the aggressors against their victims to silence, retaliate, and/ or as continuation of a pattern of terror to re-victimize and re-traumatize the vulnerable victims.

Such frivolous targeted restraining orders shall immediately be sealed to prevent further harm to the victims and witnesses.

The reform shall be retroactive.

5. Victim Reporting & Anti-Retaliation Protections

Statutory protections shall prohibit and ensure there are consequences for:

• Interference with reports to law enforcement, regulatory bodies, or state/federal authorities
• Retaliation against victims for protected reporting activity
• Informing the aggressors of confidential reports by the victims including reports to federal authorities
• Assisting the aggressors in further victimization of the targeted vulnerable victims

Violations trigger enhanced penalties and remedial relief even if committed by law enforcement and any other agencies and institutions.

II. Racial Justice Act (Penal Code §745) Integration

Legislative Findings

1. California’s Racial Justice Act prohibits bias in charging, convictions, and sentencing.
2. Existing enforcement insufficiently addresses disparities based on victim identity/ who reports and/ or who commits.
3. Similar criminal conduct is charged, declined, or downgraded depending on:
   • the race, ethnicity, national origin, age, or disability of the victim; and
   • the perceived status, occupation, or institutional affiliation of the aggressor.
4. Selective non-enforcement undermines equal protection and public confidence.

Statutory Clarification

Penal Code §745 is amended to clarify that discriminatory bias includes:

Differential charging, dismissal, or refusal to prosecute substantially similar criminal conduct based on protected characteristics of the victim.

Data Transparency & Remedies

District Attorneys shall maintain disaggregated data on:

• charging decisions
• declinations
• dismissals
• victim demographics
• defendant demographics

Courts may order internal review, policy modification, training, or referral to the Attorney General where patterns of discriminatory non-enforcement are established.

About the Bill Author

The Arezou Act (Publicly Known as The Arezou Law- TAL)

Bill Author:
Arezou Bakhtjou, ESQ
Founder, Your Defenders

Author Background

Arezou Bakhtjou is a California attorney and victim-rights advocate with professional experience working within and alongside the court system. She is the founder of Your Defenders, an organization focused on accountability, equal protection, and systemic reform where existing enforcement frameworks fail vulnerable populations.

Her work emphasizes practical statutory solutions grounded in lived enforcement failures, data-driven disparities, and constitutional principles of equal protection and due process.

Basis for Legislative Proposal

The Arezou Act was developed following sustained exposure to systemic gaps in California’s enforcement landscape, including:

• selective non-enforcement of criminal statutes
• inconsistent charging practices by local prosecutors
• failure to protect elderly and vulnerable victims from coordinated criminal acts
• misuse of civil legal processes to retaliate against crime victims
• regulatory inaction where licensed professionals engage in criminal conduct
• unequal application of justice based on who reports and/ or who commits
• Lack of consequences for crimes committed by construction companies and construction workers and contractors against the vulnerable and the elderly

The proposal reflects not a single incident, but a structural pattern observed across law enforcement, prosecutorial discretion, regulatory oversight, and victim-protection and elder- protection mechanisms.

Legislative Purpose

The author brings this proposal forward to assist the Legislature in:

• closing identified enforcement loopholes
• restoring public confidence in equal application of the law
• ensuring the Racial Justice Act meaningfully protects victims as well as defendants
• reforming elder-abuse and intimidation statutes to reflect real-world harm
• preventing retaliation against individuals who report crimes and/ or civil-rights violations
• preventing weaponization of the restraining order process by the aggressors towards victim and witness tampering
• ensuring all agencies and institutions are held accountable for misconduct including aiding and abetting the aggressors, victim and witness intimidation and retaliation, tampering and interfering with reports made to other agencies, disparate police and prosecution practices

The Act is designed to be narrowly tailored, constitutionally sound, and administratively feasible.

Public Interest Orientation

The Arezou Act is offered as a public-interest legislative solution, not as a private remedy. While informed by personal experience, the bill is intended to benefit:

• elderly Californians
• vulnerable households
• Female only households
• immigrant and minority communities
• crime victims facing retaliation
• residents impacted by selective or unequal enforcement

The author is committed to ensuring that there is uniform application of existing principles of justice.

Commitment to Legislative Process

The author welcomes:

• legislative feedback
• committee input
• amendments to improve clarity, scope, and enforceability
• collaboration with stakeholders, advocates, institutions and agencies

The goal is durable reform that withstands scrutiny and improves outcomes statewide.