Is there any way to reverse a plea bargain that has already been exepted. My son was talked into plea bargaining by the judge.

I'm a little unclear on what happened. Has your son already been sentenced? Do you mean the judge put your son on probation, with a two year suspended state prison sentence and a year in county jail as a condition of probation?

A motion to withdraw a plea has to be made before sentencing or, if probation is granted, within six months. California Penal Code 1018.

If you're outside those time limits....

Judges are not supposed to engage in arm twisting, and if there were promises made but not kept, your son may be able to overturn his conviction with a writ of Habeas Corpus. The California Courts website has a habeas petition your son can fill out, but this is a complicated process that is usually better handled by a lawyer. You would also need transcripts of all of the court proceedings or, if the events were not taken down by a court reporter, declarations under penalty of perjury from people who were there.

If your son's attorney withheld evidence, which resulted in ineffective assistance of counsel, that could be grounds for a habeas petition, too.

A word of caution, though...

Many public defenders are among the best lawyers around, but they have heavy caseloads and don't always have time to make nice with clients' families or explain what is happening.

In addition, keep in mind that your son's lawyer is bound by the attorney-client privilege and may have discussed things with your son that he can't reveal to you. Like all good criminal defense attorneys, I don't care what my clients did; my only concern is defending them, and I don't want to be surprised in the middle of a trial by something my client didn't tell me. That's why clients sometimes tell me things they aren't comfortable discussing with their own parents.

For instance, when I was a public defender, a client's mom got very mad at me because the police hadswabbed her son's hands for gunshot residue and I didn't get the swabs tested. What I couldn't tell mom was that I told my client that we'd have to share the results with the prosecution if my office performed the tests.... and was he sure we really wanted me to do that? He decided we didn't.