Trent joined the Law Offices of Grech & Packer, Jr. in 2014 and was named a partner in 2018. Trent has handled thousands of criminal cases in California appellate and trial courts and has tried numerous cases to verdict in both State and Federal courts throughout California.
Trent’s criminal cases run the gamut from simple misdemeanors to complex white-collar and homicide cases. A representative sample of trial successes include the following: full acquittals of all life counts in an attempted murder case; a full acquittal of all charges in a rape case against a member of the United States Marine Corps; a voluntary manslaughter jury verdict and probation sentence for a client charged with first-degree murder; a dismissal of all charges after an 11-1 verdict for acquittal in a sexual battery case; a not guilty verdict in a Federal drug trafficking case; and a full dismissal after a 10-2 verdict for acquittal in a Federal human trafficking case. Trent has also successfully negotiated dispositions in some of Riverside County’s largest fraud cases. For example, Trent helped negotiate a misdemeanor resolution in a case alleging fraud and multiple strikes in which the client faced over a decade in state prison. Trent also helped negotiate a probation resolution for a client charged as part of a $123 million insurance fraud scheme. The conviction was ultimately expunged.
In addition to his expertise in handling high-stakes criminal litigation, Trent is an experienced civil rights attorney. He works on behalf of clients who have been the victims of civil rights violations by government actors. Trent’s cases range from police brutality, excessive force, and wrongful arrest cases to lawsuits challenging the use of force within jails and prison facilities. Trent has recovered millions of dollars for the victims of government misconduct, including a $1.1 million settlement for an unarmed man shot in the back by police, a $475,000 settlement for a man bitten by a police dog, an $875,000 settlement for a man beaten unconscious by police, and a $750,000 settlement for a man beaten in the head and body by police.
Trent is also an experienced appellate advocate. He has handled dozens of cases in California’s appellate courts and has argued multiple times before California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trent received his Bachelor's Degree with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia. Trent spent three years practicing complex civil and criminal litigation in the Reston, Virginia, Washington D.C., and San Diego, California offices of Cooley Godward LLP, a prominent national law firm. Trent left Cooley to join the nationally renowned Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. At Federal Defenders, Trent handled hundreds of cases in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Trent’s cases included drug trafficking, arms trafficking, robbery, sex crimes, wire fraud, tax fraud, and human trafficking. Trent then joined the preeminent California law firm of Best Best & Krieger, where he developed an expertise in, among other things, California Government Code section 1090, the Political Reform Act, and the Brown Act. Trent participated in multiple internal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by public entities and public officials and was a member of the firm’s public policy and ethics group, a group spearheaded by former Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask.
Trent is a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College’s Advanced Cross-Examination program, the Federal CJA Trial Skills Academy, and Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc.’s trial practice program. Trent served on the Executive Board of the Federal Bar Association in San Diego, California and was a member of the Louis M. Welsh American Inn of Court in San Diego and the Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court in Riverside.
