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 is one of the preeminent civil rights and criminal defense attorneys in the Inland Empire. Over the past decade, Trent has achieved acquittals in various high profile, high-stakes criminal trials and secured tens of millions of dollars for victims of government abuses.
Trent’s career has involved stops at preeminent national law firms and the nation’s top training public defender office. Trent started his career practicing complex civil and criminal litigation in the Reston, Virginia, Washington D.C., and San Diego, California offices of Cooley Godward LLP. 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 tried numerous cases in the Federal trial courts and argued multiple times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The threat of going to jail on a serious criminal charge is overwhelming to the accused and their families. If you or a loved one has been accused of a criminal offense, it is crucial that you have legal representation that is committed to your case and has a proven record in criminal court.
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’s current practice focuses primarily on civil rights violations and high stakes criminal litigation. Trent’s civil 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 tens of millions of dollars for the victims of government misconduct, including recent recoveries of $6.75 million for the family of a man shot and killed by police, $1.1 million for an unarmed man shot in the back by police, $995,000 for an armed man shot by police, and $750,000 for a man beaten by police.
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.
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.
Trent joined the Law Offices of Paul Grech, Jr. in 2014 and was named partner in 2018. Trent is passionate about practicing criminal defense and advocating on behalf of victims of civil rights violations.
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