Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Page 4
Criminal Defense Lawyer Felipe Plascencia Among Three Dying in Plane Crash
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Whittier criminal defense lawyer Felipe Plascencia, 53, is among three persons who died in the crash of a light plane in the Techachapi Mountains after leaving San Luis Obispo Airport on Thursday, headed for Los Angeles, authorities confirmed yesterday.
Also perishing in the crash were attorney Marina Isabelle Villavicencio, 38, an associate of Plascencia, and the pilot, whose identity was withheld yesterday pending notification to his family.
Wreckage of the plane was spotted Friday from a Kern County fire helicopter. Recovery of the bodies could not be accomplished rapidly because of the highly mountainous terrain.
Plascencia, a former deputy public defender and former Compton deputy city attorney, served as president of the Mexican American Bar Association Political Action Committee continuously since 2006. He was vice president of the Criminal Courts Bar Association and a board member of the Mexican American Bar Association.
MABA named him as “Attorney of the Year” in 1999.
The lawyer lectured widely on driving under the influence defenses.
He earned his law degree from Loyola in 1993. His admission to the State Bar came in 1994.
Plascencia’s motto was:
“Good lawyers aren’t cheap and cheap lawyers aren’t good.”
Villavicencio, whose law degree was from Western State University in Fullerton, was admitted to practice in 2013.
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