Mr. Hodgkins has spent his entire professional career exclusively in the area of Criminal Law and Disciplinary Actions against employees. In 1972 he received his Undergraduate Degree from the University of Colorado with a major in Political Science and served on the debate team for the University of Colorado. In 1977 he received his Degree of Juris Doctor from San Joaquin College of Law in Fresno, California where he also served as the Student Body President.
As an Attorney, having previously worked as a Law Clerk during Law School in the Fresno County District Attorney's Office, he was hired as a Deputy District Attorney and worked there for approximately six and a half years. (During that time he handled many high publicity cases including but not limited to homicide cases). He often taught in house classes for the Fresno County District Attorney's Office during his employment there.
In 1984 he accepted a position that was newly created by the Board of Supervisors for the County of Fresno, State of California, called Legal Advisor to the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. In that position he put together the office and often taught Deputy Sheriffs criminal procedure and defended the department successfully from law suits regarding jail conditions that were often filed by inmates. (On one occasion he successfully defended the Sheriff from a contempt charge which of course was very high publicity in the city).
Mr. Hodgkins entered private practice with exclusive emphasis on Criminal Defense and has been doing that for approximately 30 years. (Total amount of time as a Criminal Law Attorney is 37 years, which is approximately 7 years in public practice and 30 years in private practice). During this period of time in private practice Mr. Hodgkins has gained a reputation throughout the State of California as a successful defender of Police Officers who have been charged with various types of crimes in both State and Federal Courts. In addition, he recently successfully defended a non-police officer who was charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances and was found not guilty on all charged and allegations. (This is a rarity in the State of California).
The result of this reputation for his work has often resulted in threats for his vigorous defending of criminally charged defendants (whether they are police officers or non-police officers). He has had bricks thrown through his office windows with notes and appeared in anarchist blogs suggesting that he is part of the problem in the system and that he needs to be dealt with.
In spite of all of the above, Mr. Hodgkins continues to not only handle a full practice of criminal defense, but also teach as an adjunct professor at Fresno Pacific University.
He is known for his organization on paper thick cases and his motto is that he will leave no stone unturned.
