Whatever the charge, it's filed downtown at the Ogletree Jr. Courthouse on N Street, where the county runs its criminal calendar. The early hours are where a Merced case is won or lost: what you said at the scene, whether the stop was clean, what the officer wrote in the report before anyone pushed back on it.
Karan Saini practices out of Modesto, roughly thirty minutes north on Highway 99, and Merced is squarely in the territory he covers. Be clear about what that means: he was a prosecutor for Stanislaus County, not Merced. What he has is years in that prosecutor's chair, deciding what to charge and how to take it to a jury. He looks at a police report the way the person who'll file your case does, and starts pulling at the parts that don't hold.
The firm handles the charges that put your future at risk: DUI, domestic violence, theft, drug cases, and the violent felonies that mean prison if they stick. Karan speaks English, Hindi, and Punjabi, and the firm offers Spanish-language services, so the conversation happens in the language you think in.
Consultations are free. If you're facing charges in Merced, call 209-809-1634 before you say anything to an officer.