Our client, age 46, was observed at about 3:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon stumbling along the sidewalk on Anza Boulevard in Torrance. One person called 911 to report him as someone the police may want to contact and then a second 911 caller followed up, reporting that our client was on a person’s front lawn, “rolling around.”
The Torrance Police dispatched two patrol cruisers to the area and spoke with our client, who reportedly could not stand up on his own. One officer asked our client if he had been drinking and our client answer, “Yes, a lot.”
As stated in the police report, officers took him into custody for his own safety. He was then taken to the Torrance Police Department and placed in jail to sober up.
Our client woke up the following morning. He did not know how he ended up in the jail.
Our client admittedly had an alcohol problem and had blacked out before, only to wake up in a jail cell. Approximately five years earlier, he had committed a DUI and a hit and run in Manhattan Beach, only to similarly find himself in a jail cell and be told how he arrived in such a place. He also had an earlier DUI about eight years earlier in Torrance.
Luckily, in this case, he was not told about any DUI or anything specific. He was merely asked to sign a promise to appear in the Torrance Superior Court in about three months and leave.
Once the client returned home to Manhattan Beach, he decided he had reached his limit on his abuse of alcohol. About a week later, he checked himself into a 30-day residential alcohol treatment program at Authentic Recovery Center on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles and committed himself to a life of sobriety. Once he left the program, he attended Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings every day.
About a month prior to his arraignment, he called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg Hill about his case. He explained that he had been drinking one Sunday and the next thing he knew, he was in a jail cell at the Torrance Police Department.
He explained to Greg how he had checked himself into a 30-day residential treatment program and attended AA meetings every day since then. He asked Greg how his case might be handled in the Torrance Superior Court.
Greg answered, explaining that his case most likely would be referred to judicial diversion under the new law (Senate Bill 3234, codified at Penal Code §§ 1001.94 and 1001.95), although it was not a guarantee give the client’s history of alcohol abuse. However, Greg acknowledged that it was a significant help to his chances of judicial diversion that he had self-admitted to a residential alcohol treatment facility just a week after his arrest and that he had religiously attended AA meetings every day thereafter.
Greg then explained that if judicial diversion were granted, the term could be for a period of up to two years, during which proceedings were suspended and then, if the client performs the tasks that the judge required as terms of judicial diversion, the case would be dismissed under Penal Code § 1001.94, which would then allow him to have the police report and court file sealed after a year under Penal Code §§ 851.91 and 851.92.
If judicial diversion were denied, which had not happened to Greg in any case yet wherein it was sought, Greg said he would attempt to have the case resolved for disturbing the peace (Penal Code § 415(2)), making a loud noise, as an infraction to avoid the stigma of alcohol being involved.
The client then hired Greg Hill & Associates and Greg appeared on the client’s behalf with documentation showing the client completed the 30-day residential alcohol treatment program, plus 18 additional AA meetings documented by a text message to him from the AA meeting coordinator.
The case was then called and Greg requested that the judge in Torrance suspend proceeding for up to two years to allow our client to participate in judicial diversion.
The judge agreed and required our client to attend 26 AA meetings, obey all laws and stay away from the area where he was arrested for six months. If the client performs these obligations, the case would be dismissed in six months. The client was happy with this resolution.
For more information about public intoxication and judicial diversion, please click on the following articles: