Our client, age 43, had grown up in the South Bay area, but after college, moved to Seattle, where he worked as an electrical engineer for a large company based there.
One October weekend, however, he was back in the South Bay and decided to go down to Hermosa Beach for a beer or two on a Saturday afternoon. He went to several of the more popular bars and settled in for beers at Tower 12, enjoying the atmosphere and a college football game on the many flat screen televisions there.
After several beers at Tower 12, he went across the Pier Plaza to Patrick Molloy’s, where he had a few more. At just past midnight, he left the bar and went out to the Pier Plaza, where he found a bench to sit on. He promptly fell asleep on the bench, and while asleep, vomited on himself.
At about this time, the Hermosa Beach Police Department was summoned to Patrick Molloy’s because a female patron there had passed out. When they arrived, the Los Angeles Fire Department was already on scene and attending to the female, but the police noticed our client asleep on the bench. The police also noticed vomit, apparently from our client, nearby on the ground next to where our client was sleeping.
The police roused our client awake and asked him if he was O.K. Our client apparently had difficultly answering the question from the police and could not stand up.
Police then took him to the Hermosa Beach Police Station, where they changed him out of his vomit-soaked clothes, gave him some other clothing to wear instead, booked him and then let him continue sleeping for a few hours.
At about 11:00 a.m., the jailers woke up our client, had him sign a promise to appear in the Torrance Courthouse about three months later and released him. The promise to appear stated that our client had been arrested on suspicion of violating Penal Code § 647(f), “public intoxication,” a misdemeanor.
Our client then returned to Seattle and scoured the Internet about what Penal Code § 647(f) required for a conviction and what punishment he might face. He became anxious and worried his employer might fire him for such a lapse in judgment and behavior.
The client then called Greg Hill & Associates and discussed his case with Greg Hill. The client described what happened and his criminal history, which was spotless.
Greg explained how such cases are handled in the Torrance Superior Court and that he recommended the client attend ten Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings before the arraignment date in January.
Greg then described how the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s office handled resolution of such cases and described judicial diversion and informal “DA diversion” to the client.
The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates to represent him in this case.
The client attended nine AA meetings and emailed Greg proof of attending nine AA meetings. Greg then attended the arraignment in the Torrance Superior Court on the client’s behalf while the client remained at work in Seattle.
At the arraignment, Greg reviewed the police report from the Hermosa Beach Police Department and discussed the facts with the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor. Greg explained that our client was an electrical engineer with no prior criminal history and who grew up in the South Bay area, but was in town just for the weekend.
The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor was happy to see that our client had attended nine AA meetings and modified her initial offer of reducing the charge to an infraction for disturbing the peace (Penal Code § 415) and instead offered our client a full dismissal of the case if he attended 17 more AA meeting, for a total of twenty-six. Greg therefore continued the arraignment for five months to give the client additional time to attend the remaining AA meetings.
Our client was very happy with this offer, relieved that he would not have any conviction, as he was concerned how his employer would regard any conviction.
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