Eleven Year Bench Warrant, Public Urination, Hermosa Beach

In 2012, our client, then 27 years old, went out to a few bars in Hermosa Beach with his friends.  Our client was living in San Francisco, so the Pier Plaza area with the sea breeze and warm air was paradise, particularly in late July.

The group enjoyed a few bars and then decided to catch a cab back to their hotel in Redondo Beach.  As the group was leaving a bar, our client suddenly felt the need to urinate and told his friends he needed to go back to the bar. 

His friends suggested he just pee in the alley nearby and that they’d wait for him.  Our client agreed and ducked into the 13th Street alley, which is behind the current Tower 12 and Brew Hall bars on the north side of Pier Plaza.  He found a dark area and began urinating.

He finished up and began buttoning up his pants.  Just as he was doing so, a Hermosa Beach Police Officer approached our client.  Our client knew then that he was about to get a ticket or be arrested. 

The officer told our client that it was illegal to urinate in a public area and asked for our client’s driver’s license.  Our client produced this for the officer, who then wrote our client a ticket.

Our client signed the ticket, promising to appear in the Torrance Court for his arraignment about six weeks later.  The police officer then handed our client the ticket and walked away.

Our client folded up the ticket and put it in his pocket, only to have the ink smear so much that he could not read the date for his arraignment when he unfolded the ticket a few days later, once he had returned to San Francisco.

The client called the Torrance Superior Court to ask about his court date and was repeatedly told that they had no record of any date.  The client also called the Hermosa Beach Police Department, who were also unable to help him.

Our frustrated client decided to just assume no case had been filed against him since he was cooperative and respectful to the police officer.

This assumption seemed to be safe for twelve years, until 2023, when he applied for a job with Uber and was told he had a bench warrant in the Torrance Courthouse from 2012.  Our client knew exactly what it was for and scoured the Internet to find out what he could do to take care of this.

The client then called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg Hill.  The client explained what had happened and Greg commented that the smeared ink on tickets is a common problem and the origin of many missed court appearances and bench warrants.

Greg explained what he would do to recall the bench warrant and then resolve the underlying public urination case.  Greg commented that the police officer involved many have changed jobs or retired, so the People may have a hard time proving their case because the officer’s testimony about what he observed may be impossible to present.  Likewise, if the officer did not write a lengthy police report that refreshed his memory twelve years later, the officer may not recall the circumstances regarding issuing our client’s ticket at all.

Greg further explained how the twelve year delay would normally present a strong case of having the matter simply dismissed based on Serna v. Superior Court (1985) 40 Cal. 3d 239.  Serna is the California Supreme Court case that most California criminal defense attorneys are quite familiar with.  It states that the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial is violated when there is an undue delay in prosecution of a case due to the prejudice with lost evidence, witness memories fading and defendant’s recollection of the facts evaporating with time.  

Prejudice, under Serna, is presumed after one year of delay in a misdemeanor matter if defendant does not appear in court after the case is filed during that year.  However, such a delay is not sufficient alone for a judge to dismiss the case and the prosecution may proceed if the prosecution can demonstrate it exercised reasonable diligence in trying to notify defendant and locate defendant to bring him to court.

The fact that our client signed a promise to appear and then did not appear usually undermines a Serna motion to dismiss because a judge does not want to reward a defendant by dismissing a case after defendant broke his promise to appear.

Greg then appeared in the Torrance Courthouse and asked the judicial officer to recall the bench warrant, which the judicial officer did.

 

Greg then discussed the case facts with the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor assigned to the case and she agreed to dismiss the case because there was no police report at all.  The only record of the crime was a ticket, which would be unlikely to refresh the memory of the police officer as to the specific, individual facts of the case. 

The matter was then called and the prosecution made a motion to dismiss the case.

The client was very happy with having the case dismissed, as well as having the bench warrant recalled.