Second Time Public Intoxication, Hermosa Beach, Diversion

Our client, age 23, went out to Hermosa Beach with some friends on a rainy evening in April 2023.  At some point, his friends and he got separated.  However, everyone was staying in one friend’s house on 23rd Street, ten blocks south of Pier Plaza, about a half mile away.

After our client lost his friends, he decided to just have one more beer and then head back to the house, to allow at least someone else to get there first because our client did not have a key to the home’s front door.

At some point, the client was arrested as he walked southbound on Hermosa Avenue toward 23rd Street.  He was then taken to the Hermosa Beach Police Station, where he spent the night before being released after signing a promise to appear in the Torrance Superior Court about three months later.

About a week prior to his arraignment, the client called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg Hill.

The client explained that he did not know why police had made contact with him, but he believed it may have been for stumbling along the sidewalk as he was walking southbound towards his friend’s home.  The client explained that the police were polite and offered to release him to his friend if the friend would come to the scene to walk our client the rest of the way to his home at 23rd Street. 

Police then asked our client to call his friend and have him come to the scene.  However, our client could not unlock his cell phone because he had broken the phone’s screen and it was raining, so the phone’s facial recognition software would not recognize his face to unlock the phone to let our client make the call.  Therefore, he was arrested and spent the evening in jail.

Our client then told Greg that he was still on judicial diversion in a case out of San Luis Obispo Superior Court for public intoxication as well.  The client asked Greg if that would be an issue and Greg said that it certainly may be and if noticed, the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor would argue that judicial diversion was inappropriate.  Greg commented, however, that quite often the Redondo Beach City Prosecutors were so busy that they did not look closely at a person’s criminal history.

Greg recommended that the client attend ten Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings prior to the arraignment, which would mean our client would have to attend more than one per day in the next seven days.

On the day before the arraignment, the client emailed Greg proof of having attended three AA meetings and Greg took it to court the following day.

Once in court, Greg looked through the police report for our client.  It stated that our client was arrested after trying to open a front door and then trying to open a window at a home on 19th Street.  The home’s owner was awakened by the noise and called the police, who rushed to the scene and arrested our client.

The police report did not mention anything about police offering to release the client to his friend, the client’s cracked phone, or it even raining.  Greg was a little puzzled why our client was not arrested for attempted burglary, or perhaps trespass at the least, instead of public intoxication.

The documents handed to Greg by the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor included our client’s criminal history, that showed our client’s criminal matter for public intoxication in the San Luis Obispo Superior Court.

Nonetheless, Greg discussed the police report briefly with the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor and showed her our client’s documentation of having attended three AA meetings. 

Greg then told the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor that he would request judicial diversion from the judicial officer and asked what terms the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor believed were appropriate.  She suggested that our client be placed on six months of judicial diversion, during which time he would be required to attend 26 AA meetings, perform 20 hours of community service and stay away from the home he attempted to enter.

Greg agreed, recognizing the prosecutor was unaware of the client’s still pending public intoxication matter in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.

The case was then called and Greg requested judicial diversion, which the commissioner in the court granted on the terms suggested by the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor.

The client was greatly relieved that he was granted judicial diversion and that his pending matter for the same offense was unnoticed, but he was certainly puzzled with the police report, as he did not recall attempting to enter any home prior to being arrested!