2003 Joyriding Case, Bench Warrant Recalled, Case Dismissed

In 2003, our client was 25 years old and living in Seattle, Washington.  His friend had a girlfriend who owned a car that his friend often borrowed with her consent. 

One day, our client, with his friend, took the car and went far beyond where his girlfriend could have imagined.  They drove 21 hours south to Los Angeles to buy a large load of drugs.

Before they could pick up the drugs, our client and his twenty-year-old girlfriend were driving westbound on Victory Boulevard in the Van Nuys area.  It was 2:30 a.m. and police spotted the car because it had license plates from the State of Washington.  Van Nuys police called in the plates to the station, who reported that the owner of the car had reported the car stolen.

Police then pulled over the car.  Our client was driving and explained to police that his friend had permission to use the car.  Police found a small amount of methamphetamine, crack cocaine and marijuana in the car, which our client’s female friend claimed ownership.  Police held our client for about an hour, booked him on grand theft auto and receiving stolen property.  They then let him go without even impounding the car.  Our client and his friend then returned to Washington State (with the drugs, no less).

Our client believed the matter had been regarded by police as a mistake.  Eighteen years later, in 2021, however, he was notified by his employer that there was a felony bench warrant for him out of the Van Nuys Superior Court.

This puzzled our client because a few years later, he had served a 70-month prison sentence in Washington state for transporting and sales of a controlled substance after this case and nothing was mentioned about a California case, i.e., being extradited to California after he finished his Washington case.

Our client had turned his life around in the meantime, becoming a homeowner and marrying.  He had a good paying job and paid his taxes, so have a skeleton from his past re-emerge was disheartening and seemed to jeopardize his new life.

The client, now age 43, called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke to Greg.  Our client explained the Van Nuys case and his current status in life in Washington. 

Greg looked up the docket in the case and called the client back.  Greg explained that because the bench warrant was for a felony, normally the client would need to come to court in person to have the bench warrant recalled.  However, due to COVID-19, Greg may be able to appear under Penal Code § 977(b)(2) on the client’s behalf without him needing to appear in person.  Greg cautioned the client that some judges would not accept a waiver of one’s personal appearance and consent to an attorney representing someone from out of state or even outside the United States.  Greg had seen judges deny such requests.

Van Nuys Courthouse