Public Intoxication, Hermosa Beach, Judicial Diversion

Our client, age 25, was out at a private party in the hills above Hermosa Beach, off Monterrey Avenue to the northeast of the Pier Plaza area.  He had enjoyed the party and consumed a healthy share of alcohol.

As he left the party at about 11:30 p.m., he inexplicably became angry and, according to a 911 called, began “screaming while attempting to open car doors and property fences.”  

The Hermosa Beach Police Department responded to the area near Circle Court and its intersection with Monterrey Avenue.  However, our client was nowhere to be scene, so police combed the local area and located him on foot near the corner of South Park Avenue and 24th Street, which was a few blocks away.  

According to the police, our client was so drunk, he had trouble sitting down when instructed to do so by police.  He was then arrested on suspicion of public intoxication (Penal Code § 647(f)) and taken to the Hermosa Beach Police Department, where he was described as too drunk to be booked and instead was placed in the ‘sobering cell.”  It merits mention that our client was partially booked, as his booking photo was taken and he was assigned a booking number.

After several hours, our client was released after he signed a promise to appear in the Torrance Superior Court about three months later.  

The client called Greg Hill & Associates a few days later and described what had happened, but candidly explained that he really did not know too much of what had happened because he had blacked out.

Greg explained how public intoxication cases were handled in general in the Torrance Courthouse and how they are prosecuted by the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s Office.  Greg was careful to explain that since this case did not involve public intoxication in the Pier Plaza area, it might be handled in a different manner.  The client did not know what he did to attract the attention of police, which Greg commented was significant toward predicting how the case might be handled.

Greg did describe judicial diversion and how the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor’s Office often offers its own “City Prosecutor” informal diversion, which is better insofar as there is no $100 court judicial diversion fee, but the clerk will not input a code to seal the arrest report and court file once the client completes diversion (this only happens in Torrance, as other courts do not interpret judicial diversion as providing for automatic sealing when one successfully completed judicial diversion).

Greg recommended that the client attend at least ten Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings prior to the arraignment and to give Greg proof of having done so to take to the arraignment.  Greg then provided the client with an AA sign-in sheet to use to document each meeting he attended.

The client explained that he had been offered judicial diversion in a prior case out of the Clara Shortridge Foltz criminal courts building (CCB) for a case wherein he was arrested for felony resisting arrest (Penal Code § 69) and possession of a controlled substance, but was then only charged with obstructing, delaying or resisting a public official (Penal Code § 148(a)(1)).  So, he was familiar with how judicial diversion worked.  Greg commented that a judge could consider the fact that the client had been afforded judicial diversion in the past – and possibly deny judicial diversion for a second case – but in Greg’s experience, this generally did not happen in Torrance and moreover, it would be up to the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor to bring this to the judge’s attention and often this was not done.  

Greg explained that because of the extremely high number of cases in the misdemeanor courtrooms in Torrance, prosecutors often did not have time to thoroughly evaluate the criminal history of defendants, so they simply do not bring up the client’s criminal history to the judge to consider.  Other times, they do not so because they do not think it matters.

The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates and Greg appeared at the arraignment for the client with proof that the client had attended ten AA meetings.

The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor was extremely sympathetic to our client’s arrest and was impressed with his having attended ten AA meetings already.  She stated she would agree to judicial diversion with dismissal after six months if our client attended 20 more AA meetings and stayed out of trouble during this time.  Greg agreed to such terms.

The judge then called the case and Greg requested that the court place our client on judicial diversion on the terms proposed by the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor.  The judge agreed and ordered this.

The client was very happy that he would have the opportunity to earn a dismissal a second time.