Countywide Bombshell (After Belmont Shore/2nd St. Battery Outcome): L.A. County Sheriff's Office Admits Under Its Current Jail Criteria, Persons Sentenced To 180 Days Or Less Are Released Same Day
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(Nov. 7, 2017, 5:45 p.m.) -- The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. today effectively acknowledged that under its current jail criteria, a person arrested for a misdemeanor in L.A. County, charged by a prosecutor, convicted (or pleads guilty) in court and is sentenced to the maximum term a judge can impose for most individual CA misdemeanors of 180 days in jail, is released the same day.
The disclosure comes after LBREPORT.com learned and reported that a man observed by LBPD yelling and screaming after he struck a father walking with his two daughters along 2nd St. at Nieto Ave. on Oct. 30 in Long Beach's upscale Belmont Shore commercial district was arrested by Long Beach police, prosecuted by the Long Beach City Prosecutor's office (which also charged a second offense struck by the judge), pleaded guilty at his Nov. 1 arraignment to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced by the court to the maximum for the single misdemeanor offense of 180 days in jail but was released by the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. the next day.
On November 6, LBREPORT.com directed an emailed inquiry to LASD's Public Information Unit, seeking comment(s) or a statement for publication from L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell on what happened, how it happened, if actions [outcomes] similar to what happened could happen again, and what measures LASD has in place or will put in place to avoid having this outcome happen again. We also invited the Sheriff's comments on longer-term questions of changes (perhaps by the state legislature, or by ballot or by courts) that he believes would help prevent similar outcomes in other cases.
Sheriff McDonnell, a former Long Beach Chief of Police, was overwhelmingly elected L.A. County's Sheriff in November 2014. He is up for re-election in 2018.
On the afternoon of November 7, 2017 LBREPORT.com received an email response from Nicole Nishida, Public Information Officer in the Sheriff's Information Bureau, stating: "At this time, the Los Angeles County Jail criteria indicates that if someone is arrested for a misdemeanor and is sentenced to 180 days or less then they are released that day."
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Some CA misdemeanors do carry sentences of one year, but most carry sentences of six months. Thus it's possible that if a defendant is charged, convicted and sentence to one of the one-year misdemeanors or to two or more six-month misdemeanors, that defendant might not be released the same day. But LBREPORT.com noted and reported the following information visible on the L.A. County Sheriff Department's website, indicating the same defendant in the October 30 Belmont Shore battery (details below) was (in chronological reverse order):
Arrested on Aug. 31, 2017 with a charge level of misdemeanor (no details), sentenced on Sept. 5, 2017 (three items, no details) to 90 days, 90 days and 340 days...and released on Sept. 23, 2017;
Arrested on July 11, 2017, with a charge level of misdemeanor (no details), sentenced on July 13, 2017 to probation (two items) and sentenced to 300 days on a third item...and released on August 1, 2017.
Arrested Nov. 19, 2016, with a charge level of misdemeanor (no details), sentenced on November 23, 2016 to 150 days on one item, probation on a second item (with a court date of January 5, 2017)...and released on December 19, 2016.
Based on the above information, if the defendant had served even 20% of his 340 day sentence imposed on August 31 (for which he was released a little over three weeks later) he wouldn't have been on 2nd St./Nieto on October 30 in the first place.
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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt told LBREPORT.com:
On 10/30/17 at approx. 6:30 p.m., officers responded to 2nd Street & Nieto Avenue regarding a battery call
When officers arrived, they observed a male subject yelling and screaming
The officers' investigation determined the male subject had confronted a man and his two daughters
The subject then [allegedly] struck the man in the face
There was a struggle between the male subject and the male victim
A witness came to assist the male victim until police arrived
The male subject, identified as 39-year-old Damon Reed of LB, was then taken into custody
He was booked for battery and held at the LB City Jail on $750 bail
What took place on Oct 30 triggered multiple NextDoor.com social network postings. One woman, part of the Belmont Shore NextDoor group, subsequently told LBREPORT.com that she "noticed the alleged attacker min before the incident and...also witnessed the police arrest him...He [appeared to be] clearly mentally ill. The behavior he displayed was not at all normal. He was talking and yelling to himself, very angry. It was not directed at anyone. When he was arrested, he did not even resist. More than anything, I felt very sorry for the man. I wish there was an institution that would take these people, instead of allowing them to roam the streets by themselves."
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. operates County jails in the most populous County in the United States (a population larger than 40 states, including the nation's second largest City Los Angeles and CA's seventh largest city of Long Beach, plus over 80 other incorporated cities.
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Dec. 22: The text above was amended to reflect information received Dec. 22 from the LB City Prosecutor's office indicating the defendant pleaded guilty on Nov. 1 and was released on Nov. 2.
