CCPOA news
March 11, 2010
State Supreme Court to review body armor ban
The California Supreme Court decided Wednesday to review a state law that prohibits convicted felons from owning body armor.
An appeals court overturned the ban last year on the grounds the law was too vague.
State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, whose office appealed the ruling, called the state high court’s decision to examine the law “a clear victory for police officers everywhere.”
A ruling by the court, which did not comment on its reasons for taking the case, is probably a year away...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
Manager of Sober Living Facility Convicted of Selling Drugs
District Attorney Bob Lee announced that Donald Carl Peter of Santa Cruz, age 48, was sentenced to one year in county jail following his guilty pleas last month to all counts charged: one felony count of possessing methamphetamine for sale, one felony count of maintaining a place for the sale and use of controlled substances, and one felony count of possession of a deadly weapon. Mr. Peter also admitted special allegations for serving a prison sentence in 1993 for possession of methamphetamine and having a prior transportation of methamphetamine conviction in 1998.
Mr. Peter was arrested in August 2009 after the Sheriff's Office Narcotics Enforcement Team received tips that Mr. Peter, the manager of an SLE (Sober Living Environment) located at 114 Park Avenue was selling methamphetamine to residents of his SLE as well as members of the community...
LINK - KCBA.com
March 10, 2010
Parolee with 19 arrests underscores dangers of new parole law, L.A. police union says
The union representing Los Angeles police officers said Wednesday that a parolee with 19 arrests and four convictions underscores how laws meant to ease prison overcrowding could pose a serious -- and ongoing -- threat to public safety. Ezra Hooker Sr. was arrested Jan. 5 after allegedly pointing a rifle at a prostitute and leading LAPD officers on a high-speed chase on South Los Angeles freeways.
During the pursuit, which LAPD investigators said hit 100 mph, Hooker threw a brick at officers and discarded a rifle before crashing his car. Hooker was found to be wearing body armor at the time of his arrest, police said.
Sources familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about Hooker's criminal record, said the 43-year-old South L.A. resident had 19 prior arrests dating back to the 1970s, including murder and manslaughter. He served time in state prison for narcotics and gun possession.
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
Schwarzenegger orders change in parole file policy
State prison officials, drawing fire for destroying the parole file of a man under scrutiny in the disappearances of two teenage girls, reversed their recordkeeping policy Tuesday on orders from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John Albert Gardner III was charged last week in the suspected killing of Chelsea King, 17, of Poway and is a person of interest, police say, in the slaying of Amber Dubois, 14, who disappeared on her way to school more than a year ago. Her skeletal remains were found Saturday in northern San Diego County.
A convicted sex offender, Gardner, 30, was discharged from parole in 2008, and his file was purged after a year under departmental policy...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
New at L.A. County Jail: inmates serve half sentences
“I already didn’t feel safe in my own neighborhood,” says lifetime Sherman Oaks resident Ron Sorrentino. “Now this … it’s not good.”
L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca released 343 nonviolent offenders from the county jail system this week, well before they had served their full sentences. The Sheriff’s Department says that budget cuts have forced changes to a longtime policy requiring inmates to serve at least 80 percent of their time before release. Now, those jailed for crimes such as check kiting, petty theft, and drunk driving will serve just 50 percent of their sentences.
Law enforcement is crying out louder than citizens like Sorrentino, analysts say...
LINK - CSMonitor.com
March 9, 2010
Privatization Update - March 1-7, 2010
March 1 – The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a public records case involving CCA, the nation’s largest for-profit private prison firm. The case was originally filed in May 2008 by Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice issues. CCA had denied Freidmann’s request for documents related to lawsuits filed against the company and for reports or audits that found contract violations by CCA, among other records. The Chancery Court of Davidson County ruled in Friedmann’s favor on July 29, 2008 and CCA was ordered to produce the requested documents...
March 9, 2010
State’s policy on parole notes being reviewed
Three years of field notes from parole agents supervising John Albert Gardner III after his release from prison on a 2000 molestation conviction were destroyed under a state policy that is being reviewed as he faces charges of raping and murdering Chelsea King.
California prison officials said pertinent information on parolees is transferred to a central file and retained before agents’ notes are burned or shredded.
But Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who represents the Poway area where Chelsea lived and went missing, wrote to state prisons Secretary Matthew Cate Monday, expressing alarm that the department destroys any records after one year...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
March 8, 2010
Inmates begin hunger strike at CTF opposing three-strikes law
Hundreds of inmates at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad are fasting in protest to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the signing of the California Three Strikes law.
The fast began Sunday and involves more than 480 prisoners, said Barbara Brooks, founder of Sentencing and Justice Reform Advocacy, which sends the monthly newsletter "Advocate" to inmates and their families.
Brooks said she learned of the hunger fast from CTF inmates who came up with the idea. She joined another dozen people who gathered about 2:45 p.m. outside of CTF in support of the hunger strike, she said...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
March 8, 2010
Redlands girl, 7, molested by parolee
Phillip Michael Berryhill, 22, an acquaintance of the victim's family, fled the home before police arrived about 4:30 a.m. Paramedics took the girl to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life threatening, police said.
Police found Berryhill hiding in the bathroom of a relative's home in the 12400 block of 14th Street in Yucaipa about 6:30 p.m.
Officers held him on suspicion of violating parole and several sex crimes including molestation...
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)