CountyJail.net

Find Shasta County Jail inmates...

Pre-sentencing

Interview with Sarah, Paul, Allan and Erik

JM: Tell us about the pre-sentencing process:
Sarah: Guilty DUI... no fight... do the crime... do the time...
Paul: I was pulled over for a DUI, but had an outstanding warrant, and was also charged with resisting arrest (later dropped in court). I was arrested and put in a cell. Spent two months in the "kiddie" cell block (we called it the "sandbox") then I was transferred down to workers pod. Four days later I was called for a work crew position. I spent the last month there working. I was released on my court sentencing date.
Allan: It was horrible, the detectives treated me as if I were guilty before I was even convicted. And the Probation interview was a sham, he promised me probation and work release in order to take a plea of guilty which I never received. The detective lied about my testimony, and denied me my right to council
Erik: There was really no process. I was arrested at home and held in jail for a little over 2 months awaiting trial. A week or so before the trial date I took the deal the DA's office offered. I was released that same day. I was not in theast impressed by the way the PD handled my case. Some key points were not explored and as far as I could tell, The PD did a poor and unsatisfactory job. He no longer works in Shasta County

JM: Did you have police stop by your house for questioning? If not please give us details on how you came to be arrested.
Sarah: no... I always drove to them.
Paul: I was pulled over after leaving a bar. The officer said that he could see I was not wearing a seatbelt, claiming that he saw it hanging from the door. This was not possible at all, because the back window of the pickup was limo tinted, and it was a late model dodge, with the shoulder belt exiting from the seat back, not from the door post.
Allan: Detectives called me and harrassed me until I came in for an interview, while I was being interviewed I asked for a lawyer on two separate occaisions and was denied access to one. He took an accusatary tone with me the whole time, never really interested in the truth !!
Erik: I was at home with my wife. We had just come home form dinner at a local resturaunt. We had rented a movie and had sat down to watch. During the coarse of the movie , the wife got up aand went to refresh our cocktails. When she opened the refrigerator a food stuff fell out and landed on her foot. She returned to the couch and I fiexed an icebag for her foot. I comforted her as best I could went she started hitting me as if I had done something wrong. She elevated the incident to include yelling and hitting me. On three occasions I attemped to restain her arms to stop being hit and was bitten. She then screamed at me to leave. As I was retrieving my keys from upstair I could hear her talking to the police on the phone. At this point I sat down on the bed and awaited the RPD. When theRPD did show up they asked me what was going on. I asked them what my wife had said. I got noresponce from the officers. At which point I was hand cuffed and taken to lock up. From that point on I made no stements to the police. My PD came to see me three days later. At no point did the fact that my wife had consumed large quantities af alcohol was never brought into court. Bail was set at 100,000 dollars.

JM: What was court like? Please give as many details as you recall.
Sarah: Always embarrassing... thankful to be there... to face the charges... & that there were no physical injury's to anyone.
Paul: I was ushered into a court room, and arraigned. The public defender said he would come see me in jail. he did not I did not see him again until the next court date, when they postponed my court date again, pending discovery about the pickup and the procedure the officer went through to decide that I was not wearing a seat belt. The motion to supress was dropped without my consent, but I kept my mouth shut when I got to court, because probation was recommending that I be released, and the resisting arrest charge was dropped. I was going home if I just plead guilty, and going back to a cell if I insisted on fighting the officer's claim
Allan: Scary, degrading, and rigged to send me to prison if I argued any of the victims claims- The court appointed public pretenders are a joke and the lawyers in town are just rejects from somewhere else. I've been in more than one jail in my life and I've NEVER seen more peoples civil rights being violated in my life-
Erik: Court was calm for the most part. I was dressed in jail house clothes. I had discussed my case with my attourney. In order to get to trial there are several visits to court. The initial is the plea. There was three more visits to court involving banter between the DA and my PD.There were parts of each court appearance where the Judge, DA and my PD would adjourn to the judges quarters and discuss legal points and come bake and tell me what my options might be. The DA then would tell me what he was wiling to accept with a guilty plea. This was also when the PD informed me what the court would give me for not taking the deal. If convicted. My PD gave me not hope of winning my case so at the settlement appearance ( the last appearance before trial) I accepted the DA's deal. Incidently it was the best offer to date.

JM: What were your original charges? What did you end up being convicted of?
Paul: DUI and resisting arrest...plea was to the DUI
Allan: not really pertainent to anything
Erik: Domestic Violence 273.5 felony. It was a felony because it was the second time I had been brought up on the same charge involving the same girl

Read about sentencing in the Shasta County Jail