#ab109

(Jerry Brown at a 2010 rally in Oakland, CA. Photo: Steve Rhodes/creative commons)

AB109 is a way for Governor Brown to fudge numbers. 

The State Legislature passed the law in 2011 without any Republican votes. 

Democrats in Sacramento call it “realignment,” but in reality, AB 109 is a shell game that lets Brown dump state inmates into the county system. That way, the governor gets to tell people he’s reducing the state’s prison population.

“He’s playing Russian roulette with the public,” Tuolumne County Sheriff Jim Mele foreshadowed soon after AB 109 took effect.

 Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2017:

“We’re putting people back on the street that aren’t ready to be back on the street,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said. He said the county jail system he runs, the largest in the nation, has become a “default state prison.”

Brown’s realignment racket might be a good way for him to manipulate statistics, but law enforcement agrees it’s bad for public safety.

For years, police organizations warned that the bill would result in high-risk offenders roaming free - just like the three gangbangers who killed four California cops in the past five months.

Trenton Trevon Lovell, 27, shot Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Owen in the face, then stood over his body and unloaded four more rounds – described as an “execution-style” death by the DA’s office.

A gang member with a long rap sheet, Lovell racked up 11 arrests and spent two stints in the state pen for felony convictions.

Associated Press, October 14, 2016:

Lovell has been on parole since 2014, when he was freed from prison after serving roughly five years of a six-year sentence for robbing a university community safety officer at gunpoint.

Prior to realignment (AB 109), Lovell could have gone back to (state) prison as a parole violator. (In 2015) he pleaded no contest to driving under the influence and a county judge sentenced him to 13 days in jail and three years’ probation.

Since the passage of AB109, parole violators are no longer returned to state prison.

“It curtailed the power of parole agents (paid by the state) to monitor and punish parolees,” wrote Eric Siddall, Vice President of the Association of Los Angeles District Attorneys.

That means ex-convicts like Lovell can now receive lighter supervision, like probation, for violating parole rules.

“Guess who pays for probation? The county. Guess who has next to no expertise in dealing with harden criminals? Probation,” Siddall continued.

Palm Springs Police Officers Jose “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny were ambushed and killed by John Hernandez Felix, 26, during a 12-hour standoff last fall.

Felix, who has been described by local media as “a known member of the Varrio Las Palmas gang,” allegedly expressed a desire to kill police before firing armor-piercing bullets at the officers with an AR-15.

Desert Sun, October 14, 2016:

In September 2009, police say Felix and another man attempted to kill a member of a rival gang in a drive-by shooting.

Felix was charged with attempted murder but pleaded down to assault with a firearm, ultimately serving 18 months of a four-year prison term.

But before being discharged from parole in May 2015, Felix was placed on probation by the county, twice, and pled guilty to another infraction. 

The Press-Enterprise, October 9, 2016:

(Felix) got in trouble again in December 2012 when he was accused of possession of an opium pipe. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 76 days in jail, fined $570 and required to not use illegal drugs among the terms of his probation, which expired this August.

And in 2014 he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, the court records show. He was sentenced to 35 days in custody and 34 days in a work-release program, and was ordered to pay a fine of $1,730 and complete a DUI first-offender program, but court records say he failed to appear for the work-release and DUI programs. He remains on probation in that case.

The California Justice Legal Foundation, whose Board of Trustees includes former Gov. Pete Wilson, notes that Felix “would have been eligible for more time in prison or jail” before AB 109.

Michael Christopher Mejia, 26, is a member of the Winter Gardens street gang and he’s got tattoos on his face to prove it.

Thanks to AB 109, the two-time felon was never on parole after leaving state prison last April.

Orange County Register, February 22, 2017:

(Mejia) was on county probation under Assembly Bill 109 when he allegedly shot and killed (Whittier PD Officer) Boyer…and had been arrested multiple times in recent months for violating his probation.

If Mejia had been returned to state prison for violating parole rather getting slapped on the wrist for breaching probation, he might not have been in a position to kill Officer Boyer on February 20.

“It is irresponsible to ignore the fact that the state has, over the last decade, wiped its hands of its public safety obligations and shifted the burden of monitoring harden criminals to probation - an organization not equipped to deal with the Mejia’s of the world,” Siddall wrote.

In a statement to KCAL news, Boyer’s cousin called out Gov. Brown.

Boyer’s family invited Brown to accompany them to the funeral later this week to witness the ramifications of his prison reform policies.