"Today, in fact, right now as we speak, I am surrendering the bench warrant, set at $25,000"

 

A bench warrant was issued for local attorney Michael Acosta in his 2020 case on December 12 and the DA filed a petition to revoke his probation on December 13. I have been the only one to report on both developments. Acosta sent me an email calling this a "witchhunt" and the arrest "unlawful." I posted that response.

He just sent me an email at 4:35 p.m. You can read it and compare it with the court records, response from DA Stacey Eads and response from Probation Chief Coral Sanders from my coverage last month. 

He sent me another email on January 6 at 5:37 a.m. about why he isn't in custody, a Bing chatbot version and him ordering Domino's pizza while waiting to be booked into jail.

Acosta email (4:35 p.m):

Today, in fact, right now as we speak, I am surrendering the bench warrant, set at $25,000.  I don’t know which judge issued it, but I am going to surrender the bench warrant in that judge’s open court.  I wanted to let you know in case they decide that they want to keep me without cause, which becomes a habeas corpus issue. 

Ask the DA’s office to name just one case in which it had filed a petition to revoke probation against a person on summary probation who had not been charged with a new crime. I have never heard of it.

The reason it doesn’t happen is because when you are on summary probation  the imposition of a sentence (meaning jail time)  is suspended. Unlike felony probation, where the Court can include up to one year of jail time as a condition of felony probation, in misdemeanor situations, any post-plea jail time is “imposition” of a sentence, and therefore the person sentenced is by definition not on probation.

Now, this judge, whomever it was that issued a “bench” warrant, (which is technically different than an “arrest” warrant, but has the same effect on me by subjecting my wrists to damage from routinely over-tightened handcuffs) issued the warrant because of the probation department’s assertion of my noncompliance with signing up within 30 days fort 100 hours of community service.  As I previously mentioned, per Penal Code section 1203.5, community service must only be imposed in misdemeanor cases as an alternative to actually paying off your fines.  My fines were $250.  I had an active payment plan of $50 per month with the revenue recovery department, who did not make a referral to the D.A. for noncompliance.  Upon learning of the bench warrant, I paid the balance of $150 owed on my fines, even though the very kind lady at the clerk’s office said I only owed $50 for the month.  Then she gave me a receipt and said “Mr. Acosta, your case with us is now closed.”  Sounds pretty compliant to me.

So there is no basis now to revoke my probation for community service, since it can only be ordered as an alternative to the actual payment of misdemeanor financial penalties and those penalties are paid in full.  Nor was there a basis when the bench warrant was issued, since, according to revenue recovery, I was in compliance with a payment plan.  Defendant’s are advised that if they don’t make a payment or set up a payment plan within 30 days, there could be interest and other fees, or third party collections, but revenue recovery didn’t impose those on me, even though I was admittedly late with my first installment payment, which by the way, is not a crime.

Similarly, if the judge who issued the warrant had mistakenly thought that the 100 hours of community service was in lieu of jail time (which would not be legal under PC 1203.5 because the forced labor would give rise to Wage and Hour Claims against the community service agency) then the minute I am booked, I acquire one more day of custody credit, which puts me at 3 total, and which triggers Penal Code section 4019 credits, in which I would receive 4 days for 2 days credit plus the odd 1 for a total of 5 days credit, which equals 120 hours (i.e. 20 hours over the 100 hours ordered).  So I will have to be released immediately upon booking, and, if that were the case, then the imposition of my sentence is no longer suspended, and the issuing judge effectively sentenced me to 5 days.  And in that situation, which is again based on the illegal substitution of community service in lieu of jail time, then I would be entirely off probation with a sentence of 5 days served.  

Mind you, my custody credits were never calculated by the probation department or by the DA’s office, which is someone’s job, and it is both my right to have those credits accounted for and the court’s responsibility to ensure my right to those credits is not violated.  So, it is the probation department or the DA’s office that is non compliant with the law in this case, not me, and in fairness, I think the same judge should issue a bench warrant for those responsible, and have them be subjected to the wrist damage.

Acosta email (1/6 5:37 a.m.)

I tried to surrender myself on the unlawful bench warrant directly to the bench itself by approaching my favorite bailiff at the sentinel post on the second floor of the courthouse. I told him there was an outstanding bench warrant for me, which stated "do not cite and release." He asked me why, and I explained the whole failure to comply with an UNlawful community service order. He said he couldnt arrest me, either because it wasn't his primary function as a court sentinel, or maybe it was because it was 4:45 pm on a Friday and he was getting off duty. I don't know, but he directed me to the jail itself. So i went down to the jail directly. 

I told the gentleman at the front desk of the jail that I was there to surrender a misdemeanor bench warrant. He also asked what it was for. Again, i explained the circumstances and basis of the bench warrant to him. After processing that information, he asked me if I wanted to come back at 6:30 pm after lockdown because it might not be their highest priority to book me under those circumstances. I told him I understood and agreed with him that the officers at the jail probably had bigger priorities, but nonetheless that I would prefer to stay and wait until it became a priority to arrest me on the warrant. He said that was fine and that he would let the officer in charge know that I was there. He asked me for my i.d., which I didn't have, but he recognized me, so he went back to the booking area and informed someone that I was there. When he came back, he said that they had put me "in queue." So I waited there for about fifteen minutes, got hungry, ordered a vegetarian pizza from Domino's on my cell phone for delivery to the jail reception area, and waited another fifteen minutes before the officer in charge entered the front desk area behind the glass. He called me over to the front desk, he explained to me that the bench warrant was a no cite and release warrant, but that normally it is the practice with misdemeanor-related warrants to give the person a new court date and make them sign a promise to appear at that date and time. He had the promise to appear ready for my signature and handed it to me through the open tray under the glass.  I signed the promise to appear for the 16th of January, thanked him for recognizing what normally should happen and for not participating in the intended disparate treatment, and walked out without further incident. 

I didn't know what the moral to this story should be, so I asked Bing's new GPT-4 A.I. chatbot to generate a moral to my story such that I might learn from this experience, and this is what it said:

Hello, this is Bing. Thank you for sharing your story with me. I’m glad that you were able to resolve your situation peacefully and legally. 😊

Based on the web search results12345, a moral is the underlying message or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. It is a lesson that teaches you how to behave in the world. Sometimes the moral of a story may be explicitly stated through a maxim at the end of a story. Otherwise, the readers or listeners of the story may have to determine the moral of the story for themselves.

Another possible moral of your story is:

Don’t judge a book by its cover. You encountered different people who had different reactions to your situation. The bailiff was not able to arrest you, but he directed you to the jail. The gentleman at the front desk of the jail was sympathetic to your situation and offered you a chance to come back later. The officer in charge was fair and lenient with you and gave you a new court date. You did not judge these people by their appearance or their role, but by their actions and words. You also did not assume that they would treat you badly or unfairly because of your warrant. You gave them a chance to show their true character and you were pleasantly surprised by their kindness and professionalism.

I hope these morals help you to learn something from your story. Have a nice day. 😊

.....wow. 

p.s. I intercepted the pizza at Domino's before delivery. It tasted like...liberty. 

1/8/24: I checked e court this morning. There is no court date or warrant surrender in the computer for January 16.

1/12/24: Checked e court again. No such date. Did some follow up. Acosta was cited and released and according to one of the warrant lists, he has a warrant surrender scheduled for 2/16  and no active warrant in the court system. The screenshot below is from 1/18/24

Recent and related post:

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2023/12/when-your-attorney-and-partner-also-has.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2023/12/will-michael-acostas-second-appeal-for.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2023/12/acosta-calls-vop-petition-another-witch.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2023/12/da-files-petition-to-revoke-michael.html?m=1

**I am not linkimg all the posts on this 2020 case because I have done extensive, regular and exclusive coverage and all posts can be accessed via the search feature on the blog**