By Kalani E. Gaines
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Jose Tenango-Garcia was taken into custody after his bail hearing at Sacramento County Superior Court this week, after the court learned he had committed his fifth DUI (driving under the influence).
Tenango-Garcia, whose bail was set at $50,000, claimed he was not the actual driver in the most recent DUI.
Judge Michael Sweet oversaw the hearing and, at first, said he was impressed by the defendant’s satisfactory participation in Scram X, an ankle monitoring system that measures the blood alcohol of the wearer every 30 seconds.
But the case quickly began to go wrong against Tenango-Garcia’s favor, once Deputy District Attorney Adrienne McMillan began to provide the facts of his DUIs. And there are lots of them.
Tenango-Garcia was arrested July 3 in his most recent DUI, his fifth one.
He was involved in a solo collision where the car he was in was in a ditch facing the opposite direction of the road. Tenango-Garcia had admitted to the officers he had been drinking earlier that evening; however, he also notified them that he was not the real driver of the vehicle—his friend, who had been admitted into the hospital, was the driver.
Tenango-Garcia told the officers at the scene that he was driving the car to move it out of the wrong direction of the road. He was taken into custody that day as the officers at the scene believed his story was fabricated.
McMillan noted that while Tenango-Garcia was being charged for this fifth DUI, he was already out on bail for a DUI he committed in May. During the incident in May, Tenango-Garcia-Garcia was seen 
getting out of his car walking wobbly and seemingly drunk while his six-year-old son was left in the car.
In addition, “During the time of the May offense he was on three separate probation grants for three different DUI,” said McMillan.
McMillan mentioned that Tenango-Garcia has a strike offense as well from 2016, where he was firing a handgun while intoxicated and children were around.
McMillan emphasized the close proximity between Tenango-Garcia’s DUIs.
“While he’s out on bail for the first DUI and going through strike review on that case he picks up this new DUI,” McMillan stated, adding, “It was picked up only two months after the first DUI.”
The offer for Tenango-Garcia was nine months and four years in a state prison after McMillan’s suggestion that “[h]e’s a very clear danger to the community, for the last four years he’s had back to back DUIs.”
Defense attorney Hendrick Crowell referred to the facts of Tenango-Garcia’s most recent DUI, providing evidence of the owner of the vehicle, who was the actual driver during the incident. Crowell stated that the vehicle owner’s wallet had been found at the scene.
He also provided Judge Sweet and McMillan a copy of the vehicle owner’s receipt of transportation to the hospital, proving that Tenango-Garcia’s story was not fabricated as the police officers at the scene had thought.
“Mr. Tenango-Garcia was a passenger, (as) he explained immediately at the scene to the officers,” Crowell insisted “The officers did no investigation to try to determine if it was true. They just took him in on the DUI.”
Crowell indicated that Tenango-Garcia has shown responsibility as he explained that Tenango-Garcia voluntarily got on Scram X and has been going to Bridges treatment. Tenango-Garcia has had no violations while participating in Scram X and has had no failures to appear. He is also the primary provider for his three children.
McMillan was not persuaded by Crowell, maintaining, “I have had no chance to look into any of this information that’s being stated by Mr. Crowell.”
“You know the problem I have, notwithstanding all your good statements, is that I have to presume the facts as the prosecutor indicates for purposes of the bail motion,” Judge Sweet stated, adding, “The concern is obvious.”
Judge Sweet saw Tenango-Garcia as a risk he was not willing to take. He ordered that bail be set.
Crowell asked Tenango-Garcia’s bail to be set at $10,000 and that he immediately be put on Scram X upon release.
McMillan asked for bail to be set at $100,000.
As a compromise, Judge Sweet set bail at $50,000 with the condition of the defendant being on Scram X if bail is posted. His next court date is on Dec. 9.
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