By Gabriel Eskandari
WOODLAND, CA – Yolo County Superior Court Judge Tom M. Dyer Wednesday agreed with Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Palumbo’s motion to dismiss eight-year-old drug charges against Jocelyn Cotner, who has managed to dodge apprehension and a court appearance for nearly a decade.
Cotner wasn’t in court Wednesday either, and the DDA dismissed the charges after stating she didn’t want to “reward bad behavior.”
The prosecution also admitted Cotner was probably not guilty since a co-defendant took credit for the crime.
Cotner was facing a felony charge of transporting or selling controlled substances, a felony charge of possessing controlled substances, and a misdemeanor charge of possessing a device used for controlled substances.
All three of these charges stemmed from an incident that took place on or about Aug. 5, 2013.
After Cotner’s initial arrest, they were released on supervised own-recognizance, but it appears that the court has not been able to get Cotner to reappear at any point after that, according to the court reports.
Since then, the court has steadily issued warrants with increasing bail amounts, eventually issuing a no-bail warrant in 2015 that is still outstanding.
According to the court clerk Gena Meadows, authorities did pick up Cotner earlier this year but served them a notice to appear in court this Wednesday rather than putting them into custody. However, again, Cotner did not appear.
DDA Palumbo asked the court to have one moment to speak to Defense Attorney James Granucci, and then addressed the court:
“If Mr. Cotner had shown up today, it was going to be my intention to dismiss this, based upon the age, based upon the facts, there really wasn’t very much methamphetamine involved in this. His co-defendant took responsibility back…years ago,” stated DDA Palumbo.
“I don’t really want to reward bad behavior for him not showing up, but based on the facts, we’ve been unable to get him into court for like eight years, the People would move to dismiss,” DDA Palumbo continued.
Judge Dyer granted DDA Palumbo’s motion, dismissing the case. There are no more matters relating to this case scheduled on the calendar.
