By Tommy Nguyen
VENTURA, CA – During Rigoberto Calderone’s warrant arraignment hearing early this Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court, the judge noted the accused’s failure to appear on a past hearing but still released him with no bail requirement pretrial.
Calderone was arrested and charged with felony assault with force and battery with serious bodily injury, in which he had pleaded not guilty.
This hearing was set to address a warrant that was placed on Calderone because of his failure to appear in court, as promised, on April 22. 
Assistant Public Defender Aaron Jaques said that on that day, Calderone was not answering any of his phone calls or texts, not until the following Monday when he finally gave his counsel a call back.
Jaques has advised that Calderone add the case back to the calendar, being aware that the man’s phone was broken and caused this episode.
“This is his first failure to appear,” counsel explained. “We also brought this up in negotiation, but this is the first Mr. Calderone has ever been arrested. So I would ask that this be one opportunity that the warrant be recalled, and that he’d [the accused] be allowed to remain on own recognizance.”
The prosecution then had a chance to discuss a plea offer before Judge Bruce Young granted counsel’s request for warrant recall, releasing Calderone on his own recognizance.
However, since the charges have been filed for over a year, since March of 2021, the judge revoked the future Penal Code section 977 (regarding waiver of court appearance) appearances as part of Calderone’s Supervised Own Recognizance release.
“He [accused] will need to physically appear on future hearings so that there is no confusion about when he is supposed to come and when he is not going to come,” Judge Young explained.
About the plea offer that was on the table for the court, the prosecution has modified the offer, in which it needs to be addressed, likely during a preliminary hearing that is available.
The defense then rejected the offer, before requesting a time waiver of 60 days due to the anticipation of other cases that Jaques is currently involved in elsewhere in the courts.
Calderone’s jury trial is set to begin on June 24 if a deal cannot be reached.
