By Ivan Villegas
WOODLAND, CA – “No, he doesn’t have any notice of today’s court date, but I also don’t have any way of getting ahold of him,” said Deputy Public Defender Peter Borruso last Wednesday morning during a preliminary hearing in Yolo County Superior Court.
The accused was charged with vandalism and bringing a controlled substance into a jail or prison, both felonies, earlier this past February.
The accused was scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on this matter but did not show up, prompting both PD Borruso and Deputy District Attorney Preston Schaub to explain the absence to the judge.
“This is a sad story,” DDA Schaub explained, “[the accused] was released from custody, he had a parole home…and then parole was successfully terminated…and they just released him from Walter’s House [rehabilitation center] and he has been, I assume, on the streets ever since.”
DDA Schaub added the District Attorney’s Office has no good way of reaching the accused.
“The problem is he’s never been noticed for any of today’s hearings because he is at Walter’s House so I’ll probably have to do a declaration for an arrest warrant based on that,” Schaub added.
PD Borruso told the judge that after the accused was arrested and brought into custody, the agreement was that he would be released if parole found him a place to stay at Walter’s House in March.
The accused was doing well, according to PD Borruso: “I don’t believe he was discharged for any reason of his own…it’s in fact possible that he completed the program that he was required to do.”
However, PD Borruso confessed, “we haven’t actually had any contact with him for months, but parole was giving updates, and we were just seeing his status…He’s transient according to the information we have.”
Judge Stephen Mock dropped the matter from the calendar, and shaking his head, stated the only thing the DDA could do in this situation is request a warrant by declaration.
After PD Borruso apologized, DDA Schaub told the judge “it’s fine, minor inconvenience for me, much larger inconvenience for him, and we can thank parole for that.”
