Riverside County DA, sheriff, others: Stop ‘revolving door’ justice

By Paul J. Young

Riverside County residents and others throughout the state are suffering the consequences of “soft-on-crime” laws and policies that are proving increasingly costly and perilous to the public, according to District Attorney Mike Hestrin and others who pleaded with lawmakers Wednesday to “help … put an end to this.”

“The law is broken,” Hestrin said during a briefing at the DA’s headquarters in downtown Riverside. “Our system of justice has become a literal revolving door.”

He was joined by Sheriff Chad Bianco, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez and Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward, all of whom decried what they said has become a statewide justice system favoring leniency for criminals, leaving law-abiding people exposed to greater threats and damage.

“Nothing is a crime anymore,” Bianco said. “Everyone (in the state Legislature) has gotten tone-deaf. It’s over the top. There has been a complete failure of state government and the vast majority of legislators (due to) a political and philosophical agenda.”

The speakers took aim at Assembly Bill 109, the Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, along with Propositions 47 and 57. They relied on one example that Hestrin and Ward said was symbolic of the breakdown of justice in California — repeat felon 31-year-old Timothy Bethell of Winchester.

Bethell’s criminal history dates back to 2014, but the speakers focused on his activity since the summer of 2021, when he engaged in a series of thefts in Tulare County, costing businesses in excess of $20,000. A total of seven Visalia locations were targeted, according to Ward.

Bethell was caught and pleaded no contest to 14 felony offenses in September 2021, receiving a four-year suspended prison sentence and two years’ probation. Under AB 109, because he was deemed a nonviolent offender, he was placed on mandatory supervision and allowed to enter a habitual offender recovery program, which Hestrin said he abruptly abandoned and then burglarized another Visalia business, after which he was apprehended and pleaded guilty, receiving a one-year local prison term, which meant he was placed in the local jail to serve time.

He was released in May 2022 and received approval to return to his home county — Riverside — where he remained on mandatory supervision, and in the summer 2022 perpetrated burglaries at five businesses in southwest Riverside County, Hestrin said. He was caught and quickly pleaded guilty to six felony counts, culminating in a three-year local state prison sentence, to be served at a county detention center.

He was released three days later in what’s called a “fed kick” because the county is under a federal court mandate to ensure all inmates have bed space. When space runs out, sheriff’s officials are required to release so-called “low level offenders” to make room for incoming detainees who need one of the 3,998 inmate beds available.

Bethell returned to Tulare County and committed a series of thefts last December and January that netted him an additional 17 felony and two misdemeanor charges, to which he pleaded guilty. He received a sentence of five years, four months in a county detention facility.

Ward said the case is “sadly indicative of life in California and its soft-on-crime policies.”

“We’re all paying the price for social experiments,” he said. “Victims have become the least important people in our courtrooms.”

Gonzalez agreed, saying “there’s a sentiment among some that any law or policy that punishes criminals is unjust.” He noted the burglary rate citywide is up 31% compared to the same period in 2022.

AB 109 was spearheaded by then-Gov. Jerry Brown as part of his program to retool state government and reduce prison overcrowding.

However, the law was replete with challenges, including the transfer of many functions previously carried out by state parole agents onto counties’ probation officers. It established different categories of probation, including post-release community supervision, and alternatives in lieu of jail, such as mandatory supervision. Low-level offenders, including parole violators, were also required to serve their time behind bars in local detention facilities, instead of penitentiaries. Bianco said on any given day, the county’s five correctional facilities are occupied by 450 to 500 prison inmates.

The speakers said Proposition 47, passed in 2014, has put an additional strain on correctional resources, altering sentencing guidelines, making “non-serious” drug and property crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies. Proposition 57, approved in 2016, loosened the state’s Three Strikes Law and provided greater opportunities for early parole.

The speakers questioned the rationale in maintaining some of AB 109’s provisions, noting that overcrowding doesn’t appear to be a factor now, with the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation planning to close a prison, exit the lease on another one and deactivate facilities in six other penitentiaries.

“We need to put an end to this,” Hestrin said. “We are doing everything we can to protect property in this county. But we can’t do it. The state won’t protect it. We need help. To our governor, I’d say, stop the dog-and-pony show in other states and come back and deal with this.”

The DA, Bianco and Gonzalez stressed that appearances before the Legislature’s public safety committees have gotten them nowhere.

“They look at Facebook while we’re speaking to them,” the sheriff said. “There’s a complete lack of respect.”

Gonzalez said some lawmakers are anchored to the idea that “anything that will incarcerate people of color, they can’t support that.”

The speakers all appealed to residents to be proactive at the grassroots level, pressing home the message to policymakers that changes in state law are vital.

More from Politics