Picking up from where my last Orange County adventure left off, I’ve been recuperating from a C2 fracture that required a lengthy hospitalization by riding my road bike.
The routine involves taking my bicycle to Fairview Park in Costa Mesa in my truck and using the facility as a base for multiple short rides throughout the day.
Back in July, at Fairview Park sitting in my truckbed with the tailgate facing the lawn, I was taking a break between rides in the shade of my truckbed topper. It was the hottest day of the year so far. My bicycle was lying in the grass adjacent to the parking spot. Along comes an Officer from Costa Mesa PD who tells me that I can’t leave my bike there. Knowing this to be untrue, I explain my surprise as I’ve been parking my bike this way for years at this park. It has also been my observed understanding of the usual and customary use of the lawn area in the park.
He insisted that the law was clear. All bicycles must be stored in the bicycle racks provided. I told him that the racks were optional and that I chose to watch my bike personally as it is more secure and saves me time lost performing a useless act. Out of the blue he asks me if I am homeless as if trying to instigate a confrontation. Failing to do so he took my driver’s license and sat in his SUV for about 10 minutes. He returned with a citation for illegal parking and disorderly conduct. When he appeared shocked at my refusal to argue with him about it, I simply told him that flapping my jaw at him would be unproductive as this was not the correct venue to air a complaint about the citation.
Still annoyed that I didn’t have a meltdown over a parking citation, he informed me that I was being trespassed from the park and then sat there cooping while I packed up my truck and left.
My first response to this was to look up the statutes cited at the Costa Mesa website and read the text. There was no such parking prohibition in the cited statute. But there *was* a scamworthy line in that section automatically upgrading ANY infraction committed within the park to a misdemeanor offense, calling it Disorderly Conduct. This creates leverage to reduce the probability that anyone will fight the outrageous fine, fearing the definite possibility that a conviction could land them in jail over a parking ticket! Hiring a lawyer to fight it would cost thousands of dollars, so they’ve got their victims boxed in.
Having waited over two months for the court date, I appeared at the time ordered expecting to simply explain the situation to a Traffic Court Judge. Instead, after three hours of waiting in a courtroom, I was hustled into the hall by an attorney representing Costa Mesa who gave me their offer to resolve this. Pay them $275 and I could go home today with this settled. The plea to her common sense that I shouldn’t have to pay anything since I hadn’t violated any statutes fell on deaf ears. She tried to tell me that it would be impossible to fight this in Court without an attorney as I knew nothing about the complex procedures involved in defending a case before a jury. Additionally, I would have to pay Court costs on top of the fine and they planned to ask for jail time.
The prison benches available in the hall while waiting for the courtroom to open had me wandering around reading signs before the courtroom opened and the one about attorney and litigant behavioral standards did not escape my attention.
I censored what I wanted to say and told her that I would see her in Court.
She launched into another warning about defending myself with the intensity of a desperate car salesman on the Harbor Boulevard of Cars. This was 69 days after the citation was written. Back in the courtroom, the clerk, the Judge and even the courtroom security officer all launched into individual warnings along the same lines. At which time I asked them to schedule the trial. The Judge set a pre-trial hearing to handle discovery and scheduling for a week out. Once again appearing as ordered, it took four hours of sitting around in the appointed courtroom. Another Costa Mesa attorney filling in for the first approached me and handed me his Evidence List. Asking him if he’d like a copy of my Discovery Request List and Evidence List he said, “No” and sat down. I was called to the podium and asked one more time, once each by the Judge and the Security Officer if I still planned on representing myself. The guard said he’d get me some paperwork to sign acknowledging that I knew I had the right to representation. Signing that, the Judge smiled and quickly told me that the case had been dismissed by the prosecution. The Prosecutor had filed a motion admitting that they had no case.
So it was just a shakedown from the start that they pushed up to the very last moment that they could without having to show their hand. This provided the maximum retribution available in their extrajudicial punishment of law-abiding citizens via frivolous and unconstitutional malicious prosecution. The lawyers are probably on salary with nothing better to do. The cop never had to appear. It costs them almost nothing to run this scam, and they probably get a lot of folks who don’t want to risk being railroaded into a jail sentence to just pay.
In any case the length of time they spent sweating me to accept a guilty plea made no sense from a reasonable prosecutorial perspective. There were no facts in the case that *could* be recanted. It wasn’t a whodunnit. They knew that no such law existed but wanted me to admit to its violation to make this go away. The account of the facts of the case provided by the Officer and his body cam matched my own tighter than a trio played by musicians of the sort skilled enough to make multiple instruments sound like one.
[Where was the bike placed? Where was I at the time? When did this occur? How was the bike oriented relative to me, my truck and the park?]
The only dispute was about whether the actions in question were prohibited. Exactly how much legal analysis of a parking ordinance was required to conclude that I was correct, saving time and money for both parties and the Court itself? Could this court-clogging enterprise be why the traditional 30 day interval between citation and court date has now swollen to 69 days? This scam was designed purely as extrajudicial punishment of the homeless. Their lame excuses provide less ass coverage than a Newport Beach string bikini. If seasoned attorneys actually require 76 days to figure out what 35 words of statute mean, how are visitors to the park equipped to interpret the rule in a timely enough manner to avoid harassment when it’s not even posted on a sign at the park?
Allen
P.S. Could this old Rockford episode have been their inspiration?
Good job Allen , you called their bluff. It sounds like a shakedown from the start. And good job not letting that cop bait you.
My opinion, the City owes you a financial apology.
Makes you wonder what the payoff is for them. The cop gets to play lawyer/Nazi so that strokes his ego – pushing people around he doesn’t think will push back. He didn’t have to show up? That’s a violation of the 6th Amendment, no?
If the attorney for Costa Mesa is billing hours, that makes sense.
The judge and court personnel are all on the clock so there’s that.
The only person NOT getting paid is the victim of the harassment.
So what’s the name of the cop? Publishing names on the internet is a small victory for the otherwise powerless.
I don’t think doxxing the Officer would be productive. It was the hottest day of the year and during our interaction he was standing in the open sun while I was sitting in the shade in my truck. His uniform was on the warm side of appropriate. The assignment seemed to indicate he had pissed someone off in a position to schedule such things. That suggests the idea came from higher up in the organization. Sure, he wasn’t very nice, but that was part of the theatrics he was being asked to perform.
You are a better man than I, Gunga Din.
But, seriously the man’s temperament suggests a different line of work. Maybe club bouncer?
And BTW, publishing the name isn’t doxxing. It’s reporting.
David: The Officer never had to show because they stalled the proceedings while executing several attempts at extortion. When they ran out of reasons to stall they stopped short of any embarassing commitment to this case that would have required that.
So you’re saying the cop was told he didn’t have to show up because the case was going to lose anyhow?
The cynicism thickens.
I’LL thay it thickens!
David: I’m not saying that the citing Officer was told anything. He played his part. They played their’s.
Sorry you had to spend all those hours, yet I’m glad you stood for what you knew to be right.
Perhaps right after the election you’d like to tell the City Council that you’ve spoken to an attorney and that if this happens again they can expect a class action that will lead to a consent decree requiring extensive monitoring of all police activities in Costa Mesa parks, as well as to substantial legal fees. The Mayor (whom we’re endorsing for re-election) is a good guy, a veteran attorney, and no dummy.
I’m pretty sure I could find an attorney who would appreciate an easy payday.
Greg: This isn’t about retribution or winning some legal lottery.
As a nice lady at a protest in Anaheim I attended had on her sign to emphasize that this was a protest, not a panhandle, “Keep your dollars. I want CHANGE!”
Is it that big of an ask to exchange the $20 I spent needlessly, in exchange for ending extralegal harassment campaigns and sticking to directing Police focus on thefts, batteries and robberies?
That covers close to every case where victimized citizens feel that LE could do more. Nobody summoning Police because they just had their teeth knocked out by some drunken, overgrown toddler is pleased to know that prosecution of their attacker was abandoned because “all of our representatives were currently helping other customers.”
I think change is the idea here. Legal jeopardy is one tried and true way to effect change.
Not really, Vern. The City can play legal games all day long with impunity.
It doesn’t cost the bad actors a dime and they’re playing the game with your money.
Read Travis Kiger’s (I think) Seven Walls of Government.
Yeah, I guess I was thinking of a Council like the current Costa Mesa Council… but I may be wrong even about them.
You think the current Costa Mesa City Council will stand up to the cops and their own City Attorney? If they were willing a lawsuit wouldn’t be necessary. If a lawsuit were necessary it wouldn’t do any good.
“It’s a desperate man who seeks legal redress from his government.”
Allen, the purpose of class action litigation is to get a consent decree — sort of like agreeing to a restraining order.
Yes, the attorney — who would not be me — would get compensated for their actual work done on the case. That’s proper — but in a case like this it’s not like winning a lottery. But: the prospect of payouts — as should have occurred in your case — is important because it’s a disincentive for them to do this sort of thing, and it gives them a really good reason to discipline those who do bad police work — and one often needs that good reason to make this happen.
The threat of this class action to the City Council is not one that would be taken seriously until it is filed. Prior to that, discussions with council members using that rationale are just hot air.
And why delay until after the elections?
Mr. Stephens and crew clarified the law regarding bicycle storage somewhat and then introduced another loophole Police can use to harass the poor in the park.
I am unaware of any challengers to the current council having the balls to vocally oppose unconstitutional harassment, let alone admit that it exists. So a rah-rah for the incumbents on this issue would be irrelevant and inappropriate.
You should try reaching out to the various YouTube cop watching channels like Audit the Audit and Lackluster.
Sue them
Hell yah! Great job not letting them steamroll you. We need more coverage on these bs charges but the whole system is in kahoots with each other from the judge to the city attorneys to the police. And even the local news doesn’t want to cover stories like this either. Thank you for speaking the truth!
It’s not that it takes that long to figure things out it’s just there are so many criminals and idiots out there sometimes you have wait your turn. Unless you just crowd you way to the front of the line in the grocery store since the prices are already labeled and Don’t need to be figured out.
And PS. Just because you have done something many times before does not make it lawful, you might beware of that in the future.
Wrong on both counts, Jim.
Each clown in this chain of criminals knew exactly what they were doing in the context of applying extrajudicial punishment to someone they declared, with no authority whatsoever, to be persona non grata. That’s criminal, in case you’ve forgotten High School civics.
And PS: I didn’t violate any laws. Just because some scammer accuses one of doing so does not make it a fact. You might take that into account in the future.
LOL
In this country what we are missing is that knowing our rights. We should teach our children at very young age what are our rights to defend ourselves without lawyer. What you went through Allen is not easy for many people and would accept the plead guilty option and move on due to not knowing the legal rights. Sometimes, lawless people run over us and take advantage and make us to pay the bill. We should teach our children at very young age about the laws not when they are in college.
Interesting account of your encounter with the fraudulent corporate municipal government of Costa Mesa. Well done on holding your ground until their extortion attempt collapsed. I watched those fake public defenders in action while waiting in court for my case to be called and witnessed their shenanigans first hand.
Here’s my account of my own encounters, latest of which took place earlier this year, provided in the form of bit.ly links:
bit.ly/Affidavit-to-Court-to-Remedy-Homelessness
bit.ly/Gracious-Nomad-Remedy-for-Homelessness
bit.ly/What-Solves-Homelessness
bit.ly/On-Assignment-the-LWK-story
PS: your website field does not recognize the .shop extension – as in:
Icanseeclearlynow.shop