Three Sentencings

Timothy Abshire was held to answer and bound over for trial on three felony counts last week, the most prominent being count one, the attempted murder of a police officer.

(Background: https://www.theava.com/archives/43828)

There had been some question of whether Abshire knew he was shooting at a police officer, but now Judge Ann Moorman has had time to consider the testimony, she believes there was sufficient evidence that Mr. Abshire knew CHP Officer John Heinke was a police officer and that as Abshire turned and raised his rifle in Heinke’s direction it was with the intent to kill Heinke.

“He had been ordered three times to stop, drop the rifle, and show his hands. He kept going, but not only that, he turned to face the officer, and raised the barrel of the gun in the officer’s direction. As to whether he knew Officer Heinke was a duly sworn law enforcement, he had been fleeing from officers ever since he left his house, and a police helicopter was circling above, searching for him. Earlier in the day, he had several times said he was going to kill someone, and that somebody was going to die.”

As for the defense that he was intoxicated to the point he didn’t know what he was doing, Judge Moorman was not convinced. After Officer Heinke shot him, Mr. Abshire was lucid enough to tell the EMT that he had a clear recollection of what had happened and that he was afraid he’d be “going away” for a long time.

The incident happened at the Piffero Vinyard and surrounding neighborhood in Redwood Valley last November 15. Abshire came uninvited to a birthday party with a loaded gun and threatened to kill people. When the police started to arrive, Abshire fled to his trailer house, armed himself with a rifle and disappeared into the woods. A search was initiated after dark, and he was eventually shot by Officer Heinke.

Counts two and three stem from the threats Abshire made to Members of the Piffero family earlier in the day when he came in and shot up the birthday party. Abshire’s attorney, Jan Cole-Wilson has been granted some to time to organize her case and confer with prosecution before setting a trial date.

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Joshua Pollard was sentenced on a violation of his probation and his lawyer, Public Defender Linda Thompson was outraged.

“He wasn’t even the one driving,” she yelped.

Judge John Behnke was not moved. “Placing one’s foot over the driver’s foot does qualify as operating a motor vehicle,” he said.

“But the driver was intoxicated as well,” Thompson howled. “And this is only his first felony. He was intoxicated — they both were, and fighting in the vehicle — so we’re asking for the mitigated term.”

Deputy DA Dan Madow said, “I think it should be the aggravated term. I don’t see how being intoxicated mitigates it at all. The defendant forced her [the driver] to crash into a fence He has no concern for the safety of others, he’s constantly 647f. [drunk and disorderly in public], he ignores the terms of his probation, and I just think the aggravated term is appropriate in this case.”

“I agree,” Judge Behnke said. But I’d like to hear from probation.”

Probation Officer Sandra Plaza summed Pollard up: “He has five prior misdemeanors and counsel [Deputy DA Madow] is correct: his history before acquiring this conviction has been one of complete disregard for probation—if he wants to go out drinking, he does. It doesn’t matter if he has a no-alcohol clause in the terms of his probation, or anything else. The only trouble I have with imposing the aggravated term of three years is that he’s going to be getting out in less than a year-and-a-half, and he’ll go right back to drinking and driving and whatever else he wants to do.”

The Public Defender wanted to get him into a rehab program, instead of prison, “Otherwise, we’re just kicking the can down the road,” Thompson said.

Ms. Plaza said, “He has already been given a 90-day rehab program, but it didn’t take. Probation has nothing further to offer him, so we’d also be asking for the aggravated term.”

Madow said he only had 200 days credit for time served.

“He’s entitled to 90 more days in the program he completed,” Thompson insisted.

This would be a result of the day-for-day credits the court grants for those who go into rehab, and many have learned to jump through this hoop and come out the other side unscathed, as it were.

Judge Behnke wanted to revoke and reinstate the probation, but Ms. Thompson reminded the judge that her client could reject it if he wanted to.

Madow said, “The inability to monitor him makes him a danger to society.”

The judge postponed the sentencing for another two weeks.

“I wanna make sure he has the ability to reject reinstatement of his probation. He’ll be in custody for at least a year, so we’ll deal with this when the Public Defender gets back from vacation.”

* * *

Mr. Michael Brown was convicted of selling meth and coke out of his vehicle in the Wally World (aka Walmart) parking lot a few months ago and he came up for sentencing after Carly Dolan of the Public Defender’s Office fought the case all the way through jury trial. The defense has always tried to imply that the guy who called the cops on Brown was a racist, and now it seems defense hopes to suggest that the jurors were all racists, too.

Ms. Dolan had submitted a Romero Motion, asking Judge Ann Moorman to “strike the strike” — that is, ignore Brown’s prior strike on the grounds that he’s a black man and black men are disproportionately burdened by these onerous strike-prior prison enhancements. The [racist?] judge declined to do so.

Mr. Brown submitted an eight-page letter — he wanted to read it aloud in court, but after she heard what it was about, Judge Moorman said he should just put it in with the rest of the materials he has amassed for his appeal of the conviction.

Deputy DA Joshua Rosenfeld was asking for eight years and four months in prison and Judge Moorman imposed it.

Had the Romero Motion succeeded Brown would have got only three years and eight months. At 55 years of age, Mr. Brown has already spent a large portion of his career in prison and if his appeal fails he will undoubtedly retire there.

This trial was reported in the AVA and it does seem odd that of all the people selling meth and coke in the county out of their cars, out of their homes, even out of their pockets, right out in the open all over town, that a white guy from Crescent City in Ukiah for a Toastmaster’s confab should take notice of the only black man doing business in the WalMart parking lot.