Judge John Gallagher deserves a hearty round of applause and
even “The Wave” from Santa Cruz residents.
Judge Gallagher recently sentenced a chronic repeat offender to 90 days jail
time and gave him a stern explanation about the seriousness of habitually
ignoring citations and how this behavior was a drain on court and City
resources. This was not the first time Judge Gallagher has increased the length
of a jail sentence in a plea bargain, and it is very clear that he is
supportive of our efforts.
As you have heard about, the local court made a decision to
handle Municipal Code citations through the civil collections process. Once our chronic offenders became keen to
this, they disregarded the citations and continued with their problematic
behavior knowing the worst thing that would happen to them was the destruction
of their credit rating.
To combat this, and to get some real consequences, the City
adopted an ordinance which made it a misdemeanor to have 3 or more failure to
appear for Municipal Code citations.
Preparing
the necessary packets for each one of these scofflaws takes a great deal of
time and personnel for both the police department and City Attorney. It is great to see that Judge Gallagher clearly
“gets it” and is working to ensure these laws have some consequences.
By the way….the offender in this case…Jeremy Ochoa. You may remember him from our blog post of
August 23rd. He was part of the group we arrested
for drug sales in the Beach Flats.
