LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A proposition California voters passed last Tuesday to reduce some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors already has gone into effect and is impacting local law enforcement as well as the prosecution of criminal cases.
Proposition 47, The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, passed 58.7 percent to 41.3 percent, based on the Secretary of State's preliminary report on the Tuesday general election.
Based on preliminary voting results, a majority of Lake County voters also supported the measure, 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent, according to the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office.
Among the felonies reduced to misdemeanors under the new law are commercial burglaries, forgeries and bad checks, vehicle theft and possession of stolen property where thefts total less than $950; most firearms thefts; and possession of drugs – cocaine, concentrated cannabis, heroin, illegal prescriptions and methamphetamine.
The changes mean some previously arrestable felonies are now only citable misdemeanors, so a person accused of one of the crimes wouldn't be booked into jail but cited and released.
Proposition 47 had major backing by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and retired San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne, along with a coalition that included representatives of law enforcement, some victims rights groups, politicians and even faith leaders, including Bishop Robert Vasa, Diocese of Santa Rosa, which oversees Lake County.
Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos, Gascón and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen were the only three sitting district attorneys statewide to support the proposition.
Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson said eight other county district attorneys took no position. “All the rest of us opposed the proposition.”
He said the campaign for the measure ran misleading ads, with very little campaigning from the opposition.
“People were just fooled,” he said.
Now, with the law immediately in effect, “We're really just scrambling to understand it,” Anderson said.
Anderson and other local law enforcement leaders have criticized Proposition 47 for its potential to negatively impact community members.
In September, Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen asked the Clearlake City Council to take a position against Proposition 47.
Despite Clausen's concerns about the proposition – he said it was “ill-conceived” and had a large amount of opposition in the law enforcement community and victims' rights groups – the council declined to take any position, as Lake County News has reported.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said he's also concerned about the new law. He said he had supported the California Police Chiefs Association's efforts to oppose the proposition.
“I do not believe that these changes will be good for communities in California as I feel they are further degrading the ability of our criminal justice system to hold offenders accountable for repeated crimes. The laws changed are ones that we deal with on a regular basis in our community,” Rasmussen said.
On Friday, Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey reported that the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Facility has begun releasing inmates as a result of Proposition 47's passage.
The new law went into immediate effect on Nov. 5, the day after the election, and since then, Downey said his office has released eight inmates due to resentencing by the Humboldt County Superior Court. Downey anticipates additional releases as inmates begin petitioning the courts to have their convictions and sentencing reduced.
In Lake County, “No one's been released yet,” said Anderson.
However, the first set of hearings on cases impacted by the new law will be held on Thursday. Anderson said.
“We're making a bunch of adjustments to the current cases we have,” Anderson said.
Anderson said every one of his prosecutors has cases that will be impacted by the new law. He gave a ballpark estimate of 50 cases that will be see charging changes as a result.
One case that already is seeing changes is that of Gregory Elarms, one of four men charged for a June 2013 Clearlake Oaks home invasion robbery in which a young man was pistol-whipped and shot in the leg.
Elarms appeared in court for a preliminary hearing on Friday, and was ordered to stand trial in the case, Anderson said.
Elarms is facing 10 counts – ranging from robbery to theft of a firearm. It's on that last charge that Proposition 47 required a change. Since the firearm was valued at under $950, that count had to be reduced to a misdemeanor, Anderson said.
“This is going to affect a lot of different cases,” said Anderson, adding that by reducing the charges from felonies to misdemeanors, statutes of limitation also will be impacted.
Anderson said felony cases typically have three-year statutes of limitation, while misdemeanors have one-year limits, Anderson said.
Additionally, because Proposition 47 is retroactive, there are a lot of cases that Anderson anticipates will come up that involve people who are already serving – or have served – time.
In some cases they may already be out of prison but still want their felony convictions reduced. Opponents of the measure point out that reduced sentencing could mean some of these individuals would have rights – such as voting and the ability to purchase a handgun – immediately reinstated.
Anderson anticipates that many cases will be coming back for review or resentencing.
“Next year we could have 200 to 300 coming back,” he said.
Every time one of those petitions is made, Anderson's office will have to review it.
He said there will be some ways his office can fight such petitions, such as citing dangers to the community or any sex offenses involved.
“It's going to be a drain,” at least initially, for his staff and for his budget, with Anderson explaining that there is no additional funding to cover the costs associated with the proposition.
Rasmussen said he's concerned about the offenders – who were previously convicted of felony violations and either put in jail or placed on probation – who will now have their convictions reduced to misdemeanors and be released back to the community with no further custody time or supervision by probation.
Then there is the issue of future offenders who may only be cited for misdemeanors where before we could have booked them for felonies.
“As an example, we deal with a large amount of theft crimes including shoplifting and before offenders with a certain number of specified prior convictions could be prosecuted as felonies, but now cannot be,” he said.
Although Rasmussen anticipates more people being released from jails due to the new law, local jails “were already full due to AB 109 and will continue to fill due to it in the future, eventually leaving no room to house misdemeanors including new arrests for possession of dangerous drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.”
There also are other unintended consequences, he said.
“What some may not know is that these changes also affect the felony and misdemeanor arrest laws and applications for search warrants when peace officers are dealing with the crimes that were reduced to misdemeanors,” Rasmussen said.
Due to the immediate changes, “We have had to spend time training staff and making procedural changes over the past few days,” Rasmussen said.
In reference to the new law's name, Anderson questioned how that releasing felons makes the street safer, adding that he can't believe that Californians really wanted to let more felons and drug dealers out of the state's prisons.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Proposition 47 impacts begin for local law enforcement, prosecutors
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On