Oldest Juvi In CA Not To Be Released

In 1988, Donald Schmidt was convicted of sodomizing and murdering a three-year-old girl. He was sixteen and was sentenced to a juvenile detention center.

Schmidt is now 38 years old, and is the oldest member of California’s juvenile system. Most juvenile convicts are moved to the state prison at the age of 25, but prosecuting attorneys turned to a little-used state law to keep him in the juvenile system by declaring him dangerous. Prosecutors used the same law in order to make Schmidt ineligible for parole.

However, last week the state considered sending Schmidt to a halfway house in Good Hope, California, in order to rehabilitate him during the last few years of his sentence. The facility was less than a mile from Good Hope Elementary School. Riverside County immediately began to protest the placement, noting the location of the halfway house, as well as the fact that Schmidt had no family in the county to help him recover, nor did his crime actually take place in their county and therefore they were not responsible for his rehabilitative needs.

The county drew up two emergency ordinances to make the area less “inviting” for parolees and probationers. The first measure calls for a prohibition against anyone operating a halfway house in one of the county’s unincorporated communities. Small, state-licensed facilities were exempt from the ordinance. The ordinance also barred any land-use approval or building permits from being issued for parole-probationer homes.

The second ordinance is more common, and prohibits any convicted sex offender from living within 2,000 feet of any school, park, or child day care facility. However, it also prohibits convicted sex offenders from living together or even staying in a hotel together unless they’re married. It even prohibits hotels from knowingly renting more than 10% of their rooms to convicted sex offenders. Both ordinances are expected to be in effect for forty-five days, at which point the county will draw up more permanent regulations.

Because of the quick action taken by the county, Schmidt will not be placed at the halfway home in Good Hope. The Riverside County Board considers it an example of “what a community can do if it stands up early.” And while the county considers it a victory, the state of California disagrees. Schmidt must be released by June 2011, unless he is placed in some sort of rehabilitative home, in which case he could be monitored until 2013.

Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections maintains that Schmidt’s treatment “is in the best interest of every community in the state.”

Should communities be able to draw up these sorts of measures in order to prevent criminals from receiving treatment there? Or is California correct in their belief that it’s better Schmidt go somewhere and be watched rather than just released into society?

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Art In The Streets: Barry McGee

Texting Your Way To Court

Glendale police issued 66 citations to motorists over the weekend for using hand-held cellphones while behind the wheel. Another eight motorists were cited for texting while driving, while five others were cited for speeding and other road violations.

“It’s getting quite prevalent,” Sgt. Dennis Smith said of distracted driving. “I think we need to do something to stem the tide."

In most stops during the operation, the motorists admitted to talking on the phone while driving. The motorists face a $145 fine for the citation. The operation was funded through a $254,795 state grant aimed at decreasing the number of distracted drivers.

Police have also deployed electronic signs displaying the messages “Hang up and drive,” and “Talk, text, ticket,” on Brand Boulevard.

Jailhouse Informant Plays Critical Role In Brutal Double Murder Trial

Arthur Davodian's roommate arrived home to discover a gruesome scene at his Tujunga condominium.

Davodian's headless body was stretched out on the living room floor, punctured with stab wounds up to six inches deep.

A trail of blood led through the apartment's hallway to a bedroom where the door had been kicked open. Inside, Kimberly Crayton, Davodian's girlfriend, lay covered in blood. She had been stabbed 19 times during a fierce fight for her life.

Davodian's head was found beside a parking lot a short walk from the condominium complex.

Police focused on the last man seen with the victims alive: Neil Revill, a small-time drug dealer and friend of Davodian. Nearly a decade later, jurors are weighing the fate of the 38-year-old British national after a six-week murder trial.

The case has been marked by the rare courtroom appearance of a jailhouse informant, who testified that Revill confessed to him about the October 2001 killings in grisly detail years later, while they were housed together in an L.A. County jail.

The use of jailhouse informants has sparked controversy for more than two decades, after revelations of perjured testimony resulting in wrongful convictions.

In the aftermath of a scandal in the late 1980s, the L.A. County district attorney's office adopted guidelines requiring strong corroboration before prosecutors could use a jailhouse informant. Since 2006, the office says, it has approved the use of such informants in six cases, though not all of those witnesses have testified at trial.

In Revill's case, prosecutors say, DNA and other evidence help confirm the testimony of the informant, Benjamin Chloupek. He and Revill grew so close in jail that other inmates referred to them as the "Neil and Pek show," Modder told jurors.

But defense attorneys have attacked Chloupek's credibility and argued that investigators were sloppy and overlooked evidence pointing to someone else as the killer.

"They have … built their case around this liar," attorney Michael M. Crain said in closing arguments last week. "Don't let this sociopathic con man con you."

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