State data ahead of Proposition 36 vote shows California not tracking retail theft suspects after arrests

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom announced last month The California Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCT) has made more than 1,000 arrests in 2024, he said. For more than a month, CBS News California has been trying to find out what happened after their arrests.

No one — not the Governor’s Office, not the attorney general, not the California Highway Patrol (CHP), which runs California’s task force — can tell us how many of the people arrested for retail theft were sentenced to prison, let alone how many went to trial. , went to prison, received treatment, or re-offended. None of the agencies could even provide the names of these 1,000-plus people, so we couldn’t track them down independently.

CHP provided arrest statisticsThis reveals that of the 1,126 arrests made by the Organized Retail Crime Squad as of early October, more than half (684) were citations and discharges; This means these offenders receive the equivalent of punishment and a notice to appear. in court. District Attorneys say many of these people never go to trial.

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A week before California voters decide on the tougher-on-crime Proposition 36, Governor Newsom held a virtual press conference on Monday to announce: More than 10,000 arrests by local law enforcement agencies across the state last year. These arrests were for a variety of crimes, but he attributed them to the hundreds of millions of dollars California invested last year to crack down on organized retail theft (ORT).

Newsom has awarded nearly $267 million in grants to California’s 55 cities and counties in October 2023. The governor said the money “led to 10,128 arrests, and they were solely due to the efforts of local law enforcement.” Of these arrests, “almost 8,000 were for organized retail theft.” According to the governor’s instructions.

But what the governor could not quantify for reporters Monday was what happened in the wake of those arrests. CBS News California learned no one was following.

What will happen to retail theft offenders?

“They come out with a big press release, announce all these arrests, and then poof, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said in response to the Governor’s press release.

Schubert is co-chair of the Yes campaign for Proposition 36, a ballot measure that would strengthen penalties for certain theft and drug crimes. He criticizes the state’s efforts to combat retail crimes and points to CHP’s data. more than 60% of people Those arrested by the retail crime task force were cited and released.

“When they are sentenced, 50-75% of them don’t even come to court,” Schubert said. He pointed to statistics cited by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s Office that show the county currently has more than 30,000 arrest warrants for no-shows.

“That tells you 30,000 people never came to court,” he explained. “If you take that number and expand it statewide, we’re probably talking hundreds of thousands of people.”

“They spend all this money and get no results,” Schubert said, referring to the money the state spends on these investigations and arrests.

“Crime pays off”

In some cases, people are arrested, especially for large-scale organized retail theft crimes that can take years to investigate.

The infamous California Girls case quickly It went viral earlier this year after Attorney General Rob Bonta broke the story A retail crime ringleader who is also a suburban mother of three.

Michelle Mack ran a multimillion-dollar retail crime ring across 21 counties from her San Diego mansion. He paid women to steal luxury cosmetics and handbags from stores like Sephora and Ulta, which he then sold on Amazon.

Mack and her husband, Kenneth Mack, were among the thousands of arrests Newsom made public.

Both Macks pleaded guilty and faced up to five years in prison. The judge ordered the Macks to pay more than $3 million in restitution and stay away from Ulta and Sephora stores.

But Michelle received a suspended sentence so she could stay home with their teenage daughter, and Kenneth served his sentence in the county jail, not prison. Jail records show Kenneth Mack was held in June and is due to be released in December.

It is not yet clear how much of her suspended sentence Michelle will serve, but she is expected to receive the same sentence as her husband. It looks like he will only serve six months of his five-year sentence.

CHP says the agency spent years and hundreds of man hours investigating the crimes.

“Crime is paying the price for these people, and they know it,” Schubert said. “You have to hold them accountable because if not, then guess what? Crime pays.”

But CHP special operations commander Capt. Jonathan Staricka argues that only the arrest has value.

“What we can’t see and what we can’t measure is how much we hindered by making this arrest,” Staricka said. “Do you think there was a success rate when we arrested so many people? Or was it better not to?

Schubert agreed with Staricka on this point.

Schubert said, “I credit the CHP for the work they do.” “But if we’re going to spend these resources… (the state should)

Schubert pointed to the alleged Lawrence Fountain Gang leader in a series of violent robberies that terrorized Target and Walmart employees.

Fountain had two prior violent convictions and would still be in prison at the time of his last arrest if he had served his full sentence for his prior crimes, according to state prison records. But he was released from prison with more than two years’ early credit. California’s prison credit system.

He had several new cases pending last year when the Attorney General’s Office indicted Fountain on 29 charges, including violent felonies and organized retail theft. The Attorney General later dismissed all but one of these charges, including the Organized Retail Theft charge.

We reached out to Bonta’s office to ask about his decision to dismiss the 28 charges. A spokesman for the attorney general explained that prosecution decisions are weighed by several factors, including the public safety risk the defendant poses, what the available evidence is, the interests of the victim, and any risks associated with probation or incarceration in a plea bargain. .

“Considering all of these factors, this state prison sentence is an appropriate disposition,” the spokesman concluded.

Fountain pleaded guilty to only one robbery charge and was sentenced to six years in prison, but it is unclear how much prison time he will serve.

Records show Fountain is currently serving a year in the county jail for a separate case filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney. When he is transferred to state prison at the end of this sentence, he will come with eight months’ credit for time served. He will then likely receive an additional sentence reduction of one-third to one-half. California’s current prison crediting system under Proposition 57It was approved by voters in 2016.

“It’s not just outrageous to give him a number and ignore the rest. This person probably doesn’t deserve less than 20 years in state prison. He’s a dangerous person,” Schubert said, adding: “Crime pays the price for these people, and they know it IT.”

Organize Retail Theft

Many district attorneys in California Organized Retail Theft (ORT) lawThe law, which was amended by California lawmakers in 2021, is not an effective tool for charging criminals because it is too complicated to prove.

Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig called it a “garbage law” and explained that it requires evidence of multiple complex elements that are rarely revealed by investigations and are not found in the vast majority of retail crimes.

Data provided by the California District Attorneys Association It shows that most California counties have zero felony ORT convictions in 2023. Even large counties like Sacramento, San Bernadino, Santa Clara, and Ventura are seeing ORT convictions in the single digits.

Especially, Fountain caseThe Attorney General’s Office denied an ORT accusation.

Of the latest 36 organized retail theft defendants made public in press releases from California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, CBS News California has set sentencing information for roughly half.

A CBS News California analysis found that nearly a quarter of those convicted received parole without prison time. The sentences for the remaining defendants ranged from two days to 10 years. But, 10 year single sentence It was based not on his organized retail theft conviction, but on numerous car theft and other violent convictions.

What happened to the others arrested for retail crimes this year?

Fountain and the Macks are just some of the latest organized retail theft ring leaders to be arrested for their crimes. In most cases, tracking criminal information is a complex, multi-agency process.

CBS News California spent weeks cross-referencing records through multiple agencies and sources to learn what happened to the three suspects featured in this story. Even the officials of the institutions we worked with had difficulty accessing accurate information.

So what happened to the more than 1,000 other people arrested by the California Organized Retail Crime Task Force?

CHP Capt. Jonathan Staricka said it’s a “complex question.”

Staricka explained that after SWAT officers make an arrest, they turn the case over to prosecutors, and if there is a conviction, the case is prosecuted by the state prison system, county jails or the probation department, depending on the sentence. He noted that centralizing this data would be difficult.

Proposition 36 “is a separate conversation.”

Strengthening penalties for retail theft and cracking down on repeat offenders are part of what supporters of Proposition 36 hope the ballot measure will accomplish.

Specifically, they argue that increased penalties under Proposition 36 would lead to fewer people being cited and released and more people being brought to trial for alleged crimes.

But despite being questioned repeatedly about the initiative Monday, Newsom emphasized that Proposition 36 is a “separate issue” from organized retail theft and the CHP task force’s statistics.

“I hope you take good care of moving forward,” Newsom continued. “We hope that this will continue again, separate from everything else that has occurred with this initiative.”

Ask the governor what happened to the thousands of people arrested for retail theft in California, how many of them went to trial, were sentenced, received treatment, or re-offended. But his team did not choose us to ask questions.

“Why is it so difficult to get this information from our attorney general or our governor, who have taken a very proactive role in saying we are fighting organized retail theft?” Schubert questioned. “Why is it so difficult?”

Governor Newsom’s office did not respond to our request for comment or repeated interview requests.

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