Sunny’s Day [Monterey County Weekly (CA)]

Homeless woman who annoyed cops gets her sentence.

Let's go back to day one, says Monterey County Superior Court Judge Albert Maldonado: "Sept. 19,2012. This is what should have been done."

Maldonado is on the bench and speaking to Sunny Fawcett a 62-year-old homeless woman who lays her head down most nights in a Dodge Minivan she parks in or around Monterey. "Day one" is a date rife with woulda, coulda, shoulda-both for Fawcett, the Monterey Police Department and ultimately, the criminal justice system.

Fawcett was driving down a very dark Garden Road, doing 20mph in a 40mph zone as she looked for a quiet, semi-safe place to bed down for the night. Her van was pulled over by Monterey Police Officer John Olney.

That simple traffic stop set in motion a 26-minute farce, recorded on Olney's dash cam, during which Fawcett refused to roll down her window more than an inch or two, refused to turn off the car's engine, repeatedly questioned why she was being pulled over, demanded Police Chief Phil Penko be called to the scene and took her sweet time handing over her proof of insurance and identification.

She was annoying and she was provocative and she was a frightened woman alone on a dark road. None of those things are illegal. Olney let her go without a citation, but a few weeks later, she received one in the mail; Fawcett was charged with criminal counts of obstructing a police officer and refusing to follow the lawful order of a police officer. Multiple hearings followed, taking multiple hours of court time, culminating in a multi-day jury trial in July.

The jury bounced the obstructing charge, but found her guilty of the other one.

"Alacrity is not required in encounters with the police," Maldonado said Aug. 9, the first day of Fawcetfs sentencing hearing. (He would continue it to Aug. 13.) "We dont live in a police state. Everyone has a right to question why they are being pulled over."

What nobody has a right to do, though, is refuse to identify themselves to the police.

But between the trial, the thousands of dollars-between the prosecution, defense, court time, research attorneys and securityspent on the case and Maldonado's exhibition of solid common sense, something went really wrong.

The Monterey County Probation Department, which investigates a defendant's background and then recommends sentencing, apparently sent a letter to Fawcett requesting she come in for an interview, but sent it to the wrong P.O. box. She never received it, a mystery because her correct address was available on the police report- we know that because the ticket sure found her.

That was problem number one.

Problem number two: Someone at the probation department was apparently having a bad day when they decided to recommend Fawcett should spend 60 days in jail. When Deputy Public Defender Charles Shivers read that one in * court at the outset of the sentencing hearing on Aug. 9, he conjured the dramatic intensity of the Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction to express his outrage: "It would be Draconian," Shivers said. "If she can be jailed for this, I don't want to be a part of this system."

Maldonado said he was disregarding the sentencing recommendation. He seemed baffled by it

"They want you to serve what I consider an extraordinary amount of time," he said. "This should have been in traffic court Traffic court, not Superior Court."

What should have happened on day one, Maldonado said, is that when officers could not get her to show her license, they should have required her to stick her thumb through the open window and put her thumbprint on the citation. And if she refused that, they should have taken her before a magistrate immediately. There's one on call 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week.

But, he said, "I have 12 ordinary citizens, jurors, who found you violated the law. You asked to be treated differently than any other citizen. In essence you asked for anarchy, and anarchy isn't the answer."

Maldonado waived the $l,000-plus fine Fawcett faced, but said he couldn't do anything about the $214 in fines mandated by the state. He ordered her to serve three years on probation and turn over her identification to police if asked.

And then, in a breathtaking moment, he ordered the bailiffs to take her into custody to serve one day in jail. Less than one day, really: just enough time to book her and release her.

In the hallway after the hearing, a number of Fawcett's supporters gathered and murmured that it could have been so much worse. But if the prosecution of Sunny Fawcett is to be used as a baseline for how the criminal justice system is functioning, we have bigger problems than anyone realizes. ®

"ALACRITY IS NOT REQUIRED IN ENCOUNTERS WITH THE POLICE."

Nary Duan is the Weetyi editor. Readi her at [email protected].