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Ill Make Somethin Up
OC sheriffs deputy tanked Disneyland-adjacent drug case by threatening to fabricate evidenceLets assume an Orange County Sheriffs Department (OCSD) report of the Nov. 8, 2007, arrest of a suspected drug dealer near Disneyland reflects reality. The report goes like this: At 3:15 p.m., an undercover narcotics unit led by Investigator Christopher M. Catalano decided to end surveillance on 58-year-old Danny Stephen Simmons. A husky, 22-year veteran, Catalano ordered a patrol unit driven by Deputy Gino Rodriguez to stop a 2007 Dodge truck driven by Simmons on Harbor Boulevard.
To officers frustration, a passenger holding a McDonalds bag leaped from the still-moving Dodge, dumped the bag (which contained 3 ounces of methamphetamine and a glass pipe), climbed a fence and, despite Catalanos chase, escaped. Meanwhile, Rodriguez halted Simmons at gunpoint and found half a gram of methamphetamine hidden underneath the drivers-seat cover, plus 17 Vicodin pills in the vehicles center console. Deputies raided Simmons home; there, they say, they found 171 grams of marijuana and the tools of a drug dealer: small plastic bags, digital scales, a box of syringes, $3,300 in cash and a loaded handgun. Catalano reported that Simmons voluntarily confessed to selling drugs. Based on the investigators work, prosecutors filed seven felonies and two misdemeanors. The district attorneys office thought the crimes merited an eight-year trip to a California penitentiary.
But Simmons didnt spend one hour in prison. Indeed, his case never went to trialbecause the sheriffs report was not entirely truthful and the preliminary hearing testimony of deputies wasnt especially credible. As a result, the DAs office dismissed five of the most serious charges. Last year, Simmons pleaded guilty to two remaining counts: illegal possession of a handgun by a felon and possession of an amount of concentrated cannabis. His punishment? Ninety days of home confinement, a generous resolution for a man the OCSD had pegged as a drug dealer working on the outskirts of the Happiest Place on Earth.<<
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