Crackdown Sends Others Rushing to Court : Forest Service Arrests 15 for Ignoring Fines

Mary Jane Pinon couldn’t understand why two federal agents were standing at the front door of her San Clemente home, holding a warrant for her arrest. So she asked.

“They said, ‘For a parking ticket,’ ” Pinon recalled Tuesday. “I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t because I was really scared.”

The officers, from the U.S. Forest Service, had indeed come to arrest Pinon for an unpaid parking ticket she received a few months earlier at the Lower San Juan picnic area in Cleveland National Forest.

Pinon is among 34 people who have appeared in federal court this month as a result of the Forest Service’s first roundup of people who have not paid their fines for violations in the Cleveland National Forest, said Galen Young, resource protection officer for the forest’s Trabuco District.

Fifteen people were arrested in three days, Young said. The rest appeared voluntarily when told they would otherwise be arrested.

The original citations were for petty offenses and misdemeanors ranging from parking violations or failing to pay daily campground fees to discharging firearms or building fires in restricted areas. The average fine would have been about $35.

One of those arrested pleaded innocent on the violation and will face trial in December. The others, because they didn’t show up in court sooner or pay their fines, were ordered to pay increased fines and fees averaging $235, Young said.

‘It’s ridiculous’

Pinon said she will have a tough time coming up with the $100 she now owes because she is unemployed. “I think it’s ridiculous,” she said, “$100 for a parking ticket!”

Her fine was one of the smallest, however.

Ron Hemming’s new dirt bike cost him $800, but his first ride would cost him another $250 in citations.

Hemming bought the motorcycle in March and was eager to take it out for a spin. So he rode up into the hills of Cleveland National Forest, not far from his Anaheim Hills home.

“I hadn’t been riding it for more than half an hour,” he recalled Tuesday, when a ranger stopped him and issued a $35 citation for his using the bike in a restricted area.

Hemming forgot about the ticket until a couple of weeks ago, when “there was this federal officer knocking on my door.” The officer had a warrant for Hemming’s arrest. Hemming wasn’t home at the time, but he got the message and appeared before the federal magistrate in Santa Ana two days later. Although he believes the citation was unjust, he pleaded guilty to avoid the time, trouble and cost of returning to court for a trial, Hemming said.

“I feel (that amount) is unjustified. They are way out of bounds,” Hemming said.

Officials Have Reasons

Park officials, however, see it differently.

“A lot of these tickets have to do with resource damage that can be irreparable,” explained Bill Pidanick, public affairs officer for the Trabuco Ranger District, the 161,633-acre reserve that straddles the Orange-Riverside county line from Sierra Peak, between Anaheim Hills and Corona, south to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.

Illegal vehicle use “disturbs vegetation and causes erosion to follow,” Pidanick said, adding that illegal shooting and campfires present obvious safety concerns.

While those offenses might still seem minor to some, he said, “failure to appear is not a minor offense. (It is) an act of contempt of court, basically .”

Federal magistrates issue as many as 25 arrest warrants each month for violations committed within the Trabuco District, Young said, but federal marshals are too busy to pursue those offenders.

The Forest Service, encouraged by the success of its first efforts, will plan additional sweeps to collar those who ignore citations, Young said.

“It’s the same reason that cities go after warrants on library books or parking tickets,” Young said. “If you don’t act on it, you’ll be overrun by people ignoring it.”