$1.49 Bologna Theft Could Put Man in Prison

A 38-year-old transient with a history of petty thefts faces up to three years in state prison for stealing a $1.49 package of bologna and says he feels that prosecutors want to make an example of him.

If Leonard James Hazlett was a first offender, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven D. Ogden, “this matter would have been dust. But it’s extremely apparent that he has existed by stealing and is a career criminal.”

Items taken by Hazlett range from a case of cigarettes to a pair of pants.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacquelyn P. Lacey, who prosecuted Leonard at his preliminary hearing June 26, said her office was “obligated to go by the letter of the law” and treat him as a felon, because he has at least three prior convictions for petty theft.

Ogden, who is now handling the case, said Hazlett was sentenced to a year in County Jail for a petty theft he committed last July. In 1985, Hazlett spent 180 days in jail and three months at an alcohol rehabilitation center for a similar offense. He also spent three days in jail for a 1979 petty theft.

“If you don’t prosecute, what do you tell your children about people who steal?” Ogden asked. “That it’s OK to pilfer if it’s under $2,000?”

But Hazlett’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Gerald T. Richardson, said he was “shocked” that the alleged theft of bologna from a Sylmar market is being prosecuted as a felony.

“Is this economical for the citizens of Los Angeles when there are so many people out there who should be housed and are a danger to society?” Richardson asked. “We’re wasting my energy, the energy of the court reporter and valuable courtrooms on a $1.49 case involving a person who was hungry.”

Ogden, however, said society cannot afford to consider the costs of prosecuting criminal behavior.

Hazlett, whom fellow prisoners call “Pops,” because of his white-streaked hair, said in a jail interview that stealing became a way of life soon after he graduated from high school and became addicted to heroin, then to alcohol and cocaine.

“This time,” he said, “I took the bologna because I was a human skeleton with skin stretched over it. I hadn’t eaten in two days.”

Hazlett is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds--15 more than when he went into the market last month.

He is to be arraigned in San Fernando Superior Court on Friday. He said he hopes that the charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor, but he fears that it will go to trial.

“I know they want to make an example out of me,” he said.