SAN CLEMENTE : Arraignment Due in Barricade Incident

A San Clemente man who was arrested after barricading himself inside his house is to be arraigned today in South Orange Municipal District court on charges involving alleged threats to police.

Officers from several law enforcement agencies surrounded the house in the 3400 block of South El Camino Real for more than an hour Sunday before a San Clemente SWAT team broke in and found Charles Mark Smith, 30, rolled up in a rug in the attic, police said.

No shots were fired and nobody was injured in the standoff, which caused the closing of Coast Highway for more than two hours.

Smith will be arraigned on charges of brandishing a firearm and disturbing the peace, according to San Clemente Police Sgt. Richard Downing.

Police said that Smith had threatened officers after being cited Sunday evening for speeding on a motorcycle. As the citation was being written, Smith threatened to punch the officers, Downing said.

“He then walked to his house nearby and came back out with a shotgun while the officers were still there and threatened them with it,” Downing alleged.

Smith walked back in the house and came out again with a tire iron, which he waved around, before again disappearing inside his home, Downing said.

San Clemente police called in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and its helicopter. The California Highway Patrol and U.S. Border Patrol were called to assist in closing off Coast Highway, Downing said.

The police spokesman said that officers had been called to Smith’s house before and were aware that his wife and 6-year-old son also lived at the residence. Downing declined to comment on the nature of the earlier police visits.

But the woman had slipped outside with the child to call police and was not inside at the time, Downing said.

Smith is being held in the San Clemente Jail pending a hold issued by the California State Department of Corrections for a possible parole violation.