5 Charges Dropped Against Man Linked to Shooting of Baby

A Municipal Court judge has dismissed five felony charges against a man who was involved in an incident last fall in which an Anaheim policeman shot a 10-month-old girl.

The incident occurred Sept. 13, when Steve Paul Harston allegedly ran a stop sign and tried to evade motorcycle officer Leonard Rivera. The suspect became stuck in traffic while other police were called to the scene.

The gunman allegedly ran out of his car and jumped in the back seat of another car, pointed a gun at the head of driver Jody Olmos and threatened to shoot her if she did not drive. At this point, Rivera said Harston also pointed the gun at him. Rivera then shot two bullets into the car, one shattering the back window, another striking the baby, Michelle Olmos. The infant spent one day in the hospital for a bullet wound to the buttocks.

Municipal Judge Margaret Anderson dropped two charges of assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from Harston’s alleged actions against the police officer. Three more charges of kidnap for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from Harston’s alleged interaction with the mother and her child, also were dropped.

By the end of the three-week preliminary hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg L. Prickett said, there was insufficient evidence on the last three counts because the defendant did not travel enough distance in the car with the mother and baby for a kidnap charge.

Anderson ordered Harston to stand trial on charges that included assault with a deadly weapon, evading arrest and two counts each on false imprisonment to prevent arrest and false imprisonment by force or violence, Prickett said. Harston, a convicted bank robber in possession of a firearm, also was charged with parole violation, Prickett said.

Harston, who remains in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, will be arraigned March 29 in Superior Court. He is being defended by Deputy Public Defender Luis Clapp.

Prickett said that if Harston is convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 19 1/3 years.

Prickett added that during the trial, he would continue to try to hold Harston responsible for the injury of Michelle Olmos and for assault on the police officer. If he is held responsible for assault on the officer, then the number of years in prison could be greater, he said.

During the preliminary hearing, it was hard to prove this, Prickett said, because witnesses who saw inside the car testified that Harston pointed a gun at Jody Olmos’s head, not at the officer.

“Not all of the witnesses had the opportunity to observe whether (Harston) pointed the gun at the police officer,” he said. “It’s our position that Harston was responsible for setting in motion the events that led to Michelle’s injury,” he said.

Officers at the Anaheim Police Department this weekend were unhappy that the assault charge involving Rivera was dropped, Sgt. Tom O’Donnell said.

“There are a lot of officers out here who are pretty upset about what happened at court, and I don’t just mean Anaheim police,” O’Donnell said. “We’re very disappointed. . . . When that incident went down, that hurt a lot of people emotionally.”

Prickett said of the Olmos family, “It’s been very hard for them and luckily their daughter is doing well.”

Harston’s defense attorney was unavailable for comment Saturday.