Courthouse Cat-and-Mouse Game Snares Scofflaws

Tranquilino Flores must have considered himself lucky when he walked out of South Orange County Municipal Court here three weeks ago.

For the fourth time in six years he had been convicted of drunk driving and this time he was facing up to three years in state prison. Flores repeatedly promised not to drive for four years, and he got off with a six-month jail sentence, along with the suspension of his license.

Less than 15 minutes after the court appearance, a bailiff nabbed Flores as he tried to drive out of the courthouse parking lot in his pickup truck. He was taken back to court in handcuffs and immediately sentenced to a year in jail by Municipal Judge Pam Iles.

Officials say that what happened to Flores is not uncommon. During the last 18 months, about 100 drivers have been arrested outside the courthouse minutes after their licenses had been suspended--their arrests part of a cat-and-mouse game in which bailiffs hide behind bushes and crouch behind parked cars and buildings to see if suspended drivers defy court orders to not get behind the wheel.

Officials with the state Department of Motor Vehicles say the program in South County Municipal Court--which began several years ago--is probably the only systematic law enforcement effort in California to catch motorists who drive with suspended licenses.

At least 2%, or 400,000, of the state’s 20 million motorists drive with suspended licenses, DMV spokesman Bill Gengler said.

“It’s a huge problem especially when there are such large numbers of them out there,” Gengler said. “We are not aware of any other jurisdiction that is apprehending these people.”

In Orange County, about 40,000 motorists drive each day with suspended licenses, Gengler said.

Judges and administrative staff believe the figures are much higher.

In South Orange County Municipal Court, 3,339 of the 14,524 criminal cases--23%--filed within the last 10 months involved people charged with driving while their licenses had been suspended for drunk driving, negligent driving, or driving without insurance.

“I’m astounded at the number of people in South County who are caught driving without valid licenses,” said South County Municipal Judge Ronald P. Kreber.

Kreber and other judges say it is not difficult to predict if defendants will disobey their orders.

“These people are not being trapped,” Kreber said. “These are people who, because of their records, are repeatedly ordered not to drive, but you know they’re going to drive anyway when they’ve got their car keys bulging out of their pockets.”

Bailiffs said they began their surveillance operation when they noticed that many people charged with driving with a suspended license were repeat offenders. Unlike other Municipal Courts in Orange County, Iles said, bailiffs here are able to follow and arrest violators because the South County court facility is somewhat compact.

The targets are randomly selected. Deputy Marshals Karen Tantalo and Tim Hoffman say they are more likely to follow defendants who were given strong admonitions against driving by the judges.

“It’s amazing how human nature surprises you,” Hoffman said. “They (the defendants) fly in the face of common sense.”

The bailiffs call the assignments “fishing expeditions,” which makes Tantalo the department’s top angler. Tantalo, 33, has caught at least 50 drivers with suspended licenses. She swears that she knows every hiding spot on the courthouse grounds.

“She’s a very special deputy,” Iles said. “She’s the only marshal who can look like a tree.”

Tantalo said the majority of drivers she catches are in their early 20s to mid 30s and have been taken to court for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

All of the drivers arrested for driving away with suspended licenses have been men--except one woman who was caught by Iles.

That came when Iles was having lunch at a local restaurant and recognized a woman whose license she had revoked after a drunk driving conviction earlier in the day. The woman left the restaurant in her car. Iles later told the woman’s lawyer that she had seen her driving, and the woman was taken back before Iles and sentenced to a year in jail.

Tantalo has developed some special “surveillance points” on the courthouse grounds from which she observes unsuspecting violators. Her khaki uniform serves as a perfect camouflage when she hides behind the eucalyptus trees outside the courthouse.

Some violators try to elude her by parking their vehicles in nearby shopping centers located along Crown Valley Parkway. She follows them anyway and returns them to court in handcuffs.

Sometimes, the hide-and-seek game can be especially intriguing. The day she arrested Flores, he seemed determined to “shake” her, she said. Flores allegedly made an an entire loop around the courthouse before getting into his truck. Tantalo had to hide behind a concrete wall, dart from behind one parked car to another, and stoop behind some bushes before catching him.

Flores, like most drivers, was surprised when Tantalo politely asked him to switch off the ignition and snapped on the handcuffs.

One man even applauded Tantalo in court after she caught him trying to sneak out of the parking lot. “She did a great job,” Tantalo and other court staff recalled the man as saying. “I didn’t know what hit me.”

Although she has arrested dozens of violators, Tantalo said she is still surprised when a suspended driver insists on driving out of the court’s parking lot when he could have easily turned over the wheel to a licensed driver. In one case, a young San Diego man was caught behind the wheel of his 18-wheeler while his father, a licensed driver, sat in the passenger seat.

“The challenge of these assignments is seeing whether the drivers are going to follow the orders of the court,” Tantalo said. “If they don’t, they’ll have it coming to them.”