SAN FERNANDO : Officer’s Assault Conviction Reduced
A San Fernando Superior Court judge Wednesday reduced a felony conviction for assault with a deadly weapon to a misdemeanor, saving a city traffic officer from a prison sentence for striking a North Hollywood man with a large flashlight.
Judge John P. Farrell sentenced Mark Angelo Bivens, 30, to 120 days in a work-furlough program after suspending a one-year sentence in county jail. The work furlough program allows a person to go to work daily, but the person must return to jail at night and on weekends. Under a felony conviction, Bivens faced a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
In reducing the conviction, Farrell said Bivens overreacted by striking Ward Maitland, 37, in June, 1991, when Maitland tried to stop Bivens and a partner from towing away his car because of unpaid parking tickets.
However, Farrell said he did not believe that Bivens intentionally tried to hurt Maitland, and noted that the jury did not convict Bivens of assault with the special circumstances that he committed great bodily injury.
The special circumstances could have added three years in prison to the sentence.
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