Bounty Hunters Are Arrested at High School

Six bounty hunters from Los Angeles County, who attended a San Clemente High School football game in their search for an alleged robber wanted for jumping $100,000 bail, were arrested Friday night for carrying concealed loaded weapons onto the campus.

The bounty hunters, working with a Los Angeles bail bond firm, had notified sheriff’s deputies before the game Friday that they would be searching the high school stadium for the fugitive but said they would not be carrying weapons, according to sheriff’s officials.

The bounty hunters, said to number 10, attended the game because they believed the fugitive might show up to see his son, who attends Bellflower High School, play in Friday night’s game against San Clemente.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Russell Moore said the game was just ending when deputies posted at the stadium were told by spectators that someone had brandished a gun in an isolated area of the campus used as an overflow parking lot.

When deputies went to investigate, Moore said, they found the bounty hunters and took six into custody without incident. They were charged with carrying concealed weapons without proper permits and bringing loaded firearms onto a school campus.

Deputies confiscated seven handguns and one unloaded hunting rifle from the six men, said Lt. Tom Davis, chief of San Clemente police services. Some of the weapons were found in a van; others were found in the possession of the bounty hunters, Davis said.

“They were told from the start they couldn’t carry weapons onto the campus,” Davis said.

School officials applauded the Sheriff’s Department’s handling of the case, which went unnoticed by most spectators at the football game, which San Clemente ended up winning 10-7.

“We have a very quiet campus at San Clemente High School,” said Principal Christopher Cairns. “It’s unfortunate a football game could bring to our area an incident of this kind.”

Cairns said the Sheriff’s Department told him the bounty hunters would be attending the game but that they wouldn’t be carrying weapons.

“We don’t want guns on campus,” he said.

Doug McKern, who coordinated the search Friday night for a Los Angeles bounty hunting firm, said the bounty hunters had weapons in their possession only when they followed a man who resembled the fugitive into the parking lot.

McKern said that he did not see any of the bounty hunters carrying weapons in the stadium during the game and that the group purposely waited until the man they thought might be the fugitive had reached the parking lot, away from the crowds, before they attempted to question him.

“I would not put people in danger like that,” he said.

McKern said it is legal for bounty hunters, or any citizen, to use weapons when apprehending a suspect, although sheriff’s officials said they can’t carry concealed loaded weapons without proper permits.

The six men taken into custody and held on $10,000 bail were identified as Steven Layne, 24, of Paramount; Roger White, 27, of Gardena; Roderick Rosby, 22, of Los Angeles; David Liddle, 18, of Torrance, Brad Kesten, 22, of Studio City and Carlos Bassas, 35, of Downey.