Huntington’s July 4 Drinking Arrests Voided

In a major boost to critics who accuse Huntington Beach of overzealousness in cracking down on Fourth of July revelers, a judge ruled Tuesday that an ordinance allowing police to arrest people for drinking alcohol on their front porches or lawns was unconstitutional.

Municipal Judge Caryl Lee dismissed charges against four defendants arrested on the Fourth of July for having open containers of beer on private property, saying the city’s law was so vague that people could not be expected to understand it. Therefore, arresting them for violating it denies them of their constitutional guarantee of due process of law, the judge said.

“We hope Huntington Beach cleans up its act,” said Jose Lauchengco, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, who with Orange County attorney Skip Raring represented the defendants for free. “I understand the city doesn’t want to condone rowdies, but you can’t have a zero-tolerance policy in a free society.”

But Deputy City Atty. Sarah Lazarus said Tuesday she expects that the City Council will not back down from its policy and will instead clarify the city code--explicitly including in it, if necessary, a ban on drinking alcohol on front porches and yards.

In years past, rowdy street parties, young revelers pelting officers with rocks and bottles, and drunken mobs setting sofas ablaze in the streets had become a troubling holiday ritual in Huntington Beach.

To combat the riots, city officials last summer instituted a policy broadening the interpretation of a city ordinance that banned drinking in public. The so-called zero-tolerance policy extended to private frontyards.

Last Fourth of July, police arrested 500 people, about half of whom were detained under the new policy. Many protested that they were on their own property--on front lawns, porches or driveways--when police arrested them.

The strict policy apparently helped quell disturbances this year, and was loudly applauded by many residents and downtown business owners, who suffered extensive property damage from past rioting. However, the policy also drew intense criticism from those who said it violated the civil liberties of citizens.

The defendants who were cleared by the court’s decision Tuesday reacted with elation.

“That’s excellent!” said Robert Kerr, 28, who spent 14 hours in jail after being arrested for drinking on a driveway beside a house. “I felt like I was in Russia. It was like storm troopers came to invade the barbecue.

“I’m just glad that the law actually works for people who are innocent.”

Defendant Gary Guenther, 28, said he was pleased with the decision, but that the experience has embittered him so much he is leaving Huntington Beach after more than five years. Guenther, his wife and a friend, were arrested for having open beer cans on their front lawn on the Fourth of July.

“I understand the city had to do something about the trouble,” said Guenther, who was jailed for 16 hours. “It was a real bummer.”

But city officials cautioned against misinterpreting the judge’s decision, which does not set a legal precedent. The zero-tolerance policy is basically sound but needs sharpening to avoid future dismissals, city officials said.

“These cases could have gone either way,” said Lazarus, who handled the prosecutions. “We just need to clarify the ordinance and bring it back to council.”

Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff said: “We don’t want to arrest innocent citizens, certainly. But we want a safe Fourth of July for everyone.

“Some of the problems we faced in the past have been caused when people begin drinking on their front lawns and then two hours later get into trouble. When parties get out of hand, there’s a price to pay.”

As to the judge’s ruling that the city’s law went too far, Dettloff said: “We’ll have to review that.”

More than 175 people already have pleaded guilty to violating the city’s zero-tolerance law that night.

But several later said they did so because fighting the charges required a substantial investment of time and money, while admitting guilt in most cases reduced the charge from a misdemeanor to an infraction, which does not become a permanent record.

Lazarus said those convictions might be overturned if the circumstances of their arrests closely resembled the four cases dismissed Tuesday, if they want to hire the attorneys and go through the court process, and if their judges concur with Lee.

“It’d be a longshot,” Lazarus said.

“I think most of those people were just intimidated by the court system too,” said Sylvester Lucio, 51, a Huntington Beach businessman who successfully cleared his name after being arrested for not having a bicycle license on the Fourth of July. “It’s not right what the police and City Council did. You can’ just create a police state.”