Stun Belt Victim Appeals Sentence

A Long Beach man whose criminal case captured national attention when he was jolted in court with a 50,000-volt stun belt is appealing his 25-years-to-life sentence for petty theft received under the three-strikes law.

Ronnie Hawkins, a 50-year-old with AIDS whose courtroom outbursts prompted the jolt, filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday designed to win his release or a reduction in his sentence.

The petition, filed by Venice civil rights attorney Steve Yagman, asks that Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley be ordered to court to say whether he would oppose Hawkins’ efforts to win leniency. The petition cites Cooley’s recent policy statement that he will not seek a life sentence when a defendant’s third strike is not a serious or violent crime.

Hawkins was convicted in 1999 of stealing $265 worth of aspirin from a market. That conviction came during the administration of Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, whose policy allowed prosecution of a petty offense as a third strike.

Although Yagman’s petition does not specifically ask a judge to reduce or terminate Hawkins’ sentence, the attorney said the judge could approve such leniency if Cooley doesn’t oppose it.

The petition does not allege any breach of legal authority in the sentencing, Yagman said, adding that “we are simply appealing to Cooley’s mercy.”

The district attorney’s office has not decided whether it will oppose Yagman’s petition, but spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said Cooley’s “policy is not applied retroactively.” The trial prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Frisco, said he opposes leniency.

Frisco said a judge has no authority to reduce a sentence that has been in effect for more than four months. It was during Hawkins’ sentencing hearing in 1998 that Long Beach Municipal Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani ordered his stun belt activated when he repeatedly interrupted her. She had removed him twice during the trial, despite the fact that he was representing himself, because he tried to disobey her orders not to tell the jury that he was infected with the AIDS virus and that his conviction could send him to prison for life.

Because of those removals, he won a new trial on appeal. But he was again convicted of petty theft with a prior felony conviction and sentenced to 25 years to life in 1999.