On Friday, May 11, at 11:45 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the 7-11 convenience store located at 630 Wilshire Boulevard after receiving a report from a Park Ranger about a disagreeable man who had been smoking in Christine Reed Park, which is a Santa Monica Municipal Code violation.
When they arrived, they spoke with the Park Ranger who told the officers that he had seen the man smoking and had asked him to extinguish his cigarette. The man responded in an unsavory fashion, cursed, and threw the cigarette at the feet of the Park Ranger. The suspect had then walked to the 7-11.
The officers went to the 7-11 and saw the man attempting to purchase beer.
The man was clearly intoxicated and when the officers attempted to detain him the man resisted.
The officers removed him from the store as he continued to strenuously resist. The officers eventually cuffed the man and investigated.
The officers discovered that this man was no ordinary park smoker, but instead a registered sex offender who was on active parole and was prohibited from being within 2000 feet of a public park.
This 59-year-old homeless man was arrested and charged with public intoxication, resisting officers, smoking in the park, littering, and a violation of parole.
Bail was not granted.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
