White had five outstanding misdemeanor warrants for her arrest with charges of forgery, possession of stolen property, theft and driving on a suspended license. White was also charged with Forgery, Driving with Suspended/Revoked License (DUI) and Driving with Suspended License (Refusal of Chemical Test-DUI).
The defendant admitted to the five priors and entered a plea of no contest to Driving with Suspended/Revoked License (DUI) and Forgery.
In December of last year Clearlake Police officers responding to a call of a theft of a laptop computer at Kingdom Kids, a children’s clothing store, viewed surveillance video of a woman tucking the computer under her coat. They were able to positively identified White as the suspect.
After her arrest on the five outstanding warrants, White admitted to investigators that she stole the computer and directed them to its location, according to police reports.
Since White’s arrest was considered to be under the California state misdemeanor rule, meaning if police officers write a report and do not make an immediate arrest(s) for a misdemeanor not committed in their presence, officers were not able to arrest and charge White for the computer theft.
Judge Andrew Blum presided over the Appearance of Counsel/Plea Entry hearing as Deputy District Attorney Chanel Crawford was present in court as well.
On the motion of the People, the Court ordered the Driving with Suspended License (Refusal of Chemical Test-DUI) charge dismissed in the interest of justice.
White was placed on summary probation for a period of three years and is remanded to complete the jail term imposed of 90 days in jail with a total of 17 days credit.
Sentencing hearing delayed in James matter
During the sentencing hearing of perjury defendant, Merissa Leigh James, the Court stated they had just received the file and had not had sufficient time to review a report in this matter.
James has been charged with Perjury, which she was convicted of on Oct. 18, 2016, after she allegedly submitted fraudulent documents to the court in an earlier case. The prosecution had argued that James modified or created false probation report forms and testified to the validity of the reports, leading to the perjury charges.
Judge Michael Lunas presided over the sentencing hearing as Deputy District Attorney Susan Krones was present in court as well.
Defense Attorney David Markham submitted letters on behalf of his client, James, for the Court to review before the next hearing.
The matter was to be picked up again this week.
