Judge Donna J. Hitchens ruled Wednesday in favor of releasing the driver charged with four counts in a July 9 incident in which his car careened along Capp Street hitting four cars and injuring three people.
Hitchens ordered Carlos Francisco Lima, a 64-year-old college educated immigrant from El Salvador, to stop consuming alcohol, begin a treatment program and enroll in the Pretrial Diversion Project two blocks away from the Hall of Justice.
Lima is also not allowed to drive.
It’s unclear why the judge decided to ignore the prosecutor’s recommendation that supervised pretrial release be “denied.”
Peter Santina, a lawyer with the San Francisco Public Defender’s office who is defending Lima, wrote in an e-mail response that the investigation is on going but that a “mechanical failure occurred” at the time of the accident.
He also pointed out that the judge’s decision meant Lima had to agree to the terms of the release and that the other alternative would have been for the defendant to post bail without conditions.
“If the court had not imposed these conditions of release related to community safety, Mr. Lima could have simply posted bail and be free absent any monitoring or restrictions,” Santina wrote.
A court official said that Lima’s family was present in the court and that the defendant would be released later today.
Lima, who lives on disability and has three children, was convicted in San Mateo on a drunk driving charge in October 2000, according to court records.
A court official said Lima, who lives with his mother in Bayview, would be required to check in with his case worker daily. On July 24th he will reappear in court for a progress report.
It’s possible that if his case manager gives a good report on the 24th the charges could be dropped or the defendant could have some of the charges dropped, a court official said. If convicted as charged, the defendant could be fined more than $5,000 and spend two years in jail.
The three victims could not be reached for comment.
Supervised Pretrial Release started in 1995 to ease the overcrowding in local jails.
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Thanks for posting this useful info.
Good job, Peter Santina. Sounds like the judge made a reasoned and fair decision after considering both arguments. This is why we have a judicial system, so that people who are emotionally involved do not get to enforce vigilante justice without regard to what the law says.
This is why Jeff Adachi wants even more money, to make sure this kind of person, one of our most vulnerable, remains out on the street and behind the wheel of a car.
Maybe if he’d killed someone then Daly, Campos and Avalos would see that he gets free housing as well as his “disability” check. Oh wait, he probably does get free housing already.