PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE ABOUT ONE OF MY CLOSE FRIENDS GROWING UP. HE WAS NOT THE BEST KID ON THE PLANET BUT WHEN YOU IGNORE A CHILD WHO NEEDS HELP WITH LIFE, THIS IS WHAT CAN HAPPEN. THE ARTICLE POSTED BELOW IS DIRECTLY QUOTED FROM JAXON VAN DERBEKEN, CHRONICAL STAFF WRITER, SO THESE ARE NOT OUR WORDS!!!
Now, Clark is in jail again, unable to make $1 million bail for the vehicular-manslaughter and hit-and-run charges that prosecutors filed against him for allegedly ramming the 84-year-old Hudson's car early Nov. 11 with his girlfriend's Lexus, then running from the scene.
His attorney, Stephen Olmo, said Clark had what "seems to be a few minor contacts (with the law) - nothing that rises to the level of what is alleged right now."
But court records indicate that San Francisco prosecutors saw Clark's string of earlier offenses as anything but minor. They argued repeatedly that he serve longer stints behind bars when he continued to commit crimes after turning 18, but each time, a judge overruled them.
Cocaine and a gun
Records show that Clark, born two days before Christmas in 1988 and a ward of the social welfare system at just 6 days old, was caught selling cocaine and carrying a loaded gun in July 2005, at age 16.
At the time, Clark was living with his grandparents in the Alemany housing projects, court records show. He was given probation and home detention and returned to the grandparents' custody.
His aunt, Daisy Hill, said her parents had spoiled Clark, known as A.J.
"Whatever A.J. wanted, he got," she recalled.
Clark was arrested in early 2006 for violating probation. He was put in a group home, then a youth camp in Chino (San Bernardino County), and completed his juvenile probation in April 2007.
Just five months later, Clark was arrested on charges of cocaine possession for sale. By now, he was an adult.
Hooked on crack
He told police that he used crack two to three times a day and needed "serious help." He was booked and released, but before his case came to court, Clark was shot under circumstances that court records do not make clear.
In July 2008, after he had recovered, Clark entered a drug-treatment program for which first-time adult offenders are eligible under Proposition 36, passed by state voters in 2000. Over the next few months, he tested positive for marijuana more than a dozen times, yet he was allowed to remain in the program rather than being sent to jail.
On Oct. 13, 2008, San Francisco police officers spotted Clark driving a Pontiac at high speed on Interstate 280. Clark weaved through traffic and onto the shoulder and escaped, but police later tracked him down and arrested him.
According to a police report, he told an officer that "he knew his license was suspended and that he would run every time he saw the police."
When Clark went before Superior Court Judge Carol Yaggy the next month, prosecutors were seeking to put him in County Jail for 90 days. A probation officer noted in a report that Clark had tested positive for marijuana while in his court-ordered drug treatment and said he displayed "blatant disregard for authority."
His attorney, Public Defender Carla Gomez, argued that Clark "wants to get his life together." Yaggy was sympathetic. She released Clark after he pleaded guilty to a probation violation, with credit for the month he had served in County Jail.
Flees again
Then, on Feb. 15 of this year, a San Francisco officer who knew Clark spotted him in a car and tried to pull him over for driving on a suspended license and other violations.
Again, Clark sped off and got away. Officers found him at the home of his girlfriend, the registered owner of the 1990 Lexus he had been driving.
Again, prosecutors wanted Clark thrown in jail for 90 days. After Clark pleaded guilty March 4 to felony evading police and a pair of misdemeanors, however, Superior Court Judge Lucy Kelly McCabe released him and told him to return at the end of the month for sentencing.
"Stay out of trouble until then," McCabe told Clark.
Clark never came back, and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
On April 23, police found him at his girlfriend's house, allegedly with a loaded .22-caliber handgun and marijuana he intended to sell. He was charged with three felonies.
Clark told police that he sold drugs to support his addiction to marijuana.
'Good luck'
After nearly six months in jail, he came before Superior Court Judge Philip Moscone. Prosecutors wanted Clark thrown in state prison for 16 months. Instead, when Clark pleaded guilty Sept. 25, Moscone let him go with time served.
"Good luck," the judge told him.
He was on probation and a free man early Nov. 11 when he was back in his girlfriend's Lexus, speeding at 50 mph and slamming into Hudson's car at Alemany Boulevard and Congdon Street, police say.
The Lexus' airbag deployed, capturing some of Clark's DNA, police said. But it was the bracelet from one of his visits to County Jail that told investigators where to look.
"He has gotten a free ride for a long time," said Brian Buckelew, a spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris. "If convicted of these charges, he'll have to pay."
A long history
Arthur Lee Clark Jr.'s criminal history in San Francisco.
July 2, 2005: Clark, 16, is arrested on drug and gun charges and is put on home detention.
January 2006: Arrested for violating probation. Finishes probation in April 2007.
Sept. 16, 2007: Arrested as an adult for possession of cocaine, released pending court appearance.
October 2007: Shot and hospitalized.
July 2008: Put on probation for cocaine case and directed to drug treatment.
Oct. 13, 2008: Flees from police on freeway. Probation modified a month later.
Feb. 15, 2009: Flees from an attempted police stop. Pleads guilty the next month before Judge Lucy Kelly McCabe.
March 30: Fails to appear at sentencing, warrant issued.
April 23: Arrested on drug and gun charges at girlfriend's home.
Sept. 25: Pleads guilty and is freed with credit for time served.
Nov. 11: Isaac Hudson killed in hit-and-run car crash. DNA recovered in abandoned car allegedly links Clark to crash, along with a jail bracelet.
Dec. 10: Clark ordered held on $1 million bail.
Source: San Francisco Superior Court records
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle"
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment