Sunny Fawcett sits on a bench outside the doors to Monterey County Superior Court Judge Albert Maldonado’s courtroom, sandwiched between a friend and her pastor. “Should we pray?” one of them asks. “Let’s pray.”
They clutch hands, bow their heads and the prayer Fawcett offers is this: Please God, let me get moved to another courtroom with a different judge.
By a rough count of the docket sheets Fawcett pulls out of a tote bag, this is about the eighth time since November she has spent hours waiting at the Salinas courthouse. On this day, June 10, she would wait nearly nine hours as Maldonado decides what to do with her, to figure out whether her case could be set for jury trial this week, or put off. Maldonado could easily pass it to another judge or rule on it himself, but chooses to delay, and Fawcett must travel to Salinas regularly to wait.
Just after midnight last Nov. 19, Fawcett was pulled over for driving her Dodge minivan too slowly down Garden Road. But what should have been a simple catch-and-release traffic violation morphed into a criminal case when Fawcett was cited for a misdemeanor count of delaying a police officer. (That’s what I said: Who knew that one even existed?)
The slow driving wasn’t the delay. What happened next was.
Fawcett, a 62-year-old Monterey County resident, pulled over but refused to turn off her car’s engine or open the driver’s side window more than about 2 inches. She asked John Olney, the officer who pulled her over, a lot of questions, along the lines of “What was I doing wrong?” and “Why are you stopping me?”
She also didn’t have her actual physical driver’s license – although she had a receipt proving she had just paid to get it renewed – and she took a while getting that, her vehicle registration and proof of insurance out and handing it to Olney through the small opening.
To Olney’s credit, he was pretty patient with Fawcett – a dashcam video of the 20-minute-plus exchange bears that out. When she asked him to call Monterey Police Chief Phil Penko to the scene, the officer explained the chief was probably home and asleep. “The best I can do is two sergeants,” he told her, after his supervisor and the supervisor’s partner arrived.
“I’ve been doing this for eight years,” Fawcett tells him, “and this is highly irregular.”
“I’ve been doing this for 17 years and you’re the first one that’s ever done this,” Olney responds, “so this is highly irregular.”
By “this,” Fawcett means living in her van. She’s one of the chronically homeless that have been in the news in Monterey the past few months, although you would never guess it to look at her. She takes great pains with her appearance; her clothes are clean, her makeup applied with a deft touch and a decorative flower sits in her long, red hair. In earlier years, she was a mom, a part-time teacher and a community college student. As for how she became homeless, she offers only that a number of family members died in recent years.
“I tried to raise my daughters to take care of themselves and they help me as they can,” she says, then pauses and adds, “Things are rough for everyone.”
When Olney pulled her over that night, the road was dark and there was little traffic, as evidenced by the video. Fawcett was scared – any woman pulled over late at night in an unpopulated area is scared.
Penko says he spent time speaking with Fawcett, including a recent lunch at a local Denny’s, to discuss the case. He says she’s had a number of driving-related encounters with his officers, many of which have gone undocumented. Olney “could have handcuffed and arrested her,” he says.
“Quite frankly, she’s been given a number of breaks,” Penko tells me. “But here’s this poor woman in her 60s who is frightened and can’t grasp the significance of her actions. The only thing that will make this better is to recognize the significance of her actions.”
Did she delay Olney? Maybe. She asked a lot of questions and took her time providing her documents. She had been pulled over last year and given a warning for a busted headlight. But there’s no evidence any urgent calls came in during the time Olney had her stopped.
Now Fawcett faces a trial. She’s asked for a jury, which is her right. If she’s convicted, the fine is a few hundred dollars she doesn’t have and a jail sentence she won’t serve because of overcrowding.
I watched the deputy public defender assigned to her case as he tried to explain to her why, when you’re driving, you have no inherent right to privacy, and why, if an officer asks to see your license, you’re required to show it.
“The scenario would have been different if you were at your home,” he tells her.
“But I don’t have a home,” she says.
MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com.
(2) comments
I have written to officials involved requesting that the charges against Sonny Fawcett for “Delaying an Officer” be dismissed. She was pulled over for driving too slowly on Garden Road late at night on September 18, 2012 by Officer John Olney. My reasons for this request are:
•Garden Road seems to warrant driving slowly late at night.
•Women must protect themselves from police impersonators.
•The receipt for renewal must be enough since the DMV takes the original.
•No ticket was issued but delayed charges sent in the mail, seems quite unusual.
•Nine months later and no trial does not meet her right to “a fair and speedy trial”.
•Some might think this is a case of harassment of the homeless.
This charge should be dismissed so that all of the parties involved can get back to the real business of protecting the rights of all citizens.
Injustice on a Dark Road
Sunny (Sonny) Fawcett is a 62-year-old Monterey senior. She has been homeless and living in her van for more than six years. On September 18, 2012, Sunny was stopped by Monterey Police Officer John Olney for going "too slow" on a dark and winding section of Garden Road in Monterey, near the Fairgrounds and Airport. The entire episode was filmed by the police cruiser on-board camera. No tickets and no written warnings were given.
Weeks later, a court summons was issued by mail for "wasting an officer's time." A homeless person was being initiated into a meat grinder of a system--The City and Court Collaborative. Relentlessly, the system churns to turn a victim of homelessness into a victim of the criminal court system. She becomes a homeless person with a criminal record. Welcome to America on the Monterey Peninsula where, "If you have money, then we want your money. And if you have no money, then we want you gone."
Those with criminal records cannot find work in today's economy, unless they're willing to do unsavory things.
Sunny's problems began on Garden Road, where pedestrians and bicyclists use the roadway to commute. There are no sidewalks. It is safer going into the blind S curve below the limit of 40 miles per hour. When did it become law that we must drive the posted maximum speed limit? We have many, many elderly in this area just like Sunny, and much older, who still drive. If they all drove the limit, we'd have accidents and "road kill" everywhere.
On this particular curvy part of Garden Road, it's very dark at night, and there is no traffic. It would be crazy to barrel through there at the limit of 40.
It's a shame that a quiet, kind, caring person such as Sunny has gone through hell since being pulled over by a Monterey Police officer that fateful night nearly a year ago. The police are always on the prowl for drivers who've been drinking. Sunny doesn't. She's a strict vegetarian, always concerned about anything she puts into her mouth.
Sunny was pulled over because an officer needed to reach his quota on drunken drivers. His excuse was that Sunny was driving too slow on that dark, curvy road at midnight, with no traffic except the police car tailing her. When she tried to be courteous and slow down so he could go around, he pulled her over instead.
Now Sunny faces criminal charges of delaying an officer, because Sunny talks a lot and reads a lot. All her reading has taught her to roll down her window only a few inches and keep the motor running. It's cold at 12:19 AM when this unwarranted stop occurred. And there have been many cases of women pulled over by people pretending to be policemen, when actually they were rapists.
Because Sunny's been living in her van a long time--since her mother and brother died and she was no longer able to hold onto her local home--it's a bit of a mess in there, with belongings stashed away. So it took her a while to find her paperwork, between her many questions. It was clear the officers found this amusing. They were laughing and commenting on mental illness. She showed the police her registration, proof of insurance and receipt for money sent in to renew and get a duplicate license. That wasn't enough. They wanted her license now, which she couldn't provide.
In the end, they sent her away without issuing any tickets or written warnings. But what followed were criminal charges of "delaying an officer," which arrived in the mail. And then, months of returning to court in Salinas, where she was told to come back again and again and again.
The public defender recently noted that Judge Maldonado disliked Sunny so much that he'd make her come back daily to punish her, refusing to give her a court date. At the same time, she didn't have money for gas or bus passes. The public defender also stated the judge was laughing and said his staff could hardly wait until Sunny went to trial and then to jail. After getting several people and the media involved, the judge finally caved and set an actual trial date.
This entire matter is an injustice, one of many committed against the homeless in Monterey. What's happening across the country is an injustice, as bankers and Wall Street tycoons get away with all kinds of crimes damaging to America, yet spend no time in jail, and pay no price for their crimes. The poor, and the homeless, are locked up for nothing and for anything. Why are the poor, the innocent, and the defenseless serving time, while the wealthiest criminals party with judges and politicians?
Monterey needs to drop these charges against Sunny and do something to help the homeless, NOT continue to beat them down. Monterey needs to erase the shame of having a $100 million budget, and spending not one penny on the homeless.
Erika Fiske
writes on behalf of the homeless
contact Erika @ edfiske@netzero.net
831 917-2254
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.