Ahead of Proposition 36 vote, state data show retail theft offenders aren't tracked after arrest

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Ahead of Proposition 36 vote, state data show most arrested for retail theft are cited and released

Ahead of Proposition 36 vote, state data show most arrested for retail theft are cited and released 04:28

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom announced last month that California's Organized Retail Crime Task Force (ORCT) had made more than 1,000 arrests in 2024. For more than a month, CBS News California has been trying to find out what happened to those people after their arrests.

No one - not the Governor's Office, the attorney general, nor the California Highway Patrol (CHP), which runs California's task force - could tell us how many of the people arrested for retail theft were sentenced, let alone how many showed up to court, went to jail, received treatment, or re-offended. None of the agencies could even provide the names of those 1000+ people, so we could not independently track them down.

The CHP did provide arrest statistics, which reveal that out of the 1,126 arrests made by the Organized Retail Crime Task Force as of early October, more than half (684) were cite-and-releases, which means those offenders received the equivalent of the ticket and a notice to appear in court. District Attorneys say many of those people never show up in court.

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A week before California voters decide on the tougher-on-crime Proposition 36, Gov. Newsom held a virtual news conference Monday to announce that more than 10,000 arrests over the past year by local law enforcement agencies statewide. These arrests were for various crimes, but he attributed them to the hundreds of millions of dollars California invested in cracking down on organized retail theft (ORT) last year.

Newsom awarded approximately $267 million worth of grants to 55 California cities and counties in October 2023. The governor said that money "has generated 10,128 arrests and counting just from the local law enforcement efforts." Of those arrests there were "nearly 8,000 for organized retail theft," according to the governor's office.

However, what the governor couldn't quantify for reporters on Monday is what happened after those arrests were made. CBS News California has learned that no one is keeping track.

What happens to the retail theft offenders?

"They come out with this big press release, they announce all these arrests, and then, poof, you don't know what happens," former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said in response to the Governor's press release.

Schubert is the co-chair of the Yes on Proposition 36 campaign, a ballot measure that would strengthen penalties for certain theft and drug crimes. She has been critical of the state's attempt to crack down on retail crime and points to the CHP data, which show more than 60% of people arrested by the retail crime task force were cited and released.

"When they're given a ticket, 50-75% of them never even show up [to court]," Schubert said. She pointed to statistics cited by the Sacramento County Sheriff and District Attorney's offices, which show the county currently has more than 30,000 bench warrants for people who don't show up.

"That tells you 30,000 people have never come to court," she explained. "If you took that number and expanded it statewide, we're probably talking hundreds of thousands."

"They spend all this money and get no consequences," Schubert said, referring to the state money spent on these investigations and arrests.

"Crime does pay"

In some cases, people are arrested, especially for large-scale organized retail theft crimes that can take years to investigate.

The infamous California Girls case quickly went viral earlier this year after Attorney General Rob Bonta publicized the story of a retail crime ringleader who was also a suburban mother of three.

Michelle Mack ran a 21-county, multi-million dollar retail crime ring out of her San Diego mansion. She paid women to steal high-end cosmetics and handbags from stores like Sephora and Ulta, which she then sold on Amazon.

Mack and her husband, Kenneth Mack, were among the thousands of arrests publicized by Newsom.

Both of the Macks pleaded guilty and faced up to five years in prison. The judge ordered the Macks to pay more than $3 million in restitution and stay away from Ulta and Sephora stores.

However, Michelle received a suspended sentence so she could stay home with her teenage daughters while Kenneth served his sentence, which he served in county jail, not prison. Jail records show that Kenneth Mack was booked in June and is set to be released in December.

It's still not clear how much of Michelle's suspended sentence she will ultimately serve, but she is expected to receive the same sentence as her husband. It appears he'll only serve six months of his five-year sentence.

CHP says the agency spent years and hundreds of man-hours investigating the crimes.

"Crime is paying for these folks, and they know it," Schubert said. "You have to hold them accountable because if not, then guess what? Crime does pay."

However, Captain Jonathan Staricka, a CHP special operations commander, argues that there is value in the arrest alone.

"What we can't see and what we can't measure is how much did we prevent by making that arrest," Staricka said. "Do you feel that there's a success rate when we arrest this many individuals? Or was it better when we didn't?"

Schubert agreed with Staricka on that point.

"I give credit to CHP for the work that they're doing," Schubert stressed. "But if we're going to spend these resources… [the state has] to follow through."

Schubert pointed to Lawrence Fountain, the alleged ring leader in a string of violent robberies terrorizing Target and Walmart employees.

Fountain had two prior violent convictions and, according to state prison records, would have still been in prison on the date of his latest arrest if he'd served his full sentence for his previous crimes. However, he was released from prison with credits more than two years early under California's prison crediting system.

He had several other new pending cases when the Attorney General's office charged Fountain with 29 counts last year, including charges for violent felonies and organized retail theft. The Attorney General then dismissed all but one of those charges, including the charge of Organized Retail Theft.

We reached out to Bonta's office to ask about his decision to dismiss the 28 charges. A spokesperson for the attorney general explained that several factors are weighed in prosecutorial decisions, including the public safety risk a defendant would pose, what the available evidence is, the interests of the victim, and any risk associated with probation or incarceration in a plea bargain.

"Based on all these factors, this state prison sentence was an appropriate disposition," the spokesperson concluded.

Fountain pled guilty to just one robbery charge and received a six-year prison sentence, but it's not clear how much time he'll serve.

Records show Fountain is currently serving one year in county jail for a separate case prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney. When he is transferred to state prison at the end of that sentence, he'll arrive with an eight-month credit for time served. Then, he'll likely receive an additional one-third to one-half sentence reduction based on California's current prison crediting system under Proposition 57, which was passed by voters in 2016.

"To give him one count and dismiss the rest is not only outrageous. That individual deserves probably no less than 20 years in state prison. He's a dangerous human being, Schubert said, adding, "Crime is paying for these folks, and they know it."

Organize Retail Theft

Many district attorneys argue that California's Organized Retail Theft (ORT) statute, amended by California lawmakers in 2021, is not an effective tool to charge offenders because it's too complicated to prove.

Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig called it a "junk statute," explaining that it requires evidence of multiple complex elements that are rarely established by investigations and simply do not exist in the vast majority of retail crimes.

Data provided by the California District Attorneys Association indicates that most California counties had zero felony ORT convictions in 2023. Even large counties like Sacramento, San Bernadino, Santa Clara, and Ventura show single-digit ORT convictions.

Notably, in the Fountain case, the Attorney General's office dismissed the one ORT charge.

Of 36 recent organized retail theft defendants publicized by California Attorney General Rob Bonta in press releases from his office, CBS News California identified sentencing information for roughly half.

A CBS News California analysis found that roughly a quarter of those who were sentenced received probation without jail time. Sentences for the remaining defendants ranged from two days to 10 years. However, the one 10-year sentence was based on multiple carjacking and other violent convictions, not the organized retail theft conviction.

What happened to the others arrested this year for retail crime?

Fountain and the Macks are just a few of the recent organized retail theft ring leaders who were arrested for their crimes. In most cases, tracking down the sentencing information is a complicated multi-agency process.

CBS News California spent weeks cross-referencing records through multiple agencies and sources to find out what happened to the three suspects featured in this story. Even officials at the agencies we worked with had difficulty finding accurate information.

So, what happened to the other 1000+ people arrested by California's Organized Retail Crime Task Force?

CHP Captain Jonathan Staricka said that is "a complicated question."

Staricka explained that after task force officers make an arrest, they hand the case off to prosecutors, and if there's a conviction, the case is then tracked by the state prison system, county jails, or the probation department, depending on the sentence. Centralizing that data would be challenging, he noted.

Proposition 36 "is a separate conversation"

Strengthening penalties for retail theft and cracking down on repeat offenders are part of what supporters of Proposition 36 hope the ballot measure will accomplish.

Specifically, they argue that increased penalties under Prop 36 will result in fewer people being cited and released and more people actually being arraigned for alleged crimes.

However, despite being questioned repeatedly Monday about the initiative, Newsom stressed that Proposition 36 "is a separate conversation" from organized retail theft and the statistics from the CHP task force.

"I hope you'll take a good look at progress," Newsom continued. "We hope that will continue again, separate and above anything that happens with that initiative."

We wanted to ask the governor what it would take for him to direct one of his state agencies to publically track what happens to the thousands of people arrested for retail theft in California, including how many show up to court, are sentenced, receive treatment, or re-offend. However, his team did not select us to ask a question.

"Why is it so difficult to get this information out of our attorney general or out of our governor, who's taking this very proactive role saying that we're cracking down on organized retail theft?" Schubert questioned. "Why is it so hard?"

Gov. Newsom's office did not respond to our request for comment or to our repeated requests for an interview.

Julie Watts

Julie Watts is a national-award-winning investigative correspondent for CBS News, covering California. Her investigations, Capitol accountability reports, and solutions-oriented journalism air weekly on CBS stations across California.