Recently, a couple was arrested in the Santa Clara River wash under suspicion of child endangerment. The couple had recently been preaching underneath the Interstate 5 overpass at Hasley Canyon Road. Residents of Santa Clarita were familiar with the pair, as aside from preaching under freeway overpasses, they had manned a booth for the past 4 years at the Valencia Town Center where they promoted the gospel.
Upon being taken into custody, the couple’s four preschool-aged children were sent to live with a family friend in Chino Hills. Once the arrest and booking procedure was complete, the couple was granted citation release at the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station and scheduled to appear in court the following day.
A citation release is an option given to arresting officers to release the suspects after booking instead of taking them to jail. When a suspect is granted a citation release (otherwise known as being “cited out”), the suspect or suspects are given a citation, released, and told to return to court at the appointed date and time.
Citation releases are typically used for minor crimes, when the suspect is non-violent and poses no risk to the general community at large. Police will additionally look into a suspects’ background and verify that their criminal background isn’t prolific, and that they have no prior arrests for serious and/or violent crimes. Citation releases are used throughout California to not only reduce the burden on the court system and the jails, but to help ensure that people who obviously don’t need to be held in custody are not.
In the above case, when the police discovered the family staying in the Santa Clarita River wash, the children were not in bad condition, nor were they being abused. The situation in which they were located was dangerous, because it was a wash, and so potential charges of child endangerment were warranted.
