With the San Benito County Jail filled to near capacity, local
law enforcement had one of the busiest Independence Rally weekends
on record.
With the San Benito County Jail filled to near capacity, local law enforcement had one of the busiest Independence Rally weekends on record.
The Hollister Police Department, the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol placed 81 people into the San Benito County Jail during the three-day event, according to jail records.
Those booked into the jail were about one-third of the 220 incidents in the downtown area where police made what were considered arrests.
However, the jail can legally hold a maximum of 130 inmates at one time. Police said there would have been no way to hold all of the people who were detained at the rally, so many of the lesser and nonviolent offenders were briefly detained and issued a citation to appear in court.
Police said only the more serious violations were booked into county jail, which totaled 44 people from the rally area.
Of the 81 people taken to jail, 34 were arrested for driving under the influence. Thirty of those arrests were made by the California Highway Patrol.
The arrests included Robert Orbuena, 41, of Gilroy, who is also being held on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter for a collision on Fairview Road near the intersection of Spring Grove Road that killed Joseph Judnick, 48, of Salinas.
Hollister police made four drunken driving arrests in the rally area, which included a motorcyclist on East Street who was reportedly so intoxicated that he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into three parked Harley-Davidsons, police said.
The motorcyclist, whose name was not available, picked up his bike and tried to flee the area before the police arrived. However, he reportedly lost control again and crashed into two more parked motorcycles before being arrested, police said.
Aside from a few fights and people being arrested for carrying concealed weapons, namely knives because no guns were confiscated, the rally went fairly peacefully, HPD Capt. Bob Brooks said.
“I think we did a good job of prevention,” Brooks said.
The prevention was provided by a team of 80 to 85 officers from various agencies, including agents from the California Department of Justice’s Violence Suppression Unit and members of state’s Alcohol Beverage Control’s special enforcement unit.
“We bring in the people we need to prevent an incident, and in case we can’t, we want enough people to react to what does happen,” Brooks said.
Several officers suffered minor injuries while arresting suspects, and another police officer sustained minor injuries when he was bitten by a pit bull.
“He’s going to be OK because the bite didn’t break the skin,” Brooks said. “The officer was on his way to a call and walked right past this dog, not realizing it was there, when it reached out and bit at his hand. He pulled away from it at the last second.”
Brooks said the dog’s owner was cited for violating the municipal code against bringing animals to the downtown event.
“That’s an example of why we don’t allow animals at the event,” Brooks said.
