Alfredo Padilla and Jonathan Chavez – Santa Barbara County booking photos
Santa Barbara County – Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover has released information pertaining to the Thursday, October 1st arrest of two individuals on charges of violating the terms of “post-release community supervision.”
It was in the early morning hours when deputies from the SBSD, Lompoc Police Department, the Santa Maria Police Department, and the Santa Barbara County Probation Department Compliance Response Team attempted to make contact with Jonathan Chavez at his residence. Clearly Chavez had some suspicion that the cops knocking on his front door at that hour weren’t there to sell tickets to a charity fundraiser, and he “fled the residence on foot,” according to Hoover. But, as these things go—this was likely not the cops’ first experience at this task—a secure perimeter had been established by deputies, whereupon Chavez made his way into a neighboring backyard where he found the perfect hiding place.
But this was a hiding place quite familiar to the SBSD Canine Unit that arrived on the scene, and shortly thereafter “Chavez was located hiding within a dog house in the neighbor’s yard.” He was promptly taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail and charged with violation of probation “as well as a $250,000 warrant for the sales of narcotics.”
Not long after on the same day, the SBSD Compliance Response Team tracked down Alfredo Padilla at his residence. Perhaps having read the same Probation Violation Handbook, Padilla made a similar attempt to flee on foot, but was quickly tracked down to a hiding place “underneath shrubbery in a neighboring property,” and was taken into custody. He was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail were he was additionally charged with resisting an executive officer.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
