Photo: Barry Pardo
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — Merely residing within the City of Lompoc—where the area’s largest industry is the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary looming large over the landscape as a reminder of the potential consequences of criminal activity—the citizens might reasonably be expected to conduct themselves in the most law abiding manner possible.
Certainly one might suppose that any felon released on parole and remaining in the area would toe the line from a behavioral standpoint.
Suppositions, however, are apparently often divergent from reality, as evidenced by the November 23rd arrest of 52-year-old Santa Maria resident Barry Pardo who now stands accused of possessing firearms and methamphetamine.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, it was close to 9:00 p.m. on the 23rd when a patrol unit emblazoned with the insignia of the SBSD spotted a vehicle driving through the area at “excessive speed”.
At that point, deputies conducted “a vehicle enforcement stop,” made contact with Pardo, and quickly determined that he was a felon on parole, giving the cops free license to conduct a search of his person and vehicle.
It didn’t take long for deputies to discover “a methamphetamine smoking pipe and a large rifle case” in the vehicle. Inside the rifle case were an assault-style rifle, a small caliber rifle, and “two large capacity AR-15 style magazines,” all strictly prohibited items under the terms of Pardo’s felony parole.
Pardo was arrested and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of an assault weapon, possession of high capacity magazines, and possession of drug paraphernalia, with his bail set at $35,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
