Enterprise staff
Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced Friday the conviction of a 31-year-old Davis man, Joshua McClain, of criminal threats and disturbing the peace in connection with a Sept. 29 incident at Mansion Square in downtown Davis.
Deputy District Attorney Diane Ortiz presented evidence that McClain was harassing a woman by yelling at her and not letting her leave from a chair at a local restaurant. The elderly and disabled victim identified McClain as having repeatedly threatened her with physical assault and shouting insults at her, including calling her a “white devil.”
A jury also heard evidence that McClain had also harassed the woman on two prior occasions and resisted arrest when Davis Police Department officers were called.
McClain’s case is one of a small number marked for the District Attorney’s new Data Driven Intervention Unit, or “DDI.” The DDI Unit is modeled after similar successful units in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York and in District Attorneys’ offices in other states.
The DDI Unit involves collaboration between the police and the District Attorney’s Office to focus law enforcement resources on excessive repeat offenders, then works with the agencies and probation to devise the most effective outcomes.
“Prison isn’t always the answer to a crime,” Reisig said. “This program puts evidence-based practices into outcomes by considering all of a person’s circumstances and criminogenic needs to find the result best calculated to end the criminal behavior.”
Reisig explained that this outcome should not be “one size fits all,” but one designed to end the excessive criminality and so may include social services, drug treatment, community based solutions, close monitoring by probation or imprisonment.
In this case, McClain’s criminal history showed that a new approach was needed. Since early 2015, police contacted McClain 74 times and arrested him 17 times for crimes such as public intoxication, threatening behavior, lewd conduct, shouting racial epithets, swinging sticks, throwing rocks, resisting arrest and making “groping” motions towards women.
In one past incident, McClain approached a family and made groping gestures toward the wife and daughter, prompting her father to tackle McClain until the police arrived. The District Attorney’s Office at one point filed numerous charges against McClain, but they were dismissed by the court over the prosecutor’s objection.
Davis police arrested McClain on his new charges approximately two weeks later.
In the present case, District Attorney Ortiz presented two days of evidence from civilians and police regarding their dealings with McClain. Ortiz argued that the evidence showed McClain to be a “bully” who liked to intimidate people he perceived to be vulnerable.
Jurors hung on a false imprisonment of an elder charge, voting 9-3 for guilt. The jury voted not guilty on a resisting arrest charge and the second disturbing the peace charge.
The case returns to court on Friday at 10 a.m. to determine whether the McClain will be retried on the false imprisonment charge.