Homeless Man Who Tried To Rape Long Beach Woman In Broad Daylight Charged With Misdemeanor
The attempted rape in broad daylight on a downtown Long Beach street was captured on surveillance video, and it can be seen in the report above, via KTLA.
This week, the L.A. district attorney’s office announced they won’t be prosecuting the rape case as a felony, and will instead try the homeless man for misdemeanor sexual battery. While Long Beach has their own prosecutor, the crime is being handled by L.A. county, as CBS explains:
The Long Beach City Prosecutor has asked the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to reconsider its decision not to file a felony case against a man accused of attacking a woman in Long Beach in a crime caught on surveillance video.
Miguel Angel Avila Figueroa is facing one misdemeanor count each of sexual battery and vandalism in connection with the alleged attack about 2 p.m. Oct. 20 near Linden Avenue and East Broadway.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to file a felony case, and the city charter only allows misdemeanor charges to be filed by the city prosecutor’s office, according to a posting online about the case by the prosecutor’s office.
[CBS]
I lived in Long Beach (which, if you add in adjacent cities like Signal Hill, Carson, Lakewood, Bellflower, etc., it’s big enough to be its own county, but is technically part of Los Angeles county) for nearly 15 years, and never knew their city charter prevents them from filing felony charges. What’s the point of even having their own district attorney’s office? Long Beach is at least still trying to get the L.A. district attorney to change his mind. Meanwhile, the rapist remains in jail (it’s actually shocking they haven’t released him) while awaiting a pretrial hearing next week. More from KCAL:
