L.A. Police Chief’s Son May Not Go to Prison : Prosecutor Says Judge Has Agreed to Consider Moving Lowell Gates to Rehabilitation Center

The judge who sentenced the son of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates to one year in jail for robbery and theft has agreed to consider moving him to a live-in drug rehabilitation center, a prosecutor said Friday.

Lowell Scott Gates, 29, pleaded guilty Thursday after Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas tentatively agreed to follow the county probation office’s recommendation that Gates not be sent to state prison.

Cardenas said it would be unfair to Gates to send him to state prison where other inmates “would love to get their hands on Chief Gates’ boy.” Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent Romney said his office did not object to the non-prison sentence, citing Gates’ own remorse for his actions.

Romney said the judge agreed to consider letting Gates serve the rest of his one-year sentence in a live-in drug rehabilitation center if his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Robert Goss, can make such arrangements.

Gates has been in the medical isolation ward of the Orange County Jail since his arrest and is expected to remain there. Cardenas also ordered Gates to seek drug dependency counseling.

Gates has been in custody since his May 13 arrest after a robbery of about $5,000 worth of morphine-based drugs from The Druggist pharmacy in Huntington Beach. He was also charged with the March 26 theft of $3,000 worth of jewelry from the family of a friend.

But it was Gates himself who provided the tip that he was responsible for the theft, Romney said. Gates wrote a letter to the Westminster family a few days after the theft--and six weeks before he was arrested--to admit having stolen the items.

“He wrote them how sorry he was about it, but that he was just desperate for money to buy drugs,” Romney said. “He even told them where they could recover the items he took.”

Romney said there was no question that both the robbery and the theft were the result of Gates’ strong drug addiction.

“This is a guy screaming out that he has a drug problem; he feels bad about it, but he just can’t control it,” Romney said.

Gates did not receive any special consideration because he was a police chief’s son, Romney said. Gates had no prior felony convictions, although he had several misdemeanor arrests that appeared to be drug-related incidents, Romney said.

Gates had pleaded not guilty to both charges at his May 16 arraignment. But Goss asked for a pre-plea report, which indicated that Gates might change his plea to guilty at a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 3.

Goss said he quietly moved up the date of the guilty plea, however, to try to spare his client news media exposure.

As part of the sentence, Judge Cardenas ordered Gates to pay restitution both to victims of the jewel robbery and the pawn shop where part of the items were taken. The probation office will decide what the total amount will be.

Gates was arrested at a residence not far from the drugstore he allegedly robbed shortly after the incident. Gates had handed a pharmacist a note stating that had a gun (apparently he did not, Romney said), and then a second note demanding the drugs.