Motorist Gets a Break Over Bail of $99,999

A Newhall judge, who set bail at $99,999 for a Northern California man who failed nine times to appear in court on a traffic violation, said Wednesday he will scrap the high bail if the motorist agrees to pay a minimal fine.

Municipal Judge Alan S. Rosenfield said he will allow Michael Joseph Pommerening, 34, of Eureka to pay $138.60 for failing to appear on a 5-year-old charge of driving without a license because Pommerening wrote to him requesting leniency. Pommerening has until April 30 under the state’s amnesty program for traffic violators to pay the fine, which is 70% of the original bail of $198.

In a letter dated Feb. 16 but received only late last week by the court, Pommerening wrote that he is not the man Los Angeles County deputies stopped in Newhall on Oct. 25, 1987, for having an unsecured dog in the bed of a pickup truck and ticketed for driving without a license. Pommerening, whose left arm was amputated after an industrial accident, contended in the letter filed with the court that he was impersonated by his brother, Shawn Pommerening, who “has pretty much the same physical description except for the missing arm.”

“I don’t know whether the story is true or not,” Rosenfield said. “But he said the magic words--amnesty.”

Rosenfield had raised the bail to the maximum allowable for traffic violations because Pommerening had missed so many court appearances.

The judge was also angry that Humboldt County authorities refused to carry out the arrest warrant he issued. Pommerening had been stopped at least four times for speeding and driving without insurance in Humboldt County after the warrant was issued, but the Sheriff’s Department there said it could not hold him in custody because of regulations imposed to meet a Superior Court order prohibiting jail overcrowding.