Santa Barbara Man Arrested for Cocaine, Child Endangerment

Narcotics detectives recently arrested a Santa Barbara man — out on bail for three pending drug offenses — on charges of possession of cocaine for sale, destruction of evidence, resisting a police officer resulting in serious injury, commission of a felony while released from custody, and child endangerment, according to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Riley Harwood.

SBPD officers, after discovering that 35-year-old Christian Gutierrez was reportedly still selling drugs while out of custody, got a warrant to search Gutierrez’s house on the 800 block of East Figueroa Street on the morning of July 3. But upon their arrival, Gutierrez ran to his bathroom, where the detectives found him trying to flush two ounces of cocaine — worth about $2,200 — down the toilet. In the process of stopping Gutierrez from getting rid of the drugs, one of the officers had his arm sliced by a piece of broken glass, an injury that required surgical treatment at Cottage Hospital.

At home with Gutierrez at the time of his arrest were his two kids, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old. Gutierrez admitted to having the cocaine on hand to sell; he was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail at $250,000 bail.