Two Arrested in Santa Maria AB 109 Crackdown

The Santa Barbara County Probation Department AB109 Compliance Response Team — the county’s prison realignment response team — and the Santa Maria Police Department served two separate arrest warrants Thursday, which resulted in the arrests of two Santa Maria residents, Jonathan Chavez and Alfredo Padilla.

As stated in a Sheriff’s Office press release, Chavez fled when authorities — including the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and the Lompoc Police Department — tried to serve his arrest warrant at the 700 block of N. Morro Drive in Santa Maria, but a K-9 unit from the Santa Maria Police Department found him hiding in a doghouse in his neighbor’s yard. Chavez was taken into custody without incident and arrested for violating the terms of his probation, as well as a $250,000 warrant for allegedly selling narcotics.

When the Compliance Response Team and the Santa Maria Police Department attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Alfredo Padilla at a home in the 500 block of West Hermosa Street in Santa Maria, he fled by way of the neighbors’ properties. After containing and searching the nearby area, authorities found Padilla hiding beneath shrubbery at a neighboring property, the press release said. A sheriff’s deputy experienced minor injuries during the search and has since recovered.

Padilla was arrested on a warrant for violating the terms of his probation and charged with allegedly resisting an executive officer.