DUI Attorney in Hawaiian Gardens

Reviewed by Ron Chini, Esq. · CA State Bar No. 263308 · DUI defense attorney in Irvine, CA since 2009.
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How DUIs are policed in Hawaiian Gardens

Hawaiian Gardens has no police department of its own. The city — at under one square mile, the smallest in Los Angeles County by land area — contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, patrolled out of the Lakewood Station, 5130 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712. That arrangement goes back to the city's 1964 incorporation, with one break: Hawaiian Gardens ran its own municipal police department from 1995 to 1997, then disbanded it and returned to an LASD contract on November 1, 1997, which is still in effect today. There has been no Hawaiian Gardens PD since.

Hawaiian Gardens sits just east of the I-605 corridor, and freeway-adjacent stops in the area typically fall to the California Highway Patrol's Santa Fe Springs Area office, 10051 Orr and Day Rd., Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 — its jurisdiction expressly lists Hawaiian Gardens among the cities it serves, alongside Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Lakewood, and others, and covers I-605 as one of its five patrolled freeways. A DUI stop on a Hawaiian Gardens surface street — Carson Street, Norwalk Boulevard, 226th Street — is more likely to be an LASD Lakewood Station deputy; a stop on or near I-605 is more likely to be CHP.

• LASD Lakewood Station: (562) 623-3500
• CHP Santa Fe Springs Area office: (562) 649-6800

Where a Hawaiian Gardens DUI case is heard

A Hawaiian Gardens DUI arrest — whether made by an LASD deputy or the CHP — is filed and heard at the Bellflower Courthouse. The Los Angeles County Superior Court's own Southeast District location record lists Bellflower as having jurisdiction over Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, and Lakewood. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office — not a Hawaiian Gardens city attorney, since the city has none — prosecutes the case.

Booking and getting a car back after a Hawaiian Gardens arrest

Lakewood Station is the first stop for a Hawaiian Gardens DUI arrest, not the last — it functions as an intake point before the county's custody system takes over. Men typically land downtown at the Inmate Reception Center, Men's Central Jail, or Twin Towers, while women are booked into the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. How quickly someone is released — on their own recognizance, after posting bail, or through a cite-and-release — depends heavily on the specific charge and circumstances. If a family member can't be located, our office can help figure out which facility they were moved to.

A Hawaiian Gardens tow or impound is released from whichever yard the deputy names at the scene, not from the station — bring photo ID, proof you own or are registered to the car, and current insurance, and expect towing and storage charges to have accrued by the time you pick it up. That's the routine Vehicle Code §22651(h) tow. If the driver was instead unlicensed or on a suspended license, Vehicle Code §14602.6 can impose a harsher 30-day hold rather than a routine release — tell us which paperwork you received and we'll confirm which section actually governs your car.

The Gardens Casino — and a very small city built around it

At roughly 0.95 square miles, Hawaiian Gardens is the smallest city in Los Angeles County by land area, with a population of 14,149 at the 2020 census (down slightly from 14,254 in 2010) that is about 77% Hispanic or Latino. The city's unusual name traces back to a 1920s refreshment stand decorated with palm fronds and bamboo — the then-rural area's main landmark for years — and the name stuck as the town grew up around it. The city incorporated on April 9, 1964.

That small footprint carries an outsized gaming operation: The Gardens Casino, at 11871 E. Carson St., opened in 1997 and, after a 2016 renovation that expanded it from roughly 59,900 to about 200,000 square feet at a cost of roughly $90 million, can accommodate an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people across games including blackjack, no-limit hold'em, pai gow, and baccarat. It is by far the city's dominant source of tax revenue. In December 2019, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a $3.1 million settlement with the casino — at the time the largest in the history of the state Bureau of Gambling Control — for misleading state regulators and failing to disclose a federal Bank Secrecy Act investigation; the casino separately paid a $2.8 million penalty to the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, for a combined total near $6 million. None of that history changes where a DUI case from Hawaiian Gardens is heard, but it's a genuinely Hawaiian Gardens-specific fact worth knowing if you're searching for the city.

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Ron Chini, Esq.

DUI Defense Attorney · CA State Bar No. 263308

Ron defends DUI cases across Southern California from his Irvine office, in English and Farsi — and works directly with you, not a call center.

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