DUI Attorney in Monrovia

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 Monrovia

Monrovia has its own municipal police department, headquartered at 140 E. Lime Avenue next to City Hall, and Monrovia PD runs its own periodic DUI/driver's-license checkpoints inside the city — not just routine patrol stops. Officers working Myrtle Avenue, Huntington Drive, and the residential streets feeding into the 210 freeway are typically the ones making arrests inside city limits.

A stop on the I-210 freeway itself, including the stretch that runs along Monrovia's northern edge, is more often handled by the California Highway Patrol. CHP's Baldwin Park Area office patrols I-210, I-605, I-10, and SR-60/57/71/39 across the eastern San Gabriel Valley, so a DUI arrest on the freeway near Monrovia can come from CHP rather than city police — the agency on your citation affects which officer will testify, but the case still lands at the same courthouse.

• Monrovia Police Department — citywide patrol, local checkpoints, Myrtle Ave. and Old Town corridor
• CHP Baldwin Park Area office — I-210, I-605, I-10 and connecting state routes through the San Gabriel Valley
• Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department — occasional mutual-aid or task-force stops near county boundary areas

Where a Monrovia DUI case is heard

Whether you're arrested by Monrovia PD, CHP, or another agency, a Monrovia DUI case is filed and heard at the Pasadena Courthouse, which has jurisdiction over Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre. That's where your arraignment, pretrial hearings, and any trial will take place.

Booking and getting a car back after a Monrovia arrest

Most Monrovia DUI arrests are booked right in the city: Monrovia Police Department runs its own jail at 140 E. Lime Avenue, operating around the clock. It's a Type I facility, meaning it isn't built to hold people long-term — state rules cap a stay there at about 96 hours. If you aren't released on citation or bail before that window closes, you'd be transferred into the LA County system: men typically go to Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Pitchess Detention Center, or Men's Central Jail, and women go to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. A car impounded at the scene is normally held at a tow yard designated by whichever agency made the stop, and you'll need to resolve any hold before it can be released.

Old Town Monrovia, the Metro A Line, and Friday nights on Myrtle

Monrovia's identity is built around its historic Old Town district on Myrtle Avenue, and every Friday night from 5 to 9 p.m. that stretch closes to traffic for the Monrovia Street Fair & Market — free admission, vendors, live music, and heavy foot and vehicle traffic funneling in from the surrounding neighborhoods and the 210 freeway. Monrovia PD typically increases visibility around the fair's start and end times, when crowds are leaving and traffic backs up along Myrtle, Lemon, and Colorado. The city's Metro A Line station (opened 2016, rebuilt inside the restored 1926 Santa Fe depot) sits a few blocks away and is a common starting or ending point for an evening out — officers in the area are alert to drivers leaving nearby bars and restaurants on a Friday night. A citation tied to the Street Fair or a night out near the station is still a routine DUI arrest, filed the same way as any other Monrovia case.

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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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