DUI Attorney in San Gabriel

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 San Gabriel

San Gabriel is not a contract city — it runs its own independent municipal police department rather than relying on the Los Angeles County Sheriff. The San Gabriel Police Department fields roughly 54 sworn officers and 18 civilian employees out of its station at 625 S. Del Mar Ave., covering a compact 4.09-square-mile city of about 40,000 residents. A DUI stop on a surface street anywhere in San Gabriel — Las Tunas Drive, Valley Boulevard, Del Mar Avenue, or Mission Drive — is most often a San Gabriel PD arrest.

Freeway DUI stops near San Gabriel are a different agency entirely. The California Highway Patrol's East Los Angeles Area Office, based nearby in Monterey Park, patrols the I-10 and I-710/SR-60 corridors that run through this part of the San Gabriel Valley. Whether the arrest was made by a San Gabriel PD officer on a city street or a CHP officer on the freeway, the case still ends up at the same courthouse.

• San Gabriel Police Department — the primary agency for stops within city limits
• California Highway Patrol, East Los Angeles Area Office — I-10 and nearby freeway segments
• Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department — occasional mutual-aid presence only; San Gabriel is not a Sheriff's contract city

Where a San Gabriel DUI case is heard

The Alhambra Courthouse's own stated jurisdiction names exactly four cities: Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel and Temple City. A San Gabriel DUI is arraigned and heard there, typically prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Alhambra Branch office, which sits inside the same courthouse building — San Gabriel is not one of the small number of LA County cities with its own city prosecutor.

Booking and getting a car back after a San Gabriel arrest

Because San Gabriel runs its own police department, a San Gabriel DUI arrestee is typically first held at a short-term city holding facility before being booked. A Los Angeles County civil grand jury inspection report has documented that San Gabriel PD books arrestees through the Alhambra city jail system at 211 S. First St., Alhambra, CA 91801 — a different intake path than neighboring Temple City, which has no police department of its own and instead moves arrestees directly into Los Angeles County Sheriff's custody out of Temple Station. From city custody, a San Gabriel arrestee can be transferred further into the county system (through the Inmate Reception Center downtown) if the case is a felony or a hold is placed. A car left at the scene is usually towed and held under the arresting agency's impound policy; Ron Chini's office can tell you what's needed to get it released.

The San Gabriel Mission and the city's historic identity

San Gabriel takes its name from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded September 8, 1771 — the fourth mission in California's chain, established under Father Junípero Serra by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel Somera. The original site, in what is now Montebello, was destroyed by flooding five years later, and the mission was rebuilt at its present San Gabriel location in 1776. It grew into what historians call the "Pride of the Missions" and is credited with introducing large-scale viticulture to California; the current church, designed by Padre Antonio Cruzado in a Moorish style drawn from the cathedral of Córdoba, Spain, was completed in 1805 and still stands in the city today.

Modern San Gabriel sits at the center of the San Gabriel Valley's large Chinese-American community. Valley Boulevard, which runs through San Gabriel along with neighboring Alhambra, Monterey Park, and Rosemead, is lined with hundreds of Chinese restaurants and businesses, many with trilingual Chinese/Vietnamese/English signage — a commercial identity distinct from quieter, more residential Temple City a few miles northeast.

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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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