DUI Defense at the Larson Justice Center (Indio)

Reviewed by Ron Chini, Esq. · CA State Bar No. 263308 · DUI defense attorney in Irvine, CA since 2009.
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The Larson Justice Center sits at 46-200 Oasis Street in Indio, just off Highway 111 and across the street from the Riverside County Sheriff's John J. Benoit Detention Center. If you were arrested anywhere in the Coachella Valley, including during a festival weekend, this is almost certainly where your DUI case will be heard. The courthouse spreads its criminal departments across three floors, and the clerk's office keeps regular weekday business hours. Before you walk in, it helps to know what the security line looks like, how arraignment day is actually run here, and the two deadlines working against you at the same time: the court's own calendar and the Department of Motor Vehicles' much shorter one.

Why your case is here

The Larson Justice Center at 46-200 Oasis Street is the Coachella Valley's main criminal courthouse, next to the Riverside County Sheriff's Indio jail (the John J. Benoit Detention Center) on Oasis Street. A DUI arrest anywhere from Palm Springs to Coachella — including La Quinta, Palm Desert, Cathedral City, and Indian Wells — is generally heard here. The valley's tourism, nightlife, and the springtime music festivals all drive DUI enforcement that funnels into this courthouse.

Getting to the Larson Justice Center

The Larson Justice Center is at 46-200 Oasis Street in Indio, with public parking available near the complex in addition to 22 marked handicapped spaces close to the building. Jurors use a separate lot with its own instructions, but if you are appearing for a DUI case you can use the general public parking areas. Everyone entering the courthouse passes through a metal detector, and the screening area accommodates standard wheelchairs; anyone with a pacemaker or cochlear implant can ask for a hand-held wand instead of walking through the detector. Give yourself extra time on a first visit, since the line at the screening station tends to be longest right before the morning calendar starts. SunLine Transit Agency runs the Coachella Valley's public bus system, so if you are coming from elsewhere in the valley without a car, check SunLine's own route map for the line that gets closest to Oasis Street before your court date.

What arraignment day looks like at Larson

The clerk's office at Larson is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., though phone lines close earlier, at 2:00 p.m. Criminal departments are spread across three floors: departments 1A and 1B on the first floor, 2E through 2K on the second, and 3M through 3T on the third, so check your paperwork or the posted calendars in the lobby for your department number before you go looking for a courtroom. Riverside County Superior Court handles criminal arraignments in person rather than through the Zoom option it offers for some civil, family law, probate, and small claims calendars elsewhere in the county. Arrive early enough to clear security and find your department, since calendars at a busy desert courthouse like this one can move quickly once the morning session starts.

The DMV hearing and Riverside County's DUI program

Your license is handled separately from your Larson Justice Center case. Inland Empire drivers request DMV hearings by phone rather than at a local Driver Safety counter, through the DMV's hearing line at (833) 543-7703, and the 10-day deadline runs regardless of which process moves faster. If your case results in a DUI program requirement, Riverside County Probation's approved list includes the AB541 first offender program, the longer AB1353 nine-month first offender program, and the SB38 eighteen-month program for a second or later offense, plus a shorter SB1176 alcohol and drug education session for some reduced outcomes such as a wet reckless. For court-ordered monitoring such as an ankle bracelet, probation directs defendants to call Sentinel Offender Services or Leaders in Community Alternatives within five days of the court date to set up an appointment.

The 10-day DMV deadline

Your Larson Justice Center case is separate from the DMV's action against your license, and the DMV's 10-day window to request a hearing runs from the date of arrest — festival weekend or not. How the DMV hearing works →

How Ron defends a DUI at the Larson Justice Center

At the Larson Justice Center, DUI cases are prosecuted by the Riverside County District Attorney's desert office, which handles the volume of alcohol and drug arrests that comes out of the Coachella Valley's nightlife, tourism, and festival calendar. A typical misdemeanor DUI starts with arraignment, moves through one or more pretrial conferences where the defense and the DA exchange police reports, breath or blood test records, and any body camera footage, and either resolves short of trial or proceeds toward one. Ron reviews the traffic stop, the field sobriety tests, and the chemical testing for weaknesses at each stage, and negotiates directly with the DA's desert team rather than handing the case to an associate. Riverside County Superior Court treats criminal arraignments as in-person matters rather than remote Zoom hearings, which is different from some civil or family law calendars at other courthouses in the county that do allow appearance by video, so expect to appear at Larson itself for most dates, though counsel can often stand in for routine hearings in a first-time misdemeanor case. Ron's Irvine office is a drive from Indio, and he builds client meetings and case prep around that distance rather than asking desert clients to come to him for every step.

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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 — and works directly with you, not a call center.

Learn more about Ron Chini →