Solano public defender fights for release of mother of newborn twins

FAIRFIELD – The Solano County Public Defender’s Office filed an appeal Wednesday seeking the release of a mother of month-old twins after she was sentenced to prison for a 2020 case that someone else took responsibility for.

The public defender’s office filed its appeal on behalf of Dixon resident Patricia McCleese after she was remanded to custody on July 18 to serve a two-year, eight-month sentence for two counts of mail theft and one count of possession of counterfeit items. McCleese gave birth to twins, including one with Down syndrome, days before she was taken into custody.

Defense attorneys will also ask Solano County Superior Court Judge Carlos Gutierrez to reconsider the sentence at a hearing in Fairfield on Monday morning.

“This court has sentenced a mother with a drug problem to prison separating her from her newborn children, one of them gravely disabled, while they are nursing, over an economic crime resulting in no financial loss,” defense attorneys wrote in a motion for reconsideration of sentence filed last week, saying that imposing the sentence under these circumstances is cruel and unusual, and a violation of McCleese’s constitutional rights.

Defense attorneys argued in a filing in the California 1st District Court of Appeal that McCleese should be released from custody pending an appeal because the testimony of an exonerating witness was excluded from her trial inappropriately.

McCleese, 33, was arrested in Dixon on Sept. 18, 2020, after police officers noticed a man she was with, Brandon Hite, was on probation and subject to search. McCleese and Hite were staying in a hotel together and officers asked at the front desk which room they were staying in and then entered through a window, according to McCleese’s appeal.

The officers found “numerous checks, identification cards, keys, mail and other personal identifying information for multiple individuals,” the appeal states. Hite pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 16 months incarceration in June 2021. Defense attorneys said that he provided a statement taking full responsibility for the crimes.

McCleese’s defense attorneys sought to have Hite testify during McCleese’s trial, but Deputy District Attorney Christine De Leo told an attorney for Hite that she would question him about other open charges he faced in Solano County and that he could face additional charges for the incident in question. Because of that, Hite refused to testify based on his right against self-incrimination.

The public defender’s office argued in its appeal that prosecutors committed misconduct by dissuading Hite from testifying, and argued that the judge should have ruled that Hite could testify narrowly regarding the events in question in order to protect McCleese’s right to defend herself.

The district attorney’s office did not respond to questions.

A jury found McCleese guilty following a trial in March and April of this year.  She gave birth to twins on July 6, days before her sentencing date. Defense attorneys moved for a new trial on July 18, but the motion was denied and Gutierrez sentenced McCleese to two years and eight months incarceration.

The county probation department submitted a report to the court detailing a long pattern of abuse during McCleese’s childhood and recommended that she be placed on probation and stated that it appeared she would be receptive to the requisite substance abuse treatment. However, during the sentencing hearing prosecutors requested incarceration and Gutierrez granted that request.

Defense attorneys then requested that the court stay McCleese’s sentencing pending appeal, filed a notice of appeal on July 24, and moved that McCleese should be released on bail pending her appeal. Gutierrez denied the motion last week.

The appeals court responded Thursday afternoon directing prosecutors to file a response by Wednesday and provide an update on the custodial status of McCleese’s infant twins.

It’s not the first time the public defender’s office has come into conflict with Gutierrez. Last year, Solano County Public Defender Elena D’Agustino accused the judge of lying under oath after a bailiff accosted a defense attorney in his courtroom. D’Agustino sought to have him removed from all cases involving her office.

McCleese is scheduled to appear in court in Fairfield for reconsideration of sentence at 8:30 a.m. Monday.