In 2017, Santa Ana Police Department officers spotted suspicious activity, which included burning marijuana’s smell, at a hotel as well as a hangout for street gangsters.
One of them, Alan Batalla, ran into those police officers and got into an argument with them before acting as per their commands. As an F-Troop gang member, Batalla was possessing a 16-gram methamphetamine packet alongside a smoking pipe. For your information, the term ‘F-Troop’ refers to a gang associated with the so-called Mexican Mafia. Those SAPD officers noticed a loaded gun in Batalla’s pockets.
The local probation office considered Batalla’s pretrial guilty plea as well as his age, drug abuse issues, familial relationship and rehabilitation efforts. Then, it recommended imprisoning Batalla for 84 months, a less harsh form of punishment.
For a youngster, who lost his father when he was aged six years, it was natural for Batalla to expect imprisonment for up to 60 months only. Federal prosecutors in the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and US Courthouse recommended that imprisonment term for Batalla.
However, in 2019, Federal Judge James Selna announced that Batalla would have to undergo imprisonment for 81 months. For your information, Former President George Walker Bush nominated Selna to the federal bench. In 2019, it became clear that Batalla would have to go through a supervised probation sentence for a further five years.
Selna recommended adding Batalla to a 500-hour-long anti-drug prison program as well. Back in the day, Batalla was spending time at a Victorville-based medium-security prison.
