Tagger Stirs Fight Over Jail Policy : Law enforcement: David Hillo’s latest arrest leads city attorney to assail release of many prisoners to ease crowding.

VAN NUYS — Tagger David Hillo’s nonstop troubles with the law have set off a confrontation between Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn and Sheriff Sherman Block.

Hahn said Wednesday he wants to meet with Block to protest the sheriff’s new policy of releasing most prisoners accused of misdemeanors to ease jail crowding. Warning of a “complete breakdown of law and order,” Hahn urged that the Sheriff’s Department use more discretion before releasing prisoners like Hillo.

Hillo, 20, of North Hollywood, drew nationwide attention when he survived a midnight encounter with William Masters, a gun-toting passerby who shot two graffiti vandals under a North Hollywood overpass in January. Hillo’s companion was killed and Hillo slightly wounded.

Hillo has been in trouble with the law repeatedly since then.

In the most recent encounter, Hillo was arrested on suspicion of robbery Monday just two hours after he had appeared in court on another graffiti charge. Prosecutors said he punched a security guard in the face at a Van Nuys grocery store after he was caught shoplifting $59.31 worth of eye drops and cold medicine.

“What’s frustrating is that this never should have happened,” Hahn said. “He should have been in jail.”

Monday marked the second time this month that Hillo had been released early from custody due to overcrowding at county jails, authorities said.

“It’s just incredible . . . this guy just laughs in contempt at our whole criminal justice system,” Hahn said.

“For David Hillo, a day without crime is like a day without sunshine.”

According to prosecutors, Hillo had been released from custody two hours before the robbery Monday due to a policy instituted by Block to simply cite most misdemeanor suspects and send them home rather than hold them in jail to await trial.

Block said he had to take action to reduce overcrowding in the county’s jail system, which is housing a growing number of inmates because of the state’s “three strikes” law.

Under the policy which took effect Sunday, only suspects arrested on suspicion of battery, spousal rape or abuse, corporal punishment, harassment and stalking are now being booked into county jails.

Hahn said he asked to meet with Block to discuss the possibility of evaluating suspects on a case-by-case basis rather than a “blanket policy that releases almost everyone who is charged with a misdemeanor.”

“I understand the fiscal pressures that are facing the sheriff but obviously we can’t let the county’s fiscal crisis lead to a complete breakdown of law and order in the city,” Hahn said.

Block was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

The release of Hillo and his subsequent rearrest is particularly frustrating to prosecutors who have had numerous run-ins with him since his headline-making confrontation with Masters.

Masters said he opened fire on Hillo and Cesar Arce because they tried to rob him and threatened him with a screwdriver after he caught the youths tagging under the freeway. He told them that he planned to give police their car’s license plate number.

Although Arce was killed, the district attorney’s office ruled that Masters acted in self-defense and he was not charged with murder. But he is awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed firearm.

Hillo, who has denied he and Arce threatened Masters or meant to rob him, was sentenced to 20 days in jail as punishment for the graffiti vandalism that preceded the shooting. Another 20 days was later tacked on to the sentence because Hillo failed to surrender in May as ordered and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

But because of jail overcrowding, Hillo was released after serving just 12 days of his 40-day sentence.

He was rearrested along with six teen-agers on vandalism charges last Thursday. Police said the group went on a graffiti spree in the area of Kester Avenue and Sherman Way in Van Nuys, scrawling memorials to three friends who had been killed at that intersection earlier in the week. The friends died when their auto was hit by a car driven by a suspected burglar fleeing police.

Hillo appeared Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court on the new vandalism charge and his arraignment was postponed. During the hearing, a Municipal Court judge ordered that Hillo be held in jail without bail, but he was released immediately due to Block’s policy.

Hours later, he was caught shoplifting by security guards at a Lucky Food Center in the 6800 block of Lennox Avenue, authorities said.

“They allegedly cornered him and he clenched his fist at one of them,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said. Lapin said a chase ensued and that eyedrops and cold medicine apparently began falling out of Hillo’s clothing as he ran from the guards.

Hillo jumped a wall at the rear of the store and punched one of the guards in the face before he was eventually captured and handcuffed, Lapin said. A companion escaped.

By assaulting the guard, Hillo “turned a simple misdemeanor petty theft into a serious robbery,” Lapin said. Hillo is scheduled to be arraigned on the felony robbery charge July 5.

Luis Carrillo, who represented Hillo during his court proceedings on the vandalism charges stemming from the Masters incident, expressed outrage that Hahn singled out his former client in the dispute with Block.

“He’s exaggerating the facts for his own narrow purpose,” he said.

Carrillo no longer represents Hillo because of a possible conflict of interest, because he now represents Hillo’s ex-girlfriend, Lilia Arce, sister of the tagger Masters killed.

Carrillo said he was especially angry that Hahn rejected what he described as a request for a meeting to work out a “constructive” punishment for Hillo. Hillo may not have gotten into trouble later if the city attorney had agreed to go along with his suggestion, the lawyer contended.

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.