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Sam Penrod reportingA 20-year-old man is back in jail. After being arrested 25 times in the last two years and with several criminal cases pending against him, how does he manage to keep getting released from jail?
Saul Cristobal is an admitted gang member who faces new charges of aggravated assault to go along with felony aggravated robbery and a long list of other crimes. We've been looking for answers about why the door keeps revolving for this man in Utah County's criminal justice system.
The answer appears to be that he is getting arrested by officers from several police departments, prosecuted by various city and county prosecutors, and going to court in both justice and district courthouses. It seems his previous crimes are unknown to those arresting him. The question now is, will these new charges be enough to keep him behind bars?
Cristobal is one of the most frequent guests at the Utah County Jail and a known gang member who goes by the name "Droopy." Since he turned 18 years old two years ago, he has been booked into the Utah County Jail 25 times. His latest arrest involves an alleged aggravated assault at a Wal-Mart in Orem.
Court documents state that Cristobal and two other people used brass knuckles to seriously injure someone at the store who they believed was a member of a rival gang. Those charges resulted in a Provo judge setting bail today at $15,000 on charges of gang-enhanced aggravated assault.
At the same time he was appearing in Provo's courthouse, he was scheduled to be in American Fork to face a different judge, where a case of first-degree felony aggravated robbery against him has been postponed a total of 10 times since he was charged in July. Since that arrest for robbery, Cristobal has been arrested eight more times on various crimes by officers from different police departments.
So how does he keep getting out of jail? We checked jail records and found that in some cases he has posted bail, others he has been released on his own recognizance by both district- and justice-court judges.
From illegal consumption of alcohol to reckless driving, evading police and assault on an officer, somehow Cristobal keeps getting out of jail, only to return with more crimes, most of them gang related.
I made several calls today to law enforcement in Utah County about this case. One veteran lawman told me that the gang problem in Utah County keeps growing, and he believes it is going to require law enforcement agencies in Utah County to start working together and tracking these criminals, to put an end to this revolving door.
