'I Order Him Released' 

After living in a kind of legal and custodial purgatory in the Humboldt County jail for months, Steven Dinsmore is once again a free man.

Humboldt County Superior Court Judge John Feeney resentenced Dinsmore on Jan. 8 pursuant to a new state law that took effect on the first of the year and ordered Dinsmore, who he'd sentenced back in 2007 to serve more than 29 years in state prison after his conviction for assaulting a sheriff's deputy with a firearm, released from custody that day. Friends and family who'd packed Feeney's courtroom for the occasion, including one of Dinsmore's daughters and his 94-year-old grandmother, let out brief exclamations of joy and relief as Feeney issued his ruling, shattering the usual atmosphere of such staid proceedings.

Feeney, who'd ordered Dinsmore released from custody in 2022 after dismissing a 10-year firearms enhancement that accompanied his original sentence only to have an appellate court overturn that decision, forcing him to remand Dinsmore back into custody after 15 months as a free man, repeated his belief at the hearing that Dinsmore has been rehabilitated.

"At this time, the court does find that Mr. Dinsmore has clearly demonstrated his rehabilitation," Feeney said. "This court finds that Mr. Dinsmore no longer poses a threat to public safety."

Feeney's ruling — in line with his stated intent when he used his own judicial discretion to set a resentencing hearing for Dinsmore and following the tentative ruling he voiced at the outset of the hearing — is believed to be the first resentencing of an inmate in the state under Assembly Bill 600. Authored with the help of Dinsmore's appellate attorney, Richard Braucher, the new law gives judges the ability to recall and resentence inmates at their own discretion in instances where sentencing laws have changed since their underlying conviction and sentencing.

Dinsmore, 48, was convicted in 2006 and served more than 17 years in prison, spending the majority of his adult life in a 6-by-10-foot cell, before filing for a writ of habeas corpus in December of 2021 after the legislature passed a law making the type of 10-year firearm enhancement imposed as a part of his initial sentence discretionary. At a hearing before Feeney, Dinsmore argued that the enhancement should be stricken, saying he'd been rehabilitated while in custody, earning his GED and completing dozens of courses while in-custody, including a 14-month substance abuse program and a victim impact class.

The Humboldt County District Attorney's Office argued against Dinsmore's release, saying his judgment was final and without something challenging the legality of his sentence or conviction, the court didn't have authority to resentence him under the new law, which was not retroactive and thus didn't apply to Dinsmore or anyone else sentenced prior to it going into effect.

In May of 2022, with Dinsmore appearing before him via Zoom from Coalinga State Prison, Feeney indicated he was moved by Dinsmore's "sincere remorse" for his past crimes and "impressive record of rehabilitative work." He ruled that Dinsmore's continued incarceration was "no longer in the interest of justice" and ordered him released from prison. But by the time Dinsmore walked out of the prison's gates a week later, the DA's office had already filed an appeal, arguing Feeney had overstepped the law.

As the appeal moved through the system, Dinsmore moved on with his life and, as he told the Journal, tried to make the most of his freedom. He got work — first as a handyman, then in a full-time position for Caltrans — and reconciled with his daughters, both little when he went to prison and now adults with six children between them. He reconnected with an old high school acquaintance and they got engaged, moving into a home together in Redding. He continued attending substance abuse support meetings and was discharged from an indeterminate parole within just seven months.

"His parole was stellar," his agent would later tell Feeney at a hearing, adding that Dinsmore passed every random drug and alcohol screening he was given and cleared every hurdle the state put in front of him with "zero violations, zero issues."

But two months later, in March, the California First District Court of Appeals ruled that Feeney had acted without legal authority and reinstated Dinsmore's 10-year firearm enhancement. The ruling meant Dinsmore would have to complete his original sentence but the appellate court left room for prosecutors to exercise their discretion and consider "appropriate alternatives to returning defendant to state prison." But when the matter came back to Humboldt County Superior Court in August, the DA's office indicated it had no interest in exploring alternatives and Dinsmore — dressed in his Caltrans uniform and expecting to return to work that day — was remanded back into custody.

Since that day, Dinsmore and his attorney, Ben McLaughlin, have tried multiple avenues to see him released from custody on some kind of government supervision and electronic monitoring but Feeney ultimately decided he did not have the authority to release a state prison inmate.

In the meantime, Braucher's efforts on Dinsmore's behalf bore fruit in October, when the governor signed A.B. 600 into law, giving Feeney the same legal authority the appellate court ruled he did not have to strike that firearm enhancement after the new year. So at the same hearing in October at which Feeney determined he did not have the authority to release Dinsmore, he set a Jan. 8 court date, on his own motion, to consider his resentencing pursuant to the new law.

At that hearing, with every seat in Feeney's courtroom filled and several people standing in the back, the judge briefly noted Dinsmore's "very significant" record of rehabilitation before turning to the events of Nov. 6, 2005, which the judge said he remembers "extremely well." Dinsmore had been the passenger in a car pulled over for expired registration tags and had a misdemeanor warrant out for his arrest. When then deputy — now undersheriff — Justin Braud approached the car, Dinsmore attempted to flee, then fought with the deputy. Deputy Michael Fridley and two others came to Braud's aid and attempted to restraint Dinsmore when, according to a report in the Times-Standard, Dinsmore drew a .50 caliber "Desert Eagle" handgun from his waistband and pointed it at Braud, threatening to shoot him if deputies didn't allow him to leave, at which point Fridley grabbed the weapon as Dinsmore pulled the trigger, with Fridley's finger blocking the hammer from reaching the firing pin.

"All the officers showed great restraint," Feeney said, crediting that and Fridley's "extremely heroic" act with ensuring the incident did not result in "extreme bodily injury or death."

After Feeney's comments, McLaughlin addressed the court, arguing that Dinsmore's record speaks to his rehabilitation, noting that he hadn't received a disciplinary write up in eight years, all the course work completed in custody, his successful discharge from parole after his release and his work as a "model inmate" in the county jail since being remanded.

"Mr. Dinsmore would like nothing more than to be back with his family, to go to school and become a productive member of society," McLaughlin said.

Asked for his input, Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal countered that Dinsmore's record does not warrant a second chance. Before the crime in this case, Bernthal said Dinsmore had been convicted of stealing a shotgun — a strike offense — and that his violations in custody have been "numerous and serious." Bernthal then rattled off a list of offenses documented in Dinsmore's prison file: manufacturing a weapon in 2008, manufacturing alcohol in 2009, distributing a substance in 2012, testing positive for drugs in 2013, fighting in 2014, possessing alcohol in 2015.

"Based on all that, the people would object to resentencing at this time," he said.

McLaughlin countered: "After the last writeup, the court can see that Mr. Dinsmore began to complete milestone after milestone after milestone."

Feeney agreed, reiterating for at least the fourth time in open court that he believes Dinsmore had "clearly demonstrated his rehabilitation." Then, he officially struck the 10-year firearm enhancement, resentencing Dinsmore to time served.

"I order him released from custody on today's date," the judge said, drawing brief cheers and an outpouring of tears from Dinsmore's friends and family.

Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal's news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321, or [email protected].