Crime & Safety

Fire Captain Pleads Not Guilty to DUI Hit-and-Run, Back Out on Bail

John Hines, who reportedly entered a rehab program after his arrest, turned himself in this morning.

John David Hines, the Long Beach Fire Department captain who allegedly plowed into a bicyclist while driving rip-roaring drunk through Seal Beach, turned himself in this morning, pleaded not guilty and was quickly back out on bail, officials said.

Hines, 38, of Huntington Beach, was released on the same $50,000 bond he posted after his initial arrest April 1, according to Orange County Superior Court officials. Prosecutor Andrew  Katz asked the judge to set bail at , but the judge declined. 

Hines, who reportedly checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation program after his arrest, is scheduled to be back in court June 17 for a pretrial hearing.

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If convicted on felony DUI and hit-and-run charges, he faces a maximum six years and eight months in state prison.

According to prosecutors, Hines spent the morning of April 1 boozing it up at a Long Beach restaurant called Schooner or Later, then drove his truck down Westminster Avenue in Seal Beach, where he swerved off the road and crashed into 47-year-old bicyclist Jeffrey Gordon.

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Gordon was thrown more than 70 feet and landed on the shoulder of the street, according to prosecutors. Witnesses said Hines failed to even slow down after hitting Gordon.

“Instead of staying to render aid, he left the victim like common road kill in a pool of blood, and fled the scene…it is egregious,” Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz said last week. “It’s 1 in the afternoon, he’s three times the legal limit. He’s a firefighter, no less, someone whose job it is to aid people in medical distress. It’s not some 18-year-old kid who had too much to drink. He knows better. He should know better.”

The impact of the high-speed collision broke the windshield and nearly disabled Hines’ Chevy Silverado, according to witnesses who chased him, honking and screaming at him to pull over, as he drove several blocks from the crash scene to his Huntington Beach home.

Prosecutors said Hines' blood alcohol level after the wreck was .24, triple the legal limit.

Gordon spent two weeks in the hospital with head trauma, severe lacerations and bruising to his head and body, internal injuries, and spinal and vertebrae injuries. He continues to suffer limited physical mobility and speech and memory loss, prosecutors said.

On the day of the incident, Hines was arrested and then released on $50,000 bail.

Katz and Hines' attorney, Vince Tucci, were not immediately available to comment on today's developments.

-- Story was updated at 10:30 a.m. with Hines' plea, and at noon with a City News Service report that he had entered rehab.


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