TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA - He built a fence, a retaining wall, a patio and a few cement columns to decorate his driveway and now Francisco Linares is going to jail for it.
Linares had been given six months to get final permits for the offending structures or remove them as part of a plea agreement reached in January, when he pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of violating the Rolling Hills Estates municipal building code.
If he failed to do one or the other, Linares faced six months in county jail.
Today, Torrance Superior Court Judge Sandra Thompson chastised Linares for not completing what he agreed to do in January and then gave him the maximum sentence without possibility of house arrest or probation.
“Imagine my disappointment to find we are no further along in resolving these issues,” Thompson said. “At the rate we’re going, we’ll still be talking about this at my retirement party.”
Linares, 51, a regional manager for an insurance company, is scheduled to report to county jail on Sept. 10.
