California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa, at podium, speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
More than two dozen people associated with street racing or sideshows were arrested in a sweep this week after California Highway Patrol officers found they had their fix-it tickets fraudulently signed off to avoid vehicle repair bills that could have gone into the thousands of dollars, authorities said.
Investigators took 27 Orange County residents into custody on Tuesday, Dec. 6, months after arresting Angel Zahid Sanchez-Peralta, 21, of Los Angeles, who is accused of forging the signatures of retired and current CHP officers on the tickets.
A booking photo of Angel Zahid Sanchez-Peralta, a street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was one of the 27 Orange County suspects arrested in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, announced by the California Highway Patrol during a news conference on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
With copies of social media communications on the board at left, California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa, at podium, speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A sample of a citation is posted on a board as California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa, at podium, speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A copy of a social media communication is posted on a board as California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa, center, speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa, speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A copy of a social media communication is posted on a board as California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
Copies of social media communications are posted on the board as California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
A sample of a citation is posted on a board as California Highway Patrol Captain Gil Campa speaks during a news conference announcing that the CHP Investigative Services Unit has arrested 27 Orange County suspects in a fraudulent citation sign-off ring, on Wednesday, December 8, 2022, in Santa Ana. A street racing promoter who illegally signed off for profit on over 250 citations issued in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, used names of current and retired law enforcement officers, was included in the arrests. (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
Sanchez-Peralta is accused of signing off on more than 250 citations, charging $300 each, Capt. Gil Campa said Wednesday outside the CHP’s Santa Ana station house.
When a vehicle is in violation because there is a missing or non-working part, or it has an illegal one, an officer can choose to write up a correctable violation. If the owner fixes the car, truck or motorcycle, and proves it to a sworn officer who signs off on the repair, on the ticket with a signature or a stamp, the owner only faces perhaps a $25 court fee and not a penalty.
The drivers, cited by the CHP and other law-enforcement agencies because their vehicles were not up to legal snuff, would take the signed-off tickets to the courthouse and pay the court fee to resolve the ticket, Campa said.
In some cases, the cost to fix the modifications to their cars would have cost thousands of dollars, officials said. The citations ranged from “simple fix-it violations — equipment violations — all the way up to Bureau of Automotive Repair citations, where they (the owners) modified exhaust and emissions systems,” Campa said.
In most cases, the drivers met Sanchez-Peralta in person, but sometimes mailed the citations to him, officials said.
Investigators became aware of the scheme when a court official flagged them about the signature of a retired officer showing up on tickets, Campa said. From there, they found Sanchez-Peralta’s Instagram page, where he not only promoted street-racing and sideshow events, authorities said, but also promoted the illegal sign-off services.
“That was our first step in the door, so to speak,” Campa said. “Some of the posts … piqued our interest.”
Sanchez-Peralta was arrested in August, officials said. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has since filed against him 33 felony counts of attempting to file a forged instrument to a public office, and one felony count of attempting to procure or offer false or forged instrument for record, officials said.
Shortly after his arrest, Sanchez-Peralta was released from custody after posting $20,000 for bail, court records show. On Nov. 18, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to Orange County court records.
Investigators identified the 27 Orange County residents who were arrested after serving a search warrant for Sanchez-Peralta’s Instagram account, where communications about such signatures took place, authorities said. The 27 were arrested on suspicion of attempting to file a forged instrument to a public office.
“As far as I know, we have not seen something similar to this, at least in our division, in recent memory,” Campa said. “I can say that in my 28 years of doing various enforcement operations, doing arrest sweeps, it’s very, very rare for us to go out and identify 27 individuals and then go out and arrest all 27.”
Campa did not know whether the traffic citations originated from street-racing events, sideshows or traffic stops.
A sideshow is an automobile exhibition illegally held on public roadways, where owners show off their cars and take over intersections, doing doughnuts and other dangerous driving maneuvers.
“Street racing is always illegal and extremely dangerous,” CHP officials said in a statement. “Participants and onlookers could be killed or seriously injured because of street-racing activities.”
