An Orange County case against former La Habra Police Department Chief Alan Hostetter, who was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for his role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was dismissed Wednesday.
It was expected that the misdemeanor charges against Hostetter stemming from a protest in San Clemente about pandemic-related restrictions would be dumped after he was sentenced Dec. 7 to 135 months in federal prison.
Hostetter, a 59-year-old yoga instructor, was arrested in May 2020 at a protest of stay-at-home orders in San Clemente. Eight were arrested at the protest as they attempted to tear down fencing around beach parking lots erected to slim down crowds at the shoreline during the pandemic.
Hostetter was charged with resisting arrest and refusal to disperse when ordered, both misdemeanors, as well as being cited for trespassing. Those charges were dismissed at a hearing Wednesday at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Hostetter — who was chief from 2009 through 2010 when he took disability retirement — was convicted of participating in a plan to try to halt the certification of the Electoral College vote in Congress for President Joe Biden.