Out of rehab and back in jail

Greg Risling

NEWPORT BEACH -- Eleven days. That’s the time it took, authorities said,

before Mark David Allen walked out of a rehabilitation center and into a

drunken stupor.

The 38-year-old transient, who holds the city’s record for most arrests,

was found by police staggering along the peninsula Saturday afternoon.

Allen was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness and taken first to

Newport Beach Jail and then transferred to Orange County Jail.

Allen pleaded guilty last month to four counts of public drunkenness, an

amount that pales in comparison to the more than 100 arrests he has

accumulated in Newport Beach alone. Orange County Superior Court Judge

Frances Munoz allowed Allen to enter a comprehensive, live-in

rehabilitation program sponsored by the Salvation Army. If he failed to

complete the program, he would spend the remainder of a nine-month

sentence in jail, the judge said.

Allen voluntarily left the Anaheim facility Saturday and by the end of

the day had been placed behind bars. Authorities said Allen was a wreck

when they found him.

“He had wet his pants and could barely stand up,” said Newport Beach

Police Sgt. Mike McDermott, who noted Allen was arrested about 100 yards

from the spot where he was last picked up by police in January. “It’s

tragic, but his arrest doesn’t surprise us at all. There was nothing

about him during our last contact that indicated he had changed.”

Dave Sperling, who works for the police department as a civilian jailer,

held a glimmer of hope when he learned Allen had been in the alcohol

recovery program for a week. Sperling has chronicled Allen’s life in a

documentary that was shown at the 1997 Newport Beach International Film

Festival. The film, which was updated, will be shown again at this year’s

festival.

Sperling said he spoke with Allen, who told him the program didn’t suit

his needs.

“I was wondering when I would get the phone call that he got picked up,”

Sperling said. “Sure enough, the day I had that thought, I got the call.

Everyone has put their best foot forward except Mark.”

Newport Beach police have been dealing with Allen since 1985. In that

15-year period, Allen has been arrested 107 times for public drunkenness.

That number doesn’t include any other Orange County law enforcement

agencies.

Allen’s two brothers bought him a plane ticket to visit them in Hawaii

last year. They hoped to sober him up but when Allen trashed their

houses, he was turned loose on Hawaiian streets. Honolulu authorities

felt Allen was such a nuisance, they reportedly bought him an airline

ticket back to California.

“The courts, the police, his family and the rehabilitation center have

tried to help this guy,” Sperling said. “He’s been given almost every

opportunity. If he wants to be sober, he has to do it himself.”