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Lakeport Police logs: Saturday, Jan. 10
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
00:00 EXTRA PATROL 2601100001
Occurred at Lake County Law Library on 3D....
Sheriff's recall proponents turn in petitions
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Thursday the group that for the last four months has collected signatures to qualify a recall of Sheriff Frank Rivero for the ballot submitted its petitions to the county's elections office.
The Committee to Recall Rivero and Restore Integrity submitted the signatures to Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley at about noon on Thursday. The deadline was 5 p.m.
Fridley said she waited for the recall proponents to go over the signatures one last time before they were officially accepted.
“Once we accept them, it's done,” said Fridley, explaining that the recall rules require that all signatures must be submitted at once.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Fridley reported that her office had accepted the signatures after counting them to make sure they had at least the required number of 7,026.
The raw signature count came out to approximately 7,762, Fridley said.
For perspective, Rivero received more than 11,100 votes in the November 2010 election in which he beat four-term incumbent Rod Mitchell, based on election records.
The effort to recall Rivero – now two and a half years into his first term – began in earnest this past March, following a unanimous no confidence vote by the Board of Supervisors.
At the same time the board sent Rivero a letter formally requesting his resignation. He refused.
The board's no confidence vote came in the wake of a determination by the District Attorney's Office that Rivero had lied about his part in a nonfatal 2008 shooting during which Rivero, then a deputy, shot at an unarmed man.
That “Brady” determination – named for a 1963 US Supreme Court case requiring prosecutors to disclose to criminal defendants exculpatory information, including credibility issues relating to officers involved in their cases – was listed among the grounds for beginning the recall action against Rivero.
Other grounds the group listed included conducting himself in an unethical manner, failing to form a citizens’ oversight committee as he had promised to do during the campaign, and alienating “every law enforcement agency in the County as well as the entire Board of Supervisors with your lack of accountability and your failed leadership.”
The group began circulating petitions in April. They had 120 days to gather at least 7,026 valid signatures from Lake County voters.
Fridley and her staff will now have 30 business days – excluding holidays – to validate the signatures the proponents submitted to her office.
If the recall qualifies for the ballot, there would not be enough time to add it to the November ballot. As a result, a special election would have to be called, based on election rules.
Fridley said Thursday that if the recall qualifies, she would submit a certificate of sufficiency to the Board of Supervisors, which would then call for an election to occur within 88 and 125 days.
The last county official to be recalled was Board of Supervisors Chair Robert M. Jones of Clearlake Highlands in November 1978, according to election records.
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Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force arrests three in Upper Lake
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The service of a search warrant by the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force has resulted in three arrests and the seizure of marijuana, firearms and $1,080 for asset forfeiture.
Amber Katharine Johnson, 40, of Upper Lake; Jesus Chavez, 37, of Sebastopol; and 37-year-old Melissa Nicole Johnson of Upper Lake were arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 7, for possession of marijuana for sales and the cultivation of marijuana, according to Lt. Steve Brooks.
On Tuesday, Aug. 6, narcotics detectives secured a search warrant for the property and structures located in the 1200 block of Mahoney Drive in Upper Lake, according to Brooks.
The following day at approximately 12:20 p.m. detectives served the warrant at the Mahoney Drive property, Brooks said.
When narcotics detectives entered the property, they detained five people without incident. In addition to Amber Johnson and Nicole Johnson, and Jesus Chavez, Brooks said they detained 64-year-old Norman Lake Johnson and 27-year-old Andrew Francisco Clelland, both of Upper Lake.
During a search of the property, detectives located and seized 400 large marijuana plants growing outdoors, Brooks said.
Brooks said in one of the structures detectives located and seized nine firearms. One of the firearms had a high capacity 30 round magazine, which also was seized. Narcotics detectives also located and seized $1,080 in US currency for asset forfeiture.
Amber Johnson, Jesus Chavez and Melissa Johnson were arrested and transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked, Brooks said.
Narcotics detectives are submitting a criminal complaint on Norman Johnson for possession of marijuana for sales, the cultivation of marijuana and possession of a firearm while committing a drug offense, and one for Clelland for the cultivation of marijuana, Brooks said.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
Lakeport Police Department issues traffic safety advisory for first day of school
LAKEPORT, Calif. – With school starting on Wednesday at all Lakeport Unified School District campuses, the Lakeport Police Department issued a traffic safety advisory urging drivers to exercise extra caution.
In its Tuesday evening advisory, the agency reminded those who will be driving in the city that heavy foot and vehicle traffic is expected on and around the school campuses.
Motorists are asked to use caution when driving in the area and to watch out for pedestrians.
Police also reminded any students walking or riding bicycles to school to use caution and watch for traffic.
The Lakeport Police Department will have multiple marked police units in the area enforcing both traffic and parking violations.
Judge grants preliminary injunction in RIMS case, access to continue to Lakeport Police
UKIAH, Calif. – At the end of a Friday morning hearing, a Mendocino County judge granted the city of Lakeport a preliminary injunction in its suit against the county and the sheriff over access to law enforcement records.
Judge Cindee Mayfield ruled that the city's suit against Sheriff Frank Rivero and the county of Lake – alleging that Rivero had violated the dispatch agreement between the two governments by cutting off access to the records system in April – had a reasonable likelihood of success on its merits.
Mayfield found that the parties' history of implementing the dispatch agreement showed substantial evidence of an intent to allow access to the records information management system, or RIMS.
She also granted the continuation of a temporary restraining order she granted in the case on July 1, which prevents Rivero from once again abruptly cutting off Lakeport Police's access to the records.
In addition, Mayfield found that the potential harm to the city and its police department far outweighed potential harm to the sheriff's office and the county.
City Manager Margaret Silveira, Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen and Lt. Jason Ferguson were present for the proceedings, and were pleased with the outcome.
“There's going to be no change to our access to that information,” Rasmussen said.
The suit seeks to have Lakeport's full access to RIMS restored permanently, and also asks for attorney's fees.
The city alleges that Rivero violated the county's longtime dispatch contract with Lakeport – most recently updated in 2005 – by cutting off access to the shared RIMS system, which is how the Lakeport Police Department accesses information from the calls for service that go through the county's Central Dispatch.
Lakeport officials have accused Rivero of undermining a longtime “cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship” the city had enjoyed with the county prior to his unilateral action to cut Lakeport Police off from the information.
After filing the suit against the county and Rivero this spring, the city requested that the suit be moved out of Lake County, and it subsequently went to Mendocino County, where it was assigned to Mayfield.
The two sides made their first appearance in court before Mayfield on July 1. At that time she granted Lakeport's temporary restraining order request, ordering Rivero to restore Lakeport's access to RIMS as it had been before he cut it off without warning on April 23. She also scheduled the Friday preliminary injunction hearing at that point.
After cutting off Lakeport Police's access in April, Rivero initially had claimed it was merely an auditing issue, according to Rasmussen.
Rasmussen criticized the sheriff publicly for the action, asserting that by cutting off access to vital information – that for more than a decade had been readily available to Lakeport Police – Rivero had created a safety issue not just for officers but for Lakeport's residents.
Rivero denied there were any safety issues, and in return accused Rasmussen and his staff of misusing the system, allegations that a District Attorney's Office investigation dismissed as baseless.
Separately, a Lakeport Police Department internal affairs investigation also concluded there had been no wrongdoing by the officers who use the system.
Rivero also had claimed that Lakeport Police was being provided with information they needed from the system.
However, Rasmussen had countered that what they really had been offered were time-consuming workarounds – such as having to call Central Dispatch to ask for a dispatcher to pull case details – and that as a result they were not able to get the information they needed in an efficient manner. The information also was incomplete, he said.
After Rasmussen and the city failed to make any headway in getting Rivero to restore access – Rivero refused a request to do so by the Board of Supervisors, who held a special April 26 meeting on the matter – the Lakeport City Council voted to move forward with litigation, which was filed in May.
County argues dispatch contract didn't include RIMS access
On Friday, Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry, representing the county, argued that the city's contract with the county did not specifically reference RIMS and that therefore an intent to provide the access couldn't be inferred.
Deputy County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano, who represented Rivero, said the county had provided in its papers evidence of 400 to 500 in appropriate accesses to the RIMS system by Lakeport Police during the first three months of the year, and 35 since Mayfield had restored access through the temporary restraining order on July 1.
Guintivano said the California Department of Justice is now beginning an audit of the system.
However, Mayfield struck out statements by Rivero submitted in court documents alleging that those accesses in question were illegal, as well as Rivero opining on the intent of the 2005 version of the county and city's contract, which was created about two years before Rivero joined the sheriff's office as a deputy.
Mayfield said that the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction don't preclude Rivero from carrying out his law enforcement duties in monitoring RIMS access.
“He can investigate and do whatever he wants,” she said. “But if there is a particular violation he is to treat that violation narrowly and not cut off access to the entire Lakeport Police Department.”
She said the county also is not required to provide RIMS access in perpetuity. Referring to the 90-day termination clause in the city and county's contract, Mayfield said the county could return at any time to seek to have the agreement terminated.
David Ruderman of the law firm of Colantuono and Levin PC, which was hired to pursue the litigation and also now holds the city attorney's contract with Lakeport, said during the hearing that the county's allegations of improper RIMS uses were a “red herring.”
Rasmussen explained after the hearing that the accesses to RIMS that the county alleged were improper were the same kinds of information queries his officers use the system for on a regular basis.
Ruderman that the county now has 20 days to answer the city's suit in preparation for a trial.
With the extensive steps required next, Ruderman said a trial for a permanent injunction could be a year out.
He said the county also could appeal the ruling to the First District Court of Appeals.
Email Elizabeth Larson at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.