How to resolve AdBlock issue? Sheriff's office investigates apparent murder-suicide
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office is investigating an apparent murder-suicide in Clearlake Oaks.
Lt. Steve Brooks said deputies were dispatched to a home on The Plaza for a welfare check on Saturday.
When the deputies arrived they located a male and female, both deceased, inside the home. Brooks said both victims had apparent gunshot wounds.
The Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit was requested and responded. Brooks said a crime scene investigation was conducted and several people were interviewed.
The two people found at the home were identified as 58-year-old Laura Ann Matthews and 53-year-old Carl Garnett McHughes Jr., who Brooks said lived at the residence.
A firearm also was recovered at the scene, Brooks said.
Brooks said the sheriff’s office is currently investigating the case as an apparent murder-suicide. However, at this point, they are not saying who they believe committed the shooting.
The final determination is pending autopsy results and further examination of evidence recovered at the scene. Brooks said autopsies are scheduled for later this week.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Det. Jerry Pfann at 707-262-4200.
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Sheriff’s chaplains lead remembrance ceremony for fallen safety officers
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A group of local law enforcement officials, religious leaders and community members gathered early Friday evening to recall the sacrifices of the public safety officers who have died serving Lake County.
The Lake County Safety Officer Memorial Service took place in front of the memorial monuments to the officers and firefighters in Courthouse Square in downtown Lakeport.
In attendance were about 50 people, including Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison and several of his department members; Sheriff Brian Martin and sheriff's command staffers including Undersheriff Chris Macedo, Capt. Chris Chwialkowski and Lt. Steve Brooks; District Attorney Don Anderson, his Chief Deputy Richard Hinchcliff, Chief Investigator Craig Woodworth and Senior Deputy District Attorney Ed Borg; and Officer Tyler Trouette and Sgt. Gary Basor for Lakeport Police.
The event was hosted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Chaplaincy Program.
The program, recently reestablished under Sheriff Martin, currently has six members, all of whom were on hand to help commemorate the sacrifices of the five men – three law enforcement officers and two firefighters – who died in the line of duty in Lake County over the last 105 years.
The chaplains provided candles that participants were invited to light for the brief ceremony.
Chaplain Shannon Kimbell-Auth of United Christian Parish in Lakeport opened the ceremony, which she said was a way of honoring the courage and saluting the sacrifice of the fallen officers.
Chaplain Fr. Bernard D’Sa recounted the story of Michael Mattioda, a Lakeshore Fire Protection District firefighter.
Mattioda died July 14, 1984, at age 19, a day after he sustained burns over 70 to 90 percent of his body while fighting the Mount Baldy Fire in Clearlake.
The story of Matthew Black, a volunteer firefighter with Lakeport Fire, was read by Chaplain Terry Cara.
On June 23, 1999, the 20-year-old Black was working at the scene of a grass fire sparked by fallen power lines when he fell onto a live wire and was electrocuted.
Chaplain Mike Suski, who is pastor at Lakeport Christian Center, shared the story of Sheriff George Kemp, who died on May 5, 1910.
Kemp was attempting to arrest two suspects wanted for horse theft and burglary. One of the suspects shot Kemp in the chest, mortally wounding him. He died a short time later. Kemp was 56 years old.
Chaplain Rick Barnes, who pastors Lake County Bible Fellowship in Lakeport, recounted the story of Deputy Sheriff William Hoyt.
Hoyt died on Oct. 11, 1967, at age 52 after he was shot in the Lake County Courthouse by a prisoner who had grabbed another deputy's gun on the way into a courtroom and began firing, hitting Hoyt in the chest. Hoyt managed to retrieve a pistol from under a counter and returned fire. He died later that day of his injuries.
Chaplain Steve Nesheim, pastor of Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, told of Sgt. Richard Helbush, who died at age 34 on May 2, 1981.
Helbush had stopped to assist a vehicle on the side of Highway 29 when he encountered Robert Cox and Annika Deasy. Unbeknownst to Helbush, the pair were wanted in Stockton for the murder of a restaurateur.
Helbush was shot four times – three times in the back and and once in the head – before Cox and Deasy took his patrol car, service revolver and wallet and fled the scene. They were captured later following a high speed chase and a gunfight.
Long before he became an attorney or pursued the district attorney's job, Anderson was a deputy sheriff who was involved in apprehending Cox and Deasy.
At the conclusion of each of the stories, Michael Kimbell-Auth rang a bell.
Also at the Friday ceremony, chaplains remembered the 117 officers and 87 firemen who died across the nation in 2014.
Cara read the names of the 15 safety officers from California who died last year – including 48-year-old Mendocino County Deputy Ricky Del Fiorentino, who died in March 2014 after being shot by a carjacking and armed robbery suspect.
At the end of the ceremony, Barnes led the group in a prayer.
As the candles were extinguished, Shannon Kimbell-Auth explained that the five men’s lights hadn't gone out, and that it was the responsibility of those gathered to carry on in their memory.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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Sheriff's office identifies driver in fatal Saturday crash
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office has released the name of a local man who died following a crash on Saturday afternoon in Nice.
Lt. Steve Brooks said the crash victim was 57-year-old Douglas Allen Quiett of Nice.
Quiett had been driving his 2004 Ford F150 pickup eastbound on Lakeshore Boulevard when he crossed the westbound lane, went off the road, hit two parked pickups, a fence and a walnut tree, as Lake County News has reported.
Northshore Fire personnel extricated Quiett from the pickup and began working to revive him before transporting him to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, where he died less than an hour after the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP's initial report on the crash said that alcohol may have been a contributing factor.
Brooks said there will be a postmortem examination in order to ascertain if, in fact, alcohol was involved.
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HVLA union staffers continue picket; union, association set to go to court in June
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – Representatives of Local 324 of the Laborers’ International Union have begun a fourth week of picketing against the Hidden Valley Lake Association in front of the community's golf course.
Spokespeople from both sides appeared no closer to agreement on the issues of:
– Take home pay of more than $12 for the 13 strikers involved;
– A disagreement over out-of-pocket health insurance; and
– An association demand for a $1.95 reduction in health and welfare benefits, and payment of a greater out-of-pocket health care by employees.
HVLA management, meantime, has charged that the union is engaging in illegal actions during the strike, the most egregious being attempts by the pickets are attempting to cause secondary boycotts by other companies when they try to deliver goods and services to the Hidden Valley Lake community; and that the union is permissible picketing on private property.
Asked about these charges, union representative Maggie Campbell asserted “They (companies) will not cross the picket line.”
To the question of when the picketers will go back to work, Campbell responded, “Why don’t you ask Cindy (Spears, HVL general manager) that.”
As for whether what is taking place is a picket or a strike, Spears, in turn, suggested that question be put to the union.
“We do feel that we're at an impasse with the union,” she said.
George Griffin, Local 324's vice president, has not responded to calls from Lake County News seeking comment on the situation.
To emphasize their displeasure with the association, the HVLA union staffers on the picket line are now accompanied by a giant inflatable rat, chomping on a cigar, with large dollar bills spilling out of one of his pockets.
The two sides haven't been to the negotiations table since January, Spears said.
The union has several grievances pending against the association with the National Labor Relations Board.
According to the board's records the union filed additional grievances last week over lockout, bad faith bargaining, changes in employment terms and conditions, discipline and concerted activities such as retaliation, discharges and discipline.
Spears said the employees weren't locked out, but that the union failed to inform its workers that they were picketing. When they came into work one morning, their superintendent told them they should check first with their union representative.
Altogether, the National Labor Relations Board's Web site shows more than a dozen open grievances that the union has filed against HVLA.
Spears maintains that a number of union-filed grievances have been dismissed and that the union is abusing the grievance process.
The association, in turn, has filed several grievances with the National Labor Relations Board regarding the union’s failure to bargain in good faith, she said.
Spears said the union has filed grievance after grievance, starting with one filed not long after she arrived. She purchased sandwiches for staff to sit down and talk, and the union filed a grievance accusing her of working with staff without a union representative present.
The National Labor Relations Board's regional staff has consolidated the investigation into the union's allegations of unfair labor practices by HVLA into one case.
The board's investigator decided to file a complaint against HVLA based on the unfair labor practice charges.
Spears said the filing of the complaint is the beginning of the process and does not prove anything, but starts the process by which the union and the association will present evidence at a hearing on June 15 in Santa Rosa.
The association is confident it will be able to present witnesses and evidence of its bargaining attempts during the hearing and succeed in having the complaint dismissed.
Based on National Labor Relations Board data, only a fraction of charges alleging unfair labor practices result in the agency issuing complaints detailing the alleged violations.
Impacts of the picket
Because of the picket, 15 unionized staff haven't been showing up to work. Spears said that has necessitated other staff – including seasonal workers and administration – to fill in on jobs like mowing lawns and cleaning bathrooms just to keep things rolling.
“It cripples you in a hospitality-type setting,” she said.
The union employees and the association have been operating without a new collective bargaining agreement since early 2014, according to Spears.
She said the association has made four offers – based on the financial issues associated with the golf course and a need to have better rules in place for the operation and supervision of the maintenance staff – for a new collective bargaining agreement during the negotiation process, but none have been accepted.
“It's hard to negotiate when someone doesn't respond to the proposal,” Spears said.
She said the previous collective bargaining agreement expired and an impasse was reached after the union voted to reject the association's final offer in December 2013 and January 2014.
Since that time, Spears said the union has not made any changes to its previous pre-impasse bargaining positions. It also has refused to give the association a shop steward.
Spears said the association began negotiating again with the union in October. She said the union has failed to bargain in good faith – including not discussing issues face-to-face – and that union representatives called Hidden Valley Lake a “god forsaken place.”
In an interview last fall, Griffin acknowledged to Lake County News that he had made that comment.
According to Spears, the union also did not include any of the employees during the first three bargaining sessions, and during the fourth bargaining session, they had multiple employees take the day off and then refused to let them talk about the specific issues at the table.
The association, according to Spears, requested very simplistic job rule changes, including prohibitions against sleeping on the job and smoking while using gas-powered engines. She said the union wouldn't agree to those proposals.
The union workers – who are just a portion of the HVLA staff, with 32 other workers not included in the union – get a raise every year. Spears said the association has had productivity issues with those union staffers.
The union also has made repeated demands for information including the association's confidentiality policy, golf cart maintenance costs and the costs for water for association facilities. Spears said the union was provided with the information multiple times but the union continued to claim it didn't have the information.
She said the association also presented the requested information to the National Labor Relations Board at interviews with the board’s investigator in Sacramento.
Despite the fact that the association is facing the complaint process, Spears said she was hopeful for a good result because the association had a “pretty favorable” outcome after a recent meeting with the National Labor Relations Board investigator.
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Police investigate Thursday night crash involving pedestrian
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Police are investigating a Thursday night incident in which a Clearlake man was hit by a vehicle.
The collision occurred at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Clearlake Police Sgt. Tim Hobbs.
Hobbs said a 50-year-old man from Clearlake was walking northbound on Old Highway 53 near Cass Avenue when, for unknown reasons, he quickly moved in front of a Dodge Caravan that was heading northbound on Old Highway 53.
The man subsequently was hit by the vehicle, driven by 18-year-old Ashley Alexander of Lower Lake, Hobbs said.
The pedestrian sustained major injuries and was transported to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, then flown to an out-of-county hospital, Hobbs said.
As of Friday, Hobbs said police did not have an update on the man's condition.
He said Alexander was not injured in the crash.
The young woman, Hobbs added, was not at fault in the collision.
Hobbs asked anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact Clearlake Police Officer Trevor Franklin at 707-994-8251.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Council plans hearing on Lakeport Police headquarters zone change; approves expediting senior housing project review
- New Hidden Valley Lake sewer rates take effect July 1; water rate increases on hold due to court decision
- Upper Lake couple waives preliminary hearing in marijuana case; set to return to court in May
