How to resolve AdBlock issue? Clearlake Police Department to host ABC training for businesses
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department will hold a free seminar presented by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The Licensee Education on Alcohol and Drugs – or LEAD – will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
This seminar is being made possible through a grant received from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in July and is open to all alcoholic beverage licensees and their employees.
The Clearlake Police Department intends to use the grant funds to educate, train, and gain compliance with ABC licensed businesses and citizens of Clearlake regarding alcohol related laws and regulations.
The LEAD seminar will educate owners and employees of restaurants, bars, liquor and grocery stores on:
- What is acceptable I.D.; the best way to check I.D.; how to refuse service; signs and prevention of illicit drug activity, and more;
- Facts about criminal, civil and ABC liability;
- California alcohol laws;
- Provide helpful handouts.
If any licensee would like to attend, they may contact Records/Communications Supervisor Nicole Newton at 707-994-8251, Extension 316, to make reservations. Letters also will be mailed to all alcoholic beverage licensees in the city of Clearlake.
On the day of the training, please bring a copy of your ABC license and plan to arrive a few minutes early to sign in, as the program will begin promptly at 11 a.m.
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Clearlake Police Department seeks information on early morning shooting
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department is investigating an early Monday morning shooting incident in which a man was injured.
Craig Fenno, 25, of Clearlake sustained an apparent gunshot wound to one of his legs as a result of the shooting, according to Sgt. Tim Hobbs.
Hobbs said that at 12:45 a.m. Monday Clearlake Police officers were dispatched to the area of 13th Street in Clearlake Park for a report of several gunshots heard. Approximately two minutes later several officers arrived in the area.
One of the officers located Fenno lying in a driveway in the 3300 block of 12th Street with an injured leg, Hobbs said.
During the investigation it was reported that Fenno had been walking on 12th Street when a gold-colored Cadillac with four black male adults inside it stopped next to him. Hobbs said the front passenger fired numerous shots at Fenno from inside the vehicle and then the vehicle left the scene.
Medical personnel from Lake County Fire Protection District responded to the scene and began treating Fenno while preparing him for transport by air ambulance. Fenno was then transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Hobbs said.
Fenno was in stable condition Monday evening, according to Hobbs.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Travis Lenz at 707-994-8251, Extension 315.
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Police arrest robbery suspect
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Police over the weekend arrested a Clearlake man wanted in connection to a robbery in county jurisdiction.
Lance Leland Scarborough, 37, was taken into custody last Saturday, Oct. 12, according to a Monday report from the Clearlake Police Department.
At 9:50 p.m. Saturday Officer Alan Collier observed several subjects sitting in a parked vehicle on Phillips Avenue near Davis Avenue while he was on patrol, police said.
Despite the fact Scarborough – the vehicle's driver – was wearing a wig to try to conceal his identity, Officer Collier recognized him as a suspect wanted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department for robbery.
Sgt. Nick Bennett told Lake County News that the robbery in question for which Scarborough was wanted was not a home invasion that occurred Oct. 3 near Lower Lake, which resulted in a police pursuit, with a responding deputy being involved in a fatal crash.
Police said Collier contacted and arrested Scarborough, who also on formal probation.
During a search of Scarborough’s vehicle Officer Collier located ammunition and a ballistic vest similar to ones worn by law enforcement officers, police said. Due to prior felony convictions Scarborough was prohibited from possessing both items and charged with the unlawful possession of them.
A passenger in the vehicle, Joshua Arthur Gamble, 19, of Clearlake, was found to be in possession of a narcotic controlled substance without a prescription and to have an outstanding warrant for his arrest, according to the report. Gamble was arrested for felony unlawful possession of the narcotics and the misdemeanor warrant.
Scarborough and Gamble were booked into the Lake County Jail, police said.
Gamble's bail was set at $15,000, with Scarborough on a no-bail hold. Jail records indicated that the men remained in custody on Monday, with both set for Wednesday court appearances.
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Lake County Superior Court continues to face budget challenges; courthouse project still in the works
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Courts across the state continue to weather budget cuts, and the Lake County Superior Court also is working with less resources as a result of the recession and California's budget issues.
Krista LeVier, the court executive officer, said the Lake County Superior Court's budget for the 2013-14 budget year is $3.6 million.
That's about $1.7 million less than the court's budget in 2008-09, LeVier said.
As this current budget year started, there was a small amount of new money for courts at the state level, she said.
However, LeVier that money didn't help Lake County's court, which actually ended up with about $20,000 less in funding than last fiscal year.
“In the big picture, this year we will probably be OK,” said LeVier.
One time money the superior court was able to save last year should help it in the coming year, she explained.
LeVier said the court doesn't expect it will have to make any staff or service reductions this year.
However, going into the 2014-15 fiscal year, if there is no new money, more reductions may have to be made, she said.
Because of the deep budget cuts over the last five years, there already have been significant staff reductions, LeVier said.
In the 2008-09 fiscal year, the court had 43 employees, LeVier said. Today, the court has 29 employees, with the reductions coming mostly through attrition.
The reduction in funds also has prompted court officials to take measures like moving all of the criminal courts to Lakeport and rearranging other services.
Having all of the criminal calendar in Lakeport has made things more efficient, which is helpful in light of the reduced staff, said LeVier.
The court expects to have as much as 1,500 square feet of new space at its Clearlake court after the Lake County Sheriff's Office moves it substation out of that building, LeVier said.
The state Administrative Office of the Courts wants the full footprint of the building, and arrangements have been ongoing to move the sheriff's office substation into another space, according to the County Administrative Office.
LeVier said the court plans to use the space for its self-help center, which formerly had been located in a rented space off-site, which was closed due to budget cuts.
The self-help staff is now in the Clearlake location but spread out across the building, she said. There are two part-time attorneys and the equivalent of a third, full-time position to help people who don't have attorneys file paperwork for certain types of cases.
At the same time, Lake County is still on the list of counties set to get a new Lakeport courthouse, she said
“The project is still moving forward as much as any of the others,” LeVier said.
She said the courthouse projects are on hold this year because the governor and the Legislature have shifted money from the courthouse construction fund to other operations.
A state committee is looking at the projects for ways to cut costs, said LeVier. “We're going through that process now.”
If everything goes well, LeVier said the Lake County Superior Court's project could be funded for working drawings next year.
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Appellate court overturns insurance salesman's conviction for theft from an elder
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An appellate court has overturned a local insurance salesman's October 2011 conviction for felony theft from an elder.
In its Tuesday decision, the First Appellate District Court of Appeal found that the case against Glenn Neasham lacked evidence that he had appropriated an elderly woman's money for his own use or anyone else's, and that there also wasn't proof that he had made any misrepresentations in selling her an annuity in February 2008.
The appellate court also concluded that Neasham's jury “was incorrectly instructed that to convict it need find only that the purchase of the annuity deprived the elder of a major portion of the value or enjoyment of her property, eliminating the necessity of proving that defendant had any such intention.”
“I'm very happy with the result, and that justice has prevailed,” Neasham, 53, of Kelseyville said Tuesday. “My family and I have been through a lot. It's been hard, however we've endured. I'm looking forward to getting on with my life.”
He also thanked those who had supported him during the case.
Some of that support came from his insurance industry colleagues, for whom the case was a controversial one. It raised concerns that other agents in the industry could be at risk for prosecution for similar sales, and was said to have put a “chill” on agents.
Lakeport attorney Mitchell Hauptman, who represented Neasham at trial, said typically the judgment by the appellate court does not become final immediately.
Unless the state appeals the decision – which Hauptman considered unlikely – he said the matter will be returned to the Lake County Superior Court in the next few months, at which time the District Attorney's Office will have to decide to retry or dismiss the case.
“For what it’s worth, my opinion, based on the decision, is that it does not leave any basis for anything other than a dismissal,” he said. “The bottom line – the court concludes that Glenn never had any intent to do anything wrong.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Rich Hinchcliff said the District Attorney's Office still needs to go over the appellate court's decision.
“We've got to see the opinion and read it first and see how it affects the case,” said Hinchcliff.
There also is the issue of seeing if witnesses are still available, he said.
“There's a lot of things we’d have to consider,” Hinchcliff said.
Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson, who prosecuted the case, said she will work with the state deputy attorney general who handled the appeal to decide the next step. Abelson said there is a possibility of appealing the decision.
The case arose from Neasham's sale in February 2008 of a $175,000 annuity – set to mature in 15 years – to then-83-year-old Fran Schuber of Lucerne, whose boyfriend had been a longtime Neasham client.
According to the court documents, Schuber purchased a “MasterDex 10 Annuity” issued by Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, which is approved by the California Department of Insurance for sale to persons through the age of 85 years. Neasham made an 8-percent commission.
After meeting with Neasham, Schuber and her boyfriend, Louis Jochim, then 82, went to the Savings Bank of Mendocino County to withdraw the money, and Neasham called the bank to advise Schuber was coming, telling the bank employee “he would report the matter to the district attorney if there was any delay in making the withdrawal,” the court documents stated.
Based on past dealings, the bank employee believed Schuber had memory problems, and when Schuber and Jochim arrived, the bank employee became concerned “that Schuber was confused and was being
influenced by Jochim,” according to the appellate court narrative.
The bank employee would call a Lake County Department of Social Services social worker to advise of the bank withdrawal and that she felt Schuber's boyfriend “was exerting undue influence on her,” the appellate court document explained.
An investigation resulted, led by the California Department of Insurance after the agency said it received a report from the Savings Bank of Mendocino County. The Lake County District Attorney's Office filed the case based on the state investigation.
At trial, the prosecution alleged that Neasham was aware that Schuber had dementia, which he denied.
Schuber did not testify during Neasham’s trial because she was placed into a conservatorship due to advanced dementia, officials said at the time.
For his part, Neasham said Schuber had made money on her investment.
After being found guilty by a jury, Neasham was sentenced in February 2012 to 300 days in jail by Judge Richard Martin. Neasham immediately pursued an appeal.
Hauptman said Neasham spent only a few hours in jail at the time of his initial arrest, and was allowed to post bail pending appeal, which Hauptman said was “pretty standard in this type of case.”
In addition, Neasham said he did community service and paid a $5,000 fine.
Neasham had lost his license as a result of the case.
“I want to get my license back, so I can return to the insurance business,” he said Tuesday.
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