How to resolve AdBlock issue? Court overturns ruling requiring Glenn County publisher to pay school district's costs in PRA case
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – An appellate court ruled Wednesday that a Glenn County publisher does not have to pay the legal fees of a school district he sued over a public records act request.
The Third Appellate District Court of Appeals overturned Glenn County Superior Court Judge Peter Twede's ruling that Tim Crews, publisher and editor of the Willows-based Sacramento Valley Mirror, pay the Willows Unified School District $56,595.50.
Crews told Lake County News on Wednesday that he felt vindicated but also very grateful for all the help he had in the fight, including amicus briefs from a number of large news organizations and open government advocacy groups.
“None of us goes into this business alone,” said Crews, noting that journalists stand on the shoulders of those who go before them.
The ruling is considered a victory for journalists like Crews who rely on the use of the California Public Records Act, the 45-year-old state law meant to ensure openness and transparency in government, in investigative reporting.
Twede had ruled that Crews should pay the district's legal fees because he made a “frivolous” 2009 public records act request for a year's worth of emails by the district superintendent.
Crews, on appeal, had argued that he actually had been the prevailing party in the case and that awarding such fees and costs would chill investigative journalism across the state.
While the appellate court didn't agree that Crews was the prevailing party, it disagreed with Twede's ruling that Crews' pursuit of thousands of emails was frivolous.
In March 2009, Crews made a public records act request for all emails to and from then-superintendent Steve Olmos during 2008.
It was part of an investigation by Crews into whether Olmos used public resources for improper uses, specifically, supporting the recall of former Glenn County Superintendent of Schools Arturo Barrera, according to court records.
The district eventually turned over 60,000 emails in PDF format, but withheld 3,200 of the documents, which it said were exempt from the California Public Records Act, the appellate court documents explain.
On April 28, 2009, the day the district had said it would begin turning over the documents to Crews, he filed a public records act petition in Glenn County Superior Court to compel production of the promised documents.
Crews had not received any documents by that time, although the documents would begin to be provided to him by the following week and would continue to be released on a rolling basis throughout the rest of 2009, according to case documents.
In response to Crews' petition, Twede reviewed the documents in camera and found the district had not improperly held any documents. Ninety-one pages of attachments were inadvertently left out and corrected once the district realized the error, the court documents state.
In November 2010, Twede denied Crews' public records act petition and ruled it was frivolous, and said the district was entitled to legal fees and costs based on a subdivision of the California Public Records Act that provides for an award of attorney fees and costs to a public agency in the event of a “clearly frivolous” case.
After an appeal to the Third Appellate Court of the denial of his petition, Crews' case returned to Glenn County Superior Court. The district sought more than $104,000 in fees, and was awarded just over $56,000.
Since that ruling, Crews has appealed the legal fees judgment, arguing that it could lead to his financial ruin and effectively shut down his newspaper, which has a small paid circulation in Glenn and surrounding counties.
Crews was not successful in obtaining documents in native format as was his request in his public records act petition, and the appellate court noted that public agencies “are ordinarily not entitled to attorney fees and costs from a requester who has failed to secure documents under the PRA.”
Ultimately, the three-judge panel ruled Crews’ efforts were not frivolous or meant to harass, and they overturned Twede's ruling that Crews pay the Willows Unified School District the legal fees and costs.
However, that doesn't mean Crews doesn't have a large legal bill already, as he's had to cover his own costs on appeal.
While he's had donated legal time and his attorneys have billed him below their normal hourly rates, he still has a May legal bill of more than $12,000. He said he hasn't tallied his total costs to date yet.
He's also continuing on with the aggressive use of the California Public Records Act for which he's become known.
Crews said he just submitted a public records act for Willows Unified's legal bills, as he wants to know what they've spent on his case.
“I bet it was far more than the $56,000 they were trying to get out of me,” he said.
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Forensic analysis helps Mendocino County Sheriff's detectives solve 25-year-old cold case
NORTH COAST, Calf. – The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that its detectives – assisted by state forensics experts – have successfully identified a suspect in the 1988 murder of a 20-year-old Fort Bragg woman.
Robert James Parks of Fort Bragg, 27 years old at the time of the murder, is believed to have murdered Georgina Pacheco, whose body was found on a roadside in 1988, according to a report from Liz Evangelatos of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Evangelatos said DNA samples taken from the family of Parks – who committed suicide in 1998 – helped detectives key in on him as the person responsible for killing Pacheco.
At 8 a.m. Sept. 10, 1988, Rodney Elam, a resident of Pearl Ranch Road in Fort Bragg, was walking a dog down the road when it alerted to an area of thick brush just off of the roadway, Evangelatos said.
Elam followed the dog into the brush and located the remains of a nude female. Elam contacted the sheriff's office and reported his discovery, according to Evangelatos.
A sheriff's deputy responded to the area and secured the scene. Sheriff's detectives arrived at the location and began to process the scene for evidence. Evangelatos said they discovered that the deceased female had an orange and black nylon weave rope wrapped tightly around her neck. They also observed that the deceased female had blunt force injuries to her head.
Evangelatos said detectives were able to determine that the female had been killed at an unknown location and then transported to Pearl Ranch Road where her body was hidden in thick brush.
Later that same day, detectives were able to positively identify the victim as Georgina Pacheco. Evangelatos said Pacheco had been reported as a missing person on Sept. 4, 1988, to the Fort Bragg Police Department.
During the investigation it was discovered that Pacheco was last seen on Sept. 1, 1988, when she was picked up at her place of employment, the Sea Pal Restaurant in Fort Bragg, by Parks. Evangelatos said Parks was a Fort Bragg resident and self-employed commercial fisherman who owned property within two miles of where Pacheco's body had been discovered.
An autopsy of Pacheco determined her cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head as well as strangulation. A sexual assault examination was conducted on Pacheco at the time of the autopsy, which included taking swabs to collect DNA. Evangelatos said clippings from Pacheco's fingernails also were taken in hopes of locating physical evidence. Detectives felt the blunt force injuries were consistent with having come from a tire iron or an abalone pry bar.
The evidence recovered during the autopsy was used to determine a specific blood type. At that time the technology to identify people based on DNA did not exist, Evangelatos said.
On July 21, 1998, Parks telephoned a family member and advised that he was going to commit suicide by sinking his fishing vessel in the Long Beach Harbor. Authorities from Long Beach Harbor were notified and located the sunken fishing vessel. Parks' lifeless body was recovered from the ship, according to Evangelatos.
In early 2000 the ability to identify criminal suspects through DNA was a relatively new investigative tool for law enforcement. Sheriff's Det. Kevin Bailey submitted some of the evidence recovered during the Pacheco autopsy to the Department of Justice DNA laboratory, Evangelatos said.
Because of a backlog on DNA evidence the Department of Justice was not able to provide any results until 2005. At that time the DNA laboratory was only able to determine that the DNA recovered from Pacheco at autopsy was male sperm, Evangelatos said.
Evangelatos said the laboratory had enough of a DNA profile where it could be used to exclude suspects, but not enough to run through the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, in an attempt to identify a suspect. Det. Bailey left the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office in 2005 and took a position with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office.
The Pacheco case was then reassigned to another detective with the sheriff's office. In 2009 Det. Andrew Porter took over the case, Evangelatos said. Porter arranged for the original swabs and the fingernail clippings to be sent to the DNA laboratory.
Most of the swab samples had been consumed during blood typing examinations in the early 1990s. Regardless, the DNA laboratory was able to obtain a complete DNA profile from the wooden sticks that the cotton swabs had been attached to Evangelatos said.
Additionally, DOJ Senior Criminalist Meghan Mannion-Grey was able to extract a partial profile from the swabs taken of Pacheco's hands, as well as from the fingernail clippings. Evangelatos said this partial profile matched the complete DNA profile that had been extracted from the swab stick.
Det. Porter then obtained DNA samples from Parks' family members. He submitted these samples and Mannion-Grey was able to compare them to the DNA profile extracted from the evidence, Evangelatos said.
Mannion-Grey was able to positively identify Parks as the contributor of the semen located on the swab stick and the contributor of the blood found on Pacheco's hands and under her fingernails, according to Evangelatos.
Based on these findings the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office has listed Robert James Parks as the suspect in the murder of Georgina Pacheco and has closed this cold case, Evangelatos said.
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Man pulled from swimming pool by police officer dies
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport man whose life police and firefighters had fought to save after he was found at the bottom of a swimming pool last week has died.
Shaun Rudd, 32, died shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday, July 11, at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Two days before he died Rudd had been pulled unconscious from the swimming pool at the Regency Inn on N. Main Street in Lakeport, as Lake County News has reported.
A 10-year-old girl who had accompanied him to the pool noticed something was wrong and notified motel employees, who called 911, according to police.
Officer Stephanie Green arrived on scene and found Rudd at the bottom of the pool in 8 feet of water, jumping in and bring him to the surface, where Lakeport Fire personnel pulled him out, Rasmussen said.
Paramedics worked to resuscitate him, taking him to Sutter Lakeside Hospital where the life-saving efforts continued. Police said Rudd showed signs of a pulse and was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital that afternoon.
However, Rasmussen said Rudd never regained consciousness and he was put on life support.
“His condition never improved,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said Rudd’s cause of death has been ruled as accidental, and the Lakeport Police Department has closed its investigation in the case.
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Lakeport Police Department issues traffic safety advisory for Saturday's rodeo parade
LAKEPORT, Calif. – In preparation for the Lake County Rodeo Parade on Saturday morning, the Lakeport Police Department has issued a traffic advisory outlining road closures and areas where delays are expected.
The parade, which starts at 11 a.m. Saturday, runs from 401 Martin St. at the Lake County Fairgrounds to S. Main Street to N. Main Street at Ninth Street, where it turns around and follows the same route back to the fairgrounds.
Between 10:45 a.m. and noon on Saturday, Main Street between S. Main Street and C Street, and N. Main Street, Ninth Street and Martin Street between the Lake County Fairgrounds and S. Main Street will be closed to traffic for the rodeo parade, police reported.
Police said the parade is expected to last approximately 45 minutes; however street closures and traffic controls will begin at 10:45 a.m. and are not expected to be removed until noon.
Between 500 and 700 persons are expected to be in attendance, Lakeport Police reported.
Motorists are advised to use caution when driving in this area and find alternate routes when possible.
Lakeport Police officers and Public Works staff will be on site to conduct traffic controls and provide for public safety.
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Suspects in Clearlake Oaks home invasion enter not guilty pleas; set to return to court in August
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Three men and a woman charged with a June Clearlake Oaks home invasion in which a young man was shot have entered not guilty pleas to a lengthy list of felony charges.
Clearlake residents Tyler Christopher Gallon, 18, and Sean Douglas Foss, 20, and San Franciscans Jenaya Drevelyn Jelinek, 22, and 26-year-old Dion Andre Davis II, are alleged to have carried out the robbery and shooting at the High Valley Road home of Ronnie and Janeane Bogner on June 26.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said the four defendants were arraigned on June 28 and appointed counsel. Komnith Moth is representing Davis, Stephen Carter will represent Foss, Thomas Quinn is counsel for Jelinek and Barry Melton is Gallon’s attorney.
On Tuesday, all four defendants were back in court, at which time all entered not guilty pleas, Hinchcliff said.
They will return to court on Aug. 6 for setting of their preliminary hearing, he said.
Foss – a former employee of the Bogners’ Weed Tech business – along with Gallon, Jelinek and Davis are alleged to have forced their way into the home where Janeane Bogner, her two young grandchildren and her adult son, Jacob, were present shortly before 9 a.m. June 26.
The Bogners told Lake County News that when Jacob tried to keep the suspects out of his bedroom, one of them shot through the door, with the bullet hitting him in the left leg, above the knee. Once in the bedroom the suspect allegedly pistol-whipped Jacob Bogner.
The suspects are then alleged to have stolen two .22-caliber handguns and the Bogners’ 2002 Cadillac Escalade, later found totaled along Sulphur Bank Drive in Clearlake Oaks.
Hinchcliff said the charges against all four defendants include the attempted murder of Jacob Bogner, robbery, burglary of an inhabited residence, assault with a firearm, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, grand theft of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary.
Davis, who is alleged to have been the gunman, is charged with personal use of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, mayhem, negligent discharge of a firearm and a felon in possession of a firearm, according to Hinchcliff.
Based on the charging document, Davis also is alleged to have two prior prison terms, the first for negligent discharge of a firearm and felony evading, the second for being a felon in possession of a firearm and a felon in possession of a controlled substance.
Davis, Gallon and Foss are additionally charged with assault with a semiautomatic weapon and the attempted murder of a peace officer, specifically, Lt. Tim Celli of the Clearlake Police Department, said Hinchcliff. Celli was not injured by the gunfire.
Celli, along with Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen, came across the four suspects in a sedan in the Clearlake city limits later on the morning of June 26 and pursued them, according to the original police reports. The three men fled and shots were fired in Celli’s direction. Jelinek was taken into custody at the car.
The three men also are charged with using threats of violence to deter an officer from doing their duties as a result of the confrontation with Celli and Clausen, and vehicle theft and vandalism, with Jelinek separately charged with being an accessory after the fact, Hinchcliff said.
“There's a lot of investigation left to do, including forensic analysis of any firearms evidence,” Hinchcliff said.
Once the investigation is complete, more charges could be filed, he said.
All four remain in the Lake County Jail, with Davis’ bail set at $1,420,000, bail for Gallon and Foss set at $650,000 each, and Jelinek’s bail totaling $450,000.
As for Jacob Bogner, he still has a lengthy road to recovery still ahead.
After he was shot he was flown to Enloe Hospital in Chico, where he underwent surgery to repair the injuries to his femur. Doctors used steel plates to reinforce his damaged thigh bone.
He was able to return home on July 1. His father said he continues to have a significant amount of pain because of the injury, and has been told to stay off of the injured leg for another six weeks.
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