How to resolve AdBlock issue? Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force eradicates more than 52,000 marijuana plants from public land
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Last week the Lake County Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force eradicated 52,813 marijuana plants from public land near Indian Valley Reservoir.
The investigation that led to the grow's discovery began in the spring, according to Lt. Steve Brooks.
In April, narcotics detectives conducted several overflight missions focusing on locating illicit marijuana growing operations occurring in the Mendocino National Forest and Bureau of Land Management properties, Brooks said.
During one of the overflight missions, detectives located what appeared to be evidence of a large marijuana grow in an area commonly known as Complexion Spring, which Brooks said is located just north of Indian Valley Reservoir.
On Wednesday, July 3, narcotics detectives entered the grow site and located four separate plots connected by an elaborate trail system, Brooks said.
He said detectives were unable to locate any suspects or additional evidence which would assist in revealing their identities. The narcotics detectives subsequently eradicated the marijuana plants.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be contacted through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
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Police and firefighters resuscitate man found at bottom of swimming pool
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Quick action by Lakeport Police, Lakeport Fire personnel and a 10-year-old girl helped save a Lakeport man's life on Tuesday.
Shaun Rudd, 32, of Lakeport was resuscitated and flown to an out-of-county trauma center after he was found at the bottom of a motel swimming pool, according to a report from Lt. Jason Ferguson of the Lakeport Police Department.
Ferguson said Lakeport Police officers responded to a report of a male drowning victim at the swimming pool at Regency Inn, located at 1010 N Main St., at approximately 11:22 a.m. Tuesday.
Officer Stephanie Green arrived first and found Rudd at the bottom of the pool in 8 feet of water, Ferguson said.
Green jumped into the pool and brought Rudd to the surface, where Lakeport Fire personnel removed
him from the water and began life-saving efforts, Ferguson said.
At the motel officers contacted a 10-year-old Lakeport girl who had accompanied Rudd to the pool, according to Ferguson.
The girl had noticed something was wrong with Rudd, ran to the motel's front office and notified employees, who then called 911, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Rudd was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital where life-saving efforts continued.
Rudd, who showed signs of a pulse, was then airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital at 1:40 p.m., according to Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Katy Hillenmeyer, a spokesperson for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said early Tuesday evening that Rudd was in critical condition.
Rasmussen commended Green and Lakeport Fire personnel for their life-saving efforts.
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Police: Missing woman found deceased
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A woman who was the focus of a search on Thursday was found deceased, Clearlake Police said Friday.
The body of Julie Diehl, 44, was found Thursday afternoon in a field near Moose Trail, according to Sgt. Nick Bennett.
Bennett said that on Thursday at approximately 2:53 p.m. Clearlake Police were dispatched to the 3500 block of Moose Trail in Clearlake for a report of a missing person.
He said officers were told that Diehl had walked away from a residence on Moose Trail at approximately 9 a.m. The persons reporting her missing had been searching the fields and orchard areas near Moose Trail all day.
The area where Diehl was believed to be is bordered by a section of Moose Trail, Burns Valley Road and the south side of the field is bordered by businesses on Olympic Drive. Bennett said those initial search efforts by the reporting parties were unsuccessful.
When the Clearlake Police Department was contacted and a missing person report was filed it was learned that Diehl may be suffering from severe dementia and was considered to be an “at risk missing person.”
Because of the extremely hot temperatures the Clearlake area had been experiencing, Det. Travis Lenz contacted Lake County Fire Protection District's Station 70 to assist in conducting a search of the area where Diehl was last seen. Bennett said an incident command center was set up at the Redbud Library on Burns Valley Road.
Lake County Fire was able to communicate with a Cal Fire helicopter from the Boggs Helitack Station on Cobb Mountain that was returning from a fire in another area and it rerouted to this incident, Bennett said.
Within seven minutes of arriving in the area, the Cal Fire helicopter located Diehl in the field approximately two hundred yards from Moose Trail, Bennett said.
Diehl was deceased, and Bennett said there was no indication of foul play associated with her death. However, an investigation is continuing into the circumstances related to her death and disappearance.
Lt. Tim Celli told Lake County News that Diehl's death may have been exposure related, but an autopsy is pending to confirm the cause.
Clearlake Police encourages the public to notify their local law enforcement agency immediately upon discovering a person is missing, especially in circumstances involving young children or mentally challenged individuals. Bennett said it's police's responsibility to protect and watch over those who are unable to do so for themselves.
Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to contact Det. Ryan Peterson at 707-994-8251, Extension 320.
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Lakeport Police's access to law enforcement records system restored; county to file opposition to injunction
LAKEPORT, Calif. – After it was locked out of a shared law enforcement records system two months ago, on Wednesday the Lakeport Police Department was once again able access the system following a judge's order this week that the agency's access was to be temporarily restored.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said county of Lake Information Technology staff arrived at the police department on Wednesday morning to make sure he and his officers could access the records information management system, or RIMS, as they had been able to do before Sheriff Frank Rivero abruptly cut them off on April 23.
In May, the city of Lakeport filed suit against Rivero and the county of Lake, alleging breach of the long-running dispatch contract for Lakeport Police. The city also successfully moved to have the case moved out of Lake County.
At the case's first hearing on Monday in Mendocino County Superior Court in Ukiah, Judge Cindee Mayfield granted Lakeport Police a temporary restraining order against Rivero, and ordered him and the county to immediately restore Lakeport Police's access to RIMS ahead of a hearing set for Friday, Aug. 9, at which time there will be a hearing for a preliminary injunction.
Rivero faces contempt of court charges if he fails to comply, according to the court order, which Rasmussen called “pretty all-encompassing.”
The order was served on the deputy county counsels representing the county and Rivero on Monday afternoon, with the city receiving proof of service on Tuesday, Rasmussen said.
In a written statement issued by his office on Wednesday, Rivero called the judge's ruling “disappointing” but added, “I believe she could do little else, given the time constraints and the pretext of officer and public safety offered by Lakeport's attorney's. The amount of documentation was extraordinary; she simply did not have the time to review it all and draw conclusions on the merits.”
Rasmussen said it was made clear at the hearing that the purpose was to consider the temporary restraining order application alone, “not to argue the full case.”
He said the case documents were filed on Friday, June 28, with all of the documents given to the county at that point in order to be ready for the Monday hearing.
Rivero said he will comply with Judge Mayfield's order “while personally closely monitoring RIMS access by the Lakeport Police Department during the temporary court ordered re-instatement.”
County Counsel Anita Grant said she received formal notification on Wednesday that Rivero would comply with Judge Mayfield's order.
At the Monday hearing, Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry represented the county, while Deputy County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano represented Rivero. Grant said her office has set up an ethical wall in order to represent Rivero in the case.
The County Counsel's Office did not provide a written response to Lakeport's filings for the Monday hearing, but rather responded in court with its verbal opposition, Grant said.
She said the county's position is that its dispatch contract with the city of Lakeport doesn't specifically include RIMS, the access to which is accomplished by virtue of an agreement between the law enforcement agencies.
That sharing of information was in effect until one side terminated it, said Grant, who added that the county believes that sharing agreement can be terminated at any time.
Rasmussen said that RIMS is integral to the dispatch contract. Information about Lakeport Police's calls is entered into the system, and without access to their own case information police have been hamstrung, he said.
Despite initially telling Rasmussen that the system lockout was a result of an auditing issue, Rivero – after Rasmussen went public with officer and community safety concerns – alleged abuses by Lakeport Police of the system, using that as his justification for cutting off access.
He has continued to make that allegation despite the District Attorney's Office's conclusion last week that there was no illegal or inappropriate access by Lakeport Police staff.
Rasmussen, who conducted his own internal affairs investigation into the allegations and found them unfounded, said there is nothing improper or illegal about law enforcement personnel accessing information in RIMS in the course of their duties. He said such information is necessary in efficiently carrying out their duties and serving citizens.
Rivero also has challenged Lakeport Police's assertions that community and officer safety were at risk due to the inability to access case information as efficiently and quickly as it has for years prior to having its access cut.
Rivero said he provided a workaround to allow “appropriate access” for Lakeport Police staff, and that they continued to have access to a multiagency RIMS interoperability agreement as well as direct access to offender information through direct radio contact with sheriff's Central Dispatch.
Rasmussen, however, said that workaround was “was completely inefficient to comply with the access that we previously had and we believe had been granted in conjunction with our contract for many, many years.”
With RIMS access being restored, Rasmussen said he and his staff have once again been able to do a number of things that are important to them in pursuing a full range of police services.
At a special Board of Supervisors meeting held on April 26 in response to the RIMS situation, Rivero was asked to restore Lakeport Police's access – which he refused to do – and also had indicated he would ask the California Attorney General's Office to audit RIMS, although the county's administration has received no indication he's done so.
In addition, he was asked to form a task force of stakeholders to discuss setting up rules for access. Rasmussen said he and his agency had hoped that would happen, and had welcomed the opportunity to sit down and work out protocols.
“It's definitely not an all or nothing proposition, because he controls that access and can fine-tune it,” said Rasmussen.
Rasmussen added, “We tried our best to make that happen, however, he never responded or was willing to meet with anybody as was requested by the Board of Supervisors.”
The city then moved forward with its suit against the county.
Grant said her office will be filing an opposition to the preliminary injunction Lakeport is seeking against the county and Rivero.
Rasmussen said he and the city respect the court and are looking forward to having the case decided in August.
Email Elizabeth Larson at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force eradicates several marijuana gardens around the county
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force spent several days last week investigating several smaller marijuana growing operations.
Lt. Steve Brooks said the majority of these growing operations were brought to the attention of the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force by concerned citizens.
The grows that were investigated included the following, according to Brooks:
– On Wednesday, June 19, narcotics detectives eradicated 51 marijuana plants from a vacant land parcel in the area of Hwy 29 and Diener Drive in Lower Lake. This was the second consecutive year detectives eradicated from the same vacant parcel.
– On Thursday, June 20, narcotics detectives served a search warrant in the 9000 block of Meadow Drive in Cobb. They located two indoor marijuana grows where they eradicated 128 marijuana plants and seized approximately 15 pounds of processed marijuana.
– On Thursday, June 20, narcotics detectives eradicated 127 marijuana plants from a vacant land parcel. The parcel was located in the 21000 block of St. Helena Creek Road in Middletown.
– On Friday, June 28, narcotics detectives eradicated 120 marijuana plants from a parcel of land off of Highway 20, near the Double Eagle Ranch in Clearlake Oaks. Detectives reported that the house located on the parcel had been converted into an indoor marijuana growing operation. A commercial generator had been installed inside a room addition. Lake County Code Enforcement assisted the detectives and condemned the residence.
– On Tuesday, July 2, narcotics detectives eradicated 100 marijuana plants from three greenhouses located on a vacant parcel of land. The parcel was located in the area of Scotts Valley Road and the Glen Eden Trail.
The majority of illicit marijuana growing operations are located by aerial overflight missions, Brooks said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force welcomes any information regarding marijuana cultivation on vacant land parcels.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
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