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.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 18 July 2013

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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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 16 July 2013

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.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 15 July 2013