Judge grants sheriff writ of mandate against county; sheriff will get attorney for ‘Brady’ matter

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A judge has granted Lake County’s sheriff a writ of mandate against the county of Lake after the Board of Supervisors earlier this year refused to hire him legal counsel in response to an investigation into his credibility.

Mendocino County Judge Richard Henderson’s decision, filed on Wednesday, found that the Board of Supervisors must provide legal counsel to Sheriff Frank Rivero.

The board had refused to do so at its March 6 meeting. Rivero filed the writ on March 26.

In addition, Henderson ruled that Rivero “shall recover his reasonable attorneys fees and costs.”

Rivero’s attorney Paul Coble, senior associate with the Jones & Mayer law firm, said he’s preparing the writ and judgment, which Henderson directed him to do in the ruling. He anticipated filing those documents by the middle of next week.

Coble also is submitting a request for reimbursement for legal services going back to February, to the point when Rivero first knew he needed assistance.

He said he did not want to give a ballpark estimate on what the fees would total, as his staff’s calculations weren’t yet complete.

County Counsel Anita Grant said Thursday that the Board of Supervisors could appeal the ruling.

However, Board Chair Rob Brown said he doesn’t think the board would pursue an appeal, although they’ve not yet talked about it.

“I just think we need to move forward now with an attorney,” Brown said, adding that he will talk to Grant about placing the matter on the agenda as soon as possible.

Investigation triggers request

Rivero has been under investigation by the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for allegedly lying about a February 2008 incident in which he shot at an unarmed man – who was uninjured – while working as a sheriff’s deputy. Rivero was elected sheriff two and a half years later.

District Attorney Don Anderson is required under law to divulge to defense attorneys any exculpatory evidence benefiting their clients, including credibility issues with peace officers.

That requirement emerged from case law surrounding the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brady v. Maryland, which is meant to prevent prosecutors from hiding evidence that could potentially clear a defendant.

If Anderson determines Rivero is a “Brady officer,” it carries the potential for serious implications in any criminal case in which Rivero is a witness.

For many officers, receiving a “Brady letter” means they are no longer considered credible witnesses, and it can spell the end of a law enforcement career.

In response to Anderson’s inquiry, Rivero asked for legal counsel under Government Code Section 31000.6, which states, “Upon request of the assessor or the sheriff of the county, the board of supervisors shall contract with and employ legal counsel to assist the assessor or the sheriff in the performance of his or her duties in any case where the county counsel or the district attorney would have a conflict of interest in representing the assessor or the sheriff.”

That same code allows the board to oppose the request and to consider an “ethical wall” in order to let the county’s attorneys provide representation.

The board had asked Grant – who herself had declared a conflict of interest in the case – to look into erecting an ethical wall in her office in order to provide Rivero with legal counsel. Rivero, however, opposed having the County Counsel’s Office represent him, leading to the writ.

Coble praised Grant for how she has handled the situation. “Ms. Grant has behaved with a high degree of ethical integrity.”

Anderson plans to move forward

Government Code 31000.6 states that the board “shall contract with and employ legal counsel” to assist the sheriff.

Grant said she could not comment at this point about whether the hiring of the attorney who will represent Rivero in his dealings with Anderson going forward is up to him or the board.

Coble, however, maintained that it’s up to Rivero to select who will represent him.

“At this point in time my understanding and expectation is that it’s the desire of the sheriff that we continue to represent him,” Coble said.

Anderson has held off for months in making his decision, but on Thursday he said he has to move forward, as he has time constraints with respect to providing discovery evidence in a case involving three Hells Angels members who are being prosecuted for a June 2011 fight with rival gang members.

Rivero became involved with the investigation and took the stand at a preliminary hearing in the case in March. The men were ordered to stand trial and a trial is pending.

“I’ve given him way more time than what I should have,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he intends to meet with Rivero in the next two to three weeks before finalizing his decision on whether Rivero will be labeled a Brady officer. Under law, the decision regarding the Brady officer designation is ultimately up to the district attorney.

Coble said Anderson has been very cooperative and they’ve had cordial communications during the process.

“We’ll be working together with Mr. Anderson to help him accomplish whatever it is he feels he needs to accomplish,” Coble said.

If Rivero refuses to meet with Anderson – Rivero had told the board he would not appear before a panel that Anderson previously had planned to assemble, calling it a “star chamber” – Anderson said he will still make his decision based on the information he has compiled and anything Rivero’s attorney wants to provide.

“He can either attend it or he doesn’t have to, it’s whatever he wants to do,” said Anderson. “I’m more than willing to listen to what he has to say.”

Coble, however, said Rivero wants to cooperate with Anderson.

“The sheriff has always been willing and, in fact, eager to cooperate with Mr. Anderson, the DA. He simply wanted the assistance of legal counsel in doing so,” Coble said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

082712 Rivero Writ of Mandate Decision

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 30 August 2012

Clearlake Police make arrest in home invasion case; one suspect already in custody for shooting

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake Police Department investigation into an alleged home invasion robbery last week linked the crime to a Middletown man arrested over the weekend for an attempted robbery and shooting.

Clearlake Police Sgt. Nick Bennett said 33-year-old Middletown resident John Chester Cook was determined to be a suspect in the home invasion, which occurred last Thursday, August 23, two days before Cook is alleged to have shot a Kelseyville man in the stomach during an attempted robbery.

In addition, Bennett said police arrested 23-year-old Clearlake resident John William Brott for his alleged involvement in the robbery.

Bennett said that on Aug. 23 Clearlake Police Officers responded to the Harbor Lite Resort on Lakeshore Avenue on a report of an assault victim.

Upon arriving at the scene, officers contacted the victim, 63-year-old Clearlake resident Paul Norson, who Bennett said informed officers that two unidentified suspects approached him at the front door of his residence and displayed a handgun and forced him back into his residence.

Norson stated one of the suspects was possibly armed with a sawed-off shotgun. Bennett said the suspects beat Norson with the handgun then ransacked the residence stealing two guitars, a wallet and a cell phone.

A witness on the scene identified one of the suspects as Cook. During his arrest two days later as a result of the shooting, sheriff’s deputies found a black handgun that had been stolen in a burglary in Clearlake and may have been used in the assault on Norson, Bennett said.

During the continuing investigation into the case Brott was identified as another suspect, Bennett said.

He said Clearlake Police detectives were called in and completed a search warrant for Brott’s residence, located at 3000 13th St.

Early Monday morning Clearlake Police detectives and officers executed the search warrant on Brott’s residence and Brott was located and arrested. Bennett said officers located the two stolen guitars and one sawed off-shotgun.

Brott was later transported and booked into Lake County Jail, where he was booked for felony second degree robbery, with bail set at $250,000, as well as felony first degree burglary and a misdemeanor bench warrant. Jail records indicated he remained in custody on Tuesday afternoon.

Cook also remains in custody on a no-bail hold, with a new attempted murder charge added to his booking sheet.

Additionally, further information was discovered during the service of the search warrant which linked Cook to a separate robbery which had occurred in the city of Clearlake. Bennett said that case is now being forwarded to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for further charges on Cook.

This investigation also developed information which linked criminal activity occurring in other areas of Lake County which was turned over to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Bennett said.

Clearlake Police Department is asking anyone with additional information on this case to contact Detective Alvarado at 707-994-8251.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 28 August 2012

Police investigate fight between Clearlake man, county supervisor

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department is investigating a Tuesday night fight between a Clearlake man and a county supervisor who was engaged in business for his bail bonds company.

Lt. Tim Celli said the incident involved 55-year-old Clearlake resident Robert Sanders and 52-year-old Rob Brown of Kelseyville.

Brown, who chairs the Lake County Board of Supervisors, also owns a bail bonds business.

Celli reported that Clearlake Police officers responded to a reported disturbance at 3747 Buckeye St. at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

When they arrived on scene they contacted both Sanders and Brown, Celli said.

Celli would offer few details about what occurred during the fight, stating only that Brown had gone to the residence to serve civil paperwork regarding the property and that, while serving the paperwork, a confrontation between the two men ensued.

Police officers contacted both Sanders and Brown, who each claimed they were assaulted by the other, Celli said.

Initially neither of the men wanted the other arrested or prosecuted but Celli said Sanders changed his mind as officers were complete the call and said he wanted Brown prosecuted.

“It’s still under investigation,” Celli said Wednesday afternoon, saying he could offer no further comment on the case specifics.

He said the police reports already had been submitted to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Lake County News attempted to call the Sanders family, but their phone was disconnected.

In Facebook messages with Robert Sanders’ wife, Jan, on Wednesday, she declined to speak to Lake County News directly about the incident, only alleging that Brown’s version of the story was not true.

Washington state resident Lynda Smith, Jan Sanders’ half-sister, said she doesn’t believe the account her sister and brother-in-law gave of the incident.

“They’ll lie for anything, just to make themselves look good,” Smith said. “They’ll play the victims.”

Dispute arises over bail in sex abuse case

Smith’s distrust about the Sanderses’ account arose from a sexual molestation case involving their son.

Robert and Jan Sanders are the parents of Christopher Sanders, who in January was sentenced to 41 years in state prison for committing a lewd act with a child, lewd act with a child by duress, continuous sexual abuse of a child and statutory rape.

Christopher Sanders had been found guilty by a jury last year of sexually abusing his young stepdaughter for a three-year period, beginning when she was 11 years old.

Smith said the Sanderses lied to her and the rest of the family about Christopher Sanders’ case, and convinced them at one point that he was innocent.

As a result Smith and her husband Tim took $25,000 from his retirement and loaned it to the Sanderses to go toward their son’s defense. The Sanderses are now refusing to pay the money back, which Smith recounted in a January 2012 letter to Lake County News; the letter can be read at http://bit.ly/Pe4Zpm .

Brown said he was owed $20,000 by the family for a bail bond that which was active over a three-year period while Christopher Sanders’ case went through the courts. They had paid the $10,000 annual premium owed for the first year, and Brown had not demanded the following two annual payments up front but had tried to work out arrangements with them.

After the 41-year sentence was handed down to their son, Brown said Bob and Jan Sanders refused to pay the outstanding bail amount, claiming their son was set up. Brown said they never disputed the actual bond contract.

Betty Welch, Christopher Sanders’ grandmother, put up the property at 3747 Buckeye St. – next door to her home – as collateral on the bond, according to Brown.

In Facebook posts attributed to Jan Sanders, she claimed that while her mother signed the deed she and her husband Bob owned the house.

That statement appears to conflict with county assessor records, which showed that Betty Welch and her husband, Orville, owned the property up until American Contractors Indemnity Co. took it in foreclosure, with the trustee’s deed recorded on Aug. 13. A separate deed transferred it to Rob and Kim Brown on Aug. 17, but the assessor’s office said the transfer hasn’t been finalized in its system.

Assessor’s records also showed that Bob Sanders had a mechanic’s lien on the property at one point, but that he didn’t appear to have owned the property. That lien could have been because he furnished materials while acting as a contractor, according to the assessor’s office.

Sanders did have a contractor’s license which expired in March 2011, according to the Contractors State License Board.

Jan Sanders also stated on Facebook that Brown was there to inform them that he was taking their home, a fact which Lynda Smith said her sister had known long before that point.

Smith said she also has documents to show that her sister and brother-in-law didn’t own the Buckeye Street property, which she and her husband also had liened in an attempt to get their money back.

Brown said he canceled the foreclosure sales six times since the proceedings began last year, trying to work things out. He said this is the first time he’s taken a property in foreclosure.

He said that, against the advice of friends and family, he didn’t start an eviction but had wanted to give the couple a last chance to rent the property or buy it back.

Brown was at a special evening session of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night at Kelseyville High School. The meeting ended shortly before 8 p.m. and he left the school at about 8:10 p.m. – at the same time that this reporter left the school – to pick up his wife, Kim, to go to Clearlake to speak with the Sanderses.

Due to insurance requirements, the house needed to be inspected, and the law requires a 24-hour notice to a home’s occupants in such cases. Brown said he was going to give the Sanderses notice that he wanted the inspection to take place on Friday, and he carried with him a letter from an attorney explaining the request.

When he knocked on the door, Brown said Jan Sanders opened it then slammed it shut, and was cursing at him.

Brown said Bob Sanders then came out in his bathrobe and started to charge him – calling him scum, a thief and a “good ol’ boy.” Sanders demanded Brown leave his property or he was going to call the police, which Brown urged him to do.

He said Bob Sanders came at him again. At that point Brown told Sanders he was going to wait nearby for police and turned and started toward the gate. Jan Sanders remained in the house at this point, he said.

When Brown turned to walk away, he said Bob Sanders came up behind him and grabbed his left arm above the elbow to spin him around. Brown said he believed Sanders was spinning him around to hit him.

“When he spun me around he caught a right hook to the jaw, and that was pretty much the end of the hunt right there,” Brown said.

Brown said Sanders was knocked backwards but didn’t fall. Brown said he then walked off and waited for police to show up. He said he didn’t know the two officers who arrived to investigate.

Jan Sanders said in a Facebook post that she and her husband asked Brown to leave, and alleged that Brown instead punched Sanders in the jaw and twice in the ribs.

Further fallout

Smith said her stepmother and Jan Sanders’ mother, Betty Welch, spent everything she had on her grandson’s court case and ended up losing her home next door to her daughter and son-in-law. Smith said the Sanderses didn’t take Welch in, so she had to go live with her son in Idaho.

Smith, who said she and her family are distancing themselves from the Sanderses, said she “couldn’t be happier” for Brown.

She said she’s accepted she will never get back the money she and her husband loaned for their nephew’s defense, and actually feels that the experience helped reveal the Sanderses’ true nature.

For that reason, “It was the best $25,000 I ever spent,” Smith said.

Brown said he has no intention of asking that Bob Sanders be prosecuted, adding that he wasn’t hurt and that he understood that Sanders was upset about losing his home.

As for Bob Sanders seeking prosecution of him, Brown said he believes the District Attorney’s Office should forward the case to the California Attorney General’s Office for review.

Jeri Spittler, a Clearlake businesswoman, vice mayor of Clearlake and friends of the Sanderses’, jumped into the fray on Wednesday, circulating an email to District Attorney Don Anderson, members of the Board of Supervisors, Clearlake Mayor Joey Luiz, City Manager Joan Phillipe, Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen and Sheriff Frank Rivero in which she said Jan Sanders contacted her on Tuesday night after the incident.

Spittler repeated the Sanderses’ version of the story – with the exception that she said they called her to say the police were at their home at 10 p.m. not 9 p.m. – and the claim that police refused to arrest Brown.

She said Bob Sanders is a plumber who donated all the plumbing to the youth center and that he was “clearly” assaulted by Brown.

“Mr. Brown has no right to call on them at 10 at night,” she wrote. “Bob called the PD and Mr. Brown began to leave. Then Mr. Brown returned saying this is my property, I'll wait for the PD. This is when the assault took place, Bob asked Mr. Brown to leave and Mr. Brown began to hit him in the stomack (sic) and the face. Bob had marks on his face and stomack (sic) from the assault. Bob only asked Mr. Brown to leave his property.”

She added, “I have know the Sanders for 20 years, Bob is a good man and should not have to be assaulted in his own home. If Mr. Brown feels he has a valid complaint then he should go through the courts and not take it apon (sic) himself to treaspass (sic) and assault a man in front of his wife and granddaughter.”

Spittler wrote that she was “not impressed with our PD, an assault had clearly taken place, and Mr. Brown is not above the law.”

Brown said Spittler doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and her criticisms of the officers on scene are unfair.

“She should leave law enforcement to the highly qualified Clearlake city police department and go back to the studio and do someone’s hair and nails,” he said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 23 August 2012

Police receive second report of suspects attempting to lure female into vehicle in Lakeport

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is investigating a second case involving two men who allegedly attempted to lure a female into their vehicle.

Police previously had reported that two men had attempted to lure a 17-year-old female into a vehicle at about 2 p.m. on Monday at the WestAmerica Bank on S. Main Street.

Sgt. Kevin Odom said the agency was contacted at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday by a 20-year-old female resident reporting suspicious activity similar to the first report involving the teen.

Odom said the victim reported that on Monday at around 1:30 p.m. two males in a newer white SUV, possible a Ford Explorer, offered her money to get into their vehicle. He said the incident occurred in the area of Second and Park streets.

The woman described the vehicle’s driver as an older white male, gray hair, wearing a white t-shirt, ball cap and glasses, Odom said. The passenger was described as an older white male, gray hair, with a beard, heavy set, red face and wearing a white t-shirt.

Odom said the incident occurred close in time and location to the incident reported Monday and, based on the similar descriptions, police believe the two are related.

On Tuesday Lakeport Police also received a report from a citizen who reported seeing a suspicious vehicle on Monday at approximately 11:30 a.m. in the area of Lange and Lakeshore Boulevard, Odom reported.

He said a white SUV with two male occupants was seen parked in the area where children were being picked up. The citizen contacted police today based on seeing the prior media report about the first luring incident.

Anyone with information regarding these events is encouraged to contact Officer Gary Basor at the Lakeport Police at 707-263-5491.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 21 August 2012