How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
Mark George Sanders, 59, was arrested for felony hit and run following the incident, which occurred at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday at the stoplight at Kit's Corner, the intersection of Highway 281 and Highway 29, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Tanguay.
Tanguay said 77-year-old Kelseyville resident Derek Millard was on his bicycle, stopped at the intersection's northeast corner during a red light.
Millard pressed the button for pedestrian crossing, and when the light turned green and the pedestrian crossing green light was activated, he began to cross the Highway, according to Tanguay.
At that time, Sanders was driving his 1997 Mazda pickup truck westbound on Highway 281 approaching the intersection. Tanguay said Sanders' light turned green and as he made a right turn onto northbound Highway 29 the front of his pickup truck struck Millard as he was crossing the road.
Millard was thrown off of his bicycle and Tanguay said Sanders fled the scene in his truck. A witness was able to get the information on the pickup truck and the information was broadcast over law enforcement radios.
A CHP officer spotted the Mazda pickup truck and pulled Sanders over, arresting him for felony hit and run, according to Tanguay.
Millard sustained moderate injuries to his side and hands as a result of this collision, Tanguay said.
The CHP reported that alcohol is not a factor in the collision, which is still under investigation by CHP Officer Mark Crutcher.
In addition to the hit and run charge, Sanders was booked on a misdemeanor probation violation, with bail set at $10,000, according to jail records. He remained in the Lake County Jail late Wednesday.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The Board of Parole Hearings denied parole for convicted murderer James Robert Ivsich, 48, according to Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff attended the lifer hearing at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville to argue against Ivsich’s release.
Ivsich was convicted of the second-degree murder of his 56-year-old mother, Patricia Erickson, Hinchcliff said. Judge Robert Crone Jr. Sentenced Ivsich to 16 years to life on Jan. 14, 1991.
Ivsich's minimum eligible parole date was March 31, 2001, said Hinchcliff, who attended previous parole hearings for Ivsich to oppose his parole.
According to investigation reports by the Clearlake Police Department, Ivsich was living with his mother at the time at their residence on Alvita Avenue in the city of Clearlake.
Ivsich was reportedly abusing alcohol and had been verbally abusive and threatening toward his mother on previous occasions according to witnesses.
When officers arrived at the Alvita Avenue residence on May 1, 1990, they found Erickson inside the residence with two stab wounds, one in her chest and one in her back. Ivsich was sitting in a chair with a bloody fixed blade knife lying next to him. His blood alcohol level shortly after the incident was .32, four times the legal limit for driving.
Ivsich initially told investigators he did not remember what happened except that he was home with his mother when she suddenly fell over with a knife in her back. He subsequently told investigators that he had left the house and when he returned home he gave his mother a hug and found a knife in her back.
He later told investigators he came home and an unknown intruder ran out of the house past him and he found his mother with a knife in her.
Ivsich was last denied parole in December 2008 for a three-year period. However, due to a change in the law on length of parole denials, Ivsich was given a new hearing on Nov. 30, Hinchcliff said.
At the hearing the parole commissioners agreed with Hinchcliff’s argument that Ivsich still presented an unreasonable risk of danger to the public if released at this time, and that based on his failure to obtain counseling and treatment while incarcerated, it was unreasonable to expect he would be ready for parole for at least five years.
His parole bid was subsequently denied.
Hinchcliff said Ivsich's next chance for parole and a parole hearing will not be until December 2014.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
UPPER LAKE – On Tuesday afternoon, a work crew installed the new arch leading into downtown Upper Lake.
The project is a key piece of the town's downtown revitalization project, which began over the summer.
County Deputy Redevelopment Director Eric Seely said the arch installation “represents a major milestone of the Upper Lake Main Street Project.”
The $1.7 million downtown improvement project is upgrading both sides of Main Street, extending from Highway 20 down to the intersection at Second Street – including undergrounding of utilities and new sidewalks, county officials reported. Main Street also is being rebuilt and new streetlights have been installed.
Seely said improvements are still coming, with the column stone work and landscaping to be installed in the coming weeks.
Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon owner Bernie Butcher commended Seely and the redevelopment agency for the work downtown.
While street repaving was under way last week, Butcher said the street was only shut down for a few days, and the crews did a good job of allowing access to Main Street businesses.
“When finished, it will be quite an attractive transformation,” he said of the project.
Butcher gave Seely kudos, noting that Seely has personally overseen the project every day during construction.
The arch and new streetlights are in place in time for the town's holiday celebration and Christmas parade, which takes place on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 5. Upper Lake's merchants and residents invite everyone to come and join in the fun.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Robert Lavern Davison, 41, pleaded guilty in August to one count of coercion and enticement for illegal sexual activity, as Lake County News has reported.
Judge Dale Kimball gave Davison the 120-month sentence on Nov. 23 in the US District Court of Utah's Central Division.
When Davison leaves prison, he will be subject to 20 years of supervised release, must register as a sex offender and won't be allowed to have contact with children under age 18 without adult supervision approved by the US Probation Office, according to Kimball's ruling. The ruling also specifically ordered Davison not to contact the young victim.
Kimball ordered Davison to pay $5,502.20 in restitution.
Davison's sentencing had been set for Dec. 17, but officials moved to have it earlier following the completion of a psychosexual examination that had been ordered in August, according to court records.
Portions of the sentencing document, including the statement of reasons, were sealed by the court.
Late last year, Davison had allegedly persuaded the young teenager, who he had met on the Internet while playing “World of Warcraft,” to meet him in California, as Lake County News has reported.
The girl, from Centerville, Utah, was reported missing by her family, according to case records. Police later found her at a Salt Lake City bus station with a ticket Davison purchased for her through a third party.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Davison on Feb. 12 at his home. The Lake County Sheriff's Office assisted in the arrest and service of search warrants.
Kimball's order last week included a recommendation to the federal Bureau of Prisons that Davison be placed in a facility where a sex offender management program is available, “preferably in California to facilitate family visitation.
The order also included the recommendation that Davison be placed in protective custody for his safety.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The California Highway Patrol reported that crash took place just after 5 p.m. south of Kit's Corner, which is the intersection of Highway 29 and 281.
One of the three vehicles involved was a big rig with a flatbed, the CHP reported.
The crash blocked both lanes of Highway 29, with traffic on the northbound lane diverted to Soda Bay Road, according to the report.
The CHP reported that Caltrans was called to the scene to bring sand for helping remove spilled diesel on the roadway. Towing companies also were requested, with a call put out for a tow truck large enough to move the big rig.
Shortly after 6 p.m. officials opened Highway 29 at Highway 175 to Cobb, with one way traffic control taking place past the scene.
The CHP reported that there were minor injuries to individuals involved in the crash, but specifics – including the number of injuries – weren't immediately available Monday evening.
The highway was scheduled to be reopened shortly before 7 p.m.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH LAKEPORT – Firefighters quickly put out a small wildland fire that broke out in the north Lakeport area Monday evening.
Cal Fire said the blaze was reported at about 5:20 p.m. It was located in the area of Bridge Arbor and Robinson roads.
Local residents traveling through the area reported seeing a large fire, with one person telling Lake County News that at one point it looked like four separate fires.
Lakeport firefighters Andrew Bergem and Brian Hajik were passing by and were the first on scene to report the conditions, Bergem said.
They saw four spots, light flashy tule vegetation, moderate rate of spread, with no structures immediately threatened, said Bergem. The men also assessed the resources needed and access, which Bergem said was difficult due to terrain.
Hajik requested a response from Lakeport Fire Protection District, which sent one engine, and Cal Fire Boggs Mountain, Bergem said.
Northshore Fire, which also responded, had a water tender and at least one engine on scene, based on reports from the incident. Cal Fire sent one engine and started to send a bull dozer, but it was canceled.
When the fire was contained at about 6:15 p.m., it had burned between four and five acres, according to Cal Fire.
Bergem said the fire was contained by firefighters with the help of a natural fire break – a creek that surrounded the southern and eastern perimeters of the fire, where it burned itself out.
See video of the fire, shot by Michael Augustine, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLQR4Ngmpco .
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
