LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Mendocino County's district attorney said he is not charging Clearlake's interim police chief for an April 2010 case in which he's alleged to have assaulted a neighbor.
Last month, District Attorney Don Anderson and Sheriff Frank Rivero had stated that misdemeanor assault and battery charges were going to be filed against 40-year-old Craig Clausen, who has been interim Clearlake Police chief since December.
But on Friday, new Mendocino County District Attorney C. David Eyster, who Anderson had asked to take over the case due to concerns about potential conflicts, said Clausen was not being charged following an investigation he and his staff conducted.
Instead, Eyster said he gave “great weight” to the wishes of the elderly neighbor who originally had alleged that Clausen assaulted her.
“She didn't want to be bandied about in what she saw was becoming a political situation,” said Eyster, who ultimately proposed an “alternative disposition.”
That disposition? “An apology,” Eyster said.
Clausen's attorney, Matt Pavone, called the decision “good news.”
“I think it's terrific that the Mendocino County district attorney stepped in,” Pavone said Friday. “This is obviously a difficult decision.”
He said both he and Clausen thanked Eyster's office for the work they did and the fair and prompt decision.
Pavone said they hope the case is “finally resolved, once and for all.”
With the California Penal Code requiring that the misdemeanor charges that would have applied in this case be filed within one year of the incident, and with that statute of limitations running out on April 5 – this past Tuesday – the case indeed appears to be at an end.
Rivero was surprised by – and critical of – the decision. In Rivero's analysis, the elements of a crime were there and that Eyster's conclusion has given Clausen a “pass.”
“In my opinion, it's sending a terrible signal on so many different levels,” said Rivero, adding, “It's a sad day for law enforcement and justice in Lake County.”
The sheriff suggested that the decision not to file was “fishy,” noting, “An apology on an assault case is rather unusual to say the least. As a matter of fact, it's a first for me.”
Eyster in turn criticized Rivero, who he said has never talked to him about the case yet spoke to the press last month about charges before the investigation concluded.
“I think it was a complete attempt to try to paint me into a corner,” Eyster said, suggesting Rivero was trying to force him to act a certain way, which Rivero vehemently denied.
Clausen was alleged to have assaulted the then-65-year-old neighbor on April 5, 2010, in a confrontation on another neighbor's porch in Lakeport.
In the sheriff's office's original complaint, the woman alleged that Clausen's young son had tried to run her off a property where she was walking her dogs, and when she went to speak with another neighbor she called the boy a “little s***,” a remark Clausen reportedly heard before confronting her.
The confrontation allegedly escalated to the point where the woman accused Clausen of poking her in the face with his finger and then grabbing her and twisting her arm up behind her, with the other neighbor who witnessed it claiming that the alleged victim's head hit her screen door.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office had filed the case last year, but then-District Attorney Jon Hopkins rejected the case after further examination.
Earlier this year, Rivero, Lake County's newly elected sheriff, refiled the case with the District Attorney's Office, now headed by Anderson.
Anderson asked Eyster – Mendocino County's new district attorney who in 1996 had worked in the Lake County District Attorney's Office under then-District Attorney Stephen Hedstrom – to review the case because he said he was concerned of potential conflicts for his office.
Anderson said his office had no actual conflicts in the case, but added, “There will always be that appearance of a conflict.”
That was a concern for Anderson because he said the county has just spent three years dealing with allegations of conflicts and coverups in the wake of the Bismarck Dinius case, involving a Carmichael man at the tiller of a sailboat hit by a power boat driven by an off-duty sheriff's chief deputy in April 2006.
Dinius was charged, while the deputy, Russell Perdock, was not, and the case formed an important campaign platform for both Anderson and Rivero.
Anderson said he didn't want a similar situation to happen again, so he turned to Eyster, who he said he has known for years.
“I have utmost faith and confidence in his ability to evaluate this case,” said Anderson.
Eyster said he and Anderson share a good working relationship, so he agreed to take over the case.
Challenges in investigating the case
Eyster said Anderson made arrangements for the state Attorney General's Office to make Eyster a special attorney if he had decided to charge the case in Lake County, but outside of those procedural issues, Eyster said the Attorney's General's Office wasn't involved.
“After reviewing the reports I thought there was additional information that I needed to develop,” said Eyster, who estimated that his investigators were in Lake County three or four times to work on the case.
He said they developed “great rapport” with the witnesses they were interviewing, and were able to bring back additional details.
However, Eyster said he and his team faced challenges in investigating the case due to the early press coverage.
Eyster said he had not authorized Rivero “to say anything about what I was thinking, what I was doing,” in the case.
Anderson acknowledged that when he spoke to Lake County News about the case in March the investigation wasn't completed.
While Anderson was aware of what was taking place in the case, Rivero, “seemed to show some poor judgment in his media relations,” Eyster said
Eyster also faulted Rivero for telling members of the Clearlake City Council and Clausen himself that charges were imminent when Eyster wasn't done working the case and hadn't announced his decision.
He added that he thinks Rivero, as a new sheriff, “doesn’t quite understand his place in the justice system yet.”
Rivero said Anderson had told him the case was being charged, and he notified the council, city administrator and Clausen as he believed he should have, out of courtesy, rather than let them get “blindsided.”
He acknowledged not speaking with Eyster. “I didn't need to speak to him. I spoke to our DA.”
Interim Clearlake City Administrator Steve Albright said Rivero called him March 15 to tell him charges were being filed against Clausen that day.
However, he said Rivero has not contacted him since to notify him of the case's outcome.
“I think some explanation is in order about what was really going on,” and why a city employee was put through such embarrassment, said Albright.
Eyster's investigators were in Lake County on March 16, the day the story that Clausen was to face charges – based on Rivero's and Anderson's statements – came out.
He said the article contained information about the case that made it appear that his investigators had reneged on certain promises they had made to the neighbor who originally had alleged the assault.
Eyster said his staff had to offer up apologies – even though they had not done anything – in order to keep good relations with the women.
“When they came back and presented me with their findings I decided an alternative disposition was the appropriate one and one that was well supported by the complaining witness,” Eyster said.
Many factors went into the decision, including the woman's wishes, said Eyster.
Eyster and his staff arranged a meeting on March 31 with Clausen and Pavone – who cooperated both with Eyster and his investigators – and the woman.
Then Eyster said everyone stepped back and let Clausen and the woman have a private discussion, which Eyster said went well. “They are neighbors, after all.”
Afterward, Eyster's staff spoke with the woman, who he said was satisfied with the outcome.
And that's the end of it, according to Eyster.
When Anderson asked him to take over the case, “The one thing we were very clear on was that my decision would be the final decision and how I handled it would be the final choice,” with no second guessing, Eyster said.
Adding that he wished the resolution had happened on week one or two of the case – not a year later – Eyster said, “I consider the case at this point finished,” noting that the neighborhood where Clausen and the woman live “seems to be back on the same page.”
Albright said the Clearlake City Council never met to discuss taking any action against Clausen, such as placing him on administrative leave, while the matter was settled. “There was never a thought in my mind to suspend him and I forwarded that to the council,” said Albright.
“You don't do anything when there's no charges,” Albright said. “We were correct in not acting.”
Rivero said he was disappointed in Eyster “for not having the guts to file it” and in Anderson for passing off the case in the first place when he had no conflicts.
Anderson defended Eyster's work, saying Eyster was not afraid to prosecute. “That's not Dave Eyster. Dave Eyster will prosecute anything,” said Anderson, who pointed out that Eyster has gone after outlaw biker gangs.
“He never backed down a bit,” said Anderson.
In an interview with Lake County News last month, Pavone had questioned the reasons behind the refiling of the case, suggesting political motivations had been at work.
On Friday, Pavone noted, “This was a case that was fully investigated and we thought resolved” when Hopkins evaluated the case last year.
In recent months a proposal has been floated about having the sheriff's office take over policing services for Clearlake, which some council members – including Mayor Joyce Overton – suggesting the city should explore. That idea appears to have suggested a possible motive to Pavone and others who defended Clausen in explaining why Rivero filed the case against the interim chief.
Pavone reiterated his concerns about the influence of politics, noting that Clausen, as interim chief, had some forces inside the county opposed to him. Eyster agreed with that initial assessment by Pavone.
Eyster said he didn't hold Anderson and his staff responsible for the political side of the case, which he attributed to Rivero.
“There's no question that some folks had political motivations that had no place in this case,” said Eyster, noting that his personal saying is, “Politics and the criminal justice system don't play well in the same sandbox.”
Eyster said politics can't be the deciding factor in such cases. “That's not something that I can allow to happen.”
Rivero called the idea that he wants to take over the Clearlake Police Department “absolute baloney,” and accused Eyster of “talking out of both sides of his mouth.”
Albright said the city has not initiated any discussions to allow the sheriff's office to take over the city's policing.
Albright, who joined the city on an interim basis in February, said he's discussed policing services with County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox – not Rivero – purely for his own background.
“This city is so committed to its police department,” both in terms of its personnel and financially, Albright said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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