CLEARLAKE – The Clearlake Police Department will hold a free seminar presented by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) on Tuesday, March 16.

The seminar will take place from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive, Clearlake.

The Licensee Education on Alcohol and Drugs (LEAD) seminar will educate owners and employees of restaurants, bars, liquor and grocery stores on:

• What is acceptable identification, the best way to check identification, how to refuse service, signs and prevention of illicit drug activity, and more;

• Facts about criminal, civil and ABC liability;

• California alcohol laws.

They also will be provided helpful handouts.

The seminar is made possible through a grant received from ABC in July of 2009 and is open to all alcoholic beverage licensees and their employees.

The Clearlake Police Department intends to use the grant funds to educate, train and gain compliance with ABC-licensed businesses and citizens of Clearlake regarding alcohol-related laws and regulations.

If any licensee would like to attend, they should contact Nicole Newton, Clearlake Police's records/communications supervisor, at 707-994-8251, Extension 316, to make reservations. Letters also were mailed to all alcoholic beverage licensees in the city of Clearlake.

On the day of the training, please bring a copy of your ABC license and plan to arrive a few minutes early to sign in, as the program will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m.

Ukiah Police arrested Joseph John Szupello, 35, of Lakeport on March 6 on charges of grand theft and embezzlement. He was arrested shortly afterward after posting $15,000 bail, according to Mendocino County Jail records.

According to a report from the Ukiah Police Department, in March of 2009 the Ukiah Fire Department requested assistance from Ukiah Police in attempting to locate and possibly retrieve a missing generator from an emergency response vehicle.

Ukiah Police reported that its detectives learned that Szupello, a volunteer firefighter who was on inactive status with the fire department, may have used the generator during a family camping trip in January 2009.

When contacted by police, Szupello denied taking the generator, but claimed to have borrowed an identical one from friends. Ukiah Police reported that its detectives spoke with numerous associates of Szupello, none of whom corroborated his statements.

The investigation continued through April of 2009, but despite following up on several leads and searches of various areas of Lake County, the missing generator was not located and detectives were unable to determine substantively that Szupello had stolen the missing generator, according to the Ukiah Police report.

Then, earlier this month, Ukiah Fire once again contacted Ukiah Police about the missing equipment, which was reportedly being held by Lakeport Fire Protection District.

Ukiah Police detectives determined that members of Szupello's family had apparently turned in a set of self-contained breathing apparatus – commonly called SCBA – to the Lakeport Fire Protection District after Szupello had allegedly stored the equipment at his family members' residence.

Detectives determined that the SCBA gear was missing from the Ukiah Fire Department's inventory and was valued at more than $6,000, police reported.

They retrieved the equipment and spoke with Szupello, who they said admitted to taking the gear from the Ukiah Fire Department, according to the report. He told detectives he intended to use it for a legitimate training but eventually “forgot about it.”

Ukiah Police reported that its detectives determined that Szupello had allegedly moved the SCBA equipment to various locations after the date of this training, which they said would have given him the opportunity to return it, which he did not do.

Detectives subsequently obtained an arrest warrant for Szupello for embezzlement and the investigating detective arrested Szupello.

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LAKEPORT – The Lakeport Police Department will hold a hunter safety training course beginning later this month.

The course is free to the public.

It will consist of four training days that will be held in the Lakeport City Hall Council Chambers, 225 Park St., from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. March 23, 25 and 31, and April 1.

Attendees are required to attend all four days of training. Pre-registration required.

If you have any questions about the program or to sign up, please contact Lakeport Police's assistant rangemaster/hunter safety instructor, Detective Destry Henderson, at 707-263-9653, or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Brett Rhodes is the new chief for the Hopland Tribal Police Department. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.

HOPLAND – A North Coast native and former Clearlake Police sergeant has been named the top cop for the Hopland Band of Pomos' police department.

The appointment of Brett Rhodes, 35, as Hopland Rancheria's newest police chief became official Jan. 11.

In that capacity he'll oversee a department of seven sworn police officers – each of whom has a dual role, both as a tribal officer and a federal police officer. The department's primary jurisdiction is the 2,000-square-acre Hopland Band of Pomo Indians Reservation.

The Sonoma County native – who today lives in Lake County – has an associate's degree in criminal justice from Santa Rosa Junior College, and a bachelor's degree in criminal law and a master's degree in public administration, both from Sonoma State University.

Beginning in 1993, Rhodes worked as a police cadet while at Santa Rosa Junior College. In 2001 he joined Clearlake Police, where he worked until 2009 in a variety of capacities, including field training officer and detective.

When he got his start there, then-Police Chief Bob Chalk allowed the young officer to work his schedule around his school work.

In 2007 Rhodes was promoted to sergeant at Clearlake Police, where in June 207 interim Police Chief Larry Todd called Rhodes a “bright star in the future of this department.”

“Clearlake definitely provided me a lot of structure in my law enforcement career and I'm very thankful for that,” he said.

At about the same time as he was chosen to be the Hopland Rancheria police chief, Rhodes also was in the final four candidates for the Orland Police Department's new chief.

He's looking forward to his work at Hopland, which is one of the few Northern California rancherias to have its own police force.

“This agency has been well regarded for tribal policing efforts,” he said.

In April 1997, the Hopland Tribal Police Department resulted from an ordinance created by the tribe's council, which appointed Wesley M. Clark as the tribe's first chief of police, according to a department history.

Clark, who would remain in his position until 2001, went on to organize the department using the California Peace Officer Standards and Training regulations as the model for the department's professional police standards.

The Tribal Court Clearinghouse reports that there are more than 200 police departments in Indian Country nationwide.

According to the National Congress of American Indians, there are about 2,380 Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal uniformed officers available to serve an estimated 1.4 million Indians covering over 56 million acres of tribal lands in the lower 48 states.

In California, there is a small number of tribal police forces. In addition to Hopland, they include the Yurok tribe and Hoopa in Northern California and in Southern California Quechan, Sycuan and Pechanga.

Hopland's police officers are federally commissioned officers and employees of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rhodes said. Rhodes said his department is the only federal agency assigned to a tribal reservation within Mendocino County.

Rhodes credits his predecessors including Mike Meese – who had been instrumental in solving the Polly Klaas murder case before joining the rancheria as its chief – for efforts in building up the department.

In Meese's case, he was instrumental in getting federal status for the department's officers, Rhodes explained. “He really took things to the next level.”

In recent years the tribal police force also has established memoranda of understanding with Mendocino County officials.

Rhodes said his agency can directly book arrestees into the Mendocino County Jail and can direct file cases with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office, rather than having to go through the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, as they once were required to do.

“This puts us more on par with other agencies in the county,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said the federally commissioned police department assigned to the Hopland Reservation is only 1 of 29 tribal field offices to receive the coveted U.S. Dept of Justice’s NCIC System, a national criminal index system, which all other municipal, county, and state agencies currently have.

He said he brings a progressive style of police management to his new post. In particular, Rhodes – who hopes to grow the size of his department – said he supports mentoring officers in an effort to develop leadership from within.

The department is funded through the tribe's general fund, but has several supplemental federal grants which allow the department to branch out and focus efforts on specific areas of crime reduction. Rhodes said the department recently co-wrote a methamphetamine prevention grant that they will manage but which will also benefit the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Part of what makes the department work, said Rhodes, is a progressive tribal council “that sees the bigger picture” and supports the police department.

Tribal Chair Roman Carrillo Jr. was away and unavailable for comment when contacted this week by Lake County News.

Rhodes said he has hit the ground running, and is spending time evaluating the department for efficiency.

The tribe has about 800 members, but many of them live off the rancheria, he explained. In addition to patrolling the rancheria, the tribal police also patrol property owned by the tribe located in Hopland, and assist the sheriff's office when needed.

Their primary focus is on the small tribal community and its casino, Hopland Sho-Ka-Wah, where alcohol-related issues, thefts and drug sales have been noted previous issues. Peak call times are the summer months, when more visitors frequent the casino.

The biggest difference between his officers and those in other departments is their responsibility to enforce federal law, said Rhodes.

He said the department follows all the hiring protocol other departments do, including adherence to the state's Peace Officer Standards and Testing (POST).

One of the department's recently completed projects is new paint jobs for the police cars. Photo by John Jensen.

All officers must be POST-certified; in addition, Rhodes said they're sent to a federal transition training, which is a supplemental training course. Officers also must be trained in tribal ordinances, which are part of the laws they enforce.

He's a proponent of community policing, which includes having a high profile in the community in general and making appearances at important community events, both on the rancheria and in the neighboring communities.

“These are all things that build rapport with those who you're serving,” he said.

His officers recently completed a two-day community oriented police training put on by the federal government.

“What is boils down to is public service and policing is problem solving – that's what we do,” he said.

He's also put out a survey to the tribal community to get a sense of their expectations and create a baseline for the department's services going forward.

“It'll take us some time to crunch the data and see where we want to hone our efforts,” he said.

He emphasized an open-door policy with community members.

Rhodes is a member of the International Police Chiefs Association and the California Tribal Chiefs Association, which met in San Diego recently.

“This is a great time for this change because we have a lot of new programs rolling out at this time,” he said.

Those include some expected announcements based on agreements with other agencies, new paint jobs for the department's police cars and planned remodeling of the tribal police station.

“Our bottom line is creating an atmosphere where the quality of life is good,” said Rhodes, and people are safe to come and visit.

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Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the identities of the two people, as well as the manner and cause of their deaths, are pending further investigation, but the deaths currently are considered suspicious.

Two Sonoma County men were driving through Lake County from the Lake Barryessa area on Morgan Valley Road when they stopped for a break, about six miles east of Lower Lake, Bauman said.

When they got out of their vehicle at a turnout, the two discovered what appeared to be two bodies lying at the bottom of an embankment. Bauman said the two men immediately went to the Lower Lake Fire Station and reported what they found.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the fire station at around 2:30 p.m. to meet the two men and after being briefed on what they had found, they were led to the turnout outside of town, according to Bauman.

Upon arrival, deputies confirmed the bodies of an adult male and an adult female lying in the brush, approximately 20 feet down an embankment from the turnout, Bauman said.

He added that the bodies appeared to have been there for at least several weeks.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit, along with a mobile command post and other support personnel, were called out and have been processing the scene since Thursday afternoon, according to Bauman.

He said autopsies are expected to be scheduled for early next week.

Sheriff's officials are making no other information about the case available at this time, Bauman added.

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