SONOMA COUNTY – Bay Area authorities have arrested a couple and charged them with the Tuesday burglary of the Sonoma home of a family killed in a car crash last Saturday.

Sonoma Police Department Chief Bret Sackett reported Wednesday that San Mateo County residents Amber Marie True, 29, and her boyfriend Michael Vincent Guiterrez, 26, were arrested in connection with breaking into the home of John Maloney, 45, and his wife Susan, 42.

The couple and their young children, Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5, died in a four-vehicle collision on Highway 37 Saturday night after they were hit by a Mini Cooper driven by 19-year-old Steven Culbertson of Lakeport. Culbertson died of his injuries late Sunday morning.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday Sonoma Police responded to the Maloney home, located on Fryer Creek Drive, on the report of a burglary. Sackett said they found that the house had been ransacked and the family's personal property stolen. Also taken was the family's 2006 Nissan 350z.

Detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department Property Crimes unit, along with Detectives from the Crime Scene Investigations Unit, responded to assist with the investigation, including processing the scene and interviewing neighbors, Sackett explained.

Later on Tuesday, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office alerted Sonoma authorities when a routine traffic stop on True turned up a credit card belonging to Susan Maloney, along with additional property believed to be taken from the Sonoma home, Sackett reported.

Detectives then tracked down Gutierrez, who was located a short time later at the couples' home in rural San Mateo County, driving the Maloneys' Nissan 350Z, according to Sackett.

Sackett said detectives served a search warrant at the home and recovered a large amount of property believed to be taken from the Maloneys' residence, including financial records, jewelry, electronics and other personal property.

Detectives were working with family members to identify the recovered property, but it is believed that the vast majority, if not all, of the property has been recovered, Sackett said.

True and Gutierrez were booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of burglary and vehicle theft, with bail set at $500,000.

 

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CLEARLAKE – Police have arrested a Clearlake man for attempted murder in connection with the Friday stabbing of a juvenile.

Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain reported Monday that Joseph John Dingess, 19, was taken into custody. He was booked into the Lake County Jail early Saturday morning on one count of attempted murder.

McClain said Dingess flagged down Police Sgt. Brenda Crandall on Friday at approximately 10:17 p.m. at Redbud Park.

Crandall contacted Dingess, Ryan Dingess and a 17-year-old male juvenile who had been stabbed several times in the chest and back, according to McClain.

At first, Crandall was told that the victim had been stabbed by three unknown persons, McClain said.

Detectives were called out to assist with the investigation, and through interviews of Joseph and Ryan Dingess it was later determined that Joseph Dingess was actually the person who had stabbed the victim, according to McClain.

The stabbing is alleged to have taken place during a physical fight that occurred at the victim's residence, which McClain said is located in the 13000 block of Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake.

The victim was life-flighted to U.C. Davis Medical Center. McClain said the young man's last know status was critical but stable.

Dingess, whose occupation is listed as an In-Home Supportive Services worker, remained in the Lake County Jail on Monday morning, with bail set at $50,000.

McClain said the investigation is continuing. Anyone with information should contact Det. Martin Snyder at the Clearlake Police Department, 707-994-8251.

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LAKEPORT – A Lucerne man facing embezzlement and grand theft charges for allegedly taking funds from the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center will return to court in January.

Rowland James Mosser, 65, was in Lake County Superior Court on Friday morning, according to Deputy District Attorney Gary Luck.

Mosser , who was the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center’s director from July 2002 to August 2005, is charged with two felony counts of  embezzlement and two felony grand theft charges for taking funds from the center.

Luck previously said he doesn’t have a “firm amount” because he alleged Mosser didn’t keep accurate financial records. Center officials have stated in past interviews that they could not account for between $150,000 and $175,000 after Mosser left.

The case alleges Mosser took funds from the center between Jan. 1, 2005, and Aug. 12, 2005.

Luck said Mosser did not enter a plea to the charges at his Friday morning appearance.

Mosser hadn’t hired an attorney yet, although Mitchell Hauptman made a special appearance, Luck said.

Luck said Mosser’s next court appearance has been set for Jan. 15, 2010.

Earlier this year, Mosser and his wife, Jayne – who at that time was facing a single felony count of grand theft in connection the senior center case – went before the court for a preliminary hearing, but Luck asked for the charges to be dismissed, as Lake County News has reported.

The District Attorney’s Office then had a forensic examination conducted on the center’s financial records in order to support the case.

In September the charges were refiled against Mosser but not his wife.

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CLEARLAKE – Police have arrested a Clearlake man for attempted murder in connection with the stabbings of two men, according to a Thursday report.

Alejandro Mondragon, 31, was arrested early Wednesday afternoon and booked into the Lake County Jail for attempted murder, with bail set at $50,000, according to jail records.

Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain reported that police officers responded to Saint Helena Hospital Clearlake on a report of two stabbing victims in the emergency room at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The victims, 21-year-old Wesley Auten and his older brother Samuel Auten, 26, received stab wounds to the back and are currently hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, McClain said.

Clearlake Police detectives and the Crime Suppression Unit were called in to investigate this crime, according to McClain.

Investigators determined that the stabbing took place at a residence in the 3000 block of Oak Avenue in Clearlake after a physical fight between the victims and Mondragon, he said.

McClain told Lake County News that, as far as police have been able to determine, the incident wasn't gang-related.

He said his agency has had previous contacts with Mondragon and the Autens.

McClain said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Sgt. Tom Clements at 707-994-8251.

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LAKE COUNTY – A Swedish woman convicted of the murders of a Lake County Sheriff's sergeant and a Stockton restaurateur will be released in May of 2011.

Sweden's Orebro District Court ruled Monday that Annika Ostberg Deasy, 55, who has spent more than 28 years behind bars, will be set free in a year and a half.

“All I am asking for is a fair chance of making a new life for myself at home,” Deasy is reported to have stated in court last week, according to Swedish Radio International.

Deasy, who was born in Sweden but came to the United States with her mother when she was a girl, was returned to Sweden in April under the auspices of the US Department of Justice's International Transfer Unit, as Lake County News has reported.

“It's disappointing but not at all a surprise,” said Sheriff Rod Mitchell who, along with District Attorney Jon Hopkins, opposed Deasy's release to Sweden.

She was convicted of the May 1981 murders of Joe Torre of Stockton and Sgt. Richard Helbush of Lake County. Deasy was previously convicted of manslaughter in 1974 for the death of San Franciscan Donald McKay.

Deasy and her boyfriend, William “Bob” Cox – both of whom had drug problems – had met with Torre for a business deal during which Cox shot Torre to death.

Afterward, they traveled to Lake County where her young son lived with his father. Along the way, their car had a flat tire on Manning Flat on Highway 20 shortly after midnight on May 2, 1981.

Helbush, 34, was traveling from Clearlake – where he had just had coffee with a fellow deputy, Don Anderson – to Lakeport, where he was about to go off duty, when he stopped to help the couple.

He was shot three times in the back and once in the back of the head, according to Anderson, who today is a defense attorney and has written a book about the case.

After shooting Helbush, Cox and Deasy took his wallet, service revolver and patrol car, leaving Helbush's body on the side of the road.

Anderson, a California Highway Patrol officer and a reserve deputy later would apprehend the couple following a car chase and a shootout in which Cox was wounded several times and Anderson sustained minor injuries due to being hit in the leg by bullet fragments.

Cox later hung himself in jail, supposedly as the result of a suicide pact with Deasy, who would go on to face the murder charges alone in what originally was a death penalty case.

In August of 1983 she was sentenced to prison after reaching a deal with then-District Attorney Steve Hedstrom to plead guilty to two charges of first-degree murder, with each charge carrying a sentence of 25 years to life.

In Sweden, efforts had been under way for many years to bring her home to serve out her sentence. Many of her supporters held that her sentence was unnecessarily harsh, especially since Cox is believed to have been the trigger man in Torre's and Helbush's murders. Deasy's mother, Maj Britt, advocated for her release and Deasy also became the topic of a documentary.

By the time she returned to her home country, Deasy had been behind bars for nearly 28 years, beginning with her 1981 arrest, and been turned down for parole four times and had three previous transfer requests to Sweden denied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Court rules Deasy meets criteria for release

When Deasy arrived in Sweden, she was sent to Hinseberg prison, the highest security prison for women in the country, according to officials. She later was reportedly moved to a lower-security prison, the Färingsö Institution, which is near Stockholm, where her elderly mother lives.

The Local newspaper reported that Sweden's Prison and Probation Service gave approval for the release, although the National Board of Forensic Medicine raised concerns that Deasy had a medium-high risk of relapsing into criminal behavior. Concerns also were raised about Deasy will integrate into Sweden, where she hasn't lived since she was a child.

A Monday statement from the Prison and Probation Service explained that Deasy had requested the Orebro court reduce her life sentence to a determinate amount of time, which they did, giving her instead a 45-year sentence. With the time she's already served, she then becomes eligible for release.

The district court considered several criteria in making the decision, including the time she already has served, the case facts, her risk of reverting to crime, her behavior and her ability to adapt to society. She was found guilty of only one serious prison rule violation in 1989, the agency reported.

While the court found Deasy guilty of very serious crimes, they found that the time she has served is sufficient, and that she would be able to make the transition to freedom.

By the time she's released, Deasy will be 57 years old and will have served more more than 30 years in prison.

While that's a long sentence, “I think she would have stayed longer if she would have remained in California,” said Anderson. “I think it would have been difficult for her to get parole, just because of the gravity of the crime.”

He added, “Helbush was a friend of mine and not only did they kill him, she tried to kill me.”

The decisions worked out between state and federal officials and the Swedish government to send Deasy home didn't include input from local authorities, said Hopkins.

“The unfortunate thing is that the authorities in this country and in Sweden made no attempt to get information from the district attorney or the sheriff of Lake County about the facts in the case,” he said.

“Anyone reading the transcript of her interviews at the time of the shooting of Sgt. Helbush, or the district attorney's statement regarding the charges would know that she has not taken responsibility for her part in these killings,” he said. “In fact, at her parole lifer hearings over the years, she has increasingly minimized her role.”

Hopkins said Deasy made clear at the time of the crimes that she and Cox “had a pact that they would not be taken into custody, and that's why Sgt. Helbush had to die.”

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt claimed in April that he had a secret meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in May of 2007, which laid the groundwork for Deasy's eventual release. The following month, Swedish Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask discussed Deasy with then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

By early 2009, the process was nearing its conclusion. Hopkins found out Deasy was being considered for release in February and sent a letter voicing his objections to the California Board of Parole Hearings.

Officials never returned any of his calls, letters or e-mails, and late the following month she was transferred to federal custody before being turned over to Sweden.

Deasy was flown to Sweden in April on a chartered jet that cost the Swedish government a reported $62,000, according to The Local.

The murder of Torre and Helbush was “so bad,” said Anderson, who added that he doesn't know if there's such a thing as enough time for those types of crimes. He said it's difficult to judge somebody when you don't really know them, but pointed to the parole board's repeated decisions to deny her release.

Hopkins said it was a “foregone conclusion” that Deasy would be released when she returned to Sweden.

“She was responsible for the deaths of three men, one of whom was a police officer,” said Hopkins. “She should have had to earn her way to freedom.”

 

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LAKEPORT – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the sheriff's application for grant funding that will provide funding to cover positions in the fight against illegal marijuana.

Following a discussion in which board members raised concerns about some of the application's wording, the supervisors gave unanimous approval to Sheriff Rod Mitchell seeking the $275,000 grant from the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA).

Mitchell explained that the funds would cover two deputy positions which currently covered by the county's general fund, along with partial payment of a prosecutor and some operating and overhead expenses.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration grants that the sheriff's office receives are used for overtime and other expenses, not for regular staff time, Mitchell said.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington asked what the reduced obligation to the general fund would be. Mitchell said, among other things, it would cover senior Det. Steve Brooks, who is assigned to the program. Currently, Brooks is assigned full-time to suppression, with the $90,000 for his position being covered by the general fund, with the exception of overtime.

The Cal EMA grant would cover Brooks' position, which Mitchell said would allow him to redeploy another position to assist with other crime fighting programs.

Farrington asked about how the county can place greater focus on methamphetamine eradication. Mitchell said he has another grant that covers one detective and one sergeant who are focusing on methamphetamine issues.

If the money went away, Farrington wanted to know about Mitchell's succession plant.

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said, typically, when funding goes away, the positions are eliminated. However, because the sheriff's office commonly has a number of vacancies, “It's never been a problem with this department,” said Cox, who credited the sheriff with carefully tracking positions.

Rushing noted that the grant's project performance requirements include monthly statistical tracking. That led her to ask how the department measures success.

Mitchell said they document and track the number of plants seized, people arrested or contacted, and weapons seizures as part of that analysis.

Rushing also asked about the program objectives and the focus on illicit grows. Mitchell assured her and the board that his agency is focusing on large illicit operations, particularly those sponsored by Mexican cartels, and not Proposition 215 patients, who he said often call his department to request compliance checks.

Rushing questioned the law enforcement and prosecution component, which included looking at the conviction rate. She wanted to know if they were measured on whether or not they busts are good ones.

Supervisor Rob Brown pointed out that not all eradications result in arrests. Mitchell added that they're also dealing with grows that damage public lands.

“I don't think there's any citizen of Lake County who doesn't want to see Mexican cartels out of here,” said Rushing, noting the damage the cartels do to public lands and the danger they pose to the public.

Mitchell said Dennis Reynolds of Lake County Probation has a great deal of expertise on the environmental damage aspects, and will make a presentation at a Thursday meeting of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The special 6 p.m. meeting, to be held in the board chambers in Lakeport, will look specifically at marijuana grows and the impacts on habitat.

“It's a whole lot more than just the marijuana and the people with guns,” said Mitchell, noting the “significant” damage.

Rushing said she was concerned about the eradication program itself. “We'll never get there with this amount of money,” said Rushing.

The real question, she said, is whether or not it's solving anything.

Rushing also wanted the language of the grant's problem statement and objectives worked out, with the board having input. Mitchell said he can make that language clearer.

For Rushing, the language issue made it appear that they were going after all marijuana grows. Brown said he read it as only calling for illegal grow eradications.

In addition, Rushing wanted more specific language inserted to make it clear that the cartels are the target of the enforcement.

Brown suggested there also are “a bunch of white guys” trying to profit from Proposition 215.

Rushing suggested changing the language to include mention of cartel-based operations and illegals. Added Brown, “Sometimes it's just white trash.”

Brown pointed out that the grant will free up $90,000 from the general fund.

During the discussion, Brown went on to note that many sheriff's deputies now feel like they're getting beat up for no reason, and he wanted to give recognition to Brooks, who he said has committed himself to fighting illegal marijuana.

“You don't see him, you don't hear him,” said Brown. “You hear about him. The guy is phenomenal.”

Brown said Brooks uses a lot of discretion and doesn't bother Proposition 215 patients, but goes after illegal grows “with a vengeance.”

Rushing said she wanted to have a discussion at some point about how the community can reclaim itself from the influence of illegal drug activity.

Mitchell said he would submit a grant application with revised language for Cox and County Counsel Anita Grant to review, which will allow him to still meet the grant's time frames.

If they're successful in getting the grant, Mitchell said he'll look forward to redeploying another detective to crime fighting.

The board granted support to the application, with revisions, in a 5-0 vote.

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