Letters
- Details
- Written by: Bob Groos
Dinius could not have prevented that accident even without alcohol in his blood. Where is the cop's test? Probably lost!!
It is shameful how hard it is to get "JUSTICE" in this country. A few years back those young men in Oklahoma, too, were completely innocent of murder but spent 12 years on death row. DNA saved them. There, too, the cops and district attorney worked together to nail them. What a system.
Capt. Bob Groos lives in Patchogue, New York.
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- Details
- Written by: Joan Moss
I attended this trial every Tuesday in Martinez, and I question the validity of Shannon Edmonds as a witness in the first place. I question how District Attorney Jon Hopkins could use a suicidal criminal’s testimony to charge someone with murder.
Edmonds has an expired medical marijuana card. Witnesses, even Edmonds’ own mother, testified that Edmonds does not tell the truth. Edmonds used minor children to sell marijuana and hired children to trim marijuana, paying them with marijuana instead of money. Children, now young adults, testified to this during the trial. This is a crime Edmonds could go to jail for, according to Stuart Hanlon, Hughes’ attorney.
Hanlon attempted repeatedly in the absence of the jury to have Edmonds impeached as a witness.
Edmonds himself testified that he shot Christian Foster as Foster lay, already shot four times, helpless and twitching.
The jury found Renato Hughes not guilty of most charges, including the murder of his two friends who Edmonds admits he shot after an alleged home invasion.
It was not a home invasion, according to Hughes’ testimony, but an attempted purchase of marijuana that ended in violence and the death of his two friends, shot by Edmonds.
If Renato Hughes is not guilty of the murder of his two friends, who is guilty? How can Jon Hopkins take the word of a drug dealer in charging Renato Hughes in the first place?
It is a tragedy that Dale Lafferty was hit in the head and suffers permanent brain damage due to the conflict inside Edmonds' house on Dec. 7, 2005. It is a tragedy that two lives were lost, due to Shannon Edmonds shooting two young men in the back as they ran from his house.
Yet evidence and testimony proved unclear as to whether or not Lafferty was in the act of assaulting some one else with the metal bat when he himself was struck in the head.
Two eyewitnesses, Karl Taget and Justin Sutch, have yet to be on the stand as to the events on Dec. 7, 2005.
It was proven that a change of venue was necessary for a fair trial. Can Hughes receive a fair sentencing in Lake County when he was granted a change of venue for his trial?
This whole case is a mess, clouded with lost evidence, a black jacket, the fact that Edmonds had already attempted suicide in 2003 and the hammer used as evidence that was not present in the photographs of the scene of the incident the day it happened.
Lori Tyler, Edmonds’ live-in girlfriend at the time of the incident, testified Edmonds tried to get her to kill herself and write a suicide note just this last summer.
Clearlake Police Officer Michael Ray gave two conflicting accounts on the witness stand on the number of vials of blood taken from Renato Hughes the day he was taken into custody. First Ray said four vials were taken, then later he testified there were more than four.
Shannon Edmonds even threatened Dale Lafferty’s grandfather, Frank Kester, and told him not to testify, according to Kester’s testimony.
I admit to being possibly biased due to the fact that I visited Renato Hughes once a week when he was housed in the Lake County Jail. We did not discuss the case. We discussed the Lake County Jail.
Even Dale Lafferty’s grandfather is not convinced how Dale was injured, or who struck him on the head with the metal bat.
Can this be resolved in a just, fair manner?
Joan Moss lives in Kelseyville.
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- Details
- Written by: Rebecca Curry
The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), Proposition 5 on the November ballot, will change the way the state treats nonviolent offenders.
It will implement reforms repeatedly recommended by experts over several decades and will finally address the role that addiction and mental illness play in driving our incarceration and recidivism rates.
Proposition 5 builds upon the successful drug treatment programs created by voter-approved Proposition 36 (November 2000).
California currently offers virtually no publicly funded substance abuse treatment options for youth under the age of 18. This tragic and short-sighted failure abandons young people to their drug problems, putting their safety, their physical and mental health, and their futures at risk. Families, too often, have nowhere to turn for help. NORA would fund the creation of a system of care for non-criminally involved young people with drug problems.
NORA commits about $65 million per year to drug treatment and other support programs for youth, funding the creation of a system of care for young people under the age of 18 where no system exists now. Additional money for youth treatment would come from fines paid for low-level marijuana possession offenses.
By expanding rehabilitation behind bars, providing more re-entry services to nonviolent offenders on parole and expanding access to treatment, instead of incarceration, for nonviolent low-level drug offenders, NORA would significantly reduce recidivism and support parolee reintegration into the community.
NORA expands the diversion of nonviolent offenders to addiction treatment. NORA provides rehabilitation programs to nonviolent prisoners and parolees, and prevents them from being returned to prison for minor violations. NORA motivates participants to complete treatment and rehabilitation through an appropriate mix of incentives, rewards, sanctions and consequences.
NORA creates a unified system of care and provides $385 million per year to pay for drug treatment and related costs. Nonviolent drug offenders would be placed in one of three different levels of care and supervision, based on their criminal history and drug problem severity. Participants who fail at the lower levels could be moved up to the more intensive levels, or could be jailed for noncompliance. Completing the prescribed course of treatment can lead to the participants' drug offense being dropped from his or her criminal record.
It provides for prison system and parole reforms. NORA makes rehabilitation a real priority for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, while limiting the use of prison beds to punish minor parole violations by nonviolent offenders. An independent oversight panel would have authority over major aspects of the implementation of NORA.
Because NORA would sharply limit the incarceration of nonviolent offenders, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office projects that the measure would save California $1 billion or more each year in prison and parole costs. Much of the annual savings would be used instead to pay for the measure's new treatment and rehabilitation programs. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the state would see additional net savings of $2.5 billion over several years as prison-construction costs would be reduced by NORA’s reforms.
Lake County Democrats and the Democratic Party of California urge a “yes” vote on Propostion 5.
In this time of budget crisis, California cannot afford to continue “churning” nonviolent
offenders without reducing recidivism. NORA would reallocate funding to make rehabilitation and drug treatment a priority.
The "Yes" campaign's Web site is www.prop5yes.com.
The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act offers common-sense solutions to California's prison overcrowding crisis.
Rebecca Curry lives in Kelseyville.
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- Details
- Written by: James Evans
Barack had spent the whole day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday greeting fair patrons at the Democratic booth and posing for photo opportunities with them. The 6-foot, 1-inch cardboard cutout disappeared overnight on Saturday.
He is scheduled to appear with the Lake County Democrats at all of their functions before the election. He will be missed by his Democratic, Republican and Independent supporters. No ransom note has been received. The Secret Service declined to comment.
In an email response the chair of the Democratic Party of Lake County stated, “Clearly this despicable act is the work of those who are afraid. Afraid of the positive message of hope and change, the clarion call of this November's election. Our Democratic grassroots activists in Lake County can only feel sorrow and pity for people who would do such a petty mean-spirited thing. No supporter of Sen. Obama's would be so thoughtless and selfish as to deprive others of the joy and inspiration of seeing the senator out on the campaign trail here in Lake County. We hope the kidnappers will come to their senses, and we await his return.”
Barack can be returned with no questions asked by calling 274-8862, or emailing
James Evans lives in Clearlake Oaks.
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