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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT – A new motion filed Wednesday by the Lake County District Attorney's Office explains the reasons for a request to reschedule the trial of a Carmichael man in connection with a fatal 2006 crash, including new information relating to central figures in the case.
Deputy District Attorney John Langan asked visiting Judge J. Michael Byrne last week to delay the trial of 40-year-old Bismarck Dinius, who is accused of felony vehicular manslaughter with a boat and driving under the influence of alcohol for an April 2006, boat crash that claimed the life of Willows resident Lynn Thornton.
Dinius was piloting a sailboat owned by Thornton's fiance, Mark Weber of Willows, when it was hit by a powerboat driven by off-duty sheriff's chief deputy, Russell Perdock, who was not charged in the case. The vehicular manslaughter charge against Dinius arises, in part, because it is alleged that the sailboat's running lights weren't on.
Langan asked for more time to investigate the case and told Byrne last Friday that he would file a written motion explaining his reasons for not starting the trial on May 19.
The new nine-page motion explains that Langan has received new information about Perdock's activities on the day of the crash, and that another witness has come forward to corroborate statements made by former sheriff's Sgt. James Beland, who said he was ordered not to administer a preliminary alcohol screening (PAS) – or breathalyzer – test to Perdock after the crash occurred.
Byrne has scheduled a May 19 hearing on whether or not to change the trial date. At that time he also will consider a motion by Langan to secure Beland's personnel records.
Langan, who last week was denied a request to place a gag order on the case that would have limited comments of witnesses and the attorneys to the media, did not return a call to Lake County News seeking comment on how much more time he would need to prepare for the case. District Attorney Jon Hopkins also did not reply to an e-mail message.
According to the declarations in his motion to continue the trial and its supporting documents, Langan's request hinges on his need to fully investigate the matter, and the investigator assigned to the case can't complete the investigation by May 19.
Dinius’ defense attorney, Victor Haltom of Sacramento, said he opposes any change in trial dates.
“My instructions from my client are, 'Let's go, let's get this trial over and done with,'” Haltom said. “He's sick of dealing with this. He's at his wits' end.”
Motions refer to new, and disputed, information
In his motion, Langan explains that on April 27 he was informed that district attorney's investigators contacted certain individuals who provided information about Perdock's activities prior to the April 2006 collision “that appears to be in conflict with the information previously provided to the DA's office by other witnesses in this regard.”
“I think that this is significant motion,” said Haltom. “I think there are some significant disclosures in there.”
Haltom said he expects Langan to give more specifics on May 19 about the information he received.
For his part, Haltom said there are people who have told him they saw Perdock at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa in the hours before the crash. “Perdock denies having set foot on the grounds of Konocti on that day,” said Haltom.
Haltom said he and an investigator interviewed Perdock's ex-wife, Donna, in November of 2007, and she said her then-husband had left the house by 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. on April 29, 2006, while Perdock himself has said he did not leave with his boat until about two hours later.
“I think the district attorney is coming around to see there is a pretty glaring omission here,” Haltom said.
On Friday, in the wake of the rising speculation about the information Langan received, Perdock himself told Lake County News that he was not on the Konocti Harbor property the day of the crash. “I absolutely deny that information,” he said of the new allegations about his whereabouts.
Perdock said he has withheld making public statements about the case because Dinius deserves a fair trial.
“The information I would have would taint a jury,” he said.
He said he felt Haltom also has a duty to make sure there’s a fair trial for the sake of the victim, Lynn Thornton, and accused a Bay Area reporter of being a “propaganda agent” for the defense.
New information said to support Beland
Another important part of Langan's motion involves new information supporting Beland's contention that Boat Patrol Sgt. Dennis Ostini ordered him not to administer a PAS test to Perdock at the scene of the crash – which contradicts his testimony on the stand in Dinius' preliminary hearing in May of 2008.
Langan’s Wednesday motion states that on April 27 he received information that district attorney's investigators contacted another former sheriff's sergeant who was on duty and at the scene of the
crash.
That former sergeant, said Langan, provided information “apparently indicating that former Sgt. Beland may have been 'ordered' not to administer a PAS test to Mr. Perdock.”
Ostini, who was in charge of the collision scene, testified during the preliminary hearing that it was his judgment that it was better to rely on a blood test at the hospital.
A breathalyzer test also wasn't administered to Dinius at the scene, which Beland testified to suggesting to Ostini. Blood draws were conducted on both Dinius and Weber at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
Ostini's decision to go with blood tests over the breathalyzer may be better understood when considering a research paper by David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Sociology of the State University of New York at Potsdam, who has studied alcohol and drinking for more than 40 years.
“Because invalid tests can make it more difficult to obtain convictions, many law enforcement agencies now prefer to obtain blood samples, which have fewer sources of invalidity,” Hanson writes.
So Beland – who had testified in court to being among the first sheriff's deputies on scene – drove Perdock to St. Helena Hospital-Clearlake for a blood draw.
Perdock said Friday that he had asked Ostini to have him taken to the hospital as quickly as possible after the crash so that the blood draw could be taken. He said the crash scene was “fairly chaotic” at that point.
He added that he has since voluntarily submitted DNA samples for testing because Haltom questioned whether or not the blood originally tested was actually Perdock’s.
In April Haltom said during a hearing that Beland – who approached him last year after losing his job with the sheriff’s office – stated that he told Langan before the preliminary hearing last year that he was ordered not to give the PAS test.
According to Haltom, Beland's attorney, Scott Lewis, said Langan “shaped” Beland's testimony, which Langan denied. Langan disclosed the conversation with Beland in the judge's chambers during the preliminary hearing.
Lewis, based in Santa Rosa, did not offer comment when Lake County News contacted him regarding the case.
Internal affairs documents reveal Beland’s statements
However, Lewis has shared portions of Beland's personnel records with Haltom. Some of those, including a portion of a June 17, 2008, internal affairs investigation interview, have been filed as part of the case's
documents.
In a 35-page transcript, sheriff's Lt. Cecil Brown explains that the investigation covered the period from May 18 through May 22, 2008, the week Dinius' preliminary hearing took place, as well as an unknown date in the fall of 2007.
“It is alleged that during this incident, you violated regulations regarding good conduct and that you failed to comply with performance standards for a sergeant,” Brown stated during the interview.
Sheriff’s office regulations regarding good conduct state: “All members, whether on or off duty, shall be governed by the ordinary and reasonable rules of good conduct and behavior, and shall not commit any act tending to bring reproach or discredit upon the Sheriff’s Department or the County of Lake.”
According to the transcript, on May 18, 2008, Beland had a discussion with Langan about the case, in which he stated that he was ordered not to give Perdock the PAS test following the crash, despite his desire to do so.
During the interview Brown asked Beland, “... after talking to Langan for a minute, didn't you tell him that it was not an order, but more of a discussion?”
“Yes,” Beland replied, who also responded “yes” to a followup question by Brown who asked if the words “order” and “discussion” have different meanings to him.
During the interview Beland maintained that Ostini ordered him not to give the test.
Beland told Brown that he'd told several other sheriff's office staff that he had been told by Ostini not to administer the PAS test. He also stated that at the time he didn't argue against Ostini's decision to seek a blood draw. “I thought it was a good decision.”
Beland – who in the internal investigation transcript noted that he had previously been placed on a performance improvement plan for another matter – was terminated after the internal affairs investigation, according to Langan's Wednesday motion.
Protection sought for personnel records
Langan has filed a Pitchess motion to acquire Beland's personnel files, which both Beland and the Lake County Sheriff's Office are opposing. That motion also will be heard May 19.
County Counsel Anita Grant said her office is representing the sheriff's office in its response to Langan's Pitchess motion for the release of Beland's records.
The Pitchess motion procedure was set up to address officer records, which are protected by a number of rules and laws, Grant explained.
Grant said it's par for the course to oppose releasing a peace officers' records. “We've never not done this,” she said.
“The sheriff's department has an obligation here to protect those records absent a court order,” said Grant.
She added that the threshold that has to be met in releasing the documents for review is now relatively low, although the Supreme Court doesn't allow “fishing expeditions.”
Grant, who has dealt with most of the Pitchess motions against the county over several years, said she doesn't know of another case in which the District Attorney's Office has filed such a motion against the sheriff's office.
Despite the fact that some of Beland's records already have been released in court documents, Grant said she doesn't believe that diminishes the sheriff's office's responsibility to protect them. “Our obligation exists notwithstanding and can only be relieved by the court.”
Grant said there is no present lawsuit by Beland against the county. Due to the peace officer bill of rights, she could not comment on whether or not an administrative appeal of his termination is under way.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
MIDDLETOWN – A local school received a check for $10,000 on Friday that will assist it with becoming more green and sustainable.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. awarded the Lake County International Charter School the grant as part of its Bright Ideas Grant, as Lake County News reported earlier this month.
Executive assistant Laura Stalker said the grant will provide “a lot more tools to work with” for the school.
Plans include building a solar-powered green house for native plants, which the school will sell. The school also plans to work on local watershed issues, with opportunities for the school's 100 kindergarten through eighth grade students to get their hands dirty in the process.
The new grant also will lay the foundation for a future “seed to table” program where the children will help grow and cook some of their own foods.
School Director Karl Reichman said teacher training will be one of the tools the grant will help bring to the school.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Tuesday state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell released the annual report on dropout and graduation rates for the 2007-08 school year.
He reported that in 2007-08, 68.3 percent of public school students in California graduated, up from 67.7 percent last year. The adjusted four-year derived dropout rate for the same school year is 20.1 percent, down from 21.1 percent last year.
For the 2007-08 school year, Lake County's overall dropout rate was 16.8 percent, down from 23.07 percent in the previous year.
Local districts posted the following results, with the previous year's percentages included in parentheses: Upper Lake Union High School, 20.1 percent (27.6); Konocti Unified, 19.8 percent (21.4); Lakeport Unified, 15.6 percent (21.7); Middletown Unified, 10.4 percent (21); Kelseyville Unified, 9.6 percent (12.2).
“I am heartened that the graduation rate is up slightly, but California’s dropout rate is still unacceptably high,” said O’Connell.
O'Connell said there are long-term economic repercussions from not graduating for students, for their communities and for our statewide economy. “These data provide even more evidence of the challenge and the moral imperative of closing the achievement gap as well as increasing graduation rates among all students.”
This is the second year that the State Department of Education has calculated student graduation and dropout rates by collecting student-level enrollment and exit data.
The agency said when they have two additional years of data they will be able to produce more accurate student graduation and dropout rates at the school level.
“The data is going to become, I think, more reliable,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck.
Ethnic groups still pose unique challenges at the state and local levels, despite some improvements.
O'Connell called dropout rates for African American and Hispanic students “alarmingly high.”
In Lake County, American Indians led with the highest dropout percentage, 32.7 percent, down from 35.1 percent in 2007-07.
The next highest group, African Americans, had a 24.1 percent dropout rate in 2007-08, down from 31 percent the previous year.
Other groups, with past year's numbers in parentheses, are: multiple/no response, 22.6 (24.5); Hispanic or Latino, 17.4 percent (22.4); white, 13.8 percent (14.2); Filipino, 12.5 percent (0); Asian, 0 percent (16.7); Pacific Islander, rate can't be calculated for 2007-08 (33.3).
“We have to find ways to engage those students,” Geck said.
Geck said efforts are going on across the county to better engage students and keep them in school. Those efforts include the College-Going Initiative – which this year honored 108 local students accepted at four-year colleges and universities – and career technical programs such as Clear Lake High School's health pathways track and Konocti Unified's technical education courses.
He said they're communicating with students that the difference between a high school diploma and a college diploma is about $1 million in earnings over a lifetime.
Districts have until July 3 to review the data, verify student exit codes, and correct all data, O'Connell's office reported.
The new system of tracking students uses the Statewide Student Identifiers (SSIDs) to help districts identify students who were considered a dropout at a school they left but in fact were enrolled in a different district, according to O'Connell's office. In addition, CDE can identify students reported by a school district as transferring to another California school district but cannot be found subsequently enrolled.
The SSIDs are to be part of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, or CALPADS, a system to track students that is to be implemented at all districts in the 2009-10 school year.
Frustrations in addressing dropouts
Upper Lake Union High School Principal/Superintendent Pat Iaccino, whose district has the highest dropout rate according to the Tuesday report, said the way the state tracks dropouts has many holes.
While they're now attempting to track student to determine if they turn up in another school, Iaccino said that tracking system doesn't include community colleges, adult education, universities or other states where students could continue their education and turn out not to be dropouts. Also, students who receive certificates of completion but don't pass the exit exam are classified as dropouts, he said.
So he and his staff are attempting to track students themselves. If a student doesn't appear at school for a time, they send someone out to visit their home.
He said a lot of aspects in the system need to be improved to get a clearer idea of the true number of dropouts, which Iaccino said is a figure that's manipulated for political purposes.
“I get extremely frustrated with the state of California and the Department of Education,” said Iaccino. “What would they like us to do?”
If an 18-year-old can legally leave high school and get an associate's degree at a community college without a high school diploma, why do they need a diploma, he asked.
“We have been doing everything in our power to get these kids through school,” he said, noting that it's a constant pain to deal with ambiguous percentages.
Iaccino, who has been in education for decades, said dropout always have been a struggle, with the state constantly changing the way dropouts are monitored.
He said because his school is small, he believes he can raise the graduation rate to the area of 95 to 97 percent.
One way Iaccino would like to address his district's dropout rate is through establishing an adult education program, which also would benefit community members. However, he said the state won't allow him to do that, so students need to drive instead to Kelseyville.
Debra Jones, administrator, for the state Department of Education's Adult Education Office, said Iaccino is correct – “and it's very sad” – that there are new issues that are hampering adult education programs from getting started.
She said the adult education programs, which were established by Proposition 98, don't get average daily attendance (ADA) dollars until they've been operating for two years. However, there is now no longer an ADA system due to the way the recent state budget handles such categorical funds.
Jones said the funds now go directly to school districts, which are using the funds to offset costs in other areas. “There is no a system in place right now until 2013 because of the budget that the legislature put together,” she said. “There won't be a way for a district to start an adult school. There just isn't a mechanism in place.”
There are some other options, she said, such as specific federal dollars and the ability to start fee-based programs.
Jones said Lake County has huge need as far as the dropout rate and the number of residents who are illiterate or who have low reading comprehension levels. “It's even further away right now due to our California state budget challenges than it ever was before.”
Geck said the programs needed to keep students from dropping out are in danger due to the current budget crisis.
“The big challenge with the proposition and the rhetoric around budget cut is we don't have specific information about what it is going to do to the budget,” he said.
To see the reports, visit the state Department of Education Web site at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Kathy Fowler, who owns Kathy Fowler Chevrolet-Pontiac – which sells General Motors, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles – was breathing a sigh of relief thanks to not being listed.
She said she confirmed it with her Chrysler representative Thursday morning.
Fowler said her business was receiving calls throughout the day from concerned customers fearing the worst.
The 41-page list of dealers slated for contract termination included 32 California dealers.
The only North Coast Chrysler dealer listed was Harvey M. Harper Co. of Eureka. Dealerships in Chico, Oroville, Oakland and Burlingame also received notices of terminations.
On Thursday Chrysler LLC filed a motion with the US Bankruptcy Court seeking to reject some of its US dealer agreements.
It's the latest development for the company, which filed bankruptcy April 30 and is forming a new company with Fiat. Chrysler also temporarily idled most of its manufacturing operations effective May 4 for a period between 30 and 60 days.
“The unprecedented decline in the industry has had a significant impact on our sales and forced us to reduce production levels to better match the needs of the market,” Chrysler Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said in a statement issued Thursday. “With the downsizing of operations after the sale and reduction of plants and production, similar reductions must be made to the size of the dealer body.”
Press said the company regretted the “painful action.”
The 789 dealers who will have their contracts terminated represents 14 percent of Chrysler's sales volume, according to a Thursday statement from Chrysler. They will cease selling Dodge, Chrysler or Jeep vehicles on or about June 9, subject to the US bankruptcy court's approval.
The company chose which dealers to cut based on a “data-driven matrix that assessed a number of
key metrics,” which weren't detailed.
Fowler said the parameters for the selections given to dealers were “very vague.” She said much of it was based on issues liked spacing between franchises and good performance.
The restructuring of the dealer network is “a necessary part of Chrysler’s viability plan” and central to its proposed sale transaction.
Chrysler said the action also is mean to ensure that the remaining 2,392 dealers and the new company “will be stronger and more profitable going forward.”
Chrysler said it will “work to assist in the redistribution of new vehicles and parts to the remaining dealer network.”
Pressure on local car dealers has been a concern for local officials.
During a round table with Congressman Mike Thompson on April 9, County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox raised the issue, noting that he's met with local new car dealers that have been under pressure due to auto bailout, as Lake County News has reported.
Fowler and Holder Ford now are the only two new car dealers remaining in Lake County. Cox was concerned about what appears to be a push to shut down dealerships in rural areas. Thompson said at that time that he had held a conference call with auto dealers throughout the district that resulted in a letter from the California Congressional delegation to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, outlining dealers' concerns.
Thompson had warned that many dealerships would end up being closed because they were larger than the suggested number in the government's business plan.
For many auto dealers, they're not out of the woods yet: On Friday General Motors is expected to begin making cuts to its dealerships as well.
The California dealers slated to have their agreements terminated by Chrysler include the following.
– Atascadero: Ted Miles Jeep Inc.
– Burlingame: T&K Automotive Investments Inc.
– Carson: Carson CJ LLC
– Chico: Courtesy Motors Auto Center Inc.
– El Centro: WR Thomas Inc.
– Escondido: EJE Inc.
– Eureka: Harvey M. Harper Co.
– Folsom: People's Chrysler Jeep Inc.
– Foothill Ranch: Urban Automotive Group LLC
– Garden Grove: Union Dodge Inc.
– Glendale: Los Feliz Ford Inc.
– Grass Valley: GK Alcombrack Inc., Weaver Automotive Inc.
– Hanford: Hanford Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep Inc.
– La Quinta: Sowell Automotive Inc.
– Livermore: Livermore Auto Group Inc.
– Merced: Ron & Ann Enterprises
– Oakdale: LE Richardson Enterprises Inc.
– Oakland: Bay Bridge Dodge Chrysler Jeep
– Oroville: Oroville Motors Inc.
– Redwood City: Autocal LLC, Boardwalk Auto Center Inc.
– San Diego: John Hine Pontiac
– San Fernando: Murphy and Shelby Dodge Inc.
– San Luis Obispo: Hysen-Johnson Ford Inc.
– Seaside: Butts Pontiac-Cadillac Inc., Larry Menke Inc.
– Sonora: Mother Lode Motors
– Van Nuys: Valley Dodge Inc., Valley Dodge Inc./dba Big Valley Chrysler Jeep
– Ventura: Kirby Oldsmobile
– Yuba City – Wheeler Leasing Co. II Inc.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
