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Richard Dowdle, 53, was once again denied parole by the Board of Prison Terms, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who attended the parole hearing to argue against Dowdle’s release.
The parole hearing was held on June 2 at Corcoran State Prison, located 240 miles southeast of Sacramento.
In August 1990 Judge Robert C. Crone sentenced Dowdle to life plus five years for the attempted murder of his girlfriend, Hinchcliff said. Current Superior Court Judge Richard Martin was the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Dowdle.
In January 1990, Dowdle was released from the Hill Road Jail in Lakeport after serving time on a domestic violence offense against his girlfriend, according to Hinchcliff.
When he returned to their residence on Emerald Drive in Kelseyville that day, Hinchcliff said Dowdle discovered that his girlfriend had moved her 17-year-old son and a friend of his into the residence to help pay rent.
Hinchcliff said Dowdle, who worked in The Geysers steam field as a driller and was a cross-dresser, was upset that there were “intruders” in the house. He stated that being a “roughneck” he would be too embarrassed to wear female clothing in front of the “intruders.”
Dowdle became angry and confronted the victim while she was in the bedroom with their baby daughter, and punched her, Hinchcliff explained. Dowdle then went into the kitchen, retrieved a butcher knife, and stabbed his girlfriend several times in the shoulder and abdomen. Her son helped her escape from the house.
When deputy sheriff’s arrived and entered the residence, they found that Dowdle had used the knife to cut his own throat and disembowel himself, according to Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff said Dowdle initially became eligible for parole in May of 2000.
This was Dowdle’s fifth parole hearing since 1998, said Hinchcliff, who also attended the previous hearings to argue against parole.
Although Dowdle has obtained his GED and remained disciplinary free in prison, and may some day be granted parole, the parole commissioners agreed with Hinchcliff that Dowdle had not done enough in prison to address his alcohol abuse problem, his anger control problems or his psychiatric problems. They also found he had no concrete parole plans if he were released, and he still presents a substantial risk of danger to women if released from prison.
Hinchcliff said Dowdle's next parole hearing will take place in two years.
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Chief Deputy James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's reported that over the past Memorial Day weekend, the Lake County “Avoid the Three” DUI Task Force conducted a driving under the influence/driver's license checkpoint in the city of Clearlake and special saturation patrols in and around the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport.
The task force's objective, Bauman reported, is to detect and remove intoxicated or impaired drivers from Lake County streets and highways.
The checkpoint and saturation patrols were conducted by members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakeport and Clearlake Police Departments, and the California Highway Patrol, said Bauman.
Eleven officers operated the DUI checkpoint on May 23 from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. in the city of Clearlake, Bauman reported.
Of the 391 vehicles screened during the checkpoint, he said two arrests were made for DUI, 10 arrests were made for other misdemeanor violations, 15 citations were issued and nine vehicles were impounded.
The DUI task force conducted five saturation patrols in and around the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake from May 24 through May 26, according to Bauman. The increased patrols resulted in a total of 149 vehicle stops in which 25 field sobriety tests were conducted, nine DUI arrests were made, 17 other misdemeanor or felony arrests were made and seven vehicles were impounded.
The DUI Task Force is planning additional checkpoints and saturation patrols for the upcoming Independence Day weekend in July, and the Labor Day weekend in August, Bauman reported.
Funding for the “Avoid” program is provided through a grant managed by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Safety Administration.
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The public is invited to attend the event, which begins at 11 a.m.
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces launched one of the greatest invasion forces in history in an attempt to take back Europe from Adolf Hitler's German forces.
Before the soldiers went into battle, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower delivered a message in which he told them, “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you.”
A US Army history of the event reports that 160,000 Allied troops – with the support of more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft – fought their way ashore along a 50-mile stretch of Normandy, France, where they encountered the Germans' heavy fortifications.
US soldiers set foot on Omaha and Utah beaches, the British landed at Gold and Sword beaches, and the Canadians at Juno Beach, according to military histories.
Eisenhower also had warned his men that the waiting German forces would fight savagely, and he was right. After ferocious fighting and heavy casualties – the US Army said more than 9,000 men died or were wounded in the invasion – Allied soldiers would hold the beach and begin their march across Europe.
Veterans who survived the “Day of Days” will be honored at Friday's event.
For more information contact Veterans Services at 263-2384.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Susanne La Faver took 31.7 percent of the vote, with James Comstock coming in a hair behind at 30.5 percent of the south county vote.
In the final results Tuesday – which the Elections Office still must officially certify – La Faver took 599 votes, with Comstock edging to within 22 votes of her, with 577.
Don Dornbush, who came close to upsetting Ed Robey in his reelection bid four years ago, placed third, with 232 votes or 12.3 percent of the vote, followed by Scott Fergusson, 208 votes, 11 percent; Robert MacIntyre, 171 votes, 9 percent; and Joey Luiz, 99 votes, 5.2 percent. There also were four write-in candidates which accounted for 0.2 percent of the vote.
As the two frontrunners, La Faver and Comstock will now gear up for the next phase of the race, which will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in concert with the presidential election.
La Faver said Tuesday's results were exactly what she had expected.
“We campaigned against five tough candidates,” she said. “We’re thrilled to be the top choice of District 1 voters. We look forward to discussing the issues with voters and our opponent during the next five months, then going on to win in November.”
Comstock said Tuesday night that it felt “really good” to be in the runoff.
La Faver, 59, a consultant and graduate business instructor at Golden Gate Unviersity, was one of the first candidates to declare her intention to run for the District 1 seat last summer when Supervisor Ed Robey announced he would not seek reelection. She later garnered Robey's endorsement.
Comstock, 58, a longtime member of the Middletown Unified School District Board of Trustees and a well-known local businessman and rancher, came into the race after La Faver.
“We got in a little later, and we're playing catch up and it looks like we caught up,” he said.
Throughout the returns Tuesday night, Comstock and La Faver had topped the field, with La Faver beginning with a sizable lead of absentees and votes reported from the initial precincts.
But as the last precincts were tallied, Comstock had closed the gap, coming to within less than two dozen votes of a tie.
Comstock said his lead issues – which have remained the same from the beginning – are jobs and the creation of businesses locally, which he said have resonated with people. His school board experience and lifelong residency also gained him support, he added.
Both La Faver and Comstock are getting ready to kick their campaigns into high gear for the five-month stretch ahead.
That includes looking at returns and trying to pick up voters from the four candidates – Dornbush, Fergusson, MacIntyre and Luiz – whose campaigns ended Tuesday.
La Faver said Tuesday she already had spoken with Joey Luiz and invited him to join her summer and fall campaign, indicating he had accepted.
Comstock said he suspects the November turnout will be much higher than that on Tuesday, which between absentees and precinct ballots cast amounted to 25.2 percent countywide, according to the Registrar of Voters report, with a 27.1 percent turnout in District 1.
Of the greater turnout expected in November, he added, “Who knows who that's gong to benefit?”
Find out more about the candidates at www.susanneforsupervisor.com and www.jimcomstock.com.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson