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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – A 19-year-old Clearlake woman died and two other young women were injured in a single-vehicle crash Tuesday night near Hidden Valley Lake.
Leah Davidson Hernandez died at the scene of the wreck, which occurred just before 7 p.m. on Highway 29 north of the Spruce Grove Road Extension and Arabian Lane, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The driver in the crash, 23-year-old Nina A. Litzin of Clearlake, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, the CHP reported.
Hernandez was riding in the front passenger seat of a 1997 Chrysler Sebring convertible which Litzin was driving, with Tamara L. Davidson, 21, also of Clearlake, riding in the backseat, the CHP said.
The CHP investigation determined that Litzin was driving the Chrysler southbound in a reckless manner when she lost control.
A driver reported to the CHP that a vehicle was swerving behind them, attempted to pass and then went off the roadway and over an embankment.
The CHP said Litzin's Chrysler went off the west roadway edge, narrowly missing a guardrail.
The car continued down the embankment, hitting a tree and several rocks, before it rolled over and Hernandez was ejected from the vehicle, sustaining fatal injuries, according to the report.
The CHP said Litzin suffered a broken back and Davidson sustained minor injuries. Both were flown out to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in separate REACH air ambulances.
Before she was transported, Litzin was placed under arrest, the CHP said.
The CHP said it's still trying to determine whether the women were using seatbelts.
The crash's exact cause also is still under investigation, the agency said.
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NICE, Calif. – On Tuesday several families that had been subject to tribal disenrollment several years ago were evicted from their homes on Robinson Rancheria.
Tribal member E.J. Crandell said about five homes were evicted beginning Tuesday morning.
The tenants evicted on Tuesday were tribal members disenrolled in late 2008, including Karen Ramos, Inez Sands, Robert Quitiquit and Reuban Want, Crandell said.
The home of Luwana Quitiquit, who had died in December, also was targeted for the eviction, according to Crandell.
Sgt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the evictions were conducted by the Robinson Rancheria Police Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
He said personnel from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office were present during the evictions and acting in a support role only. Brooks said they were only on scene in case a crime was committed against the officials who were conducting the evictions.
Northshore Fire was staged in case of emergency, according to Chief Jay Beristianos.
District Attorney's Office staff also were reported to be on scene, Crandell said.
The disenrollments arose in the wake of a disputed June 2008 election during which Crandell challenged Tribal Chair Tracey Avila.
Crandell won the election, which he alleged later was overturned by an election committee composed of Avila's family members.
The tribal council, led by Avila, later would disenroll approximately 67 individuals, one of them posthumously.
An effort to evict the families began after the Bureau of Indian Affairs upheld the disenrollments. The tribal council formed a tribal court, which ruled against the five tenants in January 2011, according to court documents.
In documents associated with a federal court action the tribe brought against the tenants in August 2011, the tribe alleged that it was evicting the group for failure to pay a monthly administration fee as rent in violation of tenant agreements.
However, the tenants argued in their response that they resided in homes they contracted to purchase through a federally funded, low-income housing program, and that they were actually targeted because they had been disenrolled.
That federal case was dismissed, on the agreement of both parties, this past March.
Crandell said tenants were presented with eviction documents from the tribal court. He said the documents had not been presented to the group's current attorney.
The move comes less than a week before tribal leaders are set to meet as part of the Lake County Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee to discuss giving grants from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund – to which Robinson Rancheria and Big Valley Rancheria contribute – to local agencies. Both the sheriff's office and the District Attorney's Office have applied for those funds.
That meeting is set to take place at 9 a.m. Monday, May 14, in conference room B in the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Last year, a dispute between Sheriff Frank Rivero and Robinson Rancheria resulted in his department getting none of the funds, as Lake County News has reported.
Avila, meanwhile, is scheduled to appear in court later this month for the scheduling of a preliminary hearing in a felony grand theft case against her.
She is alleged to have stolen more than $60,000 from the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians in Clearlake Oaks while she worked for that tribe as a fiscal officer from February 2006 to September 2008.
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LUCERNE, Calif. – Three people were injured as the result of a Tuesday night crash between a motorcycle and a vehicle in Lucerne.
The head-on wreck was reported at about 8:45 p.m. on Highway 20 at Oakcrest Drive, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Both lanes of traffic were blocked as Northshore Fire Protection District firefighters and the CHP responded to the scene, radio reports indicated.
REACH and CalStar air ambulances responded, landing at Lucerne Harbor Park.
Two of the crash victims were subsequently flown to regional trauma centers, according to radio reports. A third patient was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
The CHP said the highway was reopened shortly before 9:30 p.m., with fire officials clearing the scene about an hour after the call was first dispatched.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Unusual cloud formations and vivid rainbow colors in the sky got the attention of many county residents on Tuesday.
A picture taken by Joe Steiner was posted by friend Shannon Kimbell-Auth on Facebook Tuesday. It showed a mass of clouds with an explosion of color.
Pictures Lakeport resident Russell Bishop posted on his Facebook page also showed the colors against an unusual cloud column.
Lake County News asked Alan Buis, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, about the cloud formations and what they were.
Buis consulted with a number of scientists, and Steve LaDochy, a meteorologist at California State University, Los Angeles, and a Jet Propulsion Lab employee, offered the scientific explanation of what Lake County residents witnessed.
In Steiner's photo, what's seen is cloud iridescence, which is diffraction of sunlight by different sized cloud droplets. The typical clouds associated with cloud iridescence are cirrocumulus and altocumulus, LaDochy explained in an email.
Regarding the cloud shown in Bishop's photo, LaDochy notes in his email response, “I’ve seen these in Canada, but not quite like this down here. It is called a circumzenithal arc and is associated with ice crystals (often in thin cirrus clouds at very cold temperatures).”
He said the ice crystals cause a refraction of sunlight that enters the top of plate-like crystals and exits out one of its sides. It requires a fairly low sun, at less than 32 degrees, to accomplish it.
“A more common refraction is a halo around the sun due to ice crustals or sundogs, where the halo is brightest on the sides of the halo making it look like 3 suns. Romans thought this brought good luck,” LaDochy said.
The ice crystals that give rise to the optical wonders come from cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere, where temperatures are below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, LaDochy explained.
“They are not rain clouds, but can cause some pretty optical effects when the sun shines through them. Sometimes contrails will get a bit of these effects, but not often,” He said.
LaDochy added, “People should look up more often.”
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