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- Written by: Lake County News reports
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Two Arizona residents were arrested in Middletown Saturday on a number of drug charges.
Lance Boyd Smith, 43, and Annette Marie Hunkler, 41, both of Cottonwood, Ariz., were arrested Saturday afternoon following a traffic stop by California Highway Patrol Officer Rob Hearn, according to a CHP report.
Hearn was flagged down at around 2:30 p.m. Nov. 13 while he was driving in Middletown. The report from CHP Officer Steve Tanguay said Hearn was advised of a dog mauling incident that had just occurred a block away from his location.
Hearn responded to the corner of Armstrong and Lincoln streets to meet with the victim. Tanguay said witnesses reported that there were two pit bull dogs running loose that attacked another dog. The witnesses then reported that the owners of the dogs were leaving the area.
Tanguay said Hearn located the vehicle and initiated a traffic stop. Smith exited the vehicle and approached Hearn, who could smell the odor of marijuana coming from inside a trailer that was being towed by Smith.
During a search of the vehicle Hearn located a loaded sawed off shotgun, more than 2 pounds of processed marijuana, other drugs, drug paraphernalia, drug packaging equipment and approximately 43 growing marijuana plants, Tanguay said.
Smith and Hunkler were arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail.
Smith was charged with eight felonies related to marijuana and firearms, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, with bail set at $30,000. Hunkler faced four felonies related to drugs, with her bail set at $20,000.
Both remained in the Lake County Jail Tuesday night.
Tanguay said Lake County Animal Control also arrived on scene to assist with investigating the dog mauling incident.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Arturo Pedro Gutierrez, 50, was taken into custody over the weekend and booked for kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, forced oral copulation and misdemeanor brandishing of a weapon, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The victim went to the Ukiah Valley Memorial Hospital last Friday night for the treatment of multiple injuries he sustained while allegedly being held captive for about two weeks at Gutierrez’s ranch on Bridge Arbor Road in Upper Lake, Bauman said.
While being treated at the hospital, the victim gave a preliminary account of his ordeal to the Ukiah Police Department, and then met with Lake County deputies in Lakeport, according to Bauman.
Bauman said the victim reported that in late October, he had arranged to work for Gutierrez trimming marijuana at his Upper Lake ranch.
At some point during the first several days of working for Gutierrez, the victim apparently broke down in a vehicle owned by Gutierrez while transporting another worker back to Ukiah, Bauman said.
Angered about the car, Gutierrez reportedly assaulted the victim. Bauman said that when the victim tried to quit working for him, Gutierrez allegedly forced him to stay on his ranch and work for the cost of the vehicle’s repair.
Gutierrez took the victim’s cell phone and for about two weeks, he was allegedly forced to work on the ranch against his will, Bauman said. During that two weeks, the victim was allegedly beaten with an electrical cord, shot in the leg with a pellet gun, choked with a rope and struck with a piece of firewood.
Bauman said the victim was allegedly forced to snort and smoke methamphetamine with a kitchen knife held to his throat, locked in a shed for several days and, at one point during the second week of captivity, he was forced to perform oral sex on Gutierrez.
After spending the last several nights of his ordeal in a tent on the property, Gutierrez took the victim back to Ukiah and threatened to kill him if he reported the events that had taken place, Bauman reported.
On Saturday night at about 11 p.m. deputies contacted Gutierrez at his Upper Lake home and arrested him without incident for the above charges. Bauman said the property was secured pending a search warrant and Gutierrez was booked at the Lake County Jail with an enhanced bail of $500,000.
Bauman said there were no indications of an active marijuana grow on the property, however, deputies did locate about 25 gallon-sized bags of processed marijuana and about 10 garbage bags full of marijuana.
He said there were reportedly some medical marijuana cards found on the premises but none belonged to Gutierrez.
Potential charges relating to the apparent marijuana processing operation are pending further investigation, Bauman said.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley and her staff have until the end of this month to finish the process.
Fridley said ballots were mailed to absentee, or vote by mail, voters on Oct. 4. The ballots that were returned by Oct. 28 were included in the preliminary ballot count issued early on Nov. 3.
Still being counted are 4,500 vote by mail ballots turned in between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2. Of those, 1,834 were turned in on election day, Fridley said.
Fridley's staff has already entered the 4,500 absentee ballots in the elections office computer system and checked the signatures, but the count continues because she said there are many checks and balances for accuracy.
The elections office also has to count 872 provisional ballots, 721 of which were issued at the polls on Nov. 2, according to Fridley.
In the June primary, Fridley's office still had 3,081 vote by mail ballots to count after the preliminary results were reported, along with 537 provisional ballots, she said.
This month approximately 174 local voters used the electronic eSlate voting machines, compared to 148 in the June primary, Fridley said.
There have been no problems with the eSlate machines, although Fridley said they are “a lot of work,” and require their own verification and paper trail.
Voter turnout in the June primary was 47.5 percent, according to the final certification. That was 11.4 percent higher that the turnout estimated in the preliminary vote count.
The preliminary voter turnout for Nov. 2 is 48.8 percent, based on county records. That number is likely to change after the final count is done, as it did in the primary.
Fridley said the full count will be completed within the alloted 28 days.
“My goal was to have it done before Thanksgiving,” although Fridley said she may not make that goal.
Also slowing the process is a required manual count, or sample, of a minimum 1 percent of randomly selected precincts for the general election. That tally started Monday and will take two to three days to complete, Fridley said.
The manual count isn't as fast as putting 1,000 cards a minute through a ballot counter, she said. Also, it requires about four people.
“Things kind of stop during the manual count,” she said.
In preparation for that delay, Fridley said she and her staff worked on Veterans Day in order to try to get ahead.
On election night, Fridley and her staff struggled when two of their three ballot counting machines stopped working.
The paper on the ballots for the general election were a little bit thicker, which caused the problem, she said.
A vendor was at Fridley's office last week working on the machines. She said he was able to adjust them to work with the different paper thickness.
The ballot counting machines are older – Fridley said one of the machines was purchased in 1983. But other than the election night glitch, they've worked fine, she said.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A well-known local businesswoman had the chance to meet a member of the British royal family in a special service last Wednesday that honored her daughter and British journalists who have died in war zones.
Nancy Ruzicka was in London last week, where she took part in a remembrance service for British journalists killed while covering wars around the world.
According to the United Kingdom's Daily Mail, the Wednesday service at London's St. Bride's Church – attended by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – included the reading of the names of 48 journalists killed in conflict zones worldwide.
Ruzicka's daughter, Marla, also was honored at the service, her mother said.
Marla Ruzicka was killed in April 2005 while working on humanitarian issues in Iraq.
While working in Afghanistan and Iraq, Marla Ruzicka was a colleague of British journalist Jon Swain of the Times of London, Nancy Ruzicka said.
Even though Marla Ruzicka wasn't a journalist, Swain had nominated her to be honored as part of the commemoration, Nancy Ruzicka explained.
Swain then invited Nancy Ruzicka to the London service. She said she traveled over to England from New York on the Queen Mary II to attend.
Marla Ruzicka was doing humanitarian work on behalf of civilians in Iraq when she died. Her small organization, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict – CIVIC – didn't have much money, so the young woman knew that to get her message out she needed to rely on journalists, her mother explained.
“Marla worked closely with these journalists,” Nancy Ruzicka said.
A few days before the service, Nancy Ruzicka said she received an e-mail informing her that the Duchess of Cornwall wanted to have a personal meeting with her after the service.
Not recognizing Prince Charles' wife by her formal title, Ruzicka went to the concierge desk at her hotel and asked who was the Duchess of Cornwall.
“That's Camilla!” The young men at the concierge desk replied.
For the next few days, every time Ruzicka passed the desk, the young men asked brightly, “Have you met her yet?”
Nancy Ruzicka called the service – complete with a large choir – at St. Bride's Church “wonderful.”
After the service, Nancy Ruzicka had the chance to meet the duchess, an experience which she called “unbelievable.”
