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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Caltrans is urging drivers to be careful at this time of year, when collisions between deer and vehicles can multiply.
Drivers should be extra vigilant this time of year and follow these tips for driving in deer country, courtesy of the National Park Service:
Be particularly attentive between sunset and midnight, during the hours shortly before and after sunrise, and in foggy conditions. Most deer-vehicle collisions occur during those times.
Drive carefully in areas known to have high deer populations. Places where roads divide agricultural fields or streams from forestland are particularly dangerous.
If you see a deer, slow down. Others are probably nearby.
Use high-beam headlights when there is no oncoming traffic. The high beams can reflect off their eyes and warn you of their presence.
If a deer is in your lane, brake firmly but stay in the lane. The most serious crashes occur when drivers swerve.
Don't rely on deer whistles, deer fences, or reflectors to deter deer.
Wear seat belts.
If your car strikes a deer, don't touch the animal. If the deer is blocking the highway, call 911.
“Please use extra caution when driving and make the end of the day a good one,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Charlie Fielder.
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“These thieves broke into gas station pumps and installed devices that collected customers' debit and credit card numbers and ATM PINs,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said, “and later they used that stolen information to create fraudulent cards, make purchases and withdraw thousands of dollars from victims' accounts.”
David Karapetyan, 32, Zhirayr Zamanyan, 30, and Edwin Hamazaspyan, 31, all of Los Angeles, were scheduled to appear on Wednesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court to face charges. The complaint against them includes 42 counts of felony identity theft and one count of conspiracy.
If convicted on all charges, the three could each face up to 31 years in prison.
In March, the Attorney General's office took over prosecution of the case from the Contra Costa District Attorney's office because the crimes occurred in multiple jurisdictions throughout Northern California. An amended complaint was filed today.
In their high-tech crime spree, the three traveled to gas stations and banks across the Bay Area in a rented Cadillac Escalade. From November 2009 to February 2010, they are believed to have stolen $158,800 from 196 people.
They acquired keys to unlock various kinds of gas station pumps. Once they opened the pumps, they were able to connect two cables inside to their two-inch electronic device, which looked like a circuit board encased in electrical tape, and recorded ATM and credit card data as well as victims' PINs. No tampering was visible on the outside of the pumps.
The trio would later return to retrieve the skimmers, which took less than 20 seconds.
The investigation began in February when police in Solano and Contra Costa counties reported an increase in identity theft and a 7-11 Store employee in Martinez noticed a skimming device inside a gas pump.
Police removed the device, replaced it with a mock device and conducted 24-hour surveillance. Karapetyan and Zamanyan were arrested when they arrived to remove the device. In total, seven devices were found inside gas pumps in Martinez, Benicia, Livermore, Hayward, Oakland, San Mateo and Sacramento.
Banks have reimbursed the victims.
The Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies, led the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, Martinez Police Department and the Glendale Police Department.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Prosecutor Ed Borg's decision to dismiss the case against 82-year-old Eugene Schwartz came at the end of a preliminary hearing held Oct. 7.
Schwartz had been charged with three counts – rape of a victim unable to give consent because of medical condition, forcible rape and abuse of a dependent adult – for one act alleged to have taken place in August 2009, Borg said.
Borg told Lake County News that although the 48-year-old alleged victim did well on the stand and showed “a lot of courage,” he said there were enough issues with her testimony that he determined that it was unlikely the case could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Schwartz, a business owner and resident in Clearlake since 1965, said he was relieved the ordeal was over.
“The only thing I can tell you about the case is, none of the things – and I mean none – are true,” he said.
Schwartz was arrested April 13, about seven months after his stepdaughter – who he's cared for for 40 years and who has an IQ of about 40 – first made the allegations of rape.
Borg said the offense was alleged to have occurred on Aug. 18, 2009, with Schwartz's stepdaughter making the first report about a month later to a mandated reporter at a program she attended.
Mitchell Hauptman, Schwartz's attorney, said the accusations started a few weeks after Schwartz's wife died.
Schwartz said his stepdaughter always complained about not having friends, and he believed she made the allegation in retaliation for his refusal to let her take part in some social activities.
Last summer, she left one day to go to People Services and didn't come back that night. Schwartz said he began calling around to try to find her. The police called him back and told him they had his stepdaughter in an undisclosed location.
The first Schwartz knew there was a case was when he was arrested April 13, he said.
This wasn't the first time his stepdaughter had made allegations of abuse. Schwartz said she had done so before out of retaliation for not getting her way – once claiming he had beaten her – and that the allegations and been found to be false.
“This last one was the third time that she had told stories,” he said.
Borg said Clearlake Police had interviewed Schwartz's stepdaughter a couple of times and she gave “consistent and credible accounts of what happened, and based on the recorded interviews the case was filed.”
Hauptman said he found it curious – although not uncommon – that it took so long to file the case. During the seven months between the allegation and Schwartz's arrest, “While there was an interview or two that occurred with the victim, nothing else appears to have happened.”
He said remarkably little was disclosed along with the interviews. “We don't know how the original complaint generated based on any of the information that we have, which is unusual.”
There also were not witnesses, Hauptman said, as well as no physical evidence.
Borg said the stepdaughter's testimony was the only evidence, which is why they did a live preliminary hearing, having her go on the stand instead of having the investigating Clearlake Police officer testify about interviewed with her.
Hauptman questioned why no search warrant was served at Schwartz's home, and no physical evidence – like sheets from the stepdaughter's bed – was taken for testing. Hauptman said he tried for months to get the sheets tested to see if there was any signs of DNA.
The reason for not pursuing that testing, said Borg, was that since the woman was removed from Schwartz's home, it was reasonable to infer that he knew she had made a report and he had access to the room in which the crime is alleged to have occurred.
“So even assuming that the sheets had not been changed in a month, by the time the police became involved the value of searching the room and seizing evidence was minimal,” Borg said.
Aside from serving a search warrant, Borg said he wasn't certain what else in the case could have been done that wasn't.
Schwartz was prepared to do a lie detector test, which Hauptman said isn't a practice he favors. He also called the mechanics of an alleged rape by an 80-year-old man on a 48-year-old woman “beyond improbable.”
Borg said the live preliminary hearing was meant to help evaluate if the case could be proven at trial. Hauptman credited Borg with trying to check the veracity of the case before pushing forward.
Borg in turn said Hauptman did a very good cross-examination, which Hauptman said focused on the woman's social problems that would have given her a reason to make the accusation.
He repeatedly asked her open-ended questions about her fear of returning to her stepfather's house. Hauptman said she should have said something about being afraid of being hurt or touched, but instead she said she felt trapped in the house and deprived of making phone calls and having a social life of some kind.
Hauptman said he felt her responses highlighted issues other than sexual misconduct. “Her concern appeared to be the unhappy changes following the death of her mother.”
The hour-and-a-half-long preliminary hearing took place in the Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake division before Judge Stephen Hedstrom, who Hauptman said also had concerns about the prosecution's ability to go forward.
Borg said that, in the end, the appropriate thing to do was dismiss the case. The woman's “substantial disability” really limited the scope of what was possible in the case, he added.
He said he spoke with the stepdaughter before dismissing the case and she agreed to the course of action.
Hauptman said the stepdaughter is both a vulnerable and appealing person who “simply incites a desire to help her,” which likely aided the case in its initial stages.
Schwartz, who maintains he has been an advocate for the developmentally disabled for decades – including serving with local nonprofits dedicated to that cause – said a protective order had been placed against him to keep him away from his stepdaughter. That order was dropped at the end of the preliminary hearing.
She won't be returning to live with him, he said.
“I think she is better in another home with more people that are in her level,” he said.
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Retired Judge Arthur Mann sentenced Guy Robert Archini, 58, to the prison term for 10 felony offenses committed between 2004 and 2008, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff said numerous delays caused by defense attorneys leaving the public defender contract or being relieved at Archini’s request, and other issues involving Archini resulted in his trials and sentencing being delayed numerous times.
Over the course of the judicial proceedings Archini was represented by nine different public defenders, Hinchcliff said.
According to evidence presented at trial, on May 28, 2004, Archini discharged a rifle at his residence in Clearlake Oaks on Pine Street in the presence of a deputy sheriff. When confronted by the deputy, Archini threatened to kill the deputy before fleeing the scene.
About a half-hour later Archini confronted an acquaintance, claiming he needed some things to get out of town. When the female acquaintance threatened to call 911, Archini brandished a handgun and threatened to shoot her.
Archini reportedly was found the following day by deputy sheriffs hiding in his residence in a closet under a pile of clothes. Archini bailed out of jail after his arrest.
Then on Oct. 12, 2005, Archini was arrested by sheriff's deputies for falsely reporting that someone had committed a crime. While being transported to jail, Archini threatened the deputy with death, and told the deputy he knew where the deputy’s family lived and that he knew the deputy had children.
Hinchcliff prosecuted Archini in a jury trial for the May 2004 and October 2005 offenses, and on Oct. 8, 2009, a jury found Archini guilty of six felonies, including threatening deputies, threatening a witness and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Archini was represented at trial by defense attorney Jeremy Dzubay.
On Aug. 12, 2008, while Archini was still out on bail and before the trial in the prior cases, Archini was arrested for felony threats and assault with a shotgun, Hinchcliff said.
According to trial testimony, Archini threatened a male and female who had been living at his residence in Clearlake Oaks by brandishing a shotgun and threatening to kill them. During a struggle for control of the gun, the shotgun discharged.
Deputy District Attorney Dan Moffatt prosecuted Archini for the August 2008 incident, and a jury convicted Archini of four felony counts. Archini was represented in that trial by defense attorney William Conwell.
On Tuesday, Archini was represented by defense counsel Jacob Zamora for sentencing, and Hinchcliff argued the case for the District Attorney's Office.
Mann, who was the judge in the October 2009 trial, sentenced Archini to 12 years in prison and ordered Archini to pay a $2,400 restitution fine.
Because one of the felonies was termed a “violent” felony for sentencing purposes, Hinchcliff said Archini will only receive a 15-percent reduction for good behavior, rather than the usual 50-percent credits.
With 791 days already served in the county jail, Archini won’t be eligible for parole until 2018, Hinchcliff said.
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