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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKE COUNTY – With Santa preparing to make his Atlantic crossing from Europe to the United States, final preparations to welcome him are in full swing across North America.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported shortly before 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time that Santa was seen near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where the clock was striking midnight.
Santa has since been spotted near Cartgena, Spain.
From the tracking pattern it appears that Santa and his reindeer will soon begin crossing the Atlantic and heading for the homes of good children in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Meanwhile, in California, state officials gave Santa Claus the OK for a safe landing.
California State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer has granted a 24-hour permit waiving all brand inspection and health requirements for nine reindeer slated to visit California on the evening of Dec. 24 and the in early morning hours of Dec. 25.
State Department of Food and Agriculture officials reported that the permit application was filed this week by a rotund, jolly man with a red face and a white beard. He signed his name to the paperwork: “K. Kringle.”
The nine reindeer named on the permit are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph.
“We are pleased to grant the temporary waiver to Mr. Kringle,” said CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura. “We wish him safe travels as he and his reindeer make deliveries to the good children of California.”
NORAD reports that it began tracking Santa in 1955 and it has been a Christmas Eve tradition ever since.
To see Santa's progress, visit Norad's Santa tracking Web site, which is complete with videos and updates every five minutes, at www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
David Garlow Deason, 68, won an appeal of his February 2006 first-degree murder conviction from the First Appellate District Court on Dec. 14, as Lake County News has reported.
The appellate court found that the trial court erred by not allowing evidence of Deason's 0.27 blood alcohol level into defense testimony or jury instructions.
The alcohol was an important factor in determining whether or not Deason had planned the murder, the appellate court found.
Deason was convicted of the shooting death of 48-year-old Marie Parlet at the home they shared in Clearlake on Dec. 6, 2004, according to court records.
The couple had a disagreement earlier in the day, and Deason reportedly left and went drinking before returning home and shooting Parlet once in the chest and once in the back with a .38 pistol from a distance of about 18 inches, court records reported.
District Attorney Jon Hopkins told Lake County News that Deason will be brought back to Lake County where he'll be kept in custody while Hopkins decides what action to take next.
Hopkins isn't sure when Deason will be brought back, but said it will be early next year, after the appellate court's decision becomes final.
In the meantime, Hopkins said he must discuss the case with the state Attorney General's Office to see if that office suggests further appellate action. The case could also be appealed to the state Supreme Court, he added.
In the original trial transcripts, Deason's defense attorney, J. David Markham, argued that the blood alcohol evidence was critical to understanding the case. He contended it was central to the issue of premediation, which is necessary to proving a first-degree murder charge.
That argument was one with which the state's appellate judges agreed.
Hopkins explained that Deputy District Attorney John Langan, who prosecuted Deason, argued that the defense didn't have an expert who would interpret the amount of alcohol and what it meant with respect to premeditation and deliberation.
Deason's high blood alcohol level was recorded an hour and a half after the murder. Langan argued that Deason was at home alone for an hour after the murder drinking, said Hopkins. The prosecution questioned whether it could be determined that Deason had incurred that alcohol level before the murder or after.
“There would be no way of actually telling how much alcohol was in his system at the time of the killing,” said Hopkins. “In the decision by the appellate court, there was no real discussion of that issue.”
Deason had prior alcohol-related arrests in the 1970s, including three DUIs, as well as a conviction for carrying a loaded firearm in a public place. However, Hopkins said the prosecution did not introduce those cases into evidence.
“It's a rare circumstance where we're permitted to introduce prior conduct to be considered in the guilt phase of the case,” he said.
What's next, said Hopkins, is assessing where the case is now. “We're ready to go back to trial again.”
Hopkins said there are several options for moving forward, including further appellate work by the Attorney General's Office, a retrial on the first-degree murder charges and reaching a negotiated disposition in which Deason pleads guilty to a lesser charge.
The District Attorney's Office also could just dump the case, but Hopkins added, “That's not gonna happen.”
The last time a local murder conviction was set aside was in the 1990s, before Hopkins arrived in Lake County. That case involved defendant Charles Statler, Hopkins said, who was tried by Gary Luck during his tenure as district attorney.
Statler, according to Hopkins, killed another man with a cast iron skillet, which a federal appeals court ruled wasn't necessarily a deadly weapon.
“Our heads are still spinning over that legal analysis,” said Hopkins.
The Statler case, he added, ultimately was resolved with a plea bargain.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The crash occurred at about 6:14 p.m. on Highway 29 just north of Mockingbird Lane near Lakeport, according to the California Highway Patrol's incident logs.
Two pickups – a Dodge Ram and a Ford – collided, the CHP reported.
One of the pickups rolled over onto its side, trapping one person inside, according to the CHP. Wood debris was reportedly scattered over the roadway.
The collision blocked both the northbound and southbound lanes of the highway, the CHP reported.
Officials closed that portion of the road, which is only two lanes, to traffic while the rescue took place.
The person trapped in the vehicle was extracted and lifeflighted to the hospital shortly before 7 p.m., according to the CHP logs.
One of the vehicles involved, the CHP reported, was towed for evidence.
No information on the identifies of the people involved in the crash was available Sunday night.
The CHP reopened the highway at 8:47 p.m. about two and a half hours after the crash occurred.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Details
- Written by: Lake County News reports
Clearlake and Lakeport in the coming years.
New equipment purchases and increased special traffic enforcement measures are on tap as a result of a
recent $143,250 AVOID Anti-DUI Program grant awarded by the Office of Traffic Safety to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Cecil Brown reported Sunday.
The AVOID Program began in 1973, according to the program's Web site. It brings together law enforcement agencies in countywide clusters to crack down on drunk driving and reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries that result from DUIs.
Since 1974, 35 counties and 350 law enforcement agencies have joined the program, its Web site reports.
Locally, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Clearlake Police Department and the Lakeport Police Department will work together under the grant, according to Sheriff Rod Mitchell.
“We are pleased to have an opportunity through this grant to assist the other law enforcement agencies with combating the dangers of DUI,” Sheriff Rod Mitchell said in a statement issued by his department. “Individually, the agencies do a good job combating this problem. Collectively, we all do a great job with it.
“It is my hope that the AVOID grant activities will have a measurable impact on increasing the public’s safety,” Mitchell continued. “Although the grant funds only staff time from the sheriff’s department and the police departments of Clearlake and Lakeport, the California Highway Patrol has been extremely generous with their support of AVOID program.”
Brown reported that the grant activities will specifically target those who drive under the influence and those who drive while their driving privilege is suspended.
Locally, that will be done through DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, DUI saturation patrols, warrant/probation sweeps and court sting operations where DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver's licenses get behind the wheel after leaving court, Brown reported.
The first DUI/license checkpoint to take place locally under the AVOID grant will take place later this week, said Brown.
The grant provides funding for equipment and overtime to conduct special enforcement activities, Brown reported. Reimbursement for overtime will be available to the sheriff’s office and the police departments.
The provided equipment will include public education materials, checkpoint supplies, field breathalyzer equipment and a trailer with workspace and equipment hauling capability, said Brown.
“When more people buckle up and drive sober and safely, we save lives. It’s just that simple,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help make Lake County just that much safer of a place to live and work.”
Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Brown reported.
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