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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Matthew Zanoni, 22, was riding on a pontoon boat with friends in the area of Shag Rock off Buckingham Saturday shortly before 3 p.m. when officials say he either jumped or fell into the water and didn't surface. Shag Rock is a rocky outcropping that rises out of the lake; it is located east of Clear Lake State Park and close to the Narrows.
Lt. Cecil Brown of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the North Shore Dive Team and Lake County Search and Rescue Dive Team continued their search throughout the day on Monday.
“They didn't do a recovery today,” Brown said.
Brown said the search effort also used sidescan sonar, a technology similar to that rescuers used to locate the body of Vacaville resident John Stockton, who went missing in the lake in May.
The sonar system, which Brown said can scan in all directions, was brought in by a private contractor.
Brown said divers held a debriefing Monday on the day's search, with plans to continue Tuesday. He said rescuers have been communicating with Zanoni's family as the search has continued.
Divers are very limited in how long they can stay in the water because of various factors, particularly the water conditions, Brown explained.
Brown said on Monday evening the dive teams were discussing how to proceed in Tuesday's search effort. He did not have information available on what outside agencies may be assisting the search.
Zanoni was in Lake County visiting BoardStock, according to a family friend who contacted Lake County News.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Sept. 13, 25-year-old Daniel Williamson was shot multiple times in an incident that occurred near the Mormon Church on Bay Street, as Lake County News previously reported.
Lt. Mike Hermann of the Clearlake Police Department said Monday that police have identified individuals who they believe were responsible for the assault on Williamson.
“It appears that he was accidentally shot,” said Hermann. “The shooting was intentional but we don't believe he was the initial target.”
Hermann said the incident may have been drug-related, not gang-related. That question arose because of Williamson's previous gang ties.
Hermann confirmed that Williamson was the target of an Aug. 28 countywide enforcement operation in which paroles with gang contacts were the targets of parole searches.
Williamson is still in the hospital, Hermann reported, recovering from the gunshot wounds he received.
“He was hit in the right side of his chest and also the right side of his head,” said Hermann.
The shot to Williamson's head, added Hermann, didn't penetrate his skull.
The chest wound appears to have damaged Williamson's spine, said Hermann. The result is that Williamson may be paralyzed from the waist down.
Hermann said the main suspect in the case is in custody on a parole violation.
He did not say if that suspect was John Franklin Smith, 20, a man who police contacted early in the investigation and arrested on a parole violation Sept. 14. Smith no longer is in custody in the Lake County Jail, although parole violation arrests often result in suspects being transported out of county.
Det. Martin Snyder is leading the investigation. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Snyder or Officer Michael Ray at 994-8251.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Center for Biological Diversity on Aug. 28 filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Department of the Interior over the species. A statement from the center said the notice “initiates the largest substantive legal action in the 34-year history of the Endangered Species Act.”
The suit comes in the wake of a scandal involving former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald, who resigned this spring after an Inspector General investigation found she had interfered with science and violated the Endangered Species Acts.
But while MacDonald has been the one Interior Department official drawing most of the blame, the Center for Biological Diversity said she's not alone.
The suit notice alleges that, while MacDonald engineered many of the illegal decision, some decisions also were ordered by her boss, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Craig Manson, his special assistant Randal Bowman and Ruth Solomon in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Lower-level bureaucrats also reportedly were involved in some decisions.
Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the lawsuit “puts the Bush administration on trial at every level for systematically squelching government scientists and installing a cadre of political hatchet men in positions of power.”
Suckling added, “The Bush administration has tried to keep a lid on its growing endangered species scandal by scapegoating Julie MacDonald, but the corruption goes much deeper than one disgraced bureaucrat. It reaches into the White House itself through the Office of Management and Budget.”
The species at the heart of the suit include 24 in California, among them, the California red-legged frog, which is believed to have habitat in Lake County, as Lake County News reported during coverage of the MacDonald case earlier this summer.
Other species listed include the arroyo toad, California least tern, marbled murrelet and snowy plover.
The Center for Biological Diversity reported that the heart of the suit is the illegal removal of one animal from the endangered species list, the refusal to place three animals on the list and proposals to remove or downgrade protection for seven animals.
The group also alleges that 8.7 million acres of critical habitat across 28 states has been stripped from protection because of those Interior Department decisions.
Suckling said government and university scientists carefully documented the editing of scientific documents, overruling of scientific experts and falsification of economic analyses in many of the disputed decisions.
“By attacking the problem systematically through this national lawsuit, we will expose just how thoroughly the disdain for science and for wildlife pervades the Bush administration’s endangered species program,” Suckling said.
Valerie Fellows, a spokesperson for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, told Lake County News that the agency had announced at the end of July that they were going to review endangered decisions due to MacDonald's involvement in those decision making processes.
Some of those decisions went back to 2001, said Fellows, and involved MacDonald changing science “which ultimately changed the outcome.”
The agency's California-Nevada Operations office decided to review eight decisions, said Fellows, including the California red-legged frog, which already is under way.
California, noted Fellows, has many endangered species petitions currently in litigation.
Fellows said the agency had no formal response to the lawsuit.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
A report issued Sunday night by Lt. Gary Basor of the Lake County Sheriff's Department explained that the agency received a call at 2:57 p.m. Saturday of a man missing in the lake.
Matthew Zanoni, 22, was riding on a pontoon boat with a group of friends when he either jumped or fell off the boat and into the lake, said Basor.
When Zanoni went into the water the boat was doing an arc around an area called Shag Rock near Buckingham, according to Basor.
Witnesses on the boat said Zanoni did not surface after the fall into the water, Basor reported.
Lake County Sheriff's Department Marine Patrol personnel responded to the area to try to find Zanoni, according to Basor.
Within minutes of arriving at the location where Zanoni was last seen – and being unable to find him – Basor said Marine Patrol officials called in the North Shore Dive Team.
Dive team members made several dives Saturday and were unable to locate Zanoni, said Basor.
On Sunday, the Lake County Search and Rescue Dive Team joined the North Shore Dive Team in searching for Zanoni, according to Basor's report.
The divers made several more dives in the area where the boat's passengers described last seeing Zanoni, but Basor said they still were not able to find him.
Basor said the sheriff's office has requested help from surrounding agencies in continuing the search for Zanoni.
The search effort will continue Monday, Basor reported.
The Shag Rock area, a small rocky outcropping above the lake's surface that historian Henry K. Mauldin said was called “Sock-eye” by local Pomos, has been a dangerous place for boaters in recent years.
It was the scene of another drowning in December 2004, when fisherman Billy Ray Ingram went missing. His body was discovered months later, trapped in rocks under the surface.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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