In the News

Senior Trooper Steven Vincent was shot and killed while checking on a vehicle that was being operated by a suspected intoxicated driver near the intersection of Highway 14 and Fruge Road, near Bell City.

Trooper Vincent was on patrol when he spotted a vehicle from a previous reckless driving report. The vehicle in question had driven off the road and was stuck in a ditch. Trooper Vincent approached the vehicle and began speaking with the occupant and then ordered him to exit the vehicle. The male exited the vehicle with a sawed off shotgun in his hand and opened fire, striking Trooper Vincent in the head. Read More

Detention Officer Tronoski Jones suffered a fatal heart attack while attempting to deal with a combative inmate at the Baker Street Jail shortly after 4:00 am.

The inmate was being moved from a recreational area to a cell when he began to argue. OC spray was deployed when he became combative and non-compliant. Officer Jones collapsed during the incident and passed away a short time later. Read More

Regulators in Uber Technologies Inc.’s home state of California said they have evidence that the ride-hailing service has failed to screen out 25 drivers with criminal records, including convictions for kidnapping and murder.
The district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles on Wednesday filed an amended complaint (read here – link opens PDF filing) against Uber detailing instances of registered sex offenders, identity thieves, burglars, and a convicted murderer who have been permitted to drive on the service. The civil suit, originally filed in December, claims Uber is misleading consumers about the effectiveness of background checks and seeking a permanent injunction of the business. Read More

CITY BEAT – SAC BEE
By: Ryan Lillis
916-321-1085
rlillis@sacbee.com

Responding to months of community meetings, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to form a Community Police Commission that will analyze the police department’s diversity, policies and “bias-free policing” training.

Mayor Kevin Johnson organized a series of meetings last year after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., sparked riots and a national discussion over community/police relations.

Francine Tournour, the director of the city’s Office of Public Safety Accountability, said community members suggested replacing the Community Racial Profiling Commission with a commission that had broader oversight. The racial profiling commission had “experienced diminished participation due to the limited authority (given to it) beyond traffic stop data analysis,” according to a city staff report. Read More

The Sacramento Bee / Crime – Sacto 911
BY CATHY LOCKE
clocke@sacbee.com
916-321-5287

Sacramento police are alerting residents to possible burglars impersonating utility employees.

In the past two weeks, the Sacramento Police Department has received two reports of suspects claiming to be utility employees. Police say the impersonators knock on front doors and tell the occupants that they need access to the home to inspect gas lines.

In one incident, the resident allowed the purported utility worker inside the home and left him unattended. The man stole property from the residence before walking outside to a waiting vehicle and leaving the area, according to a Police Department news release. Read More

The Sacramento Bee / Crime – Sacto 911
BY CATHY LOCKE
clocke@sacbee.com
916-321-5287

Elk Grove police will conduct special enforcement activities Wednesday targeting violations by motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists that often result in crashes or injuries.

The department has mapped out locations over the past several years where pedestrian and bike collisions have occurred, along with the violations that lead to such crashes, according to a Police Department news release. Extra officers will be on duty, patrolling those areas.

Officers will be looking for violations by motorists, bike riders and pedestrians that can lead to serious injuries. Special attention will be directed toward drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and other dangerous violations. Read More

The Sacramento Bee / Crime – Sacto 911
BY CATHY LOCKE
clocke@sacbee.com
916-321-5287

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an incident in which a deputy assigned to the Rancho Cordova Police Department mistakenly shot at another officer.

At 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, the sheriff’s communications center received a call from a man who reported hearing voices taunting him across the street from his residence in the 11200 block of Point East Drive in Rancho Cordova.

The dispatched officer arrived and determined that the man was intoxicated, but able care for himself, creating no threat to himself or others, according to a Police Department news release. Read More

Facing a lifetime in prison after a jury in July convicted him of repeatedly raping a woman in her 70s over a three-year span, disgraced former Sacramento police officer Gary Dale Baker has fired his attorney and is seeking a new trial.

Out is defense counsel Linda Parisi, sacked last week by Baker. In is Sacramento criminal defense attorney Donald Masuda, who appeared Monday with his new client at what was to be Baker’s sentencing hearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene Sawtelle.

The judge said he will hear a motion for a new trial Nov. 13. If Sawtelle denies the motion, Baker will be sentenced on the November date. Read More

Sunnyvale police say Shawn Lamont Brown of Fresno fled from officers and is wanted in connection with a homicide in Fresno County.

The fatal police shooting of a man in Sunnyvale happened after the suspect pointed a gun at an officer during an investigation into prostitution activity at a motel, authorities said Monday.

The man killed was identified by officials as Allen Matthew Baker III, 23, of San Diego. Police said a second suspect who fled the scene, Shawn Lamont Brown, 19, of Fresno, remains at large and is being sought in connection with a Fresno-area homicide. Read More

California hospitals treated more than 11,500 patients suffering an opiod or heroin overdose in 2013, new state figures show.

That’s roughly one overdose every 45 minutes. It’s also up more than 50 percent from 2006.

The trend explains a rise in the number of California infants born suffering withdrawal from heroin or painkillers.

Hospitals in rural superior California see the highest rate of opiod overdoses. Between 2006 and 2013, Shasta County hospitals saw more than 1,100 overdose, or eight overdoses per 10,000 residents, more than triple the statewide average. Read More

His temper frequently got the better of him, including a 2005 incident in which the criminal defense attorney showed up at the Stanislaus County Courthouse after it was locked at 5 p.m. and began yelling and kicking the doors.

Carson “was extremely upset, sweating heavily, red-faced and screaming,” one courthouse employee later told an investigator. Another witness described him as “a madman, or on drugs.” Read More

Christie Wendling lined her feet up, one in front of the other, just like the officer told her, but she only made it a few steps down the straight line before she stumbled.

Officers watch as a horizontal gaze test is conducted on Kevin Lee, who voluntarily got intoxicated as part of the S.F. Police Department’s wet lab class to teach officers to recognize when a person they are questioning is drunk.

“Can I try that again?” she asked with a chortle, her speech slurring from the drinks she’d had earlier in the day. Read More

SAN JOSE — Officers shot and killed a man Monday night believed to be connected to a gruesome homicide last week on Lundy Avenue — less than 24 hours after police shot and killed another man while conducting a follow-up investigation to that same crime, a department spokesman confirmed.

The shooting was reported just before 7 p.m. on Kirkhaven Court at Stoneyhaven Way, San Jose police Sgt. Enrique Garcia said. The man, who has not been named, was being tailed by officers earlier Monday afternoon after he had not only been identified as one of the suspects in the death of 38-year-old Christopher Maxwell Wrenn, but officers also learned that the suspect planned to kill again Monday. His victim was believed to be a woman who was in the car with the suspect when officers began tailing him, police said. Read More

SACRAMENTO — When Californians think about initiative campaigns, they no doubt think of all the advertisements, mailers and rhetoric that accompany them. But some of the most significant and contentious initiative battles take place well before such measures qualify for the ballot. Some of these backroom brawls are particularly nasty. Read More

A controversial reform measure headed for the 2016 ballot could cut public pension costs by giving taxpayers a say on retirement plans – but it could upend collective bargaining in the process, according to several analyses.

The “Voter Empowerment Act,” as backers call it, got a rather dry official title and summary from the attorney general last week: “Public employees. Pension and retiree healthcare benefits. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.” It’s now being poll-tested before official signature-gathering begins, probably within a week or so. Supporters need 585,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. Read More

SAN DIEGO — Only a day after graduating from the 103rd police academy, dozens of officers in barely worn uniforms filed into the Islamic Center of San Diego for a crash course on customs within the Muslim and Arab-American community.

Officers peppered religious leaders with a variety of questions, from how to most respectfully search a Muslim woman to what code enforcement struggles the Islamic population faces.

The dialogue was just the sort the San Diego Police Department is encouraging its officers to have in a quest to re-energize its philosophy of community policing. That effort continued for the graduates on Saturday, which marked the start of a revamped training program with a special focus on community engagement. Read More

Three California Highway Patrol officers, a Modesto criminal defense attorney and five others have been arrested in connection with the 2012 killing of Korey Kauffman, a 26-year-old Turlock resident whose body was found more than a year later by hunters in a remote Mariposa County forest.
The arrests — on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and lying in wait — follow an investigation by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department with help from the Stanislaus County district attorney’s office; police in Turlock, Modesto and Ceres; the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; and the state Department of Justice Read More

Anthony Alvo joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1998 at age 21, fresh out of the Marine Corps, envisioning a long career in the department.
But he quickly grew frustrated by a department that he just didn’t like. The atmosphere was toxic, he said, the pay wasn’t great, and there was more money and better conditions to be had elsewhere.
In 2000, after less than two years with the LAPD, he quit to take a higher-paying job with the Chino Police Department. In response, the city of Los Angeles sued him, accusing him of fraud and saying he owed $34,000 for his police training. Read More

Some thought an appeal of a court ruling blocking a key part of a San Jose pension reform could lead to a high court review of the “California rule,” an issue in an initiative ballot summary issued last week by Attorney General Kamala Harris.

But dropping an appeal of the superior court ruling is part of a settlement of union suits against the voter-approved pension reform that, under a San Jose city council agreement last week with police, could soon be implemented by court action.

The “California rule” is a series of state court decisions widely believed to mean that the pension offered on the date of hire becomes a vested right, protected by contract law, that can only be cut if offset by a new benefit of comparable value. Read More

Kamala Harris is not only California’s attorney general, but a very ambitious politician who hopes to become a U.S. senator.

As attorney general, her office prepares the official “title and summary” for every proposed ballot measure.

This week, she issued a summary for a measure that would empower voters to approve any increases in public employee pensions, proposed by former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio.

But it didn’t mention “approved by voters” until 83 words into her 100-word summary.

In contrast, the summary’s first sentence says the measure “eliminates constitutional protections for vested pension and retiree benefits for current public employees, including those working in K-12 schools, higher education, hospitals, and police protection, for future work performed.”

That’s almost identical to her description of a previous, much different, pension overhaul proposed last year by DeMaio and Reed. They challenged the wording in court, but lost, then dropped the measure.

The description of the new Reed-DeMaio constitutional amendment, of course, pleases public employee unions.

They want to depict it as a gratuitous assault on those who provide vital public services such as those listed by Harris, who excluded from her description less popular employees, such as prison guards or parking meter readers.

But is it a fair summary? Reed and DeMaio say it would not affect the pension benefits promised to any current employees, and there’s nothing in a plain language reading of the measure to prove that it does.

Harris’ office is hanging its legal hat on one sentence that declares “notwithstanding any other provision of the Constitution or any other law,” voters have the right “to determine the amount of and manner in which compensation and retirement benefits are provided …” Read More