Quantcast
Channel: Tony Saavedra – Pasadena Star News
Viewing all 263 articles
Browse latest View live

Video shows off-duty officer pulling gun on man mistakenly suspected of stealing Mentos

0
0

One minute, Jose Arreola was buying a pack of Mentos at an Orange County service station.

The next minute, he was at the business end of a gun drawn by an off-duty Buena Park police officer who thought Arreola had stolen the $1.19 roll of mints.

The 49-year-old printer from Bellflower says he was both scared and angry that the officer had pulled a gun March 16 on someone he wrongly suspected of stealing candy.

“It’s been a month and I still can’t shake it,” Arreola said. “It was traumatic, the whole incident. (And) I grew up in Santa Ana. I’ve been shot at before.”

Buena Park Sgt. Mike Lovchik declined to comment on the incident, saying an internal investigation is underway.

Police shootings have become a hot-button issue in cities across the United States, where 370 people have been shot and killed by officers so far this year, according to a database compiled by the Washington Post. The data show that the slain are typically armed.

The shootings have amplified the question, when is it appropriate for a police officer to draw a gun?


Update: Buena Park police chief calls store video of Mentos incident ‘disturbing’


Joe Domanick, associate director of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College, said the Buena Park officer was “way out of policy, even for Orange County.”

“It’s astounding there would be a police officer who would think it’s OK to do it,” said Domanick, author of the book “Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing.” “(It’s) entirely opposite of what’s going on in police departments. You pull a gun as a last resort.”

He continued: “It shows the officer has been poorly trained or not trained at all or he’s totally unsuited to be a police officer.”

  • José Arreola y su esposa, Jacqueline Arreola, afuera de Chevron Food Mart, donde el policía le apuntó al hombre con un arma pensando que había robado un paquete de Mentos en Buena Park. (Foto por Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register / SCNG)

    José Arreola y su esposa, Jacqueline Arreola, afuera de Chevron Food Mart, donde el policía le apuntó al hombre con un arma pensando que había robado un paquete de Mentos en Buena Park. (Foto por Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register / SCNG)

  • Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

    Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
  • Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

    Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

    Jose Arreola at the Chevron Food Mart where a police officer pulled a gun on him thinking he stole a pack of Mentos that he had already paid for in Buena Park on Friday, May 4, 2018. The incident happened on March 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

of

Expand

Arreola said he and his wife, Jacqueline, were driving to a club about 10 p.m. on a Friday when they pulled into a Chevron station on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park to use the ATM. Jacqueline Arreola told her husband to buy her some Mentos.

Arreola, who wears his hair short but has a long goatee, can be seen in a store security video placing the candy on the counter and handing the clerk a $20 bill from the $60 he got from the ATM.

While waiting for his change, Arreola pockets the candy. Immediately, a man in black shorts standing behind him in line pulls a gun from the pocket of his black hoody, announces he is a police officer and tells Arreola to put the Mentos back on the counter.

Arreola throws his hands up and protests that he paid for the mints. The officer can be heard telling Arreola to take his change and leave, minus the Mentos. Finally, the officer asks the cashier if Arreola paid for the mints.

Yes, says the cashier.

“Are you sure?” the officer asks.

Again, the cashier says yes.

“My apologies,” the officer tells a visibly shaken Arreola.

Sorry isn’t enough, Arreola said in an interview. He has retained an attorney and requested financial damages from the Buena Park department.

“Are you seriously pulling a gun out over a pack of Mentos?” he asks.


Buena Park police chief calls store video of Mentos incident ‘disturbing’

0
0

Buena Park Police Chief Corey Sianez acknowledges he was disturbed by a security video showing an off-duty officer drawing a gun on a man thought to be stealing a roll of Mentos at a local service station.

Sianez, in a Facebook statement over the weekend, noted that the officer did not point the gun at the customer, Jose Arreola, who had actually paid $1.19 for the mints. Arreola disputed the chief’s account Monday.

“He pointed his gun at me, toward my hip,” said Arreola, a 49-year-old printer from Bellflower. “They’re just trying to make it seem that he didn’t do nothing wrong.”

Police officials would not comment further on the incident, however, the department’s policy states that only the amount of force that “reasonably appears necessary given the facts” should be used by officers. The department’s policy also generally discourages off-duty intervention in incidents involving minor property crimes.


Related: Video shows off-duty officer pulling gun on man mistakenly suspected of stealing Mentos


Councilman Fred Smith said Monday that City Council members have viewed the video and “there’s not a one that liked it.”

“(The officer) is going to go through due process … this is not the kind of city we want or like to see,” Smith said.

Arreola had pocketed the Mentos while waiting for his change March 16 at a service station on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park when the officer pulled out his gun and ordered him to put back the candy.

A store security video of the encounter between Jose Arreola and an off-duty Buena Park police officer generated nationwide alarm after it was first published Friday by the Southern California News Group. (Courtesy photo from video)
A store security video of the encounter between Jose Arreola and an off-duty Buena Park police officer generated nationwide alarm after it was first published Friday by the Southern California News Group. (Courtesy photo from video)

A video of the encounter generated nationwide alarm after it was first published Friday on the Orange County Register website. Sianez linked to the Register’s article on the Buena Park Police Department’s Facebook page in what he called an “effort to be transparent.”

The officer, wearing black shorts and a hoodie, can be seen pulling back the slide on his handgun, loading a bullet into the chamber.

Amid the public uproar — made in Tweets, Facebook comments and emails to the Register — were demands that the officer be publicly identified and disciplined. Sianez said in the statement he could not comment further because of potential litigation by Arreola, who has hired a lawyer and filed a complaint, and a pending internal investigation by the Buena Park Police Department.

Legal experts said the public might not ever know who the officer is and what disciplinary steps are taken, if any. That’s because law enforcement officers in California have an extra layer of confidentiality commonly called the Police Officers Bill of Rights, which was signed into law in 1978.

“California is one of the most restrictive states in the nation when it comes to releasing confidential (police) information,” said James Chanin, a former ACLU attorney in Berkeley.

Legally, Chanin said, Sianez can disclose whether the complaint had been substantiated and what the department’s policy is for using deadly force, but little else.

In the video, the officer pulls the gun out for a few seconds, then he puts it back in his pocket, ordering Arreola to get his change and leave, without the mints. “Try stealing that again,” the officer tells Arreola.

He then twice asks the clerk if the victim paid for the Mentos. Twice, the clerk answers, “Yes.”

“My apologies,” the officer says. “My apologies.”

Responses on the police Facebook page are ardent and angry.

“You are investigating the officer to see if he violated your policies,” wrote Robert Low. “You mean bullying citizens at gunpoint for not stealing MAY be legal in your jurisdiction?”

“Are you serious?” wrote Meranda M. Chavira. “He ‘didn’t point his gun at the man,’ from what I’ve seen and plenty others have seen, yes, he DID point his gun at that man. And for what, a pack of Mentos? How does this require a gun to be drawn? If you can sit and try to justify this, you’re the problem.”

And Tino Gonzales wrote: “He could have easily shot this person when he pulled out the Mentos and then uttered your Code Blue motto, ‘I feared for my life!’ “

‘The 13th step’: Alcoholics Anonymous wrestles with subculture of sexual predators

0
0

Abram Tuvov had been sober so long that Alcoholics Anonymous members in Palm Springs just assumed he was a good guy.

One female AA member who was new in town felt comfortable enough to go on an afternoon bicycle ride with him, even stopping at his house for waffles. The November 2014 outing ended with Tuvov, 72, raping the woman so viciously that she played dead until it was over.

Tuvov, who lives minutes away from the woman, was convicted, but is out on $150,000 bail while awaiting sentencing.

Abram Tuvov, Eric Allen Earle, William Beliveau and Lance Glock, from left. (Photos Courtesy Palm Springs PD, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Megan's Law file)
Abram Tuvov, Eric Allen Earle, William Beliveau and Lance Glock, from left. (Photos Courtesy Palm Springs PD, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Megan’s Law file)

Sexual predation among AA groups is so common that it is known in many circles as the 13th step of the famed 12-step program. Victims, former officials and some members say the culture of the organization — unregulated and loosely organized — puts vulnerable alcoholics at risk to predatory leaders whose only credential is their longtime sobriety.

And while many members are in Alcoholics Anonymous of their own volition, some criminal offenders are there as part of their court sentences. Unless they volunteer it, other members of the group don’t know their criminal history.

“It’s a bad set-up,” said the 48-year-old rape victim, who remains sober. “It’s a predator’s party.”

Tuvov was found guilty last year of rape, oral copulation by force, penetration with a foreign object and sexual battery. Neither he nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

A representative for Alcoholics Anonymous’ General Service Office in New York stressed that each local group in the fellowship operates independently. However, top leaders in the United States and Canada have developed guidelines and reading material that acknowledge the dangers and advise members to be watchful. Leaders also warn that wrongdoers cannot hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

The fellowship even created a “safety card” that reads, in part: “We request that members and others refrain from any behavior which might compromise another person’s safety.”

But it is up to each group to decide what to do with the card.

“G.S.O. often shares the experience that has been shared with us to help AA groups study and decide how they will apply AA principles to their daily lives — to reach an informed group conscience — as every AA group gets to do,” said the representative, who requested anonymity.

Former directors and victims advocates insist the Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Board can do more to protect local members.

“Each group is autonomous. That’s … an excuse not to use the power the board has to stop abusive behavior,” said James Branscome, a former board director. “There are groups in AA where you could call it a meat market. You have older guys hitting on newcomer women. Some groups are hijacked by gurus, and AA will claim they have no power to do anything about it.”

And the attacks keep stacking up:

• In Santa Clarita, an AA member killed his 31-year-old fiancee, whom he met through the group, in 2011. Eric Allen Earle is now serving 26 years to life at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

• In Ventura County, two women were sexually assaulted by an AA leader who gained their trust and then gave them booze. William Beliveau is behind bars serving a 10-year sentence at Chino state prison.

• In Covina, an AA member and owner of a sober living home had to shut down his facility after his history of arrests for indecent exposure, sexual battery and unlawful touching came to light in 2012. Lance Paul Glock is listed in Megan’s Law as an offender in violation of parole.

‘Feeding grounds for predators’

Monica Richardson, who spent 36 years in Alcoholics Anonymous, produced the 2015 documentary, “The 13th Step,” tracking such sexual assaults across the world.

“How has this been tolerated?” Richardson said. “These (AA) meetings have become the feeding grounds for predators. It’s all over the world.”

Richardson and others are pushing for Alcoholics Anonymous to adopt a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment and force leaders to undergo anti-harassment training. They also want the fellowship to create separate meetings for people under 21 years old and discourage courts and related services from dispatching criminal offenders.

According to the AA Worldwide website, there are 2 million members in 180 countries practicing the 12 steps toward self-reliance and inner faith.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 4.5 percent of U.S. men are alcoholics, with women at 2.5 percent.

Richardson said most alcoholics are downtrodden and accustomed to being scolded by family members, bosses and parents. Already yearning for acceptance, they get “love-bombed” at the meetings, she said.

“People come very, very lonely. Then they get hugged and love-bombed and told, ‘I love you, I love you,’’’ Richardson said. “A lot of them don’t have the assertiveness to say, ‘No’ (after that.)”

Meanwhile, those with the most years of sobriety are considered “elders,” with almost instant credibility, she said.

In an internal letter to the AA General Service Board in 2008, former board member Paul Cleary offered his concern that minors in Alcoholics Anonymous are especially endangered.

“Of course, alcoholics are not exempt from the problems of society, and this includes child sexual abuse. Alcoholics are not well-known for their even-keeled relationships, their well-defined boundaries or their maturity in sexual situations,” said the document obtained by the Southern California News Group. “It is not surprising that these problems continue into the sobriety period of some AA members. For all we know, the rate of child sexual abuse in AA may be higher than that of other organizations that are specifically set up to address the concerns of youth.”

The letter led to few, if any, changes.

“We’ve got murderers sitting next to movie stars. Everybody is thrown into the crucible because we all got the same problem,” said one former board member who requested anonymity. “For people to think, ‘You are not drinking, therefore, you are fine,’ is naive and inaccurate.”

‘Everybody knew she was in danger’

Eric Allen Earle had attended the program for 20 years, both voluntarily and at times as part of his court sentences, for such things as assault and domestic violence, according to news accounts. It was at an AA meeting in Santa Clarita that he met future fiancée Karla Brada, who had her own condo, a good job at a medical firm and an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Earle pursued and eventually moved in with Brada. Then the beatings began. Earle punched Brada in the face and tried to drown her in the kitchen sink in August 2011, said Brada’s mother, Jaroslava Mendez, 72, of Sylmar.

Earle was arrested and jailed. Brada was ready to leave him there, but AA leaders besieged her to bail him out, Mendez said. The leaders even drove her to the jail to pay the bond.

Three weeks later, Earle again choked and beat Brada, this time to death.

“Everybody knew he had beaten her (the first time), everybody knew she was in danger. Nobody did anything,” Mendez said. “I mean, HELLO!”

The grieving mother tried unsuccessfully to sue Alcoholics Anonymous for wrongful death. Still, Mendez keeps trying to get out the message:

“It‘s very dangerous in AA.”

The mentor

William Beliveau was a go-to guy at AA meetings in Thousand Oaks. Beliveau taught lessons on the AA “big book” — the unofficial bible of Alcoholics Anonymous — and handed out sobriety coins at meetings. He was steeped in the culture.

And, according to prosecutors, he sponsored alcoholic women with an eye toward mentoring them into bed.

On one occasion, Beliveau showed up for a date with a bottle of booze under his arm. On another, he started the evening by purchasing an alcoholic drink for his date, another AA member.

Beliveau never imbibed himself, said Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.

“His whole notion of being a sponsor was a ruse,” Nasarenko said. “He knew first-hand how vulnerable these women were.”

Nasarenko continued: “He was someone who was looked up to and gained the trust and confidence of certain women. At the meetings he appeared to have some recognition.”

Beliveau was convicted in July 2017 of raping one woman who was intoxicated and another who was unconscious. Both were in their 50s and pressed charges using their first names only, Susan and Heidi.

Nasarenko said Beliveau put his victims up in hotels under the pretense of sponsoring them.

In addition to the two rapes, Beliveau was suspected of assaulting two other AA members, again plying them with alcohol.

“It became clear to the government, this was part of a pattern, something the defendant did with multiple women,” Nasarenko said. “He was somebody who would take advantage.”

Megan’s Law

Lance Paul Glock, owner of a Covina sober living home and AA member, wasn’t afraid to fight City Hall. Glock sued Covina for trying to regulate his Johnson Sober Living Home in 2011.

Glock had to drop the litigation and close the facility, according to his former lawyer, Lou Fazzi, after his criminal history caught up with him in 2012.

In a two-day period, Glock, then 51, was arrested for allegedly sexually touching a woman in a discount store and again hauled away the next day for child annoyance in a Covina business, according to news accounts.

It wasn’t Glock’s first arrests. According to court records, Glock had been charged with six sex crimes — including indecent exposure — and two counts of vandalism since 1988.

His friend, Shane, who requested to be identified by only his first name in keeping with the tenets of AA, said Glock is not a rarity at group meetings.

“The people that come in are not poster children. We get all kinds of people,” said Shane, 70, who has spent most of his life in Alcoholics Anonymous. “It’s men on women, women on men, sick people on sick people. The only requirement is you have to desire to stop drinking.”

‘You’re not broken’

It seemed there was an extra requirement for the woman raped by Tuvov — don’t go to police.

Moments after the rape, the woman said, she went to her sponsor of three years, who advised her against reporting the attack to authorities or going to the hospital.

“She said, ‘You were not violently raped, you’re not broken,’ ” remembers the woman. ” ‘If you talk about this, you’re going to get a reputation in AA and everybody will hate you.’ “

The woman said her female sponsor advised her to work on her inner self and pray because she was a sinner.

“I knew in my heart that what she was telling me was crazy. I knew it wasn’t the best advice,” the woman said.

She called a rape hotline, which advised her to put her clothes in a sealed bag, preserving the DNA that Tuvov had left behind.

She said she didn’t report the rape to police until nearly a month later and the case file lingered for more months before the DNA was processed. While the investigation was slow going, the repercussions were immediate, she recalls.

Female members cornered her in bathrooms or hallways and told her to stop talking about the attack at meetings, because she was scaring off newcomers.

“They said I was ruining people’s chance to get sober. Rape was an outside issue,” the woman said.

“There’s a lot of bad things that go on in the hush-hush.”

Congress demands documents related to rehab industry’s ‘patient brokering’ of addicts

0
0

The U.S. House committee investigating the ugly underbelly of addiction rehab in America told eight call centers to cough up details about their business practices – including whether they get paid for routing patients to specific treatment facilities, and if so, exactly how much.

The letters – sent on Tuesday, May 29, to big and small companies in the treatment industry – probe allegations of “patient brokering,” where addicts are essentially sold to the treatment centers willing to pay the most for them, rather than sent to the treatment centers that might do them the most good. It also targets referral call centers and websites that are affiliated with treatment centers – but don’t necessarily disclose that relationship.

“The exploitative tactics employed by patient brokers and some call aggregators have been deployed amid a perfect storm,” said the letters signed by six Congressmen. They noted that 115 people die from overdoses every day – which is one every 13 minutes.

The eight companies must by June 12 provide documents and details – copies of contracts with treatment providers, how many patients have been referred, to where, whether it helps sign addicts up for health insurance, if it owns websites and paid internet search engines for ad optimization, among other things.

Those companies are American Addiction Centers, one of the nation’s largest treatment chains; Addiction No More in Texas; Addiction Recovery Now in Florida; Elite Rehab Placement in Michigan; Redwood Recovery Solutions in Florida; Solutions Recovery Center in Florida; Treatment Management Company in Georgia; and Intervention Allies in North Hollywood.

The companies contacted by the Southern California News Group said they do not engage in the unsavory practices outlined in the letters.

“I’m excited about this letter. It’s about time,” said Michael Cartwright, CEO of American Addiction Centers. “Anything that looks into bad practices around the treatment industry is something we’re supportive of.”

Cartwright continued: “I view this as a great opportunity to start a conversation with legislators. How about the feds getting in on the action in this area? We’ve worked to get laws passed in Florida, in Tennessee, and now in California – it would be a lot easier if the federal government passed some meaningful regulations, rather than doing it state by state by state.”

American Addiction Centers owns several websites that handle inquiries for its centers – much as the revered Betty Ford Center has its own hotline, he said – and Cartwright suspects AAC got the letter because of its national size and scope.

Others on the receiving end of the letters were less clear on why they’re on the list.

“It doesn’t apply to me,” said Carmine Thompson, founder of Intervention Allies. “As I’ve tried to explain to the committee, I’m a private interventionist. I don’t accept insurance. I have never received a referral fee from a treatment program, and I will not give a referral fee to a treatment program.”

Daniel Callahan of Solutions Recovery Center in Florida said his company doesn’t use phone rooms and doesn’t pay brokers to round up clients from the streets.

“The old method of having people pounding the pavement, that method doesn’t work anymore,” Callahan said. “What I see Congress attempting with their inquiry is an attempt to patch a system that needs overhaul.  The questionnaire is asking the wrong questions.  The focus on patient brokering is flawed, there must be some guidelines for advertising and marketing a facility.”

Callahan says a good reputation and good online presence helps to keep the business going.

Critics of the industry welcomed news of the ongoing probe.

“Looks like a great first step and it’s significant to note that action is being taken,” said Warren Hanselman of Advocates for Responsible Treatment in San Juan Capistrano. “Hopefully this is just the beginning of what could lead to legislation that cleans up the unethical operators of these organizations. People with addiction have enough problems to overcome on the road to recovery without being subjected to ‘referral services’ that have no moral values and sell them to the highest bidder.”

In its probe, the congressional committee cites the Southern California News Group’s ongoing investigation into abuses rampant on the “Rehab Riviera,” among other probes.

“One of the ways that patient brokers can generate leads on potential clients is through phone hotlines that connect to call centers or call aggregators,” the committee wrote to the eight companies. “Patient brokers are predominantly paid in one of two ways – a per-head fee that can range from $500 to $5,000 for each patient who successfully enters a treatment center, or monthly treatment facility fees that are based on the broker meeting a quota of patients and can result in earnings in the tens of thousands of dollars.”

Clients are sometimes offered perks such as “scholarships,” free housing and medical treatment.

“It is unclear if these patient brokers or call aggregators have any medical background necessary training to assist or make medical decisions for potential patients,”  said the congressional letter. “Perhaps most disturbing is the allegation that some patient brokers follow these individuals with substance use disorder after their release and provide them with drugs to induce relapse so that the entire process can be repeated.”

Classic rock band Yes celebrates 50th anniversary twice as 2 versions of the band tour Southern California

0
0

For 50 years, progressive rock band Yes has been playing guitar and keyboard-driven music spiced with classical influences, spacey lyrics and long melodic jams.

They’ve been so successful over the years that now there are two bands using the Yes name.

Both feature founding members and hall of fame musicians. Both play “Roundabout.” And both, it seems, will celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary.

The lineup carrying the official Yes brand features guitarist Steve Howe. Howe, like many of the band’s members past and present, has been in and out of the band over the years, but he co-wrote many of the band’s best-known songs and played on many of its iconic albums, coaxing heaven from a hollow body guitar.

At 71, Howe can still hit the notes with precision, from the intro of “Roundabout” to the groove of “Siberian Khatru.”

Rounding out the lineup of the official Yes are Alan White on drums, Geoff Downes on keyboards, Jon Davison on vocals, Billy Sherwood – the late bassist Chris Squire’s hand-picked replacement –  on bass and special guest, founding member Tony Kaye on keyboards.

The other group, which is touring under the name Yes Featuring ARW, is anchored by founding vocalist Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin – who wrote Yes’ ’80s pop hit “Owner of a Lonely Heart” – on guitar and Rick Wakeman – he of the memorable capes during his earlier time in the band – on keyboards.

  • The official Yes is on a 35-date North American tour that winds through the City National Grove of Anaheim on June 17, the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles on June 19 and the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula on June 24. (Courtesy photo by Gottlieb Bros.)

    The official Yes is on a 35-date North American tour that winds through the City National Grove of Anaheim on June 17, the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles on June 19 and the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula on June 24. (Courtesy photo by Gottlieb Bros.)

  • Yes Featuring ARW is scheduled to play the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles on Aug. 26, Humphrey’s by the Bay in San Diego on Aug. 27 and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 29.(Courtesy photo by Deborah Anderson)

    Yes Featuring ARW is scheduled to play the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles on Aug. 26, Humphrey’s by the Bay in San Diego on Aug. 27 and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 29.(Courtesy photo by Deborah Anderson)

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
of

Expand

The official Yes is on a 35-date North American tour that winds through the City National Grove of Anaheim on June 17, the Ford Theatres in Los Angeles on June 19 and the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula on June 24.

Yes Featuring ARW is scheduled to play the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles on Aug. 26, Humphrey’s by the Bay in San Diego on Aug. 27 and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 29.

Howe is not looking to get into a discussion about the other guys.

“I’ve got nothing to say really; they could have just stuck with calling themselves ‘ARW.’ The temptation is just there,” said Howe, speaking from the West Country in the United Kingdom. “Our position is non-aggression … but it’s not a perfect scenario.”

The touring conditions for Yes have faced other challenges in recent years. First came the passing in June 2015 of Squire, the cofounder who had been the band’s longest-running member, from leukemia. Then last year’s tour was cut short following the death of Howe’s adult son, Virgil.

Before Squire’s death, Howe said his bandmates had expected him to return.

“It was tragic,” Howe said. “We thought he was going to be recuperating for a few months, that’s why Billy had stepped in. It was very traumatic … we had to continue his legacy and we knew we had to keep the music going.”

As the band pulled itself back into shape, the unthinkable happened again.

“We lost one of our two sons last year. It was a massive blow, but loss is part of life,” Howe said. “It brought us back to reality.”

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Yes’ current singer Davison, a Laguna Beach native who joined the band in 2012, replacing Benoit David. Davison has the requisite high-range singing voice and a stage persona that complements the music.

Davison meshes well with the rest of the members, Howe said.

“It’s the way Jon prepares himself; it takes work and dedication. That’s his joy and he shows that,” said Howe. “And he can play a good rhythm guitar, too.”

Yes

Who: Guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, singer Jon Davison, bassist Billy Sherwood. Special guest Tony Kaye is also on keyboards.

Anaheim: 8 p.m. June 17, City National Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave. $55-$120. 714-712-2700, www.citynationalgroveofanaheim.com

Hollywood: 7:30 p.m. June 19, Ford Theatres, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E. $69.50-$183. 323-461-3673, www.fordtheatres.org

Temecula: 7 p.m. June 24. Pechanga Resort and Casino, 45000 Pechanga Parkway. $49-$225. 877-711-2946, www.pechanga.com.

Yes Featuring ARW

Who: Vocalist Jon Anderson, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, guitarist Trevor Rabin.

West Hollywood: Aug. 26, Whisky a Go Go, 8901 W. Sunset Blvd. Ticket information not yet available. www.whiskyagogo.com

San Diego: 8 p.m. Aug. 27 Humphrey’s by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive. $75-$350. 800-745-3000, www.humphreysconcerts.com

Los Angeles: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29 Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave. $50-$425. 800-745-3000, www.lagreektheatre.com

Holy fire suspect refuses to leave jail cell for first court appearance, faces 6 felonies

0
0

Forrest Gordon Clark sat in a jail cell Thursday morning, and refused to leave.

He was scheduled to appear at an arraignment, during which he would hear criminal charges against him – six felony counts, including arson and making criminal threats in connection with the Holy fire that has raged through Orange and Riverside counties this week.

But Clark, 51, refused to budge. Instead, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner postponed his appearance until Friday.

Clark, who owns a cabin in the Holy Jim community of the Cleveland National Forest, is suspected of starting the blaze Monday that by Thursday had scorched nearly 10,000 acres; it also burned down at least 14 cabins in Holy Jim, a community whose founders fought in the Civil War .

If convicted of all six charges, he could face a life sentence.

Fire officials have said their “strongest evidence is witness statements,” though they also say they found physical evidence at Clark’s cabin. With the fire still burning, additional charges could be filed against the suspect, who was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

“The investigation is still open, because we still aren’t sure where the fire is going to go, what it is going to do,” Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Kirk said. “A fire of this magnitude has the potential to impact a lot of lives, a lot of people and property and a lot of forest.”

While the District Attorney’s Office is coordinating prosecution with the FBI, the case is currently being handled by a state, rather than a federal, court.

Beyond that, officials have provided scant insight into why and how the fire started, citing the investigation as active.

“We don’t want to jeopardize the investigation,” said Darrell Vance, the district ranger in the part of the forest that includes Holy Jim.

But multiple interviews with cabin owners and the canyon’s volunteer firefighters this week — as well as documents obtained by the Southern California News Group and exchanges the suspect had with law enforcement officials – paint a picture of Clark as a man who has long been at war with his neighbors.

Clark, those cabin owners and others say, would act erratically, engage in screaming matches with his next-door neighbor, take other owners’ belongings and claim to be a sovereign citizen not subject to the laws of the United States.

And last week, he allegedly sent a message to Mike Milligan, the chief of the Holy Jim Volunteer Fire Department, saying “it’s all gonna burn.”

The Forest Service and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department knew all of this, Milligan and others said.

“If anyone would have listened to me for 10 years,” Milligan added, “this wouldn’t have happened.”

A history of disruptions

“You’re gonna have to shoot me.”

Clark spread his arms wide. He wore only camouflage boxers.

It was Tuesday morning, and he stood in front of Cabin 14, which he has owned since the late 1990s. His cabin was flanked by ash and rubble from the Holy fire, which had been burning for several hours.

Three sheriff’s deputies, one carrying a rifle and another with a hand on his stun gun, were trying to calm him down.

“You come any closer,” Clark said, “and I’ll go back inside.”

For the next several hours, his behavior would flip from charming to bewildering — one moment telling the deputies to move into the shade to avoid the sun, and the next, stripping off his boxers, pulling on his genitalia and claiming to be “the attorney general.”

Clark said he was a victim, that his neighbors had poisoned him – wanted to kill him – because they were running drugs and wanted to cover it up.

“I didn’t start the fire,” Clark said. “I was trying to stop it.”

But his neighbors, none of whom witnessed Clark set any fires, thought otherwise.

“When the fire started, I was 99.9 percent sure he started it,” said Milligan, who bought his first cabin in Holy Jim in the 1970s.

That’s because for years, Milligan has made it a point to keep an eye on Clark.

When Clark first moved in, Milligan said, his antics were mild enough.

“He said he had done some construction work and started renovating it,” Milligan said. “Very slowly.”

He’d start one project, the chief said, and then leave it to start something else. Then one day, Milligan said, Clark got an idea: He wanted a basement.

So, he started to dig – in the middle of his cabin.

“He kept hitting rocks,” Milligan said. “But what he didn’t realize is his cabin is in the middle of the creek bed. When it rained, the hole would flood.”

Clark, who in 1996 was involuntarily held in a facility for a mental illness, would also disappear for years – and return with stories of joining a rebellion in Ohio or working with a group to buy fighter jets, Milligan said.

“Forrest has a three-ring binder to prove he’s a sovereign citizen” Milligan said.

Then, about a decade ago, Clark began feuding with his neighbor, Frank Romero.

Romero’s cabin, like the others around Clark’s, no longer exists. A few pots have survived the fire, as have a couple of stacks of bricks that suggest an outdoor remodel. But where the cabin once stood is a 10-foot crater.

Why the two began fighting is unconfirmed, but it may have had something to do with Clark’s devout religious beliefs contrasting with Romero’s, according to Milligan and Riddell.

In a statement given through Riddell, Romero declined to comment because he “does not want to jeopardize the case against Forrest Clark,” though he has “given all pertinent information he has to investigators.”

Then, in early 2014, Milligan said, Clark took a $950 water tank and a high-powered generator from a neighbor. Milligan and Leslee Riddell, the president of the cabin owners association, called the Forest Service.

“They just made him return them,” Milligan said.

Vance, the district ranger, called that assertion “false.”

“Property crimes are the jurisdiction of the county,” he said. “The Forest Service investigates crimes against the government.”

Carrie Braun, the spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, said there were no reports of a lost water tank or generator from that time period.

But in February 2014, investigators did go to Holy Jim for reports of a lost 24-gallon propane tank, a connecting hose and a plywood propane cover – costing an estimated $303.

Braun couldn’t give the name of the informant and Clark’s name wasn’t given in the report. But the informant had run-ins with Clark before then, resulting in multiple calls to investigators. So when officials pulled the files, this one came up.

There was no arrest.

“There was not enough to connect him to the loss,” Braun said. Still, “investigators knew Clark.”

“We’d call the Forest Service and they’d tell us to call the sheriff’s,” Riddell said. “The sheriff’s would tell us to call the Forest Service.”

Still, some residents are angry that Clark wasn’t kicked out of Holy Jim, Riddell said, describing herself on Thursday as emotionally drained and angry.

“We back in the cabins live by a different law than the rest of Orange County,” she said. “When someone comes to your cabin and breaks in and steals something, you are angered and want them charged.

“But he did this over and over and over again,” Riddell continued. “And nothing happened. They just felt it was a feud.”

But it’s unclear what the Forest Service could have done differently.

Each cabin owner must sign a permit with the Forest Service to occupy the land, owned by the federal government. Those permits last for 10 years, with a 10-year extension.

The Forest Service can suspend or revoke a permit if a cabin owner violates the terms and conditions; broke a federal, state or local law; or for “specific and compelling reasons in the public interest.”

But what constitutes a reason in the public interest is not described in the permit, nor are any specific conditions except for rules for renovations.

When asked if the Forest Service can revoke a permit for bad behavior, Vance said, “I wish.”

Clark returns

For a year, Holy Jim had no trouble from Clark.

He had been away, possibly working as an Uber driver, according to Riddell.

Then, three weeks ago, he returned. A week after that, he and Romero, his neighbor, had a blow-out argument, with Clark accusing his neighbor of stealing from him and shutting off his water, according to Riddell and Milligan.

“His screaming in the driveway Sunday was complete gibberish, disconnected logic, and made no sense,” Milligan wrote in an email July 23 to Vance and Riddell. “I’m sure we are dealing with a serious problem and I’d like to recommend you take it seriously. “

At 6:30 a.m. the day Milligan sent that email, Clark was detained for psychological evaluation, according to Braun. It is unclear which hospital he was taken to or how long he was held.

In his email, Milligan also mentioned the threat he received in a series of messages from Clark. Those messages were obtained by the Southern California News Group. They read:

“911 call Sheriff.”

“Thanks little pantry waist (expletive).”

“your done (sic).”

“It’s all gonna burn just like u planned.”

Riddell also sent an email to Vance a couple of days later. In it, she described receiving a call from Clark while at dinner with her husband the week before.

Clark told her he was “covered in feces” because he had no water to clean himself, Riddell wrote. She described him as depressed and needing help.

She also mentioned the threats.

“In today’s environment it would not be abnormal for authorities to investigate a threat such as a bomb or arson,” Riddell wrote. “The cabin owners are very concerned about fire and certainly if there is a threat from someone before a fire is started we would hope that your office would investigate.”

Vance declined to confirm or comment on whether the Forest Service received such a warning, saying the investigation is still ongoing.

But in a reply to Riddell, Vance wrote: “Obviously we have been dealing with the Skyline fire for the past week. Our Law Enforcement personnel have been notified of the information, and I believe they did make contact with Mr. Clark.”

Then, four days before the fire erupted, sheriff’s deputies looked for Clark again, after receiving calls that he was suicidal. But, according to Braun, they were unable to find him.

The fire’s aftermath

On Wednesday, Holy Jim was quiet.

Logs and dirt still smoldered, giving off smoke. What was once a mile-long thicket separating a cluster of cabins – in which Clark’s sat – from another was a wasteland, a moonscape:

Dead trees. Wilting Cacti. The earth was black. Boulders and smaller stones that had rolled off a hillside covered the road. The only way in or out was by foot.

Few residents had returned.

But one who did was Pete Anderson, an emergency room doctor at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.Anderson bought Cabin 22, within eyesight of Clark’s, in 2009. On Wednesday, he went through the rubble of his vacation spot.

A table he and his wife received as a gift 45 years ago was ash. His red dinnerware lay shattered among the debris. He also lost items he kept in a shed that once belonged to Jim Sleeper, Holy Jim’s unofficial historian: Charred were an ice box, a stove and two sewing machines about a century old.

He also pulled from the ash a rack for those sewing machines, with words molded in iron that read, “New home.”

“It’s sad,” Anderson said. “But big picture, no one died.”

Anderson said he wants to rebuild, if he can. Federal rules, though, may prevent that – threatening the community’s existence.

When asked about Clark, Anderson said he had a couple of run-ins with him, but did not want to go into detail. He wasn’t surprised, though, when Clark’s name was connected to the blaze.

“The courts will decide if he started the fire,” Anderson said. “But it was clear at times that he needed help.”

Sign up for our breaking news email newsletter: When major local news happens, you will be the first to know. Subscribe here.

.

Holy Jim home owner Pete Anderson sifts through the ashes of his historic cabin in Holy Jim on Wednesday, Aug 8, 2018. He had historic books, appliances and old sewing machines 100 years old. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Firefighters get a handle on the Holy fire, containment jumps to 51%

0
0

As the smoke began to clear above Lake Elsinore, firefighters took heart Sunday as they appeared to gain control of the Holy fire, with containment at 51 percent and 22,714 acres consumed.

“I’m just thinking we turned the bend here,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Vickie Wright said of the wildfire that had burned out of control for nearly a week.

More fire evacuees got word Sunday they could return to their homes after the blaze that officials say was set Aug. 6 by an arsonist in Orange County.

But a voluntary evacuation was declared for the neighborhood of Trilogy, an unincorporated area built around a golf course next to Glen Ivy Hot Springs, where fire still loomed dangerously.

 

  • With fire retardant dropped by air tankers covering much of the area, a firefighter looks for hot spots behind homes along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • After being evacuated from the Sycamore Creek neighborhood in Corona on Wednesday, August 8th due to the Holy fire, from left, Maddie Joyce, Ben Dowsett, Emma Joyce and Ceri Dowsett were allowed to return to get clothing as they pull their luggage along Campbell Ranch Road in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
  • A sign lets visitors know that the Glen Ivy Hot Springs in Corona is closed on Saturday, August 11, 2018, as the Holy fire burns in the mountains in the Cleveland National Forest nearby. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • With fire retardant covering some of the hillside vegetation, a firefighter looks for hot spots on a ridge along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • The Holy fire burns in the mountains in the Cleveland National Forest near Glen Ivy Hot Springs in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • People stop along Temescal Canyon Road and watch as air tankers drop fire retardant along a ridge in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest above Glen Ivy Golf Club in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018, just ahead of the Holy fire which has burned for six days. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • An air tanker makes a drop of fire retardant along a ridge in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest above Glen Ivy Golf Club in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018, just ahead of the Holy fire which has burned for six days. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A firefighter finds a hot spot on a ridge along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • After returning to their neighborhood following an evacuation, Stephen McDonald, left, and his wife, Jenesa, center, along with neighbors James Gassor, second from left, and Glen Huggins, right, look for hot spots behind the McDonald home on Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Fire retardant dropped by air tankers covers a hummingbird feeder at the home of Stephen and Jenesa McDonald on Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. No homes were lost in the neighborhood. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Fire hoses lay in front of the home of Stephen and Jenesa McDonald on Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the neighborhood was evacuated on Wednesday, August 8th because of the Holy fire burning in the hills of Cleveland National Forest behind the homes. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Fire retardant dropped by air tankers covers the home of Stephen and Jenesa McDonald on Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • With fire retardant covering some of the hillside vegetation, a firefighter looks for hot spots on a ridge along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A firefighter looks for hot spots behind homes along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A firefighter looks for hot spots on a ridge along Gateway Drive in Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, after the Holy fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhood to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • The California Highway Patrol closes Indian Truck Trail at Campbell Ranch Road in Corona on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, due to evacuations of homes in the area during day 6 of the Holy fire in Lake Elsinore and Corona. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • An air tanker makes a drop of fire retardant along a ridge in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest above Glen Ivy Golf Club in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018, just ahead of the Holy fire which has burned for six days. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Some of the fire crews fighting the Holy fire pitch tents on a soccer field at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, August 11, 2018. The fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhoods to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A sign on a soccer field fence at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, August 11, 2018, informs visitors of sleeping fire crews in tents that have been fighting the Holy fire which burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhoods to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • One of the fire crews fighting the Holy fire pitched a tent on in the goal on a soccer field at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, August 11, 2018. The fire burned through the area forcing thousands in neighborhoods to be evacuated. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Cars stop in the middle of the road with more parked along side, as the California Highway Patrol closes Indian Truck Trail at Campbell Ranch Road in Corona on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, due to evacuations of homes in the area during day 6 of the Holy fire in Lake Elsinore and Corona. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A firefighting helicopter picks up water at Corona Lake on Saturday morning, August 11, 2018, during day 6 of the Holy fire in Lake Elsinore and Corona. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • An air tanker makes a drop of fire retardant along a ridge in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest above Glen Ivy Golf Club in Corona on Saturday, August 11, 2018, just ahead of the Holy fire which has burned for six days. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

of

Expand

A San Diego City Fire Department strike team stayed within Trilogy, its sixth day on the Holy fire. Sustained by Red Bull and sunflower seeds, the team has pulled 24-hour shifts and slept on high school football fields.

Capt. Jacob Carothers of the Forest Service said fatigue can be a big issue in fighting wildfires, especially ones like the Holy fire, which has burned in a tough topography that involves a lot of hiking to reach hot spots.

Holy is the fifth fire Carothers has worked since late May.

“You have to slow down and think clearly,” he said. “If you don’t, you’re more likely to make a mistake and get injured.”

Six firefighters have sustained minor injuries in the blaze, the Cleveland National Forest said. Fire has destroyed 14 structures and damaged 10, according to an ongoing assessment. Those homes were mostly in Holy Jim Canyon – a cluster of structures and cabins above Rancho Santa Margarita.

Andrew and Vicky Masotto of Lake Elsinore were effusive in their praise of firefighters on Sunday morning as they received cleaning supplies from the Red Cross to help remove the ash from their home.

“People should go up and say, ‘Thank you very much for saving my home,’” Andrew Masotto said. “Thank you so much for risking your lives for us.”

Masotto said he bought gift cards and handed them to firefighters to show his gratitude.

The couple watched as firefighting aircraft flew low over their home to drop water and retardant.

“It was nothing short of a miracle,” Vicky Masotto said. “It’s more than amazing.”

Evacuations remained in effect in Holy Jim, Trabuco Canyon recreation residence tracts, Blue Jay and Falcon Campgrounds, El Cariso Village, Rancho Capistrano and Glen Eden Canyon, authorities said.

The Forest Service has reduced its estimate of evacuated homes to about 3,698, affecting an estimated 11,120 people, down from 20,000 at the beginning of the weekend.

Highway 74 remains closed in both directions. Glen Eden Road is closed at DePalma Road.

Firefighters on Monday expect relatively cooler weather, with temperatures reaching the low 90s and southwesterly winds  of 5 to 10 mph, gusting up to 20 mph. They planned to protect structures and work on fighting the fire’s spread at its north and south perimeters.

Air quality officials warned that unhealthy conditions remained in some areas of Southern California.

Saturday evening, the evacuation order was lifted for the Machado neighborhood in Lake Elsinore, and voluntary evacuations were no longer in place for the Shoreline community.

Earlier Saturday, evacuations were lifted for the Horsethief Canyon neighborhood in a county area near Corona, as well as the McVicker and Rice Canyon areas in Lake Elsinore.

Evacuation orders for the Sycamore Creek neighborhood and the Lake Elsinore community of Riverside also were lifted Sunday, allowing residents to go home.

The containment percentage grew from 36 percent on Saturday night. Containment is the percentage of the perimeter that firefighters have determined the fire will no longer spread beyond.

Sign up for our breaking news email newsletter: When major local news happens, you will be the first to know. Subscribe here.

The Lake Elsinore Unified School District’s first day of school, which had been set for Monday,  was reset to Aug. 20, the school board decided. “The 2018/19 school year calendar will not be extended, so winter and spring breaks, grad dates, and last day of school are unchanged.”

One of the district’s schools, Rice Canyon Elementary, was spared from the fire Thursday as firefighters stopped a blaze that charred the hillside and open country across the street from the school on Lincoln Street, near the intersection of Westwind Drive.

The Corona-Norco Unified School District also announced several schools will delay their opening day from Monday to Aug. 20. The affected schools are south of the 91 freeway and east of Border Avenue in Corona, the district said.

The City of Corona announced a day camp to help working parents of students for the week of Aug. 13 -17, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily. It urged online registration. Fees are $110 for residents and $140 for non-residents, with priority for parents of students at affected schools. The camp will be located at  Circle City Center, 365 N. Main St.,  Corona.

Menifee Union School District schools will be in session Monday, but elementary school back-to-school nights have been rescheduled to Aug. 23. Middle school back-to-school nights will be Aug. 16. The district’s calendar showed first semester classes began Aug. 8.

The district said it has been working to remove ash from the schools, and students will be on a bad-weather schedule that reduces student activity, and can include staying indoors.

California bill takes aim at secrecy surrounding police officer personnel records

0
0

More than 40 years of police secrecy could begin to crumble if California lawmakers pass a new bill allowing the public release of personnel records for law enforcement officers involved in deadly force, on-duty sexual assaults and falsifying evidence.

Senate Bill 1421, by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, is the latest effort to open police records in the name of transparency. Since 1976, California law enforcement officers have been protected by statutes and court rulings — the strictest in the nation — that make it illegal to release virtually all police personnel records, including those involving wrongdoing and disciplinary action.

Past efforts to undo those protections have been rejected under withering opposition by law enforcement unions, which argue that releasing confidential personnel information would endanger police lives, fuel lawsuits and make it more difficult for officers to do their jobs.

However, Skinner said her bill is more narrow than past efforts and focuses on only the most serious of offenses. Details such as home addresses, names of family members and telephone numbers would remain exempt from disclosure. Additionally, under Skinner’s proposal, the release of information could be delayed when there is an open investigation.

“I believe the bill really balances the rights of law enforcement with the right of the public to know,” Skinner said. “(The public) will have the ability to see the agency took (its concerns) seriously. … Until we have access, we won’t be able to determine that.”

Supporters of the SB 1421 say police transparency is key to gaining the trust of the community.

Current law “allows bad officers to perpetuate and bad supervisors to continue their behavior without it ever being known,” said James Chanin, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who practices in San Francisco. “The quality of policing goes down.”

A store security video of the encounter between Jose Arreola and an off-duty Buena Park police officer generated nationwide alarm after it was first published by the Southern California News Group. (Courtesy photo from video)

For example, an off-duty Buena Park police officer in March pulled his gun on a man he mistakenly thought had stolen a roll of Mentos from a convenience store.  A video of the police gaffe went viral on the internet. Yet, under current law, it is highly unlikely the public will ever know whether the officer was disciplined or retrained. Even his name remains secret, though his face has been seen by a million viewers.

When a Cleveland officer in 2014 shot and killed 14-year-old Tamir Rice, a letter was released from his previous employer saying that agency had found him unfit to be an officer and allowed him to resign.

The release of that kind of information is a crime in California.

“The public has a right to know what’s going on with their taxpayer money, but not in this state,” Chanin said.

Existing law has become a safety net for bad cops, critics say.

In 2006, Berkeley police officers refused — citing state protections — to cooperate with a civilian probe into the theft of heroin, methamphetamines and other drugs from 286 envelopes in the evidence locker. Without police participation, the probe was unable to determine the extent of the security breach.

The Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights was passed by the Legislature in 1976 as a way to keep police supervisors from framing the rank-and-file in the heat of scandal. Before then, officers could be bullied into taking polygraph tests or face losing their jobs. Police brass, according to some stories, would lean on wives and families to get confessions from officers when politically expedient.

The bill of rights basically makes it difficult to fire police officers.

That bill was coupled with a 1978 statute that prohibited disclosure of police disciplinary files to the public without court approval. Those provisions are codified in Penal Codes sections 832.7 and 832.8.

Supporters were worried that criminal defendants were using police disciplinary records to fish for evidence that would help their cases.

California’s protections were made virtually impenetrable in 2006, when the California Supreme Court ruled in Copley Press v. Superior Court of San Diego County that civilian police commissions could not publicly disclose their findings on police misconduct. As a result, some commissions could no longer gain access to personnel files. Lobbyists for the police said these protections were necessary for officer safety.

Specifically, Skinner’s bill would allow for the disclosure of reports, investigations or findings for incidents involving the discharge of a firearm or electronic control weapons, strikes by weapons to the head or neck area or deadly force; incidents of sustained sexual assault by an officer; and findings of dishonesty by an officer.

The proposal is scheduled to be heard Thursday by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It already has been passed by the Senate.

The Peace Officers Research Association of California opposes the bill because of what it believes are damaging side effects to police. Among the concerns, the group says, is that officers fearing their names might be disclosed might hesitate in the field before acting, creating a police safety issue.

State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, co-authored the bill and believes the benefits outweigh the risks.

“I’m trying to assist to getting to the truth and getting to the truth faster,” Moorlach said. “I think there has been a credibility concern about whether we are being told the truth.”


Key state Assembly panel clears bill allowing disclosure of some police personnel records

0
0

A state Senate bill that would force law enforcement agencies to publicly disclose confidential officer records in serious cases has moved closer to the governor’s desk.

Senate Bill 1421 by Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, was approved on a 12-0 vote Thursday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and will be heard by the full Assembly at a later date. The bill would allow the disclosure of personnel records for officers involved in the use of deadly force, on-duty sexual assault and falsifying evidence.

Personal information such as telephone numbers, the names of family members, and home addresses would still be exempt from public disclosure, Skinner has said.

SB1421 was approved by the full Senate in May. If approved by the Assembly, the bill will be sent to the governor to be signed into law.

Skinner sees the provision as a compromise between police and the tax-paying public. Since 1976, California has protected police personnel records through an ever-growing package of statutes and court rulings that made it illegal to share such information.

Under current law, it is difficult to fire a problem police officer. The new provision would open certain records to public scrutiny.

Past efforts to undo police protections have been rejected under withering opposition by law enforcement unions, which argue that releasing confidential personnel information would endanger police lives, fuel lawsuits and make it more difficult for officers to do their jobs.

Rehab Riviera: 3 clean-up bills defy odds and hit governor’s desk, but are they tough enough?

0
0

Most legislation aimed at cleaning up California’s dysfunctional addiction treatment industry slammed into brick walls, withered in suspense files or was watered down so much as to be unrecognizable – again.

“These legislators have blood on their hands,” said Ryan Hampton, who pushed a bill to require basic standards for sober living homes after a friend died of an overdose in one – and was outraged when language referencing sober living homes was deleted at the last minute. “I have to go back and tell his mother that business will remain as usual, and people will continue to die?”

A bill by Sen. Pat Bates, inspired by successful reforms in scandal-plagued Florida, would have kick-started a wholesale revamp of California’s notoriously lax regulation of addiction treatment. Instead, her bill languishes in suspended animation in a committee file. It essentially is dead. Another bill, by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, tried to place a state inspector in Orange County, ground zero of the Rehab Riviera. It was gutted and now addresses police training and racial profiling. California’s Legislative session ended Friday, Aug. 31, with just a few surviving rehab reform bills making it through both chambers and advancing to the governor’s desk.

“More people will die,” said Dave Aronberg, a Florida state attorney who spearheaded Florida’s crackdown and helped Bates craft her bill. “The ignorance and apathy of some lawmakers is going to continue to cost lives.

“We didn’t have this much trouble in Florida,” he said.

Many who hoped for bolder action to protect vulnerable users and their often-desperate families are disappointed – but the stakes are too high to quit now, Bates said.

“You get frustrated,” said Bates. “But we don’t give up. We have to keep going. You start down the path again.”

Survivors

A trio of rehab-related bills has advanced to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, awaiting the signature that will make them law.

That, in and of itself, is a minor miracle: Of the dozens of bills on the issue introduced since 1999, only three have reached the governor’s desk – and they were vetoed by Govs. Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to the California Research Bureau.

  • After getting out of the hospital and being in a two-week induced coma for a throat abscess in 2017, Timmy Solomon was back on the street shooting up heroin and meth. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Ryan Hampton

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
  • Since 2013, at least three Above It All Treatment Center clients have died, including Matthew Maniace, 20, Terri Darling, 52, and James Dugas, 25.

  • Matthew Maniace volunteered at an animal shelter with his mother on Long Island, New York.

  • Terri Darling was was an avid horsewoman. She suffered an injury to her shoulder related to her horse in March of 2014 which required opiate pain medication. Shown above with her granddaughter. (Photo courtesy of Darling Family)

  • A lethal dose of heroin compared to a lethal dose of fentanyl (Bruce A. Taylor-Criminalist II/NH State Police Forensic Lab)

  • In April 2017 Timmy Solomon’s mood swings between euphoria and sadness after shooting heroin and crystal meth, a concoction named “goofball.” (Mindy Schauer, Staff File)

  • A syringe found along the Santa Ana River Trail is seen in this 2017 file photo. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Sen. Ed Hernandez

  • Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, speaks during a drug overdose awareness memorial at Crown Valley Park in Laguna Niguel earlier this year. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

  • AB 572, by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, would shatter the California Department of Health Care Services’s regulatory model by stationing a single inspector in or near Costa Mesa – home to the densest concentration of licensed addiction treatment facilities in California outside of Malibu.(Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, left (AP File Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

  • Dave Aronberg, State Attorney for Palm Beach Co., Florida speaks to reporters at the Orange County Register about sober living homes and treatment centers in Florida. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Mark Mishek, CEO Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

of

Expand

Brown’s office declined to say whether he’ll sign these bills or not.

One of the survivors is Assembly Bill 3162. It would require new rehab licenses to be provisional for one year; allow the state Department of Health Care Services to revoke licenses for “good cause”; increase penalties for non-compliance; require all treatment to happen at the licensed facility, as opposed to off-site; and prohibit operators who’ve had a provisional license revoked from applying for a new one for five years.

What was lost? Originally, AB 3162 sought to enshrine 300 feet as a minimum distance between rehabs, but that’s gone. Maximum fines for violations also shrank exponentially (from $15,000 per day to $1,000). But Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, with co-authors Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore; Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton; Sen. Bates, R-Laguna Niguel; and others, say it’s a step forward.

Also landing on the governor’s desk will be SB 992, by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina. It would require that financial relationships between sober living homes and licensed treatment centers are publicly disclosed, and require centers to draft plans for what to do when residents relapse, including how they’d be supervised while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, among other reforms.

Another bill – SB 1228 by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, the one originally championed by activist Hampton – heads to the governor’s desk as well, minus the bits trying to set minimum standards for sober living homes. The bill would now forbid licensed rehabs and addiction professionals from patient-brokering – that is, paying for patients – and let the state yank licenses and assess fines.

It does not, however, make patient-brokering a crime, and it doesn’t specify dollar fines. That’s a stark contrast to Florida, where patient-brokering is now a felony punishable by jail time and fines up to $500,000.

“If there’s no real penalty, the law is useless,” Aronberg said. “The fraudulent players in the industry know that. They’ll continue to be attracted to states like California that have weak oversight. It’s a race to the bottom.”

Lara has said that we shouldn’t criminalize something that people may not know is problematic, while still sending a message that the practice is wrong.

“Patient brokering is a crisis we have to confront in substance use treatment,” Lara said in a statement. “SB 1228 gives the state a powerful new tool to protect Californians from fraud and unethical providers who put profits over what is best for patients. SB 1228 will help level the playing field for ethical providers who are struggling to compete for patients.”

Aronberg thinks stronger action is needed.

“It’s imperative that California bring its anti-patient-brokering laws up to a higher standard. It’s also imperative that California provide some sort of guidance for oversight of sober homes,” Aronberg said. “California needs these new laws because we’ve seen evidence of rogue sober homes and corrupted drug treatment centers leaving our community for California.

“Remember, the key part of all this is that it’s for the health, safety and welfare of the residents. That’s often lost on legislators. They think it’s NIMBY or discriminatory – but it’s just the opposite. It’s about protecting the people who are seeking help and who are being exploited.”

‘Bizarre’

The Southern California News Group’s ongoing probe of the addiction treatment industry has found that:

  • Addicts trying to get clean — and their families — often mistake California’s 12-step-based, non-medical rehabs for facilities that provide medical treatment, thanks in part to slick advertising. Dozens have died for want of proper medical care in facilities that would not be allowed to open in other states.
  • Inexperienced and unscrupulous operators have rushed in to take advantage of mandatory mental health treatment coverage required by the Affordable Care Act.
  • It’s easy for almost anyone to open a treatment center – regardless of criminal past – and bill insurance companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per client.
  • Addicts with good insurance continue to be lured here with free airline tickets, “scholarships” that cover deductibles and get paid to stay in treatment or agree to a particular kind of treatment. In August, patients willing to get opioid-blocking implants were offered thousands of dollars via Craigslist and Facebook.

In the wake of these revelations, the FBI has raided treatment providers, the Orange County District Attorney has formed a task force to fight rehab fraud, the U.S. Congress has held a series of hearings, and the California Senate did the same. Myriad bills were introduced to crack down on the industry – but few have gotten far or gone far enough, critics say.

“It’s, frankly, bizarre,” said Mark Mishek, president and CEO at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, one of the oldest, most established – and nonprofit – treatment chains in the nation.

“I don’t get it. Given California’s aggressive enforcement of hospital regulations and long-term nursing care homes, it does seem really odd. But in this particular area, it’s like they just don’t really care.”

Weary of waiting for stronger official action, Hazelden Betty Ford has started suing in federal court businesses that hijack its name and reputation to lure patients to their own facilities.

“We hope that if we can document enough of these, we can get a state attorney general or a local U.S. Attorney or the appropriate federal agency to start clamping down,” Mishek said.

Sunshine State fixes

With the support of Florida’s governor and attorney general, stiff new laws for addiction treatment and sober living sailed through Florida’s legislature in a single session last year with unanimous support.

Now, sober living marketers in Florida must be licensed by the state’s Division of Consumer Services. False and misleading marketing statements are illegal. Patient-brokering is a felony. License fees are higher; more training is required for workers; bars licensed facilities from referring patients to sober homes that aren’t voluntarily certified; and the state can make unannounced inspections and immediately suspend licenses.

Results have come quickly. The number of opioid deaths in Palm Beach County in the first four months of 2018 plunged 62 percent over the same period in 2017 – from 283 to 88 – reflecting a sharp decline in the number of sober living homes, Aronberg said.

California’s inaction means more people will die – and these are deaths that could have been avoided, he said.

“It’s really a tragedy. These are people who would be alive but for the fact that they had insurance and sought treatment,” Aronberg said.

Reform advocate and author Hampton agrees.

“It’s easier to open an outpatient treatment facility in our state than it is to open a barbershop,” Hampton said. “You need more licensing qualifications to cut hair and paint nails than to deal with the care of people with addiction. It’s insane.”

Sen. Hernandez, whose successful bill waits on the governor’s desk, says lawmakers understand the problems. He urges patience.

“I’m an optometrist, licensed by the state Board of Optometry, whose No. 1 goal is consumer protection,” Hernandez said. “It’s illegal for me to pay someone to go to a street corner and round up patients. But that’s what’s been happening in this field. …

“All these bills are designed to address these kinds of problems – but it’s not at lightning speed,” he said. “I’ve learned this in my 12 years as a legislator: The wheels of government work very slowly. But they work.”

 

Money-draining probate system ‘like a plague on our senior citizens’

0
0

Love landed Elinor Frerichs in a secured facility for people with dementia.

Twelve days after the death of her husband, 95-year-old Frerichs married a friend 26 years her junior, a man who watched the same TV shows and made her feel “happier than ever.”

But shortly after saying “I do,” Frerichs was placed under a court conservatorship at the recommendation of a psychologist and Adult Protective Services. She was hospitalized and her marriage was annulled — partly to shield her estate, estimated at $1 million.

Despite concerns over her mental capacity, Frerichs appeared lucid in a transcript of a rare visit with friends, vowing, “I’m not going to sit there and rot and die in that damn room.”

She also had a few words for her conservator: “You are a bastard if I ever met one. Somehow, I’m going to get rid of you. Somehow.”

Frerichs’ case in Alameda County has caught the attention of prosecutors and reformers examining a flawed nationwide system in which strangers appointed by the court decide where people live, how their money is spent and even who they can see.

How can legal professionals have such power over the life of a noncriminal, to the point that even family has no voice?

It’s called probate court, and — used properly — it can be a way to protect the elderly and disabled from physical and financial bullying by family and friends. But probate court also can open the door for high-priced professionals to swallow a client’s life savings and the family’s future inheritance.

An investigation by the Southern California News Group reveals that conservators, guardians, fiduciaries, their attorneys and judges become almost cliquish in running people’s lives.

‘Buddy-buddy system’

“Often there is a little buddy-buddy system going on … sometimes a judge has friends who are attorneys,” said Thomas Coleman, a Palm Springs lawyer who specializes in representing the disabled.

It’s a sticky situation that can become a strain on the limited resources of the client, who is billed for the salaries and legal fees of the professionals involved in probate cases. Critics say these professionals often play one side of the family against the other.

Consider:

  • In Santa Ana, court-appointed officials drained a retired judge’s savings and then forced her into a jumbo reverse mortgage on her $1.8 million house in Newport Beach to keep the money flowing.
  • Again in Santa Ana, a conservator sold part of an elderly woman’s real estate to the owner of a land brokerage where he worked. The conservator then tried to collect a $9,800 commission on the sale.
  • In Las Vegas, a guardian was indicted in 2017 on charges of stealing $559,205 from 150 clients from 2011 to 2016. April Parks allegedly overbilled for such things as grocery trips and making bank deposits, according to the 125-page indictment prosecuted by the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.
  • In Berkeley, the husband of an elderly woman defied court instructions and removed his wife from what he considered to be a substandard board-and-care home where she had been placed by her conservator. The judge took no action against the husband, whose family said he could no longer sit idly by while his wife suffered.

“It’s happening again and again. It’s like a plague on our senior citizens,” said Berkeley Vice Mayor Ben Bartlett, who is among those calling for reform.

“We need to turn the operation upside down. What you see is an incentive to work up attorney fees,” Bartlett said. “There is no incentive to preserve the liberty of the person. We need greater oversight with more opportunity to challenge.”

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, who launched a task force to review complaints inside her county’s probate court, agrees the process may need retooling because of the expense.

“If you have 20 court appearances, it might add up,” O’Malley said. “It’s a system that needs to be evaluated, (but) we can’t shortchange protecting the senior.”

Courts jammed

Fiduciaries statewide are regulated by a small bureau that opened in 2007 after media coverage of unlicensed conservators.

The Judicial Council of California reported that probate filings reached 47,170 cases in fiscal 2015-16. California’s Professional Fiduciaries Bureau — a division of the Department of Consumer Affairs — has one investigator and two full-time administrators to oversee 995 licensees.

Last year, the bureau issued four citations for a total of $4,000 in penalties. One license was surrendered and three were placed on probation.

Rebecca May, chief of the bureau, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Amy Olson, executive director of Irvine-based Professional Fiduciary Association of California, defended her members, insisting they are genuinely concerned with the welfare of their clients.

“(They) operate under the strict rule of the court,” Olson said. “It is not as if they are going willy-nilly; their goal is the care of the client.”

However, John Deily, an Irvine probate attorney who represents fiduciaries, says the system is fraught with conflict, in which many families don’t get along with each other or with the conservators.

“(And) our probate courts are exploding with … the volume,” Deily said. “The number of cases brought to the court is increasing.”

Against this backdrop, critics complain that some of the professionals are out to pad their own fees until the money is gone or substantially drained. They relate incidents of the elderly and disabled being isolated from their families by conservators, paying exorbitant professional fees for substandard care and seeing life savings and real estate holdings disappear while judges do nothing.

“Conservatorships are imposed (by judges) in minutes with nary a nod toward due process,” said Linda Kincaid, co-founder of the Coalition for Elder and Disability Rights, based in Northern California. “Once the conservatorship is in place, there is essentially no court oversight or accountability. Conservators and their agents are free to exploit and abuse with impunity.”

Superior Court Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux in 1988. (File Photo by Ana Venegas, Orange County Register/SCNG)

No one is immune

Betty Lou Lamoreaux was a giant on the Orange County Superior Court bench. Her work with children was so impressive that the county named the seven-story family courthouse  after her — the Lamoreaux Juvenile Justice Center.

Lamoreaux, now 94, has Alzheimer’s disease and is unable to care for herself. But she has nephews who want to help. Because of disagreements with another part of the family, they took her case to probate court, believing that a retired judge whose name adorns a courthouse would get top consideration.

Duff Lamoreaux McGrath in 2016 outside county courthouse named after his Aunt, Betty Lou Lamoreaux, whose life savings is is in danger of being financially drained, in part by the very justice system to which she dedicated her life. (Courtesy of Duff McGrath)

Instead, nephew Duff McGrath said, he has watched helplessly as no fewer than nine lawyers and a handful of contractors swallowed “Auntie Lou’s” $273,700 nest egg and forced her into a jumbo reverse mortgage. McGrath, a trustee, said he agreed to the real estate deal, but only because he believed the conservator would remove him as trustee if he didn’t agree.

“If we fight it, they will fight us and use my aunt’s money to fight us,” complained Greg McGrath, Duff’s brother. “They’re just sucking up my aunt’s money.”

All this occurred under the watch of Superior Court Judge Kim Hubbard. The case has since been handed over to Judge David L. Belz.

Conservator under fire

Much of the McGraths’ criticism is aimed at Laguna Hills conservator Sally Cicerone — one of the more active conservators in Orange County. State records show she managed $26.7 million in assets in 2017.

After her first year with Lamoreaux, she billed the estate $42,210, according to records.

Among the family’s complaints: Cicerone waited four months to get a replacement for Lamoreaux’s broken wheelchair. And even then, the new chair didn’t fit and quickly broke. Cicerone billed $700 for her time.

Sally Cicerone

Other documents show Cicerone billed $250 to visit Lamoreaux and take delivery of a new leather recliner in April 2017. But in a sworn declaration, Cicerone contractor Julie Sebestyen testified that it was she who visited Lamoreaux and monitored the chair delivery, not Cicerone.

Cicerone also had a system that allowed her to miss visits with Lamoreaux, but still charge for them, according to a court declaration by Sebestyen.

“On at least four different occasions, Sally told me that she deliberately did not sign in at the front desk so that no one could track her visits. By not signing in, she could allege she had visited when she had not,” Sebestyen testified. Lamoreaux has since been moved home.

“Petitioner has already demonstrated that she inflates her time and thus fee request, bills for services she has not performed, bills for services performed by others, intentionally and fraudulently falsified her time sheets … and neglected the conservatee,” the McGraths alleged in a court declaration.

Cicerone also charged for telephone calls to her attorney that did not appear on the attorney’s log of their conversations, according to allegations in court records.

Kathy Gardner, a former Cicerone employee and client, joined the chorus of people unhappy with Cicerone.

Gardner, in a court declaration, said she made bank deposits on behalf of clients, usually depositing them in batches, a process that takes about 15 minutes. Gardner said Cicerone charged for them as if they were deposited by herself, one by one, at $100 apiece. Cicerone billed Lamoreaux $2,600 to deposit her banking.

Gardner testified that Cicerone hired her at the same time that Cicerone was the conservator for Gardner’s 82-year-old father. Because of a potential conflict, Cicerone advised Gardner to use a fake name at work, said Gardner’s sworn declaration.

More allegations can be found in an appellate court ruling — Cicerone v. Kennedy — that listed overbilling in a Santa Barbara case. Justices ruled that Cicerone inappropriately paid herself $14,519 and her attorney $18,231 after they had been removed from a conservatorship case. They were ordered to return the money.

Cicerone did not return phone calls seeking comment. But in court records, Cicerone and her attorney, Neil Knuppel, denied the allegations in the Lamoreaux case, calling them “false and misleading” and made by disgruntled and spiteful former workers. They are “nothing more than an attempt to discredit … Cicerone’s character,” Knuppel wrote.

Added Cicerone: “Although there were times I did not sign in at the front desk … it was not so I could hide my visits.”

Real estate flipping

Besides the attorneys, fiduciaries and conservators, probate court also can mean a windfall for other contractors.

Joyce Marie Johnson, 74, once was a real estate broker who owned multiple properties in the mountain town of Lytle Creek, north of Fontana, as well as in Long Beach and Seal Beach. Now she sits in an Orange County board-and-care home, dementia eating away her mind, while a court conservatorship liquidates her real estate and isolates her from family members.

Joyce Marie Johnson

Like a quiet prayer, she murmurs, “Don’t forget me here.”

Johnson’s problems began after her two daughters disagreed on who should have power of attorney. The family squabble was taken to probate court and the judge appointed an attorney to represent Johnson.

After a year, Johnson’s real estate holdings were withering from a lack of attention, alleged one daughter, Purita Myers. Rents were not being collected, she said, and repairs were not being made. Long Beach fiduciary Timothy Mock was brought in by the attorney to straighten out the real estate mess. Mock, a former Torrance city councilman, is a would-be lawyer who failed the bar exam four times.

Mock’s answer was to sell some of the Lytle Creek properties to the owner of a real estate office where Mock worked, Long Beach Brokerage Inc. Mock sold the property to his boss for $270,000, court records say. Within days after closing escrow, Long Beach Brokerage listed the property for $570,000. The real estate was taken off the market when Myers complained.

Mock also sought $9,800 in sales commissions. And he listed his own fiduciary fees at $19,000 in the property deal.

Mock gave back the commission, but remains as Johnson’s fiduciary. Under his stewardship, Johnson’s monthly expenses have climbed from $3,000 to $33,000, Myers charged in court papers.

“They don’t care about the people, they care about the money,” Myers said.

Mock defended the Lytle Creek sale, saying it was approved by a judge and that no one else would buy the property. He said he was unable to speak further because he has cancer.

The state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau investigated a complaint from Myers and found no wrongdoing on the part of Mock.

However, a June 2016 deposition of Mock was especially telling in how his clients generally fare. Mock was asked, “How do your conservatorships typically come to an end?”

He answered: “They run out of money.”

Family takes charge again

Some families are so frustrated with the probate court process that they decide to defy the court.

For years, well before Katherine Carter got sick, Credell Carter was in charge of his wife’s estate. Then, at age 84, she dissolved into dementia and stage 4 kidney failure. When Carter tried to represent his wife, an Alameda County Superior Court judge suspended him as her conservator.

Katherine Carter

Katherine Carter was placed in a home where she got substandard care, leaving the family no choice but to physically remove her, said daughter Venus Gist. They went on Valentine’s Day.

“We just acted like normal. We wheeled her out, put her in the car and took her home,” Gist said. “They could have called the police, put us in jail, but they didn’t.”

No court action was taken against the family, which is trying to have Katherine Carter removed from conservatorship. In the meantime, she remains at home. Her conservator is trying to get her returned to a board-and-care.

“It’s like a circus,” Gist said of the whole ordeal. “God, please get me out of it.”

The litigation of love

Elinor Frerichs

Elinor Frerichs’ story reads like a movie plot: rich, elderly widow marries younger man and attempts to sign over her estate. Social service workers get suspicious that the beau has too much influence over his wealthy bride.

Kennett Taylor, the younger man in this real-life scenario, has a few other suspicions about why the probate court took control of his beloved Frerichs and her sizable estate. Taylor, 69, is African-American; Frerichs is white.

“They don’t want to see a black man end up with that amount of money,” Taylor said in a phone interview from his home in Oakland. “They’ve been running up the bills for nothing; they kidnapped her out of her house; the whole idea (for them) was to steal her estate. … They thought they could get away with it because I’m an African-American.”

Taylor said he and Frerichs had been neighbors for 10 years and compared their friendship to the one depicted in the film “Driving Miss Daisy.”

“I’m happier with you than I’ve ever been with any man. Really and truly,” Frerichs tells Taylor in the transcribed visit. “You can kiss me on the cheek.”

And so he does.

“Now,” she says, “I’m happy.”

It was Taylor who insisted Frerichs get a psychological exam to prove that she was mentally competent to include him in her will, which they believed would be contested by her step-grandchildren.

The examiner, neuropsychologist Nancy A. Hoffman, grew concerned that Frerichs’ judgment was impaired and she was vulnerable to financial and physical abuse by Taylor and his friends, according to her official report. Frerichs can’t see well enough to read a bill or sign a check, Hoffman noted.

She also noticed that Frerichs’ nails were chipped and she had a “slight odor,” as if she had not bathed in days. Yet, she found that Frerichs’ speech was fluent and understandable, with no evidence of impairment in expression or comprehension.

Frerichs’ marriage to Taylor in Reno, Nevada, was annulled at the behest of conservator Scott Phipps, a  graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Frerichs signed the annulment papers, which said: “I feel I was unable to make any sound decisions during the month that my spouse died.”

Kennett Taylor outside the Elihu M. Harris State Building in Oakland, Calif., after meeting with Senator Nancy Skinner on Friday, Aug. 17, 2018. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

Hoffman declined to comment on the case, citing patient confidentiality. Phipps emailed a written statement: “I was appointed by the court to serve as Ms. Frerichs’ conservator and every action I have taken in that role has been done in furtherance of my duties to Ms. Frerichs and in compliance with the court’s wishes.

“As a professional fiduciary with many years of experience,” he continued, “I take my role and responsibilities very seriously and continuously work to protect Ms. Frerichs and make sure her needs are met.”

Kincaid, the activist, speculated that Frerichs didn’t understand when she signed the annulment papers.

“We also believe they told her Ken wanted the annulment,” Kincaid said. “To me, it comes down to Elinor has the right to see visitors if she wants to … (and) if she wants to give her money to a (pet) cat, she can do it.

“You don’t lock up little old ladies.”

Attorney Deily put it another way: “When do you lose the right to make a bad decision?”

These laws help protect seniors in the probate system

0
0

Here are some California bills affecting the rights of elders and those whose affairs are managed by a conservator. All have been signed into law by the governor.

Assembly Bill 937 (2013) by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont: This law provides that a conservator’s control of a conservatee shall not extend to personal rights, including, but not limited to, the conservatee’s right to receive visitors, telephone calls and personal mail, unless specifically limited by a court order.

AB 217 (2014) by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont: This law establishes specified rights for residents of privately operated residential care facilities for the elderly, including, among other things, to be accorded dignity in their personal relationships with staff, to be granted a reasonable level of personal privacy of accommodations, medical treatment, personal care and assistance, and to confidential treatment of their records and personal information.

AB 1085 (2015) by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale: This law, authored in response to the reported isolation of radio personality Casey Kasem before his death in 2014, protects the right of all adults to visit and communicate with anyone they wish.

Senate Bill 1191 (2018) by Sens. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Bob Wieckowski, D-Freemont: This law will update law enforcement policy manuals to clarify that elder abuse is a crime, isolation is a form of abuse and that law enforcement has jurisdiction over elder abuse. It will prompt law enforcement to take action.

Source: Coalition for Elder and Disability Rights, LegInfo website

FAQ: What you need to know about the probate system before you’re entangled in it

0
0

Probate courts and conservatorships can be among the most confusing and frustrating components of the justice system. Here are some typical questions you might have when first exposed to California’s probate system, which has the potential to rule your life or the life of a loved one.

Q: Isn’t probate typically associated with contested wills or lack of a will when someone dies? Or is probate more than that? 

A: Yes, probate courts also can be used for appointing conservators and guardians to, in theory, care for the elderly and disabled and protect them from being bullied or taken advantage of.

Q: What is a probate conservatorship?

A: A probate conservatorship is a court proceeding in which a judge appoints a responsible person (called a conservator) to care for another adult who cannot care for himself/herself or manage his/her finances (called a conservatee). There are two kinds of conservators:

  • A conservator of the person cares for and protects a person when the judge decides that the conservatee cannot do it.
  • A conservator of the estate handles the conservatee’s financial matters — like paying bills and collecting a person’s income — if the judge decides the conservatee cannot do it.

Q: When can I establish a probate conservatorship?

A: You must be certain that establishing a conservatorship is the only way to meet the person’s needs. If there is another way, the court will not grant your petition. In general, you may not need a conservatorship if the person who needs help:

  • Can cooperate with a plan to meet his or her basic needs.
  • Has the capacity and willingness to sign a power of attorney naming someone to help with his or her finances or health-care decisions, in essence, name his or her own conservator.

Q: Who can file for a conservatorship?

A: The person who wants to be a conservator can file. Others can file as well, such as a spouse, a relative, a state or local government agency (such as a county public guardian) or any other interested person or friend.

Q: Who can be appointed as a conservator?

A: The law provides criteria for choosing a conservator. It gives preference to the first person on this list, and then moves down from there in order: spouse, adult child, parent, sibling, any other person the law says is OK, and the county public guardian.

Q: How can I find a trustworthy conservator to take care of my loved one’s personal needs, such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care?

A: Judges often appoint the conservator. You can research that person online, through the limited resources of the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau or such consumer services as Yelp. If the judge appoints an attorney, you can look up his or her record at the website of the California State Bar. But there are very few options for researching conservators in depth. Reform groups such as the Coalition for Elder and Disability Rights are available. 

Q: To whom do I report a problem if I suspect a conservator is draining my relative’s assets or otherwise not acting in the best interests of a conservatee?

A: You can report the activity to the judge or to the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. However, the bureau has only one investigator and a 365-day goal for clearing complaints. Results may come slowly. Meanwhile, the conservator can defend himself or herself in court using your loved one’s money.

Q: What does a court investigator do in conservatorship cases?

A: The court investigator looks into anything the judge deems warranted, from family complaints to a conservator’s accusations, and gives impartial information to the judge.

Q: How can conservatorships be avoided? Is there an alternative?

A: The best way to avoid conservatorship problems is for families to get along and work things out among themselves to stay out of probate court. If you do go to court, try to nominate your own conservator.

Q: What is a guardianship?

A: A guardianship comes into play for minors only if the child is not involved in a Family Court or Juvenile Court action. The probate court will appoint an adult who is not the child’s parent to take care of the child or the child’s property.

Q: What is the public guardian?

A: The office of the public guardian in each county takes on cases in which the client cannot afford a private guardian.

Q: What is a fiduciary?

A: A fiduciary is a financial adviser who must act in the best interest of his or her clients.

Sources: Orange County Superior Court website, Wex legal dictionary.

New California laws open police officer records, end 40 years of secrecy

0
0

Shattering 40 years of secrecy, police disciplinary records and body camera footage will be available for public scrutiny under two laws signed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 1421, by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, opens the once-private personnel files of officers using deadly force, involved in sustained acts of on-duty sexual assault or engaging in dishonesty.

Since 1976, California law enforcement officers have been protected by statutes and court rulings — the strictest in the nation — that made it illegal to release virtually any police personnel records. Brown, during his first term as governor, signed the bill that was the backbone of law enforcement confidentiality, the Peace Officers Bill of Rights.

On Sunday, Brown’s office announced that he had signed Skinner’s bill, denting the shield that had protected officers from public disclosure for decades.

“That prohibition masked the misbehavior of a lot of law enforcement officers who didn’t hew an ethical line,” said Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

The new law opens the door to transparency and promotes trust in law enforcement, Ewert said, adding that the fight for reform has been a long one.

“We’ve been banging our heads against the wall for years,” he said.

Other proposals have died under the withering opposition of law enforcement unions and police agencies throughout California. This law, which also applies to police conduct that occurred before its passage, succeeded partly because it was more narrow than the others.

Telephone numbers, home addresses, the names of family members and other personal information will remain exempt from disclosure. Skinner added that it was the right time for more transparency, “to create that sunshine.”

“There is increased public awareness and concern about whether law enforcement agencies are adequately investigating misconduct,” Skinner said. “I think agencies will be more thorough and … able to weed out bad actors.”

Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, said the union supports the idea of holding agencies accountable for bad cops. But Dominguez said he was concerned that the “dishonesty” category was too wide and subject to interpretation.

An allegation of “dishonesty” could be sustained but later overturned on appeal, Dominguez said. Yet the records may have already been released.

“It’s purely subjective and that is a problem, especially when you have overzealous police chiefs and sheriffs,” Dominguez said. The records bill takes effect in January.

The other bill, Assembly Bill 748 by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would allow the release of body camera footage and audio recordings. Dominguez said the union also supports the use of body-worn cameras and the public disclosure of audio and video recordings, which must be done within 45 days unless it would hamper an investigation.

Video captures Orange County sheriff’s deputy in altercation with drunken man rousted from vehicle

0
0

Mohamed Zahangir Sayem, in a drunken haze, was struggling to give Orange County sheriff’s deputies a straight answer when asked for his driver’s license.

Sayem’s confusion grew when a deputy allegedly pulled the 5-foot-11 man out of his vehicle — where he had been sleeping — and punched him until he collapsed.

“Are you going to shoot me?” asked Sayem, 33, laying on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind his back.

“Like to,” said another deputy.

The Aug. 19 incident, captured by a police dash camera, is part of a new court motion filed by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who uncovered the “snitch scandal” that rocked Orange County’s justice system in 2014. Sanders showed that prosecutors and deputies for years improperly used jailhouse informants to help obtain convictions.

In Sayem’s case, Sanders alleges Deputy Michael Devitt beat the apparently drunken man in a Stanton alley and then conspired with others to make it appear in the official report that Sayem attacked him.

“The officer decided that despite having violently beaten Mr. Sayem without justification, the best response was to fabricate Mr. Sayem’s responsibility,” Sanders said. “The only people who should be charged in this case are those who wear uniforms every day. The district attorney should immediately dismiss the charges against Mr. Sayem.”

Sayem faces a felony charge of resisting an officer with threat or violence.

Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, said it was Sayem who escalated the situation and that the video is consistent with the deputy’s report.

“A review of the full video indicates that the deputy made every attempt to de-escalate the situation and provide the subject multiple opportunities to simply provide his identification,” Braun said. “The subject refused to do so and attempted to physically engage the deputy, during which the deputy used force appropriate for the situation to gain control of an uncooperative, assaultive and intoxicated person.”

She continued: “Any assertion otherwise substantially misrepresents the facts, and serves only to swell an anti-law enforcement narrative.”

According to the video and the court motion, Devitt and Deputy Eric Ota questioned Sayem in the predawn darkness, asking him for his identification. Sayem appears not to understand and jokes with the deputies.

At one point, Devitt pushes against Sayem’s arm, in an attempt to keep him inside the vehicle.

“Don’t touch me like that,” Sayem snaps at Devitt. The deputy then appears to grab Sayem, who holds onto the steering wheel, and yanks him out of the vehicle. Devitt repeatedly punches Sayem in the face, until the suspect collapses. Ota appears to help restrain Sayem.

Devitt’s supervisor, Sgt. Christopher Hibbs, arrives at the scene and is told by Devitt that he pulled the suspect out of the vehicle and Sayem tried to bear hug him. The conversation is caught on the sergeant’s body microphone.

Later, Devitt wrote in his official report — which was approved by Hibbs — that Sayem got out of the vehicle and grabbed the deputy’s vest.

“Due to his aggressive demeanor … I believed Sayem was going to continue to try and physically assault me,” Devitt reported.

Sanders wrote, “It reads like an unforgettable fear-inspiring moment for an officer left with no option but to use defensive violence. However, Devitt was lying.”

The report also does not contain Ota’s statement that he would “like to” shoot Sayem.

Sanders notes that, years earlier, Sgt. Hibbs was charged with a felony after Tasing a handcuffed man in the backseat of a patrol car in 2007. The case was hobbled by the reluctance of other deputies to testify. Prosecutors dropped the charges after a jury voted 11-1 to acquit, resulting in a mistrial.

“OCSD placed Hibbs in a role where he could use his specialized experience and knowledge to help fellow officers defeat righteous excessive force claims and keep unwanted truths behind the thin blue line,” Sanders wrote.

His motion asks a judge for access to Devitt’s personnel file as part of Sayem’s criminal case.


Thousand Oaks gunman used high-capacity magazine that’s illegal to sell, but not to own

0
0

The legally purchased Glock handgun used in the Thousand Oaks shooting rampage that left 13 dead was fitted with an extended magazine that boosted the weapon beyond California’s 10-round limit, police said Thursday.

High-capacity magazines with more than 10 bullets are illegal to sell in California — even online — but not necessarily illegal to own.

Sales were prohibited in 2001, but existing owners were “grandfathered” and allowed to keep their magazines. Possession was then banned under a measure passed by California voters in 2016, but enforcement of that law was suspended by a federal judge after the gun lobby filed a lawsuit.

Shooter Ian David Long “may not have had access if (the measure) had become law,” said Michael McLively, senior staff attorney for Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco.

“These magazines allow people to fire many more rounds and end up killing and injuring many more people. They are offensive weapons and don’t belong on the streets.”

Police are uncertain how Long obtained his extended magazine and how many bullets it held. High-capacity magazines purchased before the state’s sales ban, in 2001, could still be in circulation. And others can be obtained in states that do not have a prohibition, such as Nevada and Arizona, McLively said. California is one of only nine states that prohibit sales of high-capacity magazines.

Such magazines are a common thread in mass shootings in the United States, such as the attacks at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, in 2012 and the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla, in 2016.

The Glock 21 45-caliber gun used by Long is popular at a wholesale price of about $500 and typically utilizes a 10-round magazine, with one in the chamber. According to Huntington Beach firearms trainer Greg Block, Glock makes an extension that adds two rounds to the standard magazine. Some online dealers advertise extended magazines for the Glock model with a capacity of 26.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Manrique, 33, Thousand Oaks mass shooting victim, was a Marine veteran who helped other vets

0
0

Ex-Marine sergeant Daniel Manrique dedicated his life to helping emotionally scarred veterans get back on their feet. And his death at the hands of a fellow Marine with post-traumatic stress syndrome showed the importance of Manrique’s mission, to get veterans the help they need, friends said.

Manrique, 33, of Thousand Oaks worked with a non-profit group helping veterans overcome their feelings of isolation, transitioning them back to the community. He also volunteered with a hospital helping the homeless and at a local church working in daycare.

“The best way I can describe him is as a ‘saint.’ He truly believed in service,” said friend and business partner Tim O’Brien. “Dan was the guy you could rely on if you ran out of gas in the middle of the night. He would help you out if something bad happened. He was there, dedicated, loyal.”

MORE: Here are all the victims identified in Thousand Oaks mass shooting

Manrique served with the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division as a radio operator and deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said Bana Miller, spokesperson for Team Red, White and Blue, a non-profit group that helps veterans transition.

Miller said Manrique was discharged in 2010 and joined Team Red, White and Blue’s Ventura County Chapter two years later. In 2014, he became the chapter’s captain and within the last month landed a job with the group as a regional program manager.

“He touched hundreds of thousands of vets,” Miller said.

Manrique and O’Brien, who met their freshman year at Westlake High School in Westlake Village – class of 2003 – were preparing to open a veteran-oriented brewery. They called it “O’brique” brewery, a combination of their last names.

O’Brien, 33, of Thousand Oaks, said he was impressed by his partner’s ability to fit his work, his business and his service into one busy day.

“He never stood still, never turned his brain off. He was always moving, moving, moving,” O’Brien said.

Gov. Brown: Killer firestorms are ‘the new abnormal,’ while Woolsey blaze 15% contained

0
0

Killer firestorms devouring homes and devastating lives represent a  “new abnormal” for California, a state stricken by drought, climate change and wind, Gov. Jerry Brown warned late Sunday.

As forecasts of continued high winds and low humidity filled firefighters with foreboding, Brown called for the state to pull together.

“This is the new abnormal and this abnormal will continue for the next 20 years,” said the outgoing governor. “We have a real challenge threatening our way of life.”

Brown’s warning came amid a glimmer of hope; no new structures were burned in the Woolsey Fire on Sunday despite heavy winds. The fire had already destroyed 177 buildings and forced the evacuation of 265,000 people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Fire authorities were worried about forecasts that 40-mph winds and low humidity would continue until Tuesday evening, potentially firing up embers and fanning flames.

  • A home destroyed by the Woolsey Fire on Flintlock Lane in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Twin brothers Kevin and Justin Cha watch firefighters fight the Woolsey Fire in front of their home on Strathern Street in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Sound
    The gallery will resume inseconds
  • San Ramon Valley Fire Department firefighter Casey Good works to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Culver City Fire Department firefighters watch from a burned home on Flintlock Lane in West Hills as the wind flares up the Woolsey Fire on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A air tanker drops fire retardant on the Woolsey Fire as it flares up behind homes on Strathern Street in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A burned home on Flintlock Lane in West Hills as the wind flares up the Woolsey Fire on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Firefighters work to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • San Ramon Valley Fire Department firefighter Casey Good works to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Culver City Fire Department firefighters watch from a burned home on Flintlock Lane in West Hills as the wind flares up the Woolsey Fire on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A air tanker drops fire retardant on the Woolsey Fire as it flares up behind homes on Strathern Street in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A helicopter makes a water drop on the Woolsey Fire as it flares up behind homes on Strathern Street in West Hills,Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Firefighters protect homes from the Woolsey Fire on Strathern Street in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A burned home on Flintlock Lane in West Hills as the wind flares up the Woolsey Fire on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Firefighters work to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • San Ramon Valley Fire Department firefighter Casey Good works to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Firefighters work to stop the Woolsey Fire from reaching homes on Dequincy Court in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Firefighters protect homes from the Woolsey Fire on Strathern St in West Hills on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Fire engines line Arminta Street in West Hills ready to protect homes from the Woolsey Fire on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Fire crews battle flames in Chatsworth on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Gene Blevins, contributing photographer)

  • Fire crews battle flames in Chatsworth on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Gene Blevins, contributing photographer)

  • Fire crews battle flames in Chatsworth on Sunday, November 11, 2018. (Photo by Gene Blevins, contributing photographer)

  • L.A. City Probationary Firefighter Brittney Bebek hoses down the rubble of a home on Hitching Post Lane after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Shane Clark peers into the lower floor of his gutted home in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. L.A. City firefighters were able to save several items from his house including the ultrasounds of his unborn child off of his refrigerator door. The Woolsey Fire burned through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • With his burned down home smoldering in the background, Shane Clark holds the ultrasounds of his unborn child that were saved off of his refrigerator door by Los Angeles firefighters in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. His wife Clair is 5-months pregnant with their first child, a boy. The Woolsey Fire burned through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Melted recycling and trash containers stand next to one of at least 20 homes destroyed just on Windermere Drive in the Point Dume area of Malibu, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Known as the Woolsey Fire, it has consumed thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  • L.A. City firefighters from Station 60 in North Hollywood walk down the charred driveway of a home after making a spot check on Flintlock Ln. after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Firefighter Dave Karn removes artwork from a fire damaged house on Portshead Rd. in Malibu, CA Saturday afternoon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • A child’s toy stands outside one of at least 20 homes destroyed just on Windermere Drive in the Point Dume area of Malibu, Calif.,Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Known as the Woolsey Fire, it has consumed thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  • Flames from a broken gas line burn at one of at least 20 homes destroyed just on Windermere Drive in the Point Dume area of Malibu, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Known as the Woolsey Fire, it has consumed thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  • A Malibu resident points out a hotspot near Kanan Rd. Saturday afternoon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • With his burned down home smoldering in the background, Shane Clark, at right, gets some help from his dad, Ben, as they load a toolbox that was saved by firefighters into the bed of a truck in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. The Woolsey Fire burned through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Ben Bibiyan uses a bucket of pool water to douse trees behind a friends’ home on Castle Peak Dr. as a flare up briefly threatens homes in West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A fight fighter walks through the rubble of Greg Meneshian home in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 after the Woolsey fire swept through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Los Angeles Firefighter Cole Mason, of Station 73 in Reseda, hoses down Shane Clark’s gutted home in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Shane Clark holds the ultrasounds of his unborn child that were saved off of his refrigerator door by Los Angeles firefighters in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. His wife Clair is 5-months pregnant with their first child, a boy. The Woolsey Fire burned through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Greg Meneshian takes photos of his neighbors’ destroyed home in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 after the Woolsey fire swept through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A buddha statue remains after the Woolsey Fire swept through Agoura Hills and destroyed SIP Malibu Grapes along Kanan Rd Saturday afternoon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Greg Meneshian looks through the rubble of his burned down home at 46 Dapplegray Rd. on Saturday, November 10, 2018. The Woolsey fire swept through Meneshian’s Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Nikki Teague, 22, of Agoura Hills, lets her Rottweiler Max clean up her pasta dish as she sits on her cot at the American Red Cross evacuation shelter at Pierce College in Woodland Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018. Teague brought three dogs, two cats and two tortoises, along with her mom and brother, with her after receiving evacuation orders. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Greg Meneshian looks over the rubble of his burned down home at 46 Dapplegray Rd. on Saturday, November 10, 2018. The Woolsey fire swept through Meneshian’s Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Greg Meneshian looks over the rubble of his burned down home at 46 Dapplegray Rd. on Saturday, November 10, 2018. The Woolsey fire swept through Meneshian’s Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Rick Cavalleri looks to turn off the gas at a burned home along Cavalleri Rd. in Malibu Saturday afternoon. The Woolsey Fire destroyed many houses on the street but his mother’s home was spared Friday night.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Greg Meneshian walks between the rubble of his burned down home at 46 Dapplegray Rd. And that of his neighbor’s destroyed home on Saturday, November 10, 2018. The Woolsey fire swept through Meneshian’s Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A burned down home smolders in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 after the Woolsey fire swept through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Firefighters Kelly Judd and Gabriel Barajas work to put out a fire that destroyed a house on Wildlife Rd. in Malibu Saturday afternoon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Greg Meneshian and his friend Launa Stone look over the remains of his burned down home in the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 after the Woolsey fire swept through the area on Friday. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • L.A. City Fire Engineer Steve Romero, from Station 93 in Northridge, walks near the rubble of homes on Hitching Post Lane after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • The sun rises on a statue overlooking the dirty pool of a destroyed home on Dapplegray Rd. after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • 11-9-18. Agoura Hills CA. A two story barn is engulf in flames as firefighters battle the Santa Rosa fire that has exploded to 8,000 acres Friday morning. Approximately 75,000 homes are under evacuation orders along the Ventura-Los Angeles border. Photo by Gene Blevins/DailyNews/Contributing Photographer

  • Palm trees frame a home being destroyed by a wildfire above Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. Known as the Woolsey Fire, it has consumed tens of thousands of acres and destroyed multiple homes. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  • Firefighters battle flames in the Oak Forest Mobile Estates area of Westlake Village Friday afternoon. Many homes were destroyed in the complex as the Woolsey Fire continued to burn towards the coast.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Jerry Durr, 75, looks over his burned living room on Friday, November 9, 2018 after the Hill Fire came into Vallecito Mobile Home Park in Newbury Park on Thursday. The fire burned one home completely in the park and damaged a few others. Only Durr’s living room and porch was damaged by the fire. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

  • Tim Biglow tries to save the furnitures from the Woolsey fire in Malibu, Calif., Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

  • Llamas evacuated from the Woolsey Fire are tied to a lifeguard tower at Zuma beach in Malibu on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

  • Firefighters battle the Woolsey fire in Malibu, Calif., Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

  • LAFD firefighter Channing Toomey keeps watch on a burned out house on Flintlock Ln. Friday night as the Woolsey Fire continues to burn in Bell Canyon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Evacuated horses are tied to a lifeguard tower on Zuma beach as the Woolsey Fire burns nearby in Malibu on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

  • Antique gas pumps still stand outside a destroyed residence along Latigo Canyon Rd in Malibu Saturday afternoon. The Woolsey Fire destroyed many houses during its destructive path towards the coast.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • A firefighter works on a fire consuming a mobile home in the Oak Forest mobile home park in Weslake during the Woolsey Fire, Friday, Nov 9, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Llamas evacuated from the Woolsey Fire are tied to a lifeguard tower at Zuma Beach in Malibu on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

  • Fire burns down to Lindero Canyon Road in Weslake Village during the Woolsey Fire on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • A firefighter works on hot spots on Nottingham Road in Weslake Village during the Woolsey Fire on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • Shane Clark’s home burns as his dad Keith helps get some of his belongings that were saved by firefighters on Hitching Post Lane after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A firetruck heads into thick smoke from the Woolsey Fire at Morning View in Malibu on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

  • Firefighters put out a burning deck on Glenbridge Road in Weslake Village during the Woolsey Fire on Friday, Nov 9, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

  • The sun rises over the rubble of a home on Dapplegray Rd. after the Woolsey fire swept through the Bell Canyon neighborhood of West Hills on Saturday, November 10, 2018 . (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Many homes along Kanan Rd. were destroyed by the Woolsey Fire as it swept through Agoura Hills.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • A home along Latigo Canyon Rd. stands without much damage Saturday afternoon.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • A piece of garden statuary stands among the remains of one of at least 20 homes destroyed just on Windermere Drive in the Point Dume area of Malibu, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Known as the Woolsey fire, it has consumed thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  • Firefighters battle flames in the Oak Forest Mobile Estates area of Westlake Village Friday afternoon. Many homes were destroyed in the complex as the Woolsey Fire continued to burn towards the coast.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • The Woolsey Fire destroyed several homes in the Sierra Creek Rd. area of Agoura Hills, CA.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Firefighters battle flames in the Oak Forest Mobile Estates area of Westlake Village Friday afternoon. Many homes were destroyed in the complex as the Woolsey Fire continued to burn towards the coast.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • The Woolsey Fire destroyed many homes near Kanan Rd. Friday night.(photo by Andy Holzman)

  • Residents watch as the Woolsey Fire burns in the West Hills area of the San Fernando Valley Friday night.(photo by Andy Holzman)

of

Expand

Officials Sunday night placed the size of the fire at 85,500 acres with 15 percent containment, up slightly from that morning. They said a better estimate of damage would be coming Monday. Authorities added that two people found dead in a charred car were probably fleeing and became disoriented when they were overcome by the fast-moving blaze. Three firefighters were reported injured, but no other details were available.

• Related: See fire map and evacuation centers here

Authorities said some 500 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies would be available to patrol evacuated areas on a 24-hour basis, sending a stern warning to would-be looters.

Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Eric Buschow added there had been some arrests in his jurisdiction for looting. “We will take people to jail, if that’s what it takes.”

Some evacuations in Los Angeles County were being lifted Sunday night in Agoura Hills and Westlake Village.

Residents refusing to leave the remaining evacuated areas in Los Angeles County were hampering efforts to battle the Woolsey blaze, officials said Sunday.

Officials urged Topanga Canyon residents to heed evacuation orders.

“For those that remain in the Topanga area, we urge you to evacuate and allow our law enforcement partners to move into the area and protect the homes and property,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Chief John Benedict said. “We realize that some folks are still in that Topanga area, and we just want to make sure they understand that this is the time to leave.”

More evacuations were predicted in the coming days and officials told residents to “be aware, alert and ready to go.”

Culver City Fire Department Captain Nick Mendes works on putting out hotspots at a home destroyed by the Woosley Fire on Flintlock Ln. in West Hills, Sunday, Nov 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

While the Rams defeated the Seahawks Sunday at the Coliseum, the team’s list of fire evacuees grew to 100, including players, coaches and staff.

More areas of Ventura County were expected to be reopened Sunday night. Residents there were advised to watch VCEmergency.com for up-to-date news.

With the devastation came signs of heroism, by civilians who helped save homes, by firefighters who rescued a couple’s ultrasound photos of their unborn baby, and sheriff’s deputies who pulled over to pick up an injured bunny hobbling on the roadside.

Wind-driven flare-ups were reported throughout the day in the huge footprint of the fire that includes a coastal stretch from roughly Malibu to Point Mugu and then inland into the western San Fernando Valley.

Firefighters were concerned about the effectiveness of tanker fire retardant and helicopter water drops hit by gusts on the way to the fire.

The entire city of Calabasas was under evacuation orders by Sunday evening, while a Malibu city councilman who lost his home was reported injured and being treated in an intensive care unit, according to a fellow council member.

“The only thing we’re not concerned about is the ocean,”  Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl L. Osby said at a morning news conference.

Later in the day, Osby said the department had some huge successes, holding the flare-ups to existing fire areas and keeping the flames from spreading.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Curt Kaplan said Sunday that the winds will steadily increase to 50-60 mph in the mountains with gusts of up to 70 mph. A Red Flag Warning remained in effect for Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Tuesday.

Kaplan was optimistic the winds would be weaker than they were Thursday and Friday and will be strongest in the mornings and early afternoons through Tuesday, giving firefighters a nightly reprieve.

Southern California Edison again warned that it may shut off power in circuits in high fire-risk areas. The latest warning affected some 46,000 customers in the region.

Also Sunday, two water districts in the Woolsey evacuation area issued boil water notices to their customers after firefighting efforts resulted in a significant loss of pressure in their systems. Los Angeles County officials said advisories were issued to the communities of Point Dume and Encinal Canyon by Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 29 and to the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s service area south of Westlake Village, east of the Ventura County line, north of the city of Malibu and west of Corral Canyon.

Customers are advised to either use bottled water or boil tap water for one minute prior to its use for drinking, brushing teeth and cooking. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms.

As winds picked up Sunday, flare-ups were reported near Pepperdine University near Malibu. An earlier flare-up in the West Hills area of the San Fernando Valley was knocked back by firefighters who rushed into the backyards of homes in the area of Arminta Street and were doused by aerial drops, along with the flames they were pushing away.

Pepperdine said Sunday it was canceling classes and events for its Malibu and Calabasas campuses through the Thanksgiving holiday. Classes will “be administered remotely through a combination of online, email, and remote assignments,” the university said. Regular class schedules are expected to resume Nov. 26.

 

Pepperdine student Andrea Romero, 22, left campus for her grandparents’ after the Borderline shooting that killed one of her classmates Wednesday. Her grandparents are now supposed to evacuate, and she can’t return to campus where she has most of her things.

“It was too depressing there, but now I feel like I’m trapped,” Romero said. She didn’t personally know anyone who was at Borderline but still feels their loss sharply.

The Woolsey fire destroyed structures and threatened an estimated 57,000 homes in the communities of Thousand Oaks, Oak Park, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, West Hills, Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Bell Canyon, Hidden Hills, Malibu and Calabasas, CalFire, the statewide firefighting agency said in a statement.

Malibu City Council member Skylar Peak told the news conference that fellow Council member Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner lost his home in the fire, had been injured, and was being treated in an intensive care unit of a hospital. He gave no other details

“My community has been greatly devastated, ” Peak said, estimating 50 homes had been lost just in one area that he knew of. “It just makes my heart wrench to see the loss that has hit our community.

“A lot of people remain on the ground there and I urge you to leave the area if you are not prepared to deal with the major wind event that is going on, immediately,” Peak said. He said power was out to half of the city.

The city’s website says Wagner is Mayor Pro Tem.

Among those who lost their home in Malibu was Scottish actor and producer Gerard Butler, who  posted an image of his destroyed home on Twitter.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. More than 3,200 personnel were fighting the fire Sunday on the ground and in the air with water-dropping helicopters and aerial tankers, as available.

Climate change spawning year-round fires statewide were starting to press on resources, Osby said at the news conference.

“Typically at this time of year, when we get fires in Southern California, we can rely upon our mutual aid partners in Northern California to come assist us, because this time of year they have already had significant rainfall,” he said. But that didn’t happen this year.

The simultaneous Camp fire in Northern California is larger, destroyed more structures and killed more people, Osby said, and is a confirmation that warmer temperatures and crisp, dry brush and other fuels is now a statewide problem.

For updated information on evacuation centers, animal shelters, road closures and wildfires, visit: https://www.lacounty.gov/woolseyfire/

Gov. Brown called on Sunday for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration, “to bolster the ongoing emergency response and help residents recover from devastating fires burning in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.”

President Donald Trump unleashed a tweetstorm of reactions on Saturday when he threatened to withhold federal payments to California, blaming the “massive, deadly and costly forest fires” on poor “forest management” and threatening to withhold federal funds. Politicians, leaders and celebrities responded with outrage, some noting that the brush fires currently raging did not start in forests.

Early Sunday, Trump tweeted, “With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!”

Brown said in a statement Sunday, “We have the best firefighters and first responders in the country working in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable. We’re putting everything we’ve got into the fight against these fires and this request (for help) ensures communities on the front lines get additional federal aid.

“To those who have lost friends and family members, homes and businesses, know that the entire state is with you. As Californians, we are strong and resilient, and together we will recover,” Brown said.

A home destroyed by the Woosley Fire on Flintlock Ln. in West Hills, Sunday, Nov 11, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

City News Service contributed to this story.

Police warn scammers and looters to stay away from Woolsey fire victims

0
0

Authorities are warning scammers and looters who would take advantage of fire victims and those trying to help them, are warned to stay away.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Aura Sierra advised Good Samaritans to beware of charity scams trying to take advantage of their good will.

The department tweeted for givers to look for charities that are established for their work with first responders, such as the Red Cross, the United Way and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation.

“We’re just putting the word out about people taking advantage during a vulnerable time,” Sierra said. “The tendency for scams during times like this goes up immensely.”

She also put the word out to would-be looters: “It’s not going to be tolerated. Anybody causing people to be victimized again will be arrested and prosecuted.”

How billionaire Orange County philanthropist Bill Gross is turning his rare stamps into millions for charity

0
0

Orange County billionaire Bill Gross, one of the world’s premier connoisseurs of rare stamps, is selling a major part of his $42.5 million U.S. collection and giving the proceeds to charity.

Gross’ philanthropy is well known, but not so much his reputation as a philatelist.

The man who built his fortune as the bond baron of the business world has a stamp gallery at the Smithsonian and a discerning eye for adhesive-backed treasures. He is one of a relative few who can appreciate an “inverted Jenny” or a “1-cent Z Grill” — both part of a 2005 stamp swap that made international philately history.

Gross is considered “the greatest philatelist of the 20th century, early 21st century,” said Charles Shreve, Gross’ stamp consultant, widely regarded as one of the best in the business. “Nobody else has amassed such an amazing array.”

In the famous swap, Gross first spent $2.97 million to purchase a block of four inverted Jennys, issued in 1918 with a picture of a biplane mistakenly printed upside down. He then traded the block for one of only two existing 1-cent Z Grills, a stamp printed in 1868 that depicts Benjamin Franklin. It was last purchased for $935,000 by the 10-year-old son of a dealer.

Gross, whose personal wealth is valued at $1.5 billion, is said to have overpaid on the deal. But he treasured the Z Grill and needed it to complete his collection.

Getting money ‘to people who deserve it’

Now the Laguna Beach resident is selling much of his U.S. stamp collection, the most extensive in the world, in a move aimed at helping charities and stoking the stamp market.

“I have enough for myself. All I need is a pizza at home and a car and a TV set to watch the Lakers,” Gross, 74, said in a telephone interview. “In the end, I’m not sure how much time I have left and I want to get the money to people who deserve it.”

He’s keeping the Z Grill, however, and his other single stamps. For now.

(Courtesy of Siegel Auction Galleries)

Among the available items is an envelope containing a rare mixed use of the first stamp of the United States, an 1847 Five-Cent Franklin, in combination with the first stamp of Canada, an 1851 Three Pence Beaver. The envelope, posted from Montreal, Canada, in 1851 to New York City, last sold for $577,500.

The first auction occurred Oct. 3 and brought in $10 million — surpassing by a few hundred thousand dollars the record for a single-day stamp auction. Four more auctions will be held by New York-based Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in 2019 to liquidate his covers — envelopes and postcards — and stamp blocks.

From the October auction, Gross is donating $1 million each to Doctors Without Borders USA and The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. He also will match a $200,000 donation by Bank of America to Laguna Beach’s Friendship Shelter.

This huge block of 20 of 1¢ Pan-American Inverted Center stamps, part of bond billionaire Bill Gross’ collection, sold for $472,000 in October. (Courtesy of Siegel Auction Galleries)

Some of the money is coming through the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, based in Laguna Beach. Gross said he will also donate $50,000 to the Laguna Beach Community Clinic, and $25,000 each to the Laguna Beach Senior Center, Laguna Beach Pantry, Laguna Beach Boys & Girls Club, and Sally’s Fund, an outreach program for senior citizens. More nonprofits — with a priority on Southern California organizations — will receive the remainder of the stamp proceeds after Gross consults with his children, he said.

Mom sparked interest in stamps

Gross’ love of stamps was passed down from his mother, Shirley. When he was a child, Shirley went to the post office and purchased sheets of 100 3-cent commemorative stamps. She squirreled them away, thinking that one day they would be valuable. She gave them to Gross when he turned 17 as a way to help pay his college tuition.

Gross carried his huge box of stamps to four different dealers, who all reached the same conclusion: the collection was worthless. However, Gross later won a scholarship to Duke.

As he amassed his wealth managing bonds, Gross decided to use his financial acumen to collect stamps as a tribute to his mother.

He said, “I’m gonna prove she had the right idea.”

Gross, now the portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors, applied bond research techniques to stamp valuation, considering data on inflation, interest rates and gross domestic product growth. He then tried to correlate that data with historically significant stamp auctions.

Gross contacted Shreve in 1992 to be his “stamp coach,” and the two began amassing some of the world’s more iconic and rare items.

For instance, one of Gross’ prizes, on loan to the Smithsonian, is an 1860 cover carried by a Pony Express rider who was attacked by Indians. His pony escaped with the mail pouch, which was recovered two years later. The Smithsonian described the Pony Express item as “one of the most historically significant in U.S. postal history.”

Said Shreve: “It’s really an incredible piece of Americana.”

International collection sold for $27 million

Gross has sold all of his international collection representing Great Britain, British Commonwealth, Western Europe, Scandinavia, the U.S. Confederate States, Switzerland, and Hawaii, generating more than $27 million for charity.

He said he stopped collecting because there was little else to get.

“I basically filled all the spaces in my albums. … I hit a dead-end in terms of what I can collect,” Gross said.

By offering up his rarities, Gross is hoping it will boost the stamp market, giving others a chance to own a piece of history, and fueling his philanthropy.

“I thought, this is a win-win for everybody.”

Shreve said it will be interesting to see whether the market can absorb these high-ticket items.

“Bill (held) some iconic items. It made it difficult for other collectors. They were handcuffed a little bit,” Shreve said. “(But) Bill always thought it was the right thing to do, to let others be the stewards for their generation.”

Viewing all 263 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images