Sacto 9-1-1

A Stockton man who told deputies he was possessed by ghosts was arrested Friday on suspicion of felony vandalism, according to a release from the San Joaquin County Office of the Sheriff.

Sheriff's deputies were called to a motel in the 2600 block of N. Wilson Way about 1:40 p.m. Friday.

They were told that Eli Patrick Leon, 27, had become angry after the motel manager refused to let Leon use his phone.

Sacramento police conducting a DUI checkpoint at 21st Street and Capitol Avenue overnight Friday arrested three people, according to the department's activity log.

Police encountered 798 vehicles during the check.

They screened 32 drivers for license violations, with 19 citations issued.

Eight drivers were screened for possible impaired driving and officers had 14 vehicles towed.

Police also encountered two subjects with outstanding warrants.

Related stories:
Don't drive drunk after New Year's parties
Checkpoints, patrols to target drunken, drugged drivers

Two suspects wielding a rock held up an ice cream truck Friday, Sacramento police reported.

Two suspects approached the truck owner in south Sacramento holding what was described as a large rock.

They demanded money from the truck owner, according to the Sacramento Police Department activity log.

The suspects threw the rock at the victim and escaped with a small amount of money.

The victim was able to indicate where the suspects went and one suspect was arrested.

Two people suffered major injuries in a head-on collision this afternoon on Foresthill Road in Placer County.

A 79-year-old Foresthill man was driving a white Nissan pickup westbound on Foresthill Road west of Spring Garden Road about 2:05 p.m., and a 32-year-old Foresthill woman was traveling in the opposite direction in a silver Toyota Avalon. For some reason, the pickup crossed over the double yellow lines and collided head-on with the Toyota, according to a California Highway Patrol news release.

The drivers were the only occupants of the vehicles and both were taken by air ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center.

Law enforcement agencies will be out in force during the New Year's weekend in an effort to keep impaired drivers off the road.

See ARREST LOGS for 18 cities

Agencies in Sacramento and Placer counties report that arrests of drunken or drugged drivers during the first 14 days of an anti-DUI campaign are down from the same period last year. And so far, no DUI-related deaths have been reported in either county during the winter holiday crackdown.

From 12:01 a.m. Dec. 16 through midnight Thursday, officers representing 17 law enforcement agencies in Sacramento County had arrested 261 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to a news release. In 2010, 317 DUI arrests occurred during the same 14-day time period.

Sacramento police are investigating as a homicide the death of a man whose body was found this morning at a business in the south Sacramento area.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said officers responded to a call requesting a welfare check about 9 a.m. today and found the body of a man in his early 50s inside the business in the 6200 block of Sky Creek Drive. The victim's vehicle was missing.

About 1:30 p.m., Reno police located a man driving the missing vehicle and took the driver into custody. Pettit said Sacramento investigators were en route to Reno this afternoon to question the suspect.

El Dorado County officials are still seeking a suspect who shot a pet cat with what is suspected to have been a crossbow.

El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies responded to a call in Diamond Springs Dec. 20 and found a cat with a bolt, such as fired from a crossbow, lodged in its head.

The projectile apparently went in through an ear and did not break the skull, said Henry Brzezinski, Director of Animal Services for the county.

Sheriff's detectives have arrested a man in connection with the theft of five plaques from the Wall of Honor in Patriots Park.

Casey Ryan Alger, 37, was booked into Sacramento County Jail Thursday on suspicion of petty theft and receiving stolen property.

Carmichael Parks and Recreation District staff discovered on Dec. 19 that five memorial wall plaques had been removed from the wall, at 6827 Palm Ave.

Nine Central Valley residents were arrested on suspicion of passport fraud in 2011.

The accused allegedly applied for a U.S. passport using counterfeit, stolen or other unlawfully-obtained documentation, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to a press release from the Diplomatic Security Service.

"The Diplomatic Security Service is committed to investigating and pursuing anyone who applies for or obtains a United States passport using false documents," stated Dean K. Shear, special agent-in-charge of the DSS San Francisco field office.

Among those arrested:

-- Jose Concepcion Mata-Ibanez of Chico

-- Ulises Ernesto Diaz Miranda of Woodland

Sobriety and driver's license checkpoints will be held in Sacramento's midtown area and in the south area of Sacramento County on Friday night.

The Sacramento Police Department will conduct a checkpoint at 21st Street and Capitol Avenue beginning at 9 p.m. and continuing for five to seven hours.

The California Highway Patrol will operate a checkpoint at 47th Avenue and Steiner Drive from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol is advising motorists of congestion and delays on eastbound Interstate 80 due to a collision east of Madison Avenue.

Only the left two lanes are open. Counter tiling in 4-inch pieces is scattered over the roadway and lanes will not reopen until the debris is cleared, according to the CHP website.

Motorists are advised to use other routes.

A family at a Burger King drive-through window in Davis was robbed at gunpoint shortly after midnight.

The two adults and children ages 11 and 19, were in the drive-through lane at the restaurant at 403 Mace Blvd. in south Davis at 12:05 a.m. today when they were approached by two men on foot who demanded money. One man was armed with a rifle and the other had a pistol, said Davis police Sgt. John Wilson.

The driver gave the men cash from his wallet and the two left the area in a car that was parked in the parking lot next to the restaurant.

A Yuba County man reported missing last week has been found safe.

Leslie Scott Jones, 44, of Browns Valley was located by the Sacramento Police Department early Monday afternoon, according to a Yuba County Sheriff's Office news release. Officials said arrangements were made to transport him back to Yuba County.

Jones was reported missing Dec. 22. He had last been seen about a week earlier when he left his home on foot and was believed heading for Marysville. Sheriff's officials said he frequently hitchhikes in the Yuba-Sutter area. They said no foul play was suspected in his disappearance.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said a 14-year-old boy reported missing from a group home in Carmichael has been found.

Luis Ibarra was returned to his residence in the 5300 block of Engle Road. He was reported missing about 3 p.m. Wednesday.

He was considered at risk because of his mental condition, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

A man was arrested after he allegedly spent the night drinking in an Old Sacramento bar and restaurant after everyone had gone home, police said.

Calvin Hubbard, 34, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of burglary by Sacramento police. Police reports indicate that Hubbard hid in the women's bathroom and waited for the Coconut Grove Sports Bar and Grill to close.

Police said that after closing time Hubbard helped himself to alcohol from the bar, drinking heavily. In the morning he stumbled around and set off a motion detector, police said.

Officers arrived and arrested him.

Sacramento Metro firefighters were kept busy this morning putting out two large fires: one started by a vehicle in a carport and the other possibly Christmas tree-related.

The first fire broke out about 3:20 a.m. in North Highlands in the 7200 block of Pepperwood Knoll Lane. A car in a carport below apartment units was burning when firefighters arrived.

Crews aggressively attacked the fire, confining damage to three units. An estimated $250,000 in damage was sustained.

A toddler suffered a large gash to his forehead Wednesday in a Yolo County crash and had to be airlifted to the hospital.

Ryan Troung, 2, of Woodland suffered a 5-6 inch laceration to his head when the car in which he was riding was struck by a pickup truck on Highway 16. The pickup was pulling a trailer that was improperly loaded, causing the trailer to sway from side-to-side, the California Highway Patrol reported in a press release.

The CHP said that Placido Hernandez was driving a Ford pickup eastbound on Highway 16 just south of the Cache Creek Casino about 3 p.m. Wednesday when his trailer carrying cinder blocks began to fishtail. Hernandez was traveling about 35-40 mph, the CHP said.

The name of the man who was struck and killed while running on eastbound Interstate 80 in Loomis late Friday has been released by the Placer County Sheriff's department.

He has been identified as George Hanson, 23, of Sacramento.

Witnesses told authorities that a man had been running between cars on the freeway just east of Horseshoe Bar Road before he was struck by multiple vehicles.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is seeking the public's help in locating a 14-year-old boy reported missing from a group home in Carmichael.

Luis Ibarra (pictured) was last seen at the residence in the 5300 block of Engle Road about 3 p.m. today. He is considered at risk because of his mental condition, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Ibarra is described as Hispanic, 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing about 145 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black, long-sleeved button-up shirt and khaki pants.

A cell phone store employee was shot in the leg during a robbery this afternoon.

Sacramento police were called to the Metro PCS store at 5301 Power Inn Road at 4:19 p.m. Police Department spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck said one employee was in the store when two men armed with guns entered the business.

The robbers, described only as Hispanic and wearing black bandanas, took money and left in a red Pontiac Sunfire.

The psychologist who faces criminal charges after she allegedly faked her sexual assault and robbery - and then falsely reported the crimes to Sacramento police - has been fired from the prison system, according to a spokeswoman.

Laurie Ann Martinez's last day with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was Dec. 22, spokeswoman Terry Thornton said today. She said she could not discuss the reasons for the termination because of personnel privacy issues.

However, Martinez's termination came within a week of an announcement by the California Board of Psychology that Martinez's license was suspended in the wake of The Bee's report that she had been arrested and charged with felony criminal conspiracy in connection with the alleged false police report.

A plaque stolen from an Arden Arcade church has been recovered.

A thief on Christmas Eve stole the bronze plaque from the Northminster Presbyterian Church's cornerstone.

The Rev. Jeanie Shaw of Northminster Presbyterian Church said the plaque was ripped off the wall of the church, 3235 Pope Ave. It marked the construction of the church's sanctuary in 1965.

A south area man who stabbed his wife to death in what his lawyer described as a psychotic break spawned by post traumatic stress disorder was sentenced today to 16 years to life.

Sy Choy Saeteurn, 66, had pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the fatal Dec. 8, 2010 attack on his wife of 40 years, Muang Saeteurn, 60.

Saeteurn also was found not guilty by reason of insanity to endangering his then-10-year-old daughter who escaped the family's Pinot Noir Way residence and reported to authorities her father's knife assault on her mother.

Two teenagers were arrested for allegedly stabbing a cat to death.

Sacramento police were called to an apartment complex in the 5300 block of 47th Avenue about 7:30 p.m. Monday. Someone reported that two people were lurking in the area wearing ski masks.

Officers found the teenagers, who were armed with knives. The boys also had dead cat in a box, which they tried to hide when officers approached, police said.

The 15 and 16 year old boys were arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals and possession of a concealed weapon. It was not clear why they had stabbed the cat.

A young prisoner who was driven away from a work project by accomplices on Tuesday was taken back into custody early this morning in Sacramento.

Angel Iniquez, 19, was driven from a roadside clean-up project about 11 a.m. Tuesday in Sutter Creek, Amador County, by two men. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officers were distracted at the time by another prisoner who needed medical attention.

Law enforcement immediately began looking for Iniquez. At about 2 a.m. today he was found in a home in the 2400 block of Connie Drive in Sacramento.

By Hudson Sangree and Cathy Locke
hsangree@sacbee.com

Two tires of a Southwest Airlines jetliner failed and caught fire during takeoff tonight at Sacramento International Airport.

Emergency crews responded to the airport, according to regional fire dispatch.

The Boeing 737 sat on a runway to the west of the airport terminals.

Passengers safely exited the plane and were transported to another area of the airport.

Katie McDonald, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said in an email that Flight 2287 with 130 passengers aboard aborted a take-off and ruptured two tires. The fire department sprayed down the aircraft as a precautionary measure to cool the brakes.

All the passengers are OK, she said, and will be placed on another flight tonight.

The Southwest jet was on its way to Seattle, with a scheduled 6:05 p.m. departure from Terminal B.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies are looking for two men who robbed a cell phone store this afternoon.

The robbery occurred about 4:30 p.m. at the Boost Mobile store, 3411 Watt Ave., in the Arden Arcade area. Two men, one armed with a handgun and the other with a shotgun, entered the business and demanded money, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. They left with an undisclosed amount of money and were seen leaving the parking lot in a two-door green sedan, possibly a Honda.

Ramos said one man was described as 17 to 19 years old, wearing a dark jacket and with a red bandana covering part of his face. The other was described as 19 to 20 years old, wearing a black hoodie and black bandana.

No one was injured during the robbery.

A 46-year-old woman was tied up and sexually assaulted in her Arden-Arcade apartment Monday night, according to authorities.

The woman said her assailant, whom she did not know, confronted her at gunpoint, bound her ankles and wrists and assaulted her before fleeing the Fair Oaks Boulevard apartment sometime in the afternoon, said Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos.

The woman struggled to get free for hours but couldn't, Ramos said. About 10 p.m., a security guard making the rounds at the complex heard her cries for help and untied her, Ramos said.

A 52-year-old Rocklin man has been arrested on child pornography charges.

A federal grand jury last week returned a four-count indictment charging Barry C. Steiber with sharing, receipt and possession of child pornography, according to a Department of Justice news release.

According to the indictment, in 2008 and 2009 Steiber amassed a collection of images depicting the sexual exploitation of children and traded those images with other people over the Internet. Court documents indicate that a computer recovered from his home in 2009 contained thousands of images of child pornography.

A 42-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of taking part in a home-invasion robbery in the Arden-Arcade area earlier this month that ended with a maintenance man being shot in the face and hand.

Tammy Marie Ochoa is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. in Dept. 62. Sacramento Sheriff's deputies booked her Dec. 21 on charges of robbery, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the case to find Ochoa's alleged accomplices, including the suspected shooter, said Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

An alert Citrus Heights police officer arrested a man after first running a check on a model of car that is often stolen.

The officer was on patrol near Antelope Road and Lauppe Lane this morning when he noticed a 2000 Honda Civic, one of the top cars stolen by thieves. The Honda was stolen Christmas Day from its owner in Dixon.

When Citrus Heights officers tried to stop the Honda, the driver attempted to flee, according to a department press release. After a short pursuit, the driver stopped near Auburn Boulevard and Sylvan Road.

There, the driver, Chadwick Heath Greylock, 32, a wanted parolee at large, was taken into custody. Police said they found car theft tools inside the Honda.

Highway 70 north of Marysville was closed today after a suspected drunk driver knocked down telephone poles into the roadway.

The driver of a pickup truck ran into a telephone pole around 4 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. That crash pulled down 7 poles, shutting down Highway 70 from Laurellen Road to 6 miles west of the Yuba-Butte county line at Woodruff Lane.

Alternating one-way traffic is now being allowed past the site.

By Diana Lambert

dlambert@sacbee.com

A 47-year-old man was arrested after he tripped an alarm at a storage building in the 8100 block of Fruitridge Road just before 10 a.m. today.

Officers arriving at the warehouse saw that someone had forced his way into the building and left a bicycle outside, said officer Laura Peck, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Police Department.

She said a K-9 team searched the building and located the suspect, who surrendered without incident.

Peck said the man was likely trying to steal copper pipes from an old heating unit.

The police department has not released the identity of the suspect. Peck said they want to ensure that the man is not linked to any other cases.

A man was airlifted to the hospital today with burns on the front of his body after escaping from a mobile home fire in Pollock Pines.

Battalion Chief Mike Pott said that at 9:48 a.m. today the El Dorado County Fire District received the report of a burning residence at the Whispering Pines mobile home park, 6008 Pony Express Trail.

At least half of the single-wide mobile home was on fire when the first engine arrived. Bystanders said that occupants had escaped from the burning residence so firefighters first set about to put the fire out.

Christmas Day was not peaceful in all parts of Sacramento as police responded to violent calls at several locations.

Police handled two calls of suspected domestic violence:

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com

A thief on Christmas Eve stole the bronze plaque from a church's cornerstone, the church's pastor said Sunday.

The Rev. Jeanie Shaw of Northminster Presbyterian Church said the plaque was ripped off the wall of the church, near Del Paso Country Club, sometime Saturday. It marked the construction of the church's sanctuary in 1965.

"It's a very sad thing on Christmas Eve to lose the physical cornerstone of our church," she said.

Increasing demand and rising prices have led to spate of thefts of copper, bronze and other metals, authorities say.

Woodland police are investigating the robbery of a 63-year-old woman shortly before 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve at the local Target store.

The victim said a man approached her in the parking lot, threatened her with a knife and ordered her to turn over her purse, police said.

Her purse had her ID, credit cards and a small amount of cash, the department reported.

Police said the suspect is white or Hispanic, 20-25 years old, 5-foot-8, thin build, wearing a stocking cap, a dark coat with a belt, and dark colored pants.

-- Bee staff

A developmentally disabled man who got on a bus Tuesday on his way to Medford, Ore., never made it there and his family thinks he got sidetracked after stopping in Sacramento for a holiday cocktail.

Charles Douglas Fisher, 63, is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound black man who may have become disoriented by the relocation of the Greyhound bus station from its former location downtown to its new site on Richards Boulevard, according to his brother, Ricky Meril Ford.

Ford said his relatives in Medford spoke to Fisher by phone on either Wednesday or Thursday. Fisher told them he was changing buses in Sacramento. Ford said his brother usually likes to stop for a drink and a smoke in Sacramento on his trips to visit his sister in Medford. He had about $80 on him, said Ford, who speculated that Fisher might have wound up in a shelter.

Anybody with information about Fisher should call Ford at (209) 349-8771.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A man was struck and killed while running on eastbound Interestate 80 in Loomis late Friday, Placer County Sheriff's officials reported.

A call came in one minute before midnight, said Sgt. Kurt Walker.

Witnesses said a male had been running between cars on the freeway just east of Horseshoe Bar Road before he was struck by multiple vehicles.

The trauma was so severe that age and ethnicity are unknown, and the man's identity has not been positively determined, Walker said.

By Sam Stanton, Marjie Lundstrom and Andy Furillo

sstanton@sacbee.com

Two more women are suing former Sacramento real estate executive Michael Lyon, claiming he secretly recorded sexual encounters with them and passed on the recordings to third parties without their knowledge.

The women make their allegations in separate civil suits filed Thursday in Sacramento Superior Court, bringing to nine the number of alleged victims now suing over his secret videotaping.

A man sought in connection with the stabbing of his wife turned himself in to Lincoln police.

Angel Casarez Romero (pictured), 28, walked into the Lincoln Police Department about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, according to a Police Department news release.

Romero was sought after his wife was found with multiple stab wounds early Sunday morning in the 400 block of Joiner Parkway. She was hospitalized in critical condition.

Three men are being sought following an armed robbery of a Carmichael bank this morning.

About 9:30 a.m., sheriff's deputies responded to a robbery in progress at the Wells Fargo Bank in the 7200 block of Fair Oaks Boulevard. Three suspects armed with handguns entered the bank and jumped the teller line, removing money from some of the drawers before leaving on foot, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The suspects (pictured) are described as black males wearing bandanas over their faces.

In response to a court order, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department this afternoon returned two pounds of medicinal marijuana to a dispensary from which it was seized earlier this month.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge this morning ordered the Sheriff's Department to return the marijuana to the Common Roots Collective.

On Dec. 1, deputies accompanied code enforcement officers who executed an inspection warrant at the dispensary on 52nd Street in Sacramento, said the collective's attorney, John Fuery.

Roseville police recently arrested two people as part of an effort to put the pressure on scrap metal dealers who police say are creating a market for thieves, according to authorities.

Like many other law enforcement agencies, Roseville police say they have seen a deluge of metal theft, with 65 reports of stolen catalytic converters alone in the last month and a half, according to a news release. To help stem that trend, police are cracking down on dealers in the region who are illegally buying large qualities of sawed-off catalytic converters, copper wire and other "obviously stolen metal items," police said.

"The recyclers need to follow the law," said Sgt. Cal Walstad. "That's why the laws are set up the way they are."

By Cynthia Hubert

chubert@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge today sentenced a man convicted of animal abuse to 10 years in state prison and ordered him to register as a sex offender over strong objections from his defense lawyer.

It may represent the first time that "Jessica's Law" has been applied in a case involving sexual abuse of an animal, a county prosecutor said. The man's defense lawyer indicated she will appeal.

A Superior Court jury convicted Robert DeShields, a parolee and chronic methamphetamine user, of felony animal cruelty in the sexual abuse of a Chihuhahua mix named Shadow.

The release of Nike's new Air Jordan basketball shoes wreaked havoc on malls across the country this morning - but Sacramento shoppers appear to have been more civil.

Thousands of shoppers lined up outside malls across the region for the latest release of the shoes, which have a cult following. As many as 2,000 people showed up at Arden Fair mall alone.

However, no major problems were reported at Downtown Plaza, Arden Fair or Sunrise Mall, according to police.

At Sunrise Mall in particular, the only real disturbance involved some raised voices from shoppers disgruntled by a lack of supply, police said.

PHOTO CREDIT: The Indianapolis Star/Danese Kenon

One eastbound lane of Interstate 80 has been reopened following a Fed-Ex truck's collision with a concrete wall and ensuing diesel spill, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The wreck happened in I-80's eastbound lanes two miles west of the Nevada state line and 15 miles east of Truckee, closing the freeway in both directions. All westbound lanes and one eastbound lane are now open. The one closed eastbound lane will remain closed for cleanup of more than 100 gallons of spilled diesel fuel and wall repair.

About 5:45 a.m., the Fed-Ex truck traveling eastbound struck the wall on the right side of the freeway, rupturing both fuel tanks, which were full at the time, the CHP said. The driver said he had swerved to avoid a deer in the road.

A young man suffered critical injuries this morning after he was stabbed during an argument near a midtown Sacramento nightclub, according to police.

The victim, in his early 20s, was in critical condition at one point but appears to have improved, said police Sgt. Andrew Pettit.

The man was leaving Faces nightclub, located at 20th and K streets, about 2 a.m. when he got into an argument with an unknown person in a nearby parking lot, according to a police report.

The suspect then stabbed the victim multiple times before fleeing. The suspect was described as Asian or Hispanic and 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, the police report states.

The corner is populated by several gay and lesbian establishments. However, Pettit said there is no indication the stabbing was a hate crime.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies are searching for two people who robbed a Carl's Jr. at gunpoint this morning, according to authorities.

The robbery was reported at the Carl's Jr. at 3100 Sunrise Boulevard about 6:45 a.m. The suspects were described as Hispanic and male, wearing black clothing described as "jogging suits," said sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos.

The suspects were seen fleeing toward White Rock Road, Ramos said. They have not yet been identified.

Deputies detained one person matching the description but later determined he was not involved, Ramos said. He was arrested, however, because he was a wanted parolee.

A 20-year-old woman was arrested for public intoxication Thursday night after she holed up in a taqueria bathroom for more than an hour, prompting a SWAT callout, according to authorities.

Witnesses saw the woman go into the bathroom at Taqueria San Marcos on Watt Avenue just before 9 p.m. holding what looked like a gun, said Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos.

The woman locked herself inside and refused to come out. The SWAT team responded, and the taqueria and two neighboring businesses in the strip mall were evacuated, Ramos said.

Just after 10:30 p.m., the woman finally came out. She had a pellet gun in her possession, Ramos said.

The woman was identified as Svetiana Seminikhin, a Sacramento transient, Ramos said. She was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication.

A woman's vehicle was stolen this morning as she was delivering newspapers, according to Sacramento police.

The woman stepped out of her SUV on Dorset Way in South Land Park when an unknown man passing by on a bicycle jumped in and drove away, according to police radio traffic.

The vehicle, a red 2006 Toyota Highlander, was last seen heading toward Riverside Boulevard.

The man was described as wearing a mask.

During the first six days of a winter holiday crackdown on motorists driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, no DUI fatalities have been reported in Sacramento or Placer counties.

From 12:01 a.m. Friday through midnight Wednesday, officers representing 17 law enforcement agencies in Sacramento County arrested 112 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to a news release from the California Office of Traffic Safety's DUI enforcement campaign. In 2010, 157 DUI arrests occurred in the county during the same six-day period.

In Placer County, officers representing seven law enforcement agencies arrested 24 individuals for DUI offenses Friday through Wednesday, compared with 27 such arrests during the same six-day period last year.

A silent alarm aided police in locating a suspect following a vehicle burglary in a Roseville parking garage.

At 5:30 a.m. Monday, officers responded to a silent alarm activation in the area of the garage in the 400 block of Vernon Street. They found that someone had broken out the window of a car and taken video games and other items. They soon found a suspect, who was on foot nearby, and recovered the stolen items, according to a Police Department news release.

Anthony Herrera, 34, who police said has no permanent address, was arrested on suspicion of burglary and is being held in the Placer County Jail on $70,000 bail.

The Yuba County Sheriff's Department seeks the public's help in finding a foothills resident who has been missing for nearly a week.

Leslie Scott Jones, 44, of Browns Valley was last seen leaving his home on foot about 2 p.m. Friday. He was believed to be heading to the city of Marysville, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. Officials said he frequently hitchhikes in the Yuba-Sutter area.

Jones is described as white, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. He has straight, collar-length blond hair, a thin mustache and a goatee.

Anyone with information regarding Jones or his whereabouts is asked to call the Yuba County Sheriff's Department at (530) 749-7777.

A 25-year-old woman who was struck by a vehicle Wednesday morning in Davis has died.

Megan Glanville was crossing Russell Boulevard on foot when she was hit by a pickup truck.

Glanville, who police said is from Chico but was living in Davis, suffered severe injuries including head trauma. She was taken by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center, where she died of her injuries late this morning, according to a Davis Police Department news release.

Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident, but they say heavy morning fog may have played a role. Investigators do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved.

Collisions that backed up traffic for several hours last night on Interstate 5 between Sacramento and Woodland resulted in injury to two motorists.

The California Highway Patrol said that a car and a mini van headed southbound on I-5 just north of County Road 4 about 5:45 p.m. collided.

The car then went through the grass center divider and into the path of a northbound big rig.

The car collided with the big rig. The truck then went through the center divider and into the southbound lanes, traveled off the roadway and came to rest, partially on a golf course.

Two males in the car that hit the truck, one 16 and the other 18 years old, both from Chico, suffered moderate injuries, according to a CHP report.

A 25-year-old woman is in critical condition at UC Davis Medical Center after she was struck by a pickup truck as she crossed a street in Davis this morning.

Megan Glanville was crossing Russell Boulevard on foot at the Lake Boulevard intersection when she was hit by an eastbound pickup driven by George Souza, 61, of Woodland, according to a Davis Police Department news release.

Glanville, who is from Chico but currently living in Davis, suffered severe injuries including head trauma, police said.

Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident but say heavy morning fog may have played a role. Investigators do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved.

A 26-year-old Carmichael woman has died after being struck by a vehicle while walking across Fulton Avenue on Monday night.

Rachel Willard was north of Larkspur Lane, crossing Fulton from east to west about 9 p.m., when she was hit by a Chevrolet Equinox driven by a 63-year-old Sacramento woman who was northbound on Fulton. The vehicle was in the fast lane, traveling about 35 mph, according to a California Highway Patrol news release.

Officials said Willard walked directly into the path of the Chevy, which struck her, throwing her to the ground. Willard was taken to UC Davis Medical Center where she died of her injuries.

A new state law requiring children younger than 8 to use car booster seats will become effective Jan. 1.

Children younger than 8 also must be properly buckled into a car seat or booster seat, and in the back seat, according to a news release from the California Office of Traffic Safety. In addition, children 8 and older who are not tall enough for the seat belt to fit properly must ride in a booster seat or car seat. Previously, the law required that children remain in a booster seat until the age of 6 or they weighed 60 pounds.

"This is an important new law that will impact more than 1.1 million children in California," Christopher J. Murphy, director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said in a written statement. "Keeping them in booster seats increases their chance of surviving a crash by 45 percent."

The Sacramento Police Department will conduct a sobriety and drivers license checkpoint Thursday night at El Camino Avenue and Erickson Street in North Sacramento.

Beginning at 8 p.m. and continuing for five to seven hours, motorists traveling through the checkpoint will be contacted by uniformed officers, who will check for drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They also will check to make sure all drivers have a valid driver's license.

The purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety, increase awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving, and to serve as a deterrent to potential impaired and unlicensed drivers, according to a Police Department news release.

The program is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Sacramento police are asking for help in identifying two men who may be involved in the death of a 23-year-old man.

Vanthoeun Som of Sacramento was stabbed to death in the early morning hours at a downtown parking garage last month.

Police said that officers were hailed regarding a fight that had just happened at a 14th and K parking garage about 1:45 a.m. Nov. 12. Police responded to the scene and found three stabbing victims.

Two men were arrested early Saturday morning after an officer caught them trying to steal ornaments off the Capitol Christmas tree, according to authorities.

It was not clear whether the hearts of these Grinches were two sizes too small. But they did break several of the ornaments they allegedly were trying to snag - some of them made by special education students.

A California Highway Patrol officer passing by the 48-foot tree, located on the west end of the Capitol, pulled over about 2 a.m. when he noticed the branches moving, said Officer Sean Kennedy, a CHP spokesman.

The name of the driver whose pickup truck rolled over and landed on an Interstate 80 onramp near Orlando Avenue on Monday has been released by Roseville police.

He was identified as Thomas Jesse Clayton, 43, of Roseville.

Roseville police and fire crews responded about 8:45 p.m. to a single-vehicle rollover that began on Orlando Avenue near Auburn Boulevard. Clayton's pickup was traveling south on Orlando Avenue when his vehicle went off the roadway, through a fence and rolled onto the eastbound I-80 onramp, according to a Roseville Police Department news release. He was ejected from the pickup.

Clayton was taken by ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center, where he died Tuesday morning.

The Davis Police Department is teaming with several local bicycle shops in a project to promote and enhance bicycle safety in the city.

Beginning Jan. 9 and continuing through the week, the Police Department will conduct a specialized bicycle safety and enforcement operation. Officers will patrol areas frequented by bicyclists and target traffic violations that lead to collisions with other bicyclists, vehicles and pedestrians.

Since Jan. 1 of this year, Davis police have responded to 54 collisions involving bicycles, according to a department news release. The bicyclist was injured in 93 percent of those collisions.

A 23-year-old man Sacramento man was arrested today on suspicion of offenses involving child pornography.

Eric Montane-Darab was indicted last week by a federal grand jury and the indictment was unsealed today. The indictment of three other Sacramento-area men for child pornography offenses was announced Monday by the federal Department of Justice.

Montane-Darab was charged with distribution of obscene matter to a minor, receipt of child pornography, and coercion and enticement of a minor, according to a Department of Justice news release.

A 43-year-old Roseville man died today of injuries suffered Monday night when his pickup truck rolled over and landed on an Interstate 80 onramp near Orlando Avenue.

Roseville police and fire crews responded about 8:45 p.m. to a single-vehicle rollover that began on Orlando Avenue near Auburn Boulevard. The driver of the 1989 Chevrolet pickup was traveling south on Orlando Avenue when his vehicle went off the roadway, through a fence and rolled onto the eastbound I-80 onramp, according to a Roseville Police Department news release. The driver was ejected from the pickup.

The man was taken by ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center, where he died this morning. His name has not been released pending notification of family.

A 7-year-old boy who fell from a chairlift at Sugar Bowl Resort on Sunday has died of his injuries.

Officials of the Donner Summit-area resort announced the youngster's death in a news release this afternoon. They have not identified the boy.

About 11:15 a.m. Sunday, the boy, a member of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team, fell from the Mount Lincoln Express Chairlift. He was riding on the lift with two other ski team members.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

The vice principal of a Fairfield elementary school was sentenced to eight years in state prison today on his conviction for molesting two juvenile male relatives in his North Highlands home.

Christopher Vargas, 39, had served at Cleo Gordon Elementary School in the Fairfield school district.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland L. Candee imposed the term on Vargas despite a recantation by one of the victims at today's sentencing that his molestation ever took place.

The woman accused of helping her friend fake a home-invasion robbery and a sexual assault has been arrested.

Nicole Snyder, 33, was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on Dec. 12 and released later that day on $5,000 bail. She was arraigned Monday on two counts of felony criminal conspiracy.

Snyder is accused of assisting Laurie Martinez, a supervising psychologist with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, stage a crime in Martinez's Norgard Court home in April so Martinez could convince her husband to move to another neighborhood, authorities allege.

A 45-year-old man was arrested in Los Angeles today after he allegedly defrauded a Granite Bay woman out of more than $7 million in divorce proceeds, authorities said.

Troy Stratos is charged with 11 counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice, a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner states.

Wagner's office says Stratos convinced the woman to execute a revocable trust with him in Fair Oaks into which she placed cash from her divorce and houses. He promised to invest the money overseas and earn a high rate in return, but he diverted "substantial sums of money" for his own use, the news release states.

Elk Grove police seek the public's help in identifying a suspect in the robbery of the U.S. Bank at 9230 Elk Grove Florin Road that occurred shortly before noon today.

The suspect (pictured) approached a teller and presented a note demanding money and indicating that he was armed. Fearing for her safety, the teller complied and gave the man an undisclosed amount of money, according to a Police Department news release. The man took the money and left the bank on foot. According to a witness, he was last seen walking in the parking lot toward the rear of the building.

A few seconds later, the witness saw a blue Nissan or Toyota sedan speed out of the parking lot away from the bank. Officials said they don't know whether the vehicle was connected with the robbery.

An inmate walked away from a conservation camp in Tehama County this morning.

Arthur Turner, 31, serving a sentence for second degree robbery out of Stanislaus County, walked away from the Ishi Conservation Camp in Paynes Creek at about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. Turner has been in the state prison system since Feb. 28, 2003.

He is described as black, 6 feet tall and about 185 pounds. He has dark eyes and black hair cut short.

The California Conservation Center in Susanville has sent a team to the area to aid in the search for Turner. The California Highway Patrol will also help try to find the inmate.

The Ishi Conservation Camp was opened in 1961. It is operated by the California Department of Corrections and the California Department of Forestry.

The camp's main mission is to supply fire crews, according to a state prison website. Inmate hand crews also undertake conservation and community service projects.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento judge today ordered a stroke-impaired man accused of murder in a 1980 killing to be transferred to Napa State Hospital.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary S. Mullen last month found defendant Robert Blockton, who turns 59 on Wednesday, incompetent to stand trial in the Nov. 3, 1980, stabbing death of 22-year-old Charles Redmond, whose body was found in Miller Park.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Robert Adams returned to court this morning in the molestation case the former Citrus Heights principal faces, but there are few signs that the matter will be decided anytime soon.

The case was pushed back to Feb. 24, although Adams' attorney, Linda Parisi, said she now has most of the discovery materials prosecutors gathered as evidence during the investigation into activities at Creative Frontiers School and that she can begin a serious evaluation of it.

Adams, accused of molesting students at his private school over the course of years, has denied the allegations, which led to the closure of the school in July.

State regulators and Sugar Bowl ski resort operators are investigating the fall of a boy from a chairlift on Sunday.

The 7-year-old boy, who was not identified by officials of the Donner Summit-area resort, fell from the Mt. Lincoln Express chairlift about 11:15 a.m. Sunday. The boy, a member of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team, was riding with two other ski team members on the lift.

The resort ski patrol immediately responded to the scene and the boy was transported Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno by helicopter.

"The entire Sugar Bowl community sends its thoughts and prayers to the injured boy and his family," stated a press release from the resort.

No other information was available this morning.

One night last week more than a dozen catalytic converters were stolen from Roseville residents.

Roseville police reported that last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at least 14 of the emission control devices were taken from vehicles, mostly Toyota pickups and SUVs.

The rash of thefts occurred in the Foothills/Junction, Vineyard and Woodcreek neighborhoods. The converters, mounted underneath vehicles, are sold to metal recyclers.

Roseville police note that the devices contain valuable metals. To replace a converter costs $500-$1,000, police said.

While some motorists don't have garages, police say that's the best spot to keep a vehicle, especially a pickup or SUV with plenty of space underneath for a thief to cut away a catalytic converter.

A Woodland man has been convicted of molesting the 6-year-old daughter of a couple with whom he was sharing a home.

After a four-day trial, a Yolo County jury deliberated a half-day before finding Efrain Amed Vasquez Martinez, 29, guilty Friday of four of six charges of child molestation that occurred in two separate incidents.

About 4 a.m. on April 24, one of Vasquez's housemates awoke to sounds in the home that raised suspicion, and she sent her husband to investigate. The husband opened the door to the children's bedroom, where he found a 4-year-old boy asleep and the 6-year-old girl pulling the covers over her, as Vasquez, wearing only his underwear, attempted to hide in the closet, according to a Yolo County District Attorney's Office news release.

The Sacramento County Probation Department announced that it has recovered 100 vehicles since equipping two department vehicles with Automated License Plate Reader technology in April 2010.

The 100th car, a 1995 Honda Accord, was reported stolen on Dec. 1 in North Sacramento, and it was recovered less than two miles from where it was taken, according to a Probation Department news release.

In an effort to enhance victim restoration, the department equipped two vehicles with the Automated License Plate Reader technology, which uses cameras mounted on patrol cars to automatically scan and cross-match license plates against a statewide list of stolen vehicles.

The Sacramento Police Department urges the community to be on the alert for two robbery suspects.

About 7:25 p.m. Saturday, the victim left his vehicle and was approaching the door of a residence in the 5100 block of Fredericksburg Way in North Natomas. He turned around when he heard footsteps and was confronted by two men.

The suspects, one armed with a gun, demanded money. The victim threw his wallet on the ground, and the suspects grabbed it and ran away, according to a Police Department news release.

Lincoln police are looking for the 28-year-old husband of a woman who was found stabbed early Sunday morning.

Angel Romero (pictured) is sought in connection with the stabbing of his wife, who police said remains in critical condition in Sutter Roseville Hospital.

Officers responded about 1 a.m. Sunday to the 400 block of Joiner Parkway after receiving a call that a woman had been stabbed multiple times. They found a woman inside her apartment with several life-threatening stab wounds, according to a Police Department news release.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department seeks information regarding the theft this past weekend of several memorial wall plaques from the Wall of Honor at Carmichael Park.

The plaques are memorial tributes to former Carmichael residents who were first-responders in the law enforcement or medical professions, or members of the military, and who sacrificed their lives while working in those professions, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

The plaques were removed sometime over the weekend. Officials said it appears thieves attempted to take other plaques from the wall as well.

The 700 block of Sutter Street, in Folsom's historic district, was evacuated for about 90 minutes today after a homeless man found living under a commercial building claimed to have explosives.

Folsom police Sgt. Jason Browning said officers responded about 11:30 a.m. to a report of a local transient living under the building at 710 Sutter St. that houses Firehouse Gifts and Clothing. When officers arrived to remove the man, he refused to come out an claimed to have explosives and an incendiary device. Browning said businesses in the 700 block were evacuated and that section of the street was closed to traffic while a police K-9 unit was brought in to assist officers in arresting the man.

With the police dog's assistance, the man, whom Browning identified as James Saporito, was taken into custody without further incident.

Browning said the street was reopened about 1 p.m.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

A 33-year-old Lincoln third strike offender will serve 27 years to life in prison for spitting on and fighting with two Placer Sheriff's deputies.

Joshua Daniel Mills was sentenced on Dec. 16 by Placer County Judge Colleen Nichols. Mills had previously been convicted of making criminal threats and false imprisonment.

The third strike conviction came as a result of a September 2008 assault, according to a press release from the Placer County District Attorney's office.

Mills was in court for a family court matter. Two sheriff's deputies tried to remove Mills from the court, whereupon Mills spat on the officers and fought with them, according to the release.

The former security chief of the Sacramento Public Library and his wife were both convicted of grand theft and bribery today in connection with a billing scheme in which they and a third defendant split an estimated $780,000.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury returned the verdicts against James E. Mayle and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, who ran a company that handled billing for the library system on maintenance projects.

James Mayle also was convicted of conflict of interest.

A Sacramento man is a suspect in a string of crimes, including a home invasion robbery in which children were tied up.

Delaudea Else, 19, was booked into Placer County Jail on suspicion of robbing a Glenbrook Avenue home in Roseville on Oct. 26. In that incident, the resident answered a knock at his door and was confronted by two men with guns.

The gunmen entered the home and tied up two adults and their small children with zip-tie restraints. The suspects then left with several items, including a small gun safe containing a handgun, cell phone and cash.

A bail review motion scheduled for today on a Catholic priest accused of child molestation was put off until Jan. 5 amid suggestions he may be a flight risk.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, who served in parishes in Woodland and Redding, is accused in seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14. The criminal complaint filed against him said the acts took place between June 28, 2007, and Aug. 30, 2009.

Ojeda's attorney, Jesse Ortiz, asked for the delay in order to obtain his client's personnel records from the Sacramento archdiocese.

A motorcyclist died from injuries suffered in a collision with another vehicle Sunday evening.

The Sacramento County Coroner's office identified the man as William E. Stratton, 65, of Sacramento.

Sacramento police said that Stratton was riding southbound on Raley Boulevard at Grace Avenue about 5 p.m. Sunday when the other vehicle turned in front of his motorcycle. No other details were available on Monday, police said.

Lincoln police are investigating the attempted homicide of a woman early Sunday morning.

Police were called to the 400 block of Joiner Parkway at 1 a.m. Sunday where a woman had been stabbed several times. Officers said the woman's wounds were life-threatening when they arrived at her apartment.

She was transported to a local hospital. Her condition was reported to be critical today.

Officers have been following up on leads, but have little to go on. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (916) 645-4040.

A smoky apartment fire erupted this morning in midtown Sacramento, sending occupants of the four-plex into the cold.

The fire began in the kitchen-dinning room area of a downstairs apartment in the 2300 block of Q Street. Aerial trucks were called as a precaution to the fire that did not spread to neighboring units due to quick work by firefighters.

Damage was mostly due to smoke, which filled the entire apartment building, a fire department spokesman said.

The family of a man shot to death on a Sacramento freeway during a carjacking made an impassioned plea today for the community to come forward with information in the case.

Sacramento police have not identified any suspects in the death of 53-year-old Ghulam Rabani Ayobi, nor have they identified a motive, authorities said.

Today, as they continued to reel from the news, his family asked for help.

"We need community support so the police can work on the investigation," said Munir Safi, Ayobi's 30-year-old nephew. "It's a senseless killing."

A 53-year-old man who got into a car with his wife around midnight this morning was fatally shot on Interstate 80 after being surprised by assailants hiding in the back seat, Sacramento Police reported.

About midnight this morning, the man and woman got into their car, which was parked in a residential area at Torland Street south of San Juan Road in the north area.

When the woman entered the driver's seat and her husband sat down in the passenger seat, neither knew of the two assailants hiding in back, Sacramento Police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck said today.

Fifty-seven people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the first 48 hours of a holiday campaign to keep impaired drivers off the road in Sacramento County, authorities said today.

The number of arrests carried out by 17 agencies in the county was down modestly from the same period in 2011, when 60 people were taken into custody, the Citrus Heights Police Department reported today. This year's campaign started Friday at 12:01 a.m.

The campaign, known as "Avoid the Capital 17 DUI," is an annual effort by local law enforcement agencies to keep roadways safe for 17 days through the holidays. The campaign ends at midnight, Jan. 1, 2012.

Woodland Police say an occupied home in the 300 block of Lincoln Avenue was struck by shotgun pellets, shattering the front window and the front doorway.

Polices reported on Saturday that three adults and four minor children were in the home when the shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. the previous evening.

No injuries were reported.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

This time of year, hands are often covered for the cold and screwdrivers are often used to put toys together, but police arrested two people in North Natomas Friday morning, thinking they had something else in mind.

Police reported that an unspecified number of subjects, including at least one juvenile, were seen ringing doorbells in the area of Duckhorn and Saintsbury drives.

The subjects had socks on their hands and screwdrivers in their pockets, according to police.

One adult and one juvenile were arrested on suspicion of prowling and possession of burglary tools.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police arrested a man early this morning, after he was discovered to be a parolee in possession of a Japanese throwing star.

Police conducted a traffic stop at Franklin Boulevard and 26th Avenue around 12:30 a.m. this morning.

The driver, Tom Vang, 27, was on parole.

Police said he was in possession of a "shuriken," a concealed weapon that comes in various shapes, and may be used for throwing, stabbing or slashing.

Vang was taken into custody.

By Carlos Alcala

calcala@sacbee.com

A 22-year-old Olivehurst man was killed Friday, just before midnight, when he lost control of his car on Highway 99, a few miles north of the Sacramento-Sutter county line, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Witnesses told CHP the car was traveling north at a high rate of speed when it drifted onto the shoulder and then partially back onto the highway before overturning several times.

The driver, identified as Jesus Estrada-Vasquez, was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car.

The car came to rest on the driver, partly in a southbound lane of Highway 99.

Estrada-Vasquez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Alcohol and/or drugs are believed to be factors in this crash.

The Sacramento Police Department will conduct a sobriety and drivers license checkpoint in the area of Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard tonight.

From 8 p.m. today to 2 a.m. Sunday, motorists traveling through the checkpoint will be contacted by uniformed officers on the lookout for drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to a Police Department news release. Officers also will check to make sure all drivers have a valid drivers license.

The checkpoint is intended to promote public safety, increase awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving, and to serve as a deterrent to potential impaired and unlicensed drivers.

The program is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Firefighters have contained a fire in an abandoned two-story house in Rancho Cordova.

The fire at 10710 Luella Court was reported about 9 p.m. Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said the house was abandoned and boarded up, but firefighters searched the building for possible squatters. No one was found inside and no injuries were reported.

Cockrum said fire was reported on both the floors of the house. He said an investigator is on scene, but the cause of the fire has not been determined.

Twenty-four firefighters responded.

For holiday travelers who will be staying in hotels or motels, officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Amador-El Dorado Unit offer several fire safety tips.

Statistically, one of every 12 hotels/motels reports a fire each year, according to a Cal Fire news release.

For those staying in lodgings, fire officials recommend:

Members of the West Sacramento Police Department will deliver Christmas packages Thursday to local families.

For more than 15 years the West Sacramento Police Officers Association's annual Christmas drive has provided clothing and toys to needy families. Traditionally, the program provides for approximately 20 families in the community, according to a Police Department news release.

This year, members of the department's SWAT team asked for toy donations at the local Walmart store. Thanks to an outpouring of public support, more than 500 toys were received in one day. The additional toys will be provided to local charities.

The Sacramento Police Department's High School Mountain Biking Program is asking the public to join with Peet's Coffee to support riders.

Beginning Saturday and continuing through Christmas Eve, customer's at Peet's Coffee at Alhambra and Folsom boulevards can donate to the program at the cash register. Peet's will match every dollar donated, according to a Police Department news release.

The mountain biking program aims to provide activities for at-risk youths with the goal of keeping them out of gangs and encouraging them to pursue lifelong learning. The all-volunteer organization solicits funds to serve as many youths in the Sacramento area as possible so they can race in the NorCal High School Cycling League each spring.

Most of the coaches and volunteers are off-duty police officers, teachers and college professors. To contact program representatives, email lbhsmightytitans@gmail.com, or follow the mountain bike team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SacPalmtbteam. Information also is available on the website, www.sacpal.org.

A man who has been deported from the United States on nine previous occasions has been sentenced to prison for illegal re-entry.

Humberto Moran-Torres, 46, of Mexico was sentenced today in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia to 10 years in prison, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release, for one count of illegal re-entry by a previously deported alien.

In midtrial April 25, Torres pleaded guilty to a single count of illegal re-entry by a previously deported alien. He later tried to withdraw the guilty plea without success, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

A 3-year-old boy is still in critical condition at Shriners Hospitals For Children Northern California four days after he was scalded, with police suspecting that his caretaker put him in hot water as punishment for urinating in his pants.

Kirk A. Douglas, 22, was arrested on suspicion of mayhem and torture, after medics arrived at the Mack Road home to find the boy, Amari, severely burned from the waist down.

He had been left with Douglas by his mother, who has another child with Douglas, the boy's grandfather, Richard Finley, said Friday.

Amari had third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body, police said.

The first defendant in an airplane parts fraud case involving former employees of a Lincoln company has pleaded guilty in federal court.

Anthony Vincent Zito, 48, of Saugus, pleaded guilty Thursday to one county of conspiracy to commit fraud involving airplane parts in interstate or foreign commerce, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Zito was indicted in September along with five other executives or supervisors of WECO Aerospace Systems Inc., an aircraft parts repair and overhaul business.

A driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.11 percent crashed into the back of a South Lake Tahoe motel today, rupturing a natural gas main, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department said.

The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m. when a driver identified as Ronald MacKenzie, 26, of Colorado tried to turn from La Salle Avenue onto Cedar Avenue.

Because he did not slow from a speed estimated at 40 mph, the driver lost control and ran his Toyota pickup into the back side of the Ski Haus Lodge.

Arriving personnel could smell the gas leak from a block away and evacuated the area while the gas main was secured.

MacKenzie was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Photo caption: Crash photo/South Lake Tahoe Police Department

A 30-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to felony battery charges in an attack outside an Elk Grove bowling alley that police had labeled a hate crime, according to online court records.

Joel Baltazar Olivarez faces a maximum term of four years in state prison when he is sentenced Jan. 27 by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White for the beating in the parking lot of the Strikes Family Entertainment Center.

Detectives have said Olivarez confronted Seth Parker, 26, of Sacramento on the night of June 5. Olivarez allegedly punched Parker in the face during an argument, then fled with a companion. Parker suffered facial fractures.

Elk Grove police characterized the beating as a hate crime because Olivarez directed an anti-gay remark at his victim.

Sacramento police today released the picture of a man who attacked a taxi driver and then took his cab.

The cabbie was driving a customer about 1:15 a.m. Saturday when the two began to argue. The driver pulled into a gas station at 16th and W streets where he asked the customer to get out.

At that point, the customer attacked the driver and drove away in the cab. The taxi was later found at Fifth Street and Seavey Circle. Police need help in identifying the suspect.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

A drunken driver whose car crash led to the death of a 19-year-old Rocklin man pleaded no contest Thursday to vehicular manslaughter.

Jacinto Roy Mendoza, 21, is scheduled for a Jan. 26 sentencing by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lawrence G. Brown for the death of Matthew Jacob George.

Mendoza is facing a 10-year state prison term with a promise of getting half of his time off if he behaves in prison, according to his attorney, Larry Pilgrim.

Pilgrim said Mendoza on Aug. 13 had taken light rail and walked to Paradise Beach where he met up with a crowd of young people who had gathered at the popular American River party spot near Sacramento State.

According to Pilgrim, Mendoza, after a day of drinking, agreed to drive when the crowd left the river. He then crashed on Highway 50.

George, who was riding in the trunk of the car, was ejected from the vehicle. Authorities said his body was found the next day in a field beneath the freeway.

Mendoza registered a .15 blood-alcohol level in a reading taken several hours after the crash, Pilgrim said.
.

The Twin Rivers Police Department is holding an open house today from 1-7 p.m.

The department, based in the Twin Rivers Unified School District, has faced criticism in recent months, after one of its officers was shot and the suspect later died while in a Sacramento Police car.

The open house will allow the community to take a tour of the agency, meet officers and district K-9 Jag.

Coffee and cookies will also be served at the open house, 1333 Grand Avenue, in Sacramento.

Sacramento Metro Fire firefighters battled two fires in the past 24 hours where people didn't use proper fire safety, officials said.

In an incident today, 20 firefighters fought a living room blaze that apparently began when the residents of a home on 26th Street in Rio Linda left a fireplace fire unattended.

The fireplace blaze appear to have ignited materials left nearby, said Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum.

Two men were arrested for stealing presents from a residence in the McKinley Park neighborhood this morning.

The suspected burglars broke into a vacant apartment residence around 5:30 a.m. in the 3000 block of D Street that was being used to wrap presents, a police spokeswoman said. On a table was wrapping paper and other items needed to wrap gifts.

Police were called and the burglars fled from the back of the building. Presents were dropped as the burglars ran.

A police dog was called in to catch one of suspected burglars. Names of the suspects were not immediately available.

Sacramento police returned the presents to the owner instead of taking it to a police evidence storage locker.

"Stolen items that are recovered are typically booked as evidence," said police spokeswoman Officer Laura Peck. "But in this case they were not. The victim was able to respond out there and identify his property. We took pictures of the evidence. And then we field-evidence released the presents so that he could get them to the appropriate people on Christmas Day."

A middle school student on a motorized scooter was hit by a vehicle this morning in Folsom.

The boy was hit at the intersection of East Bidwell Street and Glenn Drive around 8:30 a.m. The youngster was pinned until Folsom firefighters could remove him from under the vehicle and take him to the hospital.

The cause of the collision is under investigation. The boy was wearing a helmet when he was hit.

Initially, his injuries were thought to be life-threatening, police said. However, his condition was later upgraded.

Early police reports indicated the boy was a bicycle. However, police now say he was on a motorized scooter.

Folsom police will be stopping drivers tonight at a checkpoint on East Natoma Street in an effort to catch drunken drivers.

The checkpoint will be set up at 7 p.m. on East Natoma Street at Briggs Ranch Drive. The checkpoint will continue through the night and into the early morning hours.

The effort by uniformed officers, Community Service officers and public safety volunteers is funded by a state grant. Officers will also cite unlicensed drivers.

The Folsom Police Department will conduct a checkpoint tonight as part of an effort to keep impaired and unlicensed drivers off the road.

The checkpoint will begin at 7 p.m. on East Natoma Street at Briggs Ranch Drive and will continue into Saturday morning.

Uniformed police officers, community service officers and Citizens Assisting Public Safety volunteers will staff the checkpoint. Officers will be on the lookout for drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as well as motorists without a valid drivers license.

The activity is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Christopher Allen Smith of West Sacramento has been convicted of murder in the shooting death of a man who reportedly gave him a dirty look.

A Yolo County jury on Wednesday found Smith, 31, guilty of murder for killing Gidd Gomel Robinson IV on Nov. 3, 2009. Smith also was convicted of shooting from a vehicle and shooting a firearm causing death, according to a Yolo County District Attorney's Office news release.

Shortly after noon, Smith was driving with his 7-year-old son in his pickup truck after leaving his father's house in a residential neighborhood in West Sacramento. Smith, who is white, encountered Robinson, who is black, as Robinson was walking his children to school. After Robinson gave Smith a "hard stare" and Smith "flipped him off," Smith drove his truck around the corner and loaded his gun, officials said.

The California Board of Psychology announced that it has suspended the license of Laurie Ann Martinez, a psychologist employed by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation who is accused of falsely telling police that she was sexually assaulted.

An administrative law judge granted the board's request to suspend Martinez's license, prohibiting her from practicing as a psychologist while the board proceeds with its enforcement case, according to a news release.

Sacramento police say Martinez conspired with a friend to make it appear that she had been raped, beaten and robbed by a stranger, in an effort to persuade her husband to move out of their Northgate neighborhood in Sacramento.

Martinez had been employed as a senior supervising psychologist at California State Prison, Sacramento, but a spokesperson said Martinez was moved to department headquarters in May after allegations of the false report emerged.

Sacramento Police Department officers have arrested a man suspected of stealing toys from a donation bin and then trying to pass himself off as a police officer.

Keith Napier, 49, is accused of going into a Stockton Boulevard business Tuesday and taking a book and toy out of a Toys 4 Tots bin.

When confronted, the suspect identified himself as a Suisun City police officer and then fled in his car.

Sacramento police, working with Suisun City police, located Napier in the 1500 block of Howe Avenue Wednesday and arrested him, finding one of the stolen items in the same area.

Photo Caption: Keith Napier booking photo

By Hudson Sangree

hsangree@sacbee.com

Cristan J. Rooms, a 29-year-old state licensed foster parent and youth Esparto soccer coach, was arraigned Thursday on 48 felony child molestation counts with a child under 14 and six misdemeanor counts of child endangerment.

The charges stem from his alleged conduct with two children between June 2007 and November 2011.

Yolo Superior Court Commissioner Janene Beronio set the bail at $12 million.

Police suspect that a man placed his girlfriend's small child in scalding water after the 3-year-old boy urinated in his pants.

Sacramento police arrested Kirk A. Douglas, 22, on Monday on suspicion of mayhem, torture with the intent to cause cruel or extreme pain and endangering the life of a child.

Police were summoned at 10:55 a.m. Monday after firefighters were first called to a home in the 4900 block of Mack Road. Police were told that a small boy was severely burned from the waist down.

Authorities suspect that Douglas placed the child in hot bath water as discipline for wetting his pants.

The child suffered third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body, police said. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.

PHOTO CAPTION: Kirk A. Douglas

Three men were arrested this morning when they were noticed siphoning gas from a stolen car, Sacramento police said.

Police said that about 4:30 a.m. security guards noticed the tree men taking gas from the 1989 Toyota at a Pocket neighborhood apartment complex.

Security called police, thinking they had a simple case of gas theft. When police arrived, officers determined that the car had been stolen from the 7400 block of South Land Park Drive and driven to Rush River Drive in the Pocket.

Police allege that Sin Ly, 50, and Rouderick Ngaw, 28, and Kinh Nguyen, 40, drove to South Land Park Drive to steal a car. From there, they followed Nguyen to Rush River Drive where they siphoned gas from the stolen car to Ly's car.

The name of a woman who died Wednesday in a crash on the Garden Highway in Sacramento has been released by the Sacramento County Coroner's office.

She has been identified as Patricia Ann Brooks, 71, of Sacramento.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said Brooks was traveling eastbound on Garden Highway near the Northgate-Arden Garden connector about 11:45 a.m., when she swerved into the westbound lane, colliding with a westbound vehicle.

Brooks was pronounced dead at the scene. Brooks was the only person in the vehicle.

The three occupants of the other vehicle were transported to area hospitals. Pettit said the driver, a woman in her 30s, suffered serious injuries, and another woman, in her 20s, sustained moderate injuries. The third passenger, an infant, was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure, Pettit said.

Two Roseville residents were arrested on suspicion of debit card theft, allegedly using a stolen card to shop at several Auburn area supermarkets.
Wesley Hinkley, 32, and Elsa Sheets, 34, were arrested this week by Auburn police.
Auburn Police officer Chris Forman received a report on Sunday that an EBT/debit card was stolen from an Auburn resident. The card was then used at Grocery Outlet, Raley's, Save Mart and Safeway.
Forman learned that Hinkley and Sheets were suspects in the card theft, according to a police department press release. Forman arrested Hinkley on Monday and booked him into Placer County Jail.
The next day, Sheets was interviewed by Forman and also arrested and booked.

Citrus Heights police are looking for the driver of a stolen vehicle that crashed after leading an officer on a chase early this morning.

Police officers have been conducting targeted patrols in the area of Westboork and Halifax streets in an effort to locate criminals responsible for recent automobile thefts and other vehicle-related thefts in the neighborhood, according to a Police Department news release.

About 2:20 this morning, an officer patrolling in the neighborhood noticed that a lone vehicle that passed him in the opposite direction was traveling at a very slow speed. When the officer turned around to investigate, the vehicle, a stolen 1997 Honda Accord, was driven away at a high speed in an apparent attempt evade the officer.

A pursuit, covering less than a mile, ended when the Honda struck a fire hydrant near Halifax and Auburn Boulevard. The driver, the only occupant of the vehicle, ran from the scene.

A jury convicted a one-time Sacramento street gang member today on a 1991 double murder that took place outside a Stockton Boulevard club.

The verdict came back against Ricky Tran, now 38, for the Oct. 25, 1991, drive-by shooting deaths of Huy "Joey" Nguyen, 23, and Quon Anh Tran, 23, outside the Craven Club.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Laird described the two men who were killed as innocent bystanders who were not involved in street gangs.

Two motorists, including an off-duty Sacramento Police Department sergeant, were credited with rescuing a woman from a vehicle that caught fire after it crashed in the Land Park area Tuesday night.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said a 48-year-old woman was driving a Subaru station wagon north on Riverside Boulevard, approaching Sutterville Road, about 8:30 p.m., when the motorist behind her saw the vehicle drift across the southbound lanes. The Subaru crashed into the landscaping between Riverside Boulevard and the Interstate 5 retaining wall.

The motorist, who stopped to help, called for police and medical aid, reporting that the woman appeared to be unconscious and had her foot wedged against the accelerator pedal, causing the motor to race a full speed.

A 70-year-old woman died this morning in a crash that closed a portion of Garden Highway through the early afternoon.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said the woman was traveling eastbound on Garden Highway near the Northgate-Arden Garden connector about 11:45 a.m., when she swerved into the westbound lane, colliding with a westbound vehicle.

The 70-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Pettit a medical condition may have contributed to the crash. The woman, whose name has not been released pending notification of family, was the only person in the vehicle.

The three occupants of the other vehicle were transported to area hospitals. Pettit said the driver, a woman in her 30s, suffered serious injuries, and another woman, in her 20s, sustained moderate injuries. The third passenger, an infant, was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure, Pettit said.

The Redding Record-Searchlight

RED BLUFF -- A 40-year-old Red Bluff mother was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of attempted murder and felony child abuse after she admitted to slashing her 13-year-old son's neck with a knife, police said.

Theresa Marie Lewis was booked into Tehama County jail, Red Bluff police said.

Officers said they went to a South Jackson Street apartment around 1 p.m., after receiving a report of a teenage boy who had possibly overdosed on pills and had a cut on his neck.

When officers arrived at the apartment, they found the teenager with a severe cut across his throat and neck, police said. Lewis admitted to having inflicted the cut, they said.

The boy, whose name was not immediately released, was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff before being flown by helicopter to Enloe Medical Center in Chico.

Read more at Redding.com

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Yolo County sheriff's deputies have arrested a youth soccer coach and foster parent in Esparto on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy whom he coached.

Yolo County child welfare officials removed a six-year-old foster child in his custody, authorities said.

Cristan James Rooms, 29, of Esparto, was arrested Monday and is being held on $2.75 million bail at the Monroe Detention Center in Woodland, the sheriff's department reported in a news release Wednesday.

He was booked on a charges of lewd and lacivious acts with a minor using force or fear, five counts of continuous sexual assault of a child, and child endangerment, according to the news release.

The charges stem from his alleged assault of 14-year-old boy to whom he acted as a mentor and soccer and bowling coach, it said.

Rooms is a coach with Vacaville Youth Soccer League and Soccer Nation in Vacaville, authorities said.

He is also a foster parent licensed by the state Department of Social Services, they said.

Detectives are continuing their investigation and ask anyone with information to call Detective Jennifer Davis at (530) 668-5215.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A second Sacramento Superior Court jury began deliberations today on two more defendants in the library corruption scandal that already has produced one conviction.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina concluded his rebuttal arguments this morning before Judge Allen H. Sumner ordered the jury to begin deliberations.

Attorneys Stan Kubochi and Robert J. Saria finished their closing arguments Tuesday on behalf of their respective clients, former library security chief James E. Mayle and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle. She handled contracts for the companies that did maintenance work for the system that includes 27 branches as well as the downtown library.

The Mayles are accused in a kickback scheme that authorities say padded 1,400 invoices by a total of more than $730,000 over a three-year period.

Another jury in the same trial returned a conviction last week on all 16 counts filed against former library facilities director Dennis Nilsson.

The FBI is asking for help on a bank robbery investigation gone cold.

The US Bank, 950 Florin Road, was held up Dec. 23, 2010. The bank robber entered the Pocket-Greenhaven bank and handed a note to a teller. The note was written on the back of a cable television envelope in orange highlighter.

It read: "Put money In BAG I got A BOMB And I will use it."

The robber took cash and then he fled. He was described as a 35-45 year-old black man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, 260 pounds.

He was wearing a large straw hat, blue jeans, dark tennis shoes with white bottoms and a dark-colored down jacket with a tan diamond-shaped emblem sewn near the back of the collar.

The FBI on Wednesday released a copy of the demand note and re-released a picture of the man. Anyone with information, may contact the FBI at (916) 481-9110 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

PHOTO CAPTION: Top, the banker's note. Left, the suspect.

Congregants at a Buddhist temple in Arden Arcade are saddened by the theft of a large copper incense holder, which had spiritual and cultural significance.

"This is a unique item, only one of them in the world," said Simone Brinkmann-Robinson, a member of Kim Quang Buddhist Temple on Alta Arden Expressway.

The incense holder was stolen in pieces recently. Thieves came on three separate occasions, taking parts off the religious artifact, estimated to weigh half a ton.

First they came to the grounds of the gated and fenced temple and took the lid and the base. The second time they took the handles that resembled dragons. Finally, last week, either Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, thieves took the heavy bowl.

It appears that to take the bowl they used a small temple wagon to take it to a fence that was broken. From there, it was transferred on the other side of the broken fence to another wheeled conveyance before taking it away, Brinkmann-Robinson said.

"The material worth is about $15,000," she said. "But it is really priceless because of its history. It was imported from Viet Nam."

Originally, the incense burner was made for a festival staged by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO), she said. The holder is from Hue.

"It is supposed to be a museum piece but the temple decided to purchase it because the temple is mainly Vietnamese so it is a cultural connection," she said. "Apart from the Buddhist practices we use it for, it is also an emotional piece for a lot of people."

Members of the temple come from the Bay area and the Sacramento region.

"We are afraid they are going to come back," said Brinkman-Robinson, who said the monks on the property did not hear the burglars take the incense burner.

She said the incense burner was purchased by the members of the temple.

"When something like this is taken, it affects everybody," she said.

A man who took a couple of bites out of python earlier this year has pleaded no contest to animal cruelty charges, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

David Elmer Senk, 54, entered his misdemeanor plea Thursday in front of Judge Marjorie Koller, who sentenced him to 60 days in jail.

Senk was arrested Sept. 1 in the 3600 block of Marysville Boulevard. Animal control authorities said after his arrest that the python had been stitched up and was expected to recover.

An 18-year-old man was arrested this afternoon on suspicion of burglary after he was chased down by a witness.

Woodland police responded at 1:53 p.m. to 83 Utah Ave. to a report of an interrupted residential burglary. When officers arrived, they learned that a witness to the burglary had chased three suspects toward Mariposa Street, according to a Police Department news release. The witness caught and detained one suspect, Louie Brown, whom police described as a local transient. Brown was found on a pathway between Utah Avenue and Mariposa Street.

Police said all the property reported stolen in the burglary was recovered in the area where Brown was detained by the witness.

A man accused of killing another man in a knife fight in Elk Grove two years ago has pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges in Sacramento Superior Court.

Patrick S. Koenig, now 27, entered his plea Thursday in front of Judge Lawrence G. Brown, who scheduled the sentencing for Jan. 4.

Koenig had been accused of murder in the stabbing death of Eric William Lange, 27, of Vacaville, at a motel where they both worked.

Authorities said the two had engaged in an alcohol-fueled fight that ended with Lange's death. Koenig also sustained stab wounds in the altercation at the Extended Stay Hotel on Longport Drive, according to Elk Grove police.

A Roseville man is among five people accused of rigging bids at public real estate foreclosure auctions.

A U.S. District Court in Sacramento today unsealed an indictment against four real estate investors and one auctioneer, or "crier," for their alleged participation in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on Dec. 7, charges W. Theodore Longley, 62, of Roseville; Wiley C. Chandler, 47, of Lodi; Andrew B. Katakis, 47, of Danville; Donald M. Parker, 48, of Valley Springs; and Anthony B. Joachim, 44, of Stockton with conspiring with other unnamed co-conspirators to rig bids and commit mail fraud when purchasing selected properties at the foreclosure auctions. The indictment also charges Longley, the crier, with aiding and abetting the conspirators.

Sacramento police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the death of a man shot while sitting in his pickup two months ago.

Police said that 51-year-old Kevin Kent Burks of Sacramento was driving on Decathlon Circle near Franklin Boulevard and Mack Road at about 11:15 p.m. Oct. 11 when he stopped at a residence. The teen is suspected of then firing several times into Burks' truck.

When they arrived, police found Burks dead inside his vehicle. He was shot once in his upper body.

The teen was not identified by police because of his age. The motive for the killing is still under investigation, police said.

By Brad Branan
bbranan@sacbee.com

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said he will ask the Board of Supervisors next month to approve an application to the state for $100 million to expand the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center.

Under a bill approved by state lawmakers, the county would have to pay $10 million in matching funds.

While the application was sparked by the shift of state offenders to the counties in October, the county would need the additional jail space regardless, Jones said. The downtown Sacramento jail and the one near Elk Grove have long been running near capacity.

A man heading to Dallas had his trip cut short when he was arrested on drug charges at Sacramento International Airport.

The Transportation Security Administration said TSA officers detected "an anomaly" during the use of an imaging equipment at Terminal B Sunday morning.

After the TSA said they had detected something on him, the passenger pulled from his pocket a glass pipe with drug residue, the TSA said in a press release. A pat down by law enforcement officers turned up two bags containing about three grams of white powder later identified as methamphetamine, according to the TSA.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury on Monday convicted Arthur Alexander McCall in the gang-related murder of Johan Simms three years ago in the north area.

McCall, now 25, and Simms, 20, were members of rival gang sets who exchanged words just before the Nov. 21, 2008, shooting death on Bowles Street near Traction Avenue.

Superior Court Judge Roland L. Candee scheduled McCall's sentencing for Jan. 11.

The number of drunken driving deaths in 2010 dropped to 791 persons, compared to 950 in 2009.

DUI deaths increased each year from 1998 to 2005 but have decreased every year since then.

The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) credits a record number of DUI checkpoints conducted in 2010 as partially responsible for the big reduction in drunken driving deaths. The OTS allocated $16.8 million in federal funds to police agencies to conduct 2,553 DUI checkpoints in 2010.

That is up from $11.7 million allocated to 1,740 checkpoints in 2009.

Folsom residents are invited to meet with officers and the city's police chief who was appointed earlier this year.

Police Chief Cynthia Renaud, formerly the commander of the Long Beach Police Department's detective division, assumed her leadership duties in Folsom in May.

Renaud and members of the force will talk about crime-fighting tools and techniques in a community meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Folsom Community Center, 50 Natoma St. Officers will also provide tips to prevent crime.

Lincoln Fire Chief Dave Whitt will step down Dec. 29, just four months after the successful resolution of a propane train car fire in which he showed his leadership skills.

"Lincoln's recent propane tanker fire revealed to the entire region what those of us in Lincoln already know," said Lincoln Mayor Paul Joiner. "Chief Whitt was the right man, in the right place, at the right time."

Whitt was not the only one who quickly responded to the rail tanker fire last summer. The quick work of a dispatcher and first responders prevented disaster after a rail tanker car filled with 30,000 gallons of propane ignited Aug. 23, prompting the evacuation of homes, businesses and City Hall in the northern part of the city.

However, Mayor Joiner praised Whitt's leadership, experience and his relaxed, straight forward manner for Lincoln avoiding a devastating explosion.

Whitt, 50, has been Lincoln's chief since 2006. Before that, he was a Battalion Chief for the City of Sacramento. Whitt, who said it was time to move on, regretted a lack of resources in a city press release.

"It is time for me to look at other opportunities," Whitt said. "Given the climate in the city, I have come to a point where it is frustrating to not be as effective as I would like to be. We have good people with very little resources to support them in carrying out the mission of this department."

City Manager Jim Estep credited Whitt with a list of accomplishments, including helping with the completion of two new fire stations, improving mutual aid and working relationships with other fire agencies and making sure firefighters have state-of-the art breathing apparatus.

The fire department went from volunteers to a paid 24-hour department in 2001. Since that time, Lincoln has boomed, growing to a population of 41,000 today -- a 236 percent increase.

The city said the number of fire and medical aid calls have more than tripled.

The department has 24 full-time employees and five volunteers. An interim chief will be appointed before Whitt leaves.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A prison psychologist accused of faking a sexual assault and robbery at her former Northgate home was arraigned Monday on two felony charges of conspiracy.

Laurie Ann Martinez did not enter a plea before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary Ransom, said her lawyer Michelle Spaulding. The hearing was continued.

Spaulding told The Bee that Martinez did not claim she was raped, as has been reported. "She repeatedly said in the police report, 'I do not think I was raped,'" the lawyer said.

By Ed Fletcher

efletcher@sacbee.com

With court dates looming, Sacramento officials on Monday dropped charges against the nine Occupy Sacramento demonstrators accused of repeatedly defying the city's curfew ordinance.

The city had earlier dropped the cases against the 30-plus Occupy protesters who had only one arrest.

The nine people with either two or three arrests where scheduled to have their trials begin tomorrow.

The city attorney made the call after being unable to provide the discovery materials being requested by lawyers working for the Occupy movement, said attorney Mark Merin, one of the lawyers working for the movement.

"After evaluating the facts of each case and criminal history of each defendant, the City Attorney's Office has determined that the combined sanctions of arrest, jail time, and monetary fines imposed against each defendant achieved the People of the State of California's demand for substantial justice," the city attorney's office wrote in a statement furnished to the media.

The statement went on to say that the city attorney's office will continue to prosecute violations of the park curfew -- a statement not in line with previous actions.

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

An El Dorado County man who fled while being investigated for allegedly raping a 14-year-old in 1998 was arrested today in New Jersey.

Pasquale Patrick Senatore, 45, has been on the run since 2002, when investigators attempted to question him about allegations he forcibly raped a girl repeatedly over a three-month period.

Over the past few years, the U.S. Marshals Service and El Dorado County Sheriffs teamed to try to locate Senatore. He was located today in New Jersey when officers spotted him getting into a van.

Senatore was taken into custody without incident, according to the U.S. Marshal's office. He will be extradited back to El Dorado County, where he faces charges of forcible lewd acts on a child.

The FBI today awarded its Director's Community Leadership award to Sacramento's Women Escaping a Violent Environment, Inc.

The annual award recognizes the achievement of an individual or organization for commitment to violence education and prevention in the community, according to a press release from the Bureau's office in Sacramento.

Herb Brown, Special Agent in Charge of Sacramento's field office, presented the award to WEAVE executive director Beth Hassett this morning. She will receive an engraved award during a public ceremony in March from Director Robert Mueller at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to the release.

WEAVE believes that all women, men and children deserve to feel safe in their homes and community," Hassett said in a statement. "In these difficult times we have to be more innovative, more enthusiastic and more committed to making sure that the most vulnerable among us are taken care of."

The Sacramento non-profit provides crisis intervention and prevention services to victims of domestic abuse, human trafficking and sexual assault.

-- Bee Staff

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help in identifying the suspects who shot a man in the face during what appeared to be a home-invasion robbery in the Arden-Arcade area.

Deputies were called to the apartment of an elderly woman in the 800 block of Carro Drive just after 6 p.m. Sunday.

The 70-year-old woman had answered the door for a younger woman asking to use the bathroom, when two men rushed in, pepper sprayed the victim and began going through her apartment, said Sacramento Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos.

A cat burglar entered a home and took the possessions of sleeping Rocklin residents this morning.

The burglar removed a screen and opened a window at the rear of a house in the 5200 block of Water Lily Lane between 12:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. today. Once inside, the burglar took several items while residents slept and then the thief left without being detected.

The thief may have entered the back yard by climbing a fence, Rocklin police said. The burglary was the second in the area since late November of an occupied dwelling, police said.

A large home in Placer County suffered heavy damage in an early morning fire.

A 911 call about 1:30 p.m. Monday alerted Cal Fire firefighters to the blaze at an approximately 3,500-square-foot house in the 3400 block of Amoruso Way. Firefighters could see flames light up the night sky as they left the firehouse near the Thunder Valley Casino.

Firefighters managed to save about 1,200-square-feet of the structure, which was well-involved in fire when engines arrived. Residents were not home when fire erupted, a Cal Fire spokeswoman said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

Galt police say a DUI suspect picked up his 3-year-old son and used him as a "human shield" as officers tried to arrest him.

At about 6:25 p.m. on Sunday, Galt officers tried to arrest Bravio Gonzalez, 23, at his home on Moose Creek Way. They found Gonzalez, who was wanted on a DUI warrant, hiding in the back yard, according to a press release from the department. Gonzalez reportedly ran into the house and saw a police dog and handler at the front door. He allegedly grabbed his young son and "told police they couldn't arrest him because he had his son in his hands," the news release said. Officers were able to arrest Gonzalez and take the child into protective custody, without injury. Gonzalez was booked on the DUI warrant and on suspicion of resisting arrest and child endangerment.

By Hudson Sangree
hsangree@sacbee.com

A man was pistol whipped and shot in the face in the Arden-Arcade area Sunday during what appeared to be a home-invasion robbery, authorities said.

Deputies were called to the 800 block of Carro Drive just after 6 p.m, said Sacramento Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. An elderly woman had answered her apartment door for a younger woman asking to use the bathroom, Ramos said. Two men rushed up, pepper sprayed the elderly woman and began going through her apartment, he said.

A man in his early 50s who knew the woman came to the apartment to check on her. The men dragged him in, pistol whipped him and shot him in the face and hand, Ramos said. The man's injuries were not believed to be life threatening, Ramos said.

Sacramento police arrested two men in south Sacramento Saturday night who were caught allegedly stealing a new refrigerator and oven while the home's owner was out of town.

Joshua Stringer, 26, and Ricardo Casillas, 55, were taken into custody shortly before 11 p.m. as they were leaving the vacant house at the 7300 block of Meadowgate Drive, police said today.

Officers contacted the home's owner, who confirmed that the property was being stolen.

Police said Stringer was also in possession of amphetamine.

An 18-year-old man described as foaming at the mouth was taken into custody Saturday night behind Arden Fair Mall -- about an hour after allegedly robbing two juveniles at gunpoint, police said today.

The two youths reported they were walking along Arden Way near Business 80 about 9:20 p.m. when a man who was foaming at the mouth demanded the victims' cell phones, shoes and belts.

The suspect then fled on foot toward the mall, police reported.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

Sacramento police out of the South Command office were busy between about 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. Friday, responding to a string of four burglaries or attempts in two small neighborhoods.

One juvenile suspect was arrested.

The first two incidents were reported right around 10:30 a.m. from the Meadowview neighborhood, near Sloat School Park.

A resident on Sylvia Way heard something outside her window and opened the blinds to see someone duck and move away.

She reported hearing someone jumping fences.

Nearby, on Carell Drive, a homeowner came home at almost the same time and interrupted a burglary.

The suspects broke surveillance cameras and took other items.

About an hour later, alarms alerted police to burglaries in neighborhoods near Franklin and Cosumnes River boulevards.

An officer entered house on Phinney Drive and met a 16-year-old suspect burglarizing the home.

The juvenile was taken into custody.

Ten minutes later, police found another ringing alarm on Calle Royale Way and found the home had been burglarized.

A flat screen television was found by the fence outside but no suspects were seen.

By Carlos Alcala
calcala@sacbee.com

Police are seeking a suspect in a taxi carjacking early today, the second attack on a cab driver in two days.

In the latest incident, a driver picked up a fare at 5th and J streets around 1 a.m., headed for 5th and Broadway.

The driver attempted to get the passenger to leave the taxi at a gas station.

The man responded by striking the driver.

They then left the cab, and the passenger hit the driver again and took the taxi.

The vehicle was recovered near Seavey Circle.

The suspect is described as an African American man in his late 20s, 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 185 lbs.

In Friday's incident, a driver who took a group of passengers to the Meadowview neighborhood was punched and robbed of $400 by an attacker described as an Asian male.

The taxi was also taken in that incident.

A suspect contacted by mall security at Downtown Plaza fought police, ran the wrong way on an escalator and jumped off the escalator to escape before finally being arrested shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, Sacramento police reported.

The suspect, who was not identified in the police activity log, refused to comply when contacted by security and police officers and began to fight.

A conducted energy device, similar to a Taser, and a baton were used on the suspect to no avail.

The suspect then ran from police, going down an up-escalator and jumping off half-way down to the floor below.

The suspect was finally caught in the process of discarding a handgun, police said.

A 19-year-old motorcyclist was killed in Oroville Friday when his cycle struck another vehicle, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The accident took place in clear daylight around 10 a.m. after the driver of a Honda Pilot stopped on Kelly Ridge Road and made a U-turn.

After the U-turn, his vehicle was hit by a motorcycle driven by Rick J. Stickle of Oroville.

The motorist and a passing volunteer firefighter performed first aid.

Stickle was pronounced deat at Oroville Medical Center.

A Rocklin burglar broke into a house, ignoring the resident's shouting, but found police harder to ignore.

Rocklin police arrested Tammy Sue Oconner, 51, of Auburn, after they arrived and found her in possession of property allegedly taken from two homes.

The incident began when a resident of the 2400 block of South Whitney Boulevard came home at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday and discovered a woman climbing through a broken bedroom window.

She yelled at the intruder, but the woman continued to enter and rummage through the house.

The victim left that room and called 9-1-1.

Arriving officers found the intruder in the yard holding large bags, including items identified as stolen from the house.

Oconner was arrested on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property, theft, vandalism and possession of a hypodermic syringe.

The prison psychologist accused of faking a rape and robbery at her Northgate home is still working for the prison system, a corrections spokeswoman confirmed today.

Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said that Laurie Ann Martinez's superiors do not have the final reports needed to decide whether to put her on "administrative time off."

Martinez, 36, has been charged with two counts of felony criminal conspiracy in connection with a false police report she made April 10. Sacramento police and prosecutors allege that, with the help of friend Nicole April Syder, Martinez injured herself and hid personal belongings before calling police to report she had been raped and robbed.

Three convicted murderers were sentenced today to life in prison with no chance of parole for a drug-related shooting death in south Sacramento three years ago.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage imposed the terms on Brandon Theodore Morton, 25, Anthony Arturo Medina, 23, and David Whitehead, 21.

The three were convicted in the May 5, 2008, killing of Jason Fletcher, 35, on Brookfield Drive at Franklin Boulevard.

A man convicted of murder in the prison killing of a cellmate who had killed his brother was sentenced today to 45 years to life in prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage imposed the term of Roberto Canchola Jr., 39, for the Sept. 20, 2004, strangulation and beating death of Julian Joseph Barajas Jr., 27.

Canchola and Barajas had been celled together at California State Prison, Sacramento, even though Barajas had been incarcerated on a life term with no chance of parole for the 1993 murder of Canchola's younger brother.

A judge today denied a motion by defense attorneys in the Davis "sweethearts" murder case to have the trial moved out of Sacramento County.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet said that the defense's own expert said in a declaration that there hasn't been enough publicity in the case to prejudice potential jurors.

The judge delayed issuing a ruling on a motion by prosecutors to bring into the trial a suicide letter written by defendant Richard Hirschfield's brother.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted a former Sacramento Public Library official on 16 counts related to a bill-padding scheme that cost county taxpayers more than $730,000.

The panel found Dennis Nilsson, 65, the library authority's former facilities director, guilty of grand theft, bribery and conflict of interest.

Sheriff's officials took Nilsson into custody immediately after the jury's verdict.

Prosecutors say Nilsson was at the center of an operation where a billing service paid $562,000 to contractors out of the $1.3 million it received on 1,400 work orders from April 2004 through July 2007.

A second jury in the case will hear closing arguments next week in the trial of two other defendants in the case. They are the library's former security supervisor, James E. Mayle, 66, and his wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, 62. Rankins-Mayle set up the billing service that handled the payments to the contractors.

Sacramento police arrested a 15-year-old boy Thursday after he allegedly burglarized a home and stabbed the family's Chihuahua to death, according to authorities.

The family returned to their home on Majorca Circle about 3 p.m. and saw a young boy they recognized bolt from the garage, said police Sgt. Andrew Pettit.

As some family members chased the boy, others went inside to find the home ransacked. They also found the family's pet Chihuahua, who had been kept in a pen in the garage, stabbed to death, Pettit said.

Placer County Sheriff's deputies arrested a Roseville man Wednesday as he left an electronics store with two boxed cameras stuffed in his pants.

Best Buy security officers at the Bell Road store watched Andrew Charles Areshenko, 28, place the cameras inside his jacket, according to a release from the Placer Sheriff's office.

While they were calling deputies, Areshenko is accused of going into a restroom and putting the boxes in his pants and then leaving the store.

Placer County Sheriff's detectives are trying to identify two men who have conducted a series of brazen burglaries of retail businesses in Placer, Sacramento, Yolo and El Dorado counties.

The two men enter businesses and load up shopping carts with televisions and other electronics.

Then they run out a door and load the items into a waiting vehicle.

"The backs of vehicles are open and they go," said Det. Jim Hudson.

Sacramento taxi drivers and police are asking for the public's help in finding a man who robbed a cab driver at gunpoint this morning.

Mohammad Akhtar, 55, said he was punched in the face, then ordered to the ground at gunpoint by an unknown man about 4:15 a.m. in Meadowview.

Akhtar said the suspect stole about $400 from his pocket, his cell phone and his taxi van, leaving him stranded. Akhtar said he knocked on the front door of a nearby home and asked for help.

A man who had been sitting in a magnolia tree in Cesar Chavez Park since Wednesday was arrested early today after he left his perch.

Steven Carter, 31, who was occupying the tree as part of the Occupy Sacramento protest, came down voluntarily shortly after 1 a.m., when temperatures were estimated to be in the mid-30s.

Police arrested Carter, after he was cleared by medics, for staying in the park beyond closing.

Carter had previously given his name to reporters as Joe Carter.

Photo caption: Booking photo for Steven Carter.

The California Highway Patrol reports the two lanes closed for at least two hours this morning after a big rig accident near Alpine Avenue in Stockton have reopened.

The truck was carrying asphalt when the accident occurred around 4:30 a.m.

The number 2 and 3 lanes of I-5 were closed in the area.

Transportation officials expect to reopen Highway 65 though Lincoln at around 1 a.m. after an semi truck with a load of onions overturned Thursday evening.

Both northbound and southbound Highway 65 was closed through Lincoln about 8 p.m. Thursday evening as a result of the accident.

Southbound 65 was closed at Ferrari Ranch Road. Northbound traffic was closed at the Twelve Bridges exit, a news release from the city states.

The truck was unable to manage a 20 mph curve in place because of ongoing construction.

Information on when the roadway would be cleared was not yet available.

Sacramento police officials say they are willing to wait out a local protester occupying a magnolia tree in Cesar Chavez Park.

The man, who identified himself as Joe Carter on Wednesday evening, remained in the tree as of 3:30 p.m. today.

"I'm going to occupy this tree," Carter told The Bee from his perch 20 feet up.

By Andy Furillo

afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today convicted Rio LInda First Baptist Church pastor Tommy Gene Daniels of molesting five girls in his Citrus Heights home.

The jury found Daniels, 49, guilty on 11 of the 12 counts filed against him.

"I'm happy for the girls," said Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Macy. "I thought there was definitely evidence there" supporting the verdicts, she said.

Judge Trene H. Burger-Plavan scheduled Daniels' sentencing for Jan. 13. Macy said Daniels is facing a life term.

Defense attorney Michael L. Chastaine said he was disappointed with the verdict and that he plans to appeal.

By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com

Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel will be taking reader questions Monday on sacbee.com from 11 a.m. to noon as part of The Bee's monthly series of live chats with area law enforcement leaders.

If you've got a question for the chief, please leave it here in the comments section and return to sacbee.com/sacto911 at 11 a.m. Monday, when Chief Braziel will be in our newsroom responding to reader questions.

Four people were arrested of on suspicion of attempting to steal a dozen 55-gallon plastic drums filled with gas using a card belonging to the City of Auburn.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department said they were alerted about 1:45 a.m. Monday that somebody was stealing gas from a Dawson Oil card lock station on Bowman Road in Auburn.

When deputies arrived, they saw two pickups, one of them sagging under the weight of full barrels of gas. Deputies also allege that they saw Raymond E. Farmer, 54, in the process of filling a barrel in the back of another truck belonging to him.

Farmer and the man in the other truck, John Patrick Steel, 47, both had outstanding warrants. Farmer said he bought the gas using a Dawson Oil credit card but did not know who owned the card.

A Dawson Oil employee who arrived at the scene of the fill-up station determined the card belonged to the City of Auburn. Neither Farmer nor Steel work for the city.

Farmer, according to a sheriff's department press release, said he took the barrels from a Sacramento business but could provide the name of the business.

Farmer, Steel and passengers in the trucks, Dawn Marie Darnell, 47, and Ranae Lynn Miller, 40, were charged on suspicion of grand theft, possession of stolen property and theft by credit card.

Dawson Oil could not re-use the gasoline worth $2,600 due to "potential contamination," according to the sheriff's department press release.

PHOTO CREDIT: Clockwise from top left: Miller, Steel, Farmer and Darnell

A Sacramento Superior Court jury today began deliberations in the case of one of three defendants charged in what prosecutors described as a billing scheme in the city-county library authority.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Blazina said former library facilities director Dennis Nilsson, former security chief James Mayle and Mayle's wife, Janie Rankins-Mayle, conspired to pad bills on maintenance work they paid to contractors. They billed the library system $1.3 million and paid contractors $560,000.

A state prison investigation team is looking into the cause of the Wednesday riot at New Folsom Prison.

Correctional officers used pepper spray, rubber projectiles and fired 7 rifle rounds to quell the melee involving 150 maximum-security inmates about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Prison officials at California State Prison-Sacramento near Folsom say that two investigation teams are looking into the riot. An investigative services unit is looking into the cause of the riot and a deadly force investigation team is looking at the use of potentially lethal rounds officers fired in an effort to halt the disturbance.

No inmates were critically injured or killed in the riot. Eleven inmates were transported to Sacramento-area hospitals. Nine were treated for minor injuries and released.

Two remained in the hospital Thursday in stable condition. One was being treated to a gunshot wound to his leg. The other inmate had facial injuries and possibly a broken shoulder, both injuries not caused by gunfire.

No prison staff were injured, according to a prison system press release. More than 400 staff members responded to quell the riot.

When the disturbance was over, 5 inmate-made weapons were found. Today, the prison's C-Facility, where maximum-security inmates are housed, was placed on a "modified program pending further investigation."

New Folsom houses 2,800 inmates, primarily maximum-security prisoners serving long sentences and those who have been difficult to manage at other institutions.

The name of the man killed in his car in the Parkway neighborhood on Wednesday has been released by the Sacramento County Coroner's office.

Coroner's deputies identified the man as William Frederick Stephens, 36, of Sacramento.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said police were called to the 3900 block of Samos Way in the Parkway neighborhood around midnight. In the driveway of a home in that block police found Stephens dead in his car from a gunshot wound to his upper body.

About the same time, other officers saw a motorist driving recklessly about a mile away at Sunmeadow Drive and Franklin Boulevard. Officers chased that vehicle for a short distance before the driver pulled over and fled on foot.

Police surrounded the Sunmeadow area and SWAT officers were called out.

The suspect was found hiding in a yard. Due to the closeness of the two incidents to each other, police believe the erratic driver might be tied to the homicide.

However, no arrest has been announced by police and no motive for the killing released by officers.

Tipsters may call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357. Callers may remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

A second Olympic Valley BASE jumper has found himself behind bars after a nighttime attempt off Placer County's Foresthill Bridge.

Authorities, responding to a reported suicide attempt Wednesday evening, spotted a man parachuting off the span.

"We got a call saying that she was at the bridge and was going to jump. That is what led us out there," said Sgt. Dave Johnson of the Sheriff's Department.

It turns out the woman was not at the bridge and did not make an attempt on her life, authorities said.

Wednesday evening, authorities say, the Placer County sheriff's helicopter crew spotted Aaron McGovern, 39, of Olympic Valley just as he was about to jump from the span.

The helicopter illuminated the base jumper during his flight off the 730-foot-high bridge and followed his unsuccessful attempt to evade arrest.

The bridge - the third highest in America - is a popular place for base jumping and suicides.

Earlier this year, McGovern's friend Nicholas Frey, 34, of Olympic Valley, was arrested after he and his parachute got stuck in a tree after his jump.

Johnson said McGovern would face charges for violating the county BASE jumping law and for resisting attest.

The man was taken into custody shortly after 8 p.m.

"It was a bad night to be a BASE jumper," Johnson said.

By Kim Minugh and Sam Stanton
kminugh@sacbee.com

Four inmates injured during a riot at California State Prison-Sacramento this afternoon have been released from hospitals, and a fifth has been admitted, according to authorities.

Earlier, prison officials said at least nine inmates had been injured. This evening, prison spokesman Sgt. Tony Quinn said he did not yet have information about the status of the other four injured inmates.

He also said officials have not yet determined how many inmates were stabbed, how many were shot by correctional officers and how many suffered blunt force trauma injuries during the riot, which began on the prison yard about 12:30 p.m., Quinn said.

Correctional officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets and rounds from Mini 14 rifles to quell the fight involving about 50 inmates, officials told The Bee earlier today. This afternoon, officials found five inmate-made weapons on the yard where the riot occurred, Quinn said.

They stopped combing the yard when the sun went down, and they will resume their search tomorrow, Quinn said.

Paramedics from Folsom, El Dorado County and Sacramento County were summoned to the scene to transport inmates, who went to various hospitals in the region.

Photo caption: An ambulance leaves California State Prison, Sacramento after a riot there on Wednesday afternoon. Video caption: New Folsom prison Public Information Officer Tony Quinn talks to the media about a riot at the prison on Thursday involving about 50 inmates. Photo and video by Randy Pench / rpench@sacbee.com

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

Sometimes being kind to strangers can backfire.

That's the unfortunate lesson two Placer County women learned in April when a homeless Auburn man stole their cars after asking for help.

The three-day crime spree by James McMahon, 22, concluded with the attempted murder of an 81-year-old man with a tire iron and a high-speed car chase through Yuba County, said Dave Tellman, Placer County's supervising deputy district attorney.

Roseville police are warning residents to not leave purses and wallets in vehicles because they are prime targets for opportunistic thieves.

In the past week or so, there have been four instances of thieves entering cars and making off with purses:

-- Last Thursday an off-duty Roseville police officer spotted a stolen car. The man driving the stolen car was arrested and inside the vehicle was a purse stolen from an unlocked vehicle in Rocklin.

-- On Saturday, during daylight hours, a purse was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in the 100 block of Riverside Avenue in central Roseville.

-- On Sunday, about 1 p.m., somebody entered an unlocked car parked on Verbena Court and got into a purse left on the front seat, taking credit cards. The thief promptly used the credit cards in Sacramento.

-- On Monday, someone broke into a vehicle parked at a fitness center in the 300 block of North Sunrise and took a purse stowed in the trunk. Police suspect the thief watched the woman place the purse in the trunk at the fitness center.

Roseville police say that thieves are partial to breaking into vehicles at fitness centers because they know the victims will be working out and away from their cars for about an hour.

Sacramento police have a man in custody who may be tied to an overnight homicide.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said police were called to the 3900 block of Samos Way in the Parkway neighborhood around midnight. In the driveway of a home in that block police found a man in his 30s shot to death in his car.

About the same time, other officers saw a motorist driving recklessly about a mile away at Sunmeadow Drive and Franklin Boulevard. Officers chased that vehicle for a short distance before the driver pulled over and fled on foot.

Not long after that, police received information that the sport utility vehicle that the fleeing suspect abandoned matched the description an SUV that may be tied to the killing. Police surrounded the Sunmeadow area and SWAT officers were called out.

The suspect was found within the perimeter and he was taken into custody. Names of the suspect and victim were not immediately available.

No motive for the killing was being released.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

Sometime being kind to strangers can backfire.

That's the unfortunate lesson two Placer County women learned in April, when a homeless Auburn man stole their cars after asking for help.

The three-day crime spree by James McMahon, 22, concluded with the attempted murder of an 81-year-old man with a tire iron and a high-speed car chase through Yuba County, said Dave Tellman, Placer County's supervising deputy district attorney.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A bail review hearing on a popular Catholic priest accused of child molestation was rescheduled today for Dec. 19.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda's attorney, Jesse Ortiz, asked for the continuance so that he could review additional reports in the case.

Ojeda, 32, is accused on seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts with an underage girl. She was 14 when the contact began, authorities said. The offenses took place over the next two years, according to investigators.

Roseville police need the public's help in identifying a bank robber.
The man is suspected of holding up the Chase Bank, 1800 Douglas Blvd., at about 3:45 p.m. Monday. The robber entered the bank, gave the teller a note demanding money and left the bank with cash.
He was described by police as a white man in his 20s, 6 feet 2 inches tall with blond hair. He was wearing a black and red baseball hat, gray sweatshirt and black shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call Roseville Crime Stoppers at (916) 783-7867.

PHOTO CREDIT: A suspect in the robbery of Chase Bank on Douglas Boulevard

A man was arrested last night on suspicion of domestic violence after police said a citizen fired a shot to stop him from beating a woman.

Police said that the incident began around 10 p.m. in Sacramento when they received numerous calls about a man beating a woman at 24th and R streets. A citizen who could not find his cellphone instead armed himself with a gun and went outside of his home.

He yelled at Michael Ryan Hans, 39, to leave the woman alone.

Two men have been arrested for allegedly stealing street light wire in Natomas while riding around on bicycles.

Officers were alerted that two men on bikes were stealing copper wiring near Interstate 80 and West El Camino Avenue about 2 a.m. today.

When police got to the area, they noticed street lights were not lit in then neighborhood southwest of West El Camino and Orchard Lane.

Convicted wife beater Richard Hamlin will spend at least another 10 years behind bars after his request for parole was rejected today, California prison officials said.

Officials said he won't be eligible for another parole hearing for 10 years.

His case was one of the most brutal domestic violence cases to hit El Dorado County. Hamlin, a former Sacramento prosecutor, was sent to prison in 2006 after he was convicted of torturing his wife over a nine-month period by punching her, stabbing her with writing pens, cutting her with a sword and pistol-whipping her. He was sentenced to seven years to life in prison.

His ex-wife and three of his children were opposed to his release from Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga. They said they remain terrified by him.

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

Breaking news: The three missing children have been found safely in El Dorado County, California Highway Patrol officials confirmed Monday evening. The vehicle was spotted Monday evening on Forney Road in El Dorado County by a sheriff's officer.

He was taken into custody "without a fight," said Tod Sockman, a spokesman for the West Sacramento Police Department.

-------------------- Earlier story --------------------

Local authorities are asking for the public's help in finding a man they suspect battered his wife, tossed his 1-year-old son across a bedroom and then abducted the three older children.

A 49-year-old Rocklin woman was arrested Sunday after she allegedly robbed a local craft store.

Donna Marie Clayton was charged with robbery and resisting arrest after being picked up by Rocklin police at about 1:53 p.m. Sunday.

The incident began with a call to police from the Beads and Treasures store at 3101 Sunset Boulevard, authorities said.

The officer arrived and witnessed a woman matching the suspect description walking near the store, police said. The woman fled when approached by the officer and resisted arrest.

Once handcuffed, she was identified as the robber by a store employee, police said.

A maintenance worker checking a heater on the roof of Woodlake Elementary School discovered a loaded handgun this morning, authorities say.

The worker discovered the .22-caliber Ruger handgun, pictured at left, shortly before noon, said Officer William Cho, spokesman for the Twin Rivers Police Department, which serves the school district.

The gun had one round in the chamber, Cho said. A spent cartridge was found next to the gun, indicating a round had been fired, he said. A magazine full of bullets also was discovered.

An attempted robbery was thwarted by a woman who fended off the would-be thief with a shoe.

The woman was approached at an ATM in the 3100 block of Broadway in Oak Park by a man who pointed a fake gun at 7:45 a.m. today. He demanded money, but she was not frightened by the phony weapon.

The woman fought back, including swatting him in the head with her shoe. The suspect tried to hit her with the fake handgun, however, in the process, dropped it and then fled.

The suspect was described in a police activity log as a thin, clean-shaven black man in his late 30s or early 40s, 5 feet 11 inches tall. He was wearing a blue knit cap, a hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and shiny shoes.

Convicted mass murderer Juan V. Corona was denied parole today, the Sutter County district attorney's office reports.

Corona, 77, was making his bid for parole from Corcoran State Prison where he is serving 25 concurrent prison terms of 25 years to life for the murders of 25 transient farmworkers in 1971.

"This was one of the first time he discussed the murders," said Jana McClung, assistant district attorney for Sutter County, who spoke at the prison against Corona's parole bid.

El Dorado County sheriff's deputies say a 48-year-old man allegedly shot and killed his step-father on Sunday in Placerville.

Richard Petroski is suspected of shooting John Gale Malia, Jr., 69, Sunday on property where the two lived in Placerville. Petroski is hospitalized in a Sacramento hospital for a self-inflicted gunshot injury.

Deputies were called to the 3000 block of Deer Canyon Road on Sunday after someone reported a shooting. When they arrived, deputies found Malia on the floor inside the residence.

Coroner's deputies have released the name of the woman hit and killed while walking her dog across South Land Park Drive last week.

Dolores Oliver, 92, was struck by a vehicle on Wednesday and later died from her injuries.

Oliver had just about crossed South Land Park Drive near 41st Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when she was hit by a vehicle driven by a 28-year-old motorist.

The name of a man shot and killed in North Sacramento Sunday evening has been released by the Sacramento County Coroner's office.

He has been identified as Raymond Marcos Cortez, 25, of Sacramento.

Sacramento police received multiple calls reporting shots fired at around 7 p.m. One call came from a woman reporting that her brother had been shot.

By Whitney Mountain
wmountain@sacbee.com

A man was shot and killed in north Sacramento Sunday evening, Sacramento Police officials said.

The Sacramento Police Department received multiple calls reporting shots fired at around 7 p.m. One call came from a woman reporting that her brother had been shot.

Police found the victim on the floor of an apartment in the 2300 block of Oakmont Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man's identity has not been released.

Police say no suspects have been identified.

By Whitney Mountain
wmountain@sacbee.com

A Placerville man died in the hospital Sunday after his stepson allegedly shot him in the head.

El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies received a report of a shooting in the 3000 block of Deer Canyon Road in Placerville just after 8 a.m. Sunday.

When they arrived at the house, they found John Gale Malia Jr., 69, of Placerville on the floor with a gunshot wound to his head. He was still alive, but later died at a local hospital.

By Whitney Mountain
wmountain@sacbee.com

A man with a felony warrant led officers on a high-speed chase from Davis to West Sacramento early Sunday morning, trying to evade a traffic stop, according to reports.

Ronald McZeal, 26, of Vallejo, was driving around 90 mph, heading east on Interstate 80 in Davis when a Davis officer attempted to pull him over around Richards Boulevard at 3:38 a.m.

Davis police spokesman Lt. Paul Doroshov said McZeal briefly pulled over, but took off before the officer made contact.

The chase ended on Riverside Parkway in West Sacramento, where McZeal drove the car into a fire hydrant, causing himself and his two female passengers minor injuries, according to officers. All three were taken to the UC Davis Medical Center for treatment.

Sacramento Coroner's officials have released the name of a woman killed Thursday on Bellinger Court in North Highlands.

The woman was Margaret Weddle, 46.

Sacramento Sheriff's officials said Thursday that they had arrested Weddle's husband on suspicion of shooting her.

Authorities identified him as Daniel Weddle.

U.S. Marshals arrested a fugitive Friday who had been sought in connection with an ambush killing in Stockton in July, according to a press release from the Marshals Service.

Members of the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force surrounded Eric Mathew Tabin, 23, as he attempted to enter a gun store in the 2300 block of Fruitridge Road at about 5:30 p.m.

Tabin is suspected of having lured two people to an apartment complex in Stockton July 19, where a second suspect ambushed them and shot them with an automatic handgun.

The suspect wielding the gun was arrested, but Tabin escaped.

One victim died and the other was critically injured,

The Fugitive Task Force learned that Tabin would be attempting to buy a semiautomatic handgun at the South Sacramento dealer and conducted a sting to arrest him.

He was taken into custody without incident and was booked in San Joaquin County Jail.

A Citrus Heights man has been sentenced to 42 months in prison for possession of child pornography.

Nicholas Van Brocklin Trahan, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. Trahan pleaded guilty to the charge in April.

According to the plea agreement, during August and September 2008, and in January 2009, law enforcement agents observed Trahan's computer offering child pornography for download through a common file-sharing network. Based on this information, a federal search warrant was obtained for Trahan's residence and executed Feb. 11, 2009.

A 22-year-old Sacramento man is accused acting as a pimp for underage girls.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Justin Isaac Jackson, 22, with sex trafficking of minors and six trafficking using force, fraud and coercion. The indictment alleges that between Feb. 1 and May 1, 2009, Jackson was the pimp for two underage girls and that he forced the girls to engage in prostitution using force, threats of force, fraud and coercion, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

The grand jury returned the indictment Nov. 10, and it was filed under seal pending the arrest of Jackson. Jackson was arrested by the FBI on Thursday.

The case resulted from an investigation by the FBI's Innocence Lost Task Force, composed of the FBI, Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Wind-driven fires have burned more than 300 acres in El Dorado County and the Eldorado National Forest since Thursday morning, but officials say they are gaining the upper hand as winds taper off today.

"The high winds predicted for today did not occur. Luckily, they were wrong," said Teri Mizuhara, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Amador-El Dorado Unit.

North and northeast wind gusts that neared 75 mph over ridge tops caused fires to spread rapidly in the Pollock Pines, Grizzly Flat and Omo Ranch areas of El Dorado County. Cal Fire crews, along with the U.S. Forest Service and several local fire departments, have been fighting fires that have burned approximately 160 acres. Mizuhara said a house that had been unoccupied for some time and an out building burned in the Omo fire in the Omo Ranch area, but no other structures are threatened.

A Catholic priest beloved by churchgoers in Woodland was arraigned this afternoon in Sacramento on seven counts of child molestation.

PHOTO GALLERY: Priest's supporters at arraignment

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, who was assigned to a church in Woodland before being transferred to Redding, did not enter a plea in the brief proceeding in Sacramento Superior Court. He spoke only to confirm his name, and to confirm that he knew the identity of his accuser, whose name has been sealed.

About a dozen supporters showed up on Ojeda's behalf. They could be heard whimpering quietly as Ojeda entered the locked cell in the courtroom.

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Attorneys for the man accused of murder in the 1980 Davis "sweetheart" killings failed today in their effort to exclude the press and public from pretrial motions in the case.

The lawyers for Richard Joseph Hirschfield, 62, said that coverage of several potential "inflammatory" issues they expect to arise in the hearings could prejudice their client's right to a fair trial.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge MIchael W. Sweet disagreed, saying that there are several remedies available to ensure that potential jurors are not contaminated by news coverage of the more than 100 motions the lawyers are expected to argue over the next week.

Among the remedies, the judge said, are a questionaire to be distributed among the jury pool and the individual questioning of candidates for the panel if they say they have learned things about the trial that could be prejudicial.

Hirschfield is accused of kidnapping UC Davis students John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves, both 18, from the college town the night of Dec. 20, 1980. Their bodies were discovered two days later near Lake Natoma.

Officials have identified the suspect and the victim in Thursday's homicide in North Highlands.

Daniel Weddle, 48 and at left, is accused of fatally shooting his wife, 46-year-old Margaret Weddle, at a home in North Highlands on Thursday afternoon.

A caller alerted Sacramento County sheriff's deputies to the shooting, and identified the suspect as Daniel Weddle. Then, a relative of Weddle's called to say the suspect was en route to a home in Rio Linda, according to sheriff's officials.

Deputies caught up with Daniel Weddle there. They arrested him and booked him into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and making threats, according to booking records.

Daniel Weddle does not appear to have a criminal record in Sacramento County, according to online Superior Court records.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Weddle

The third time was not a charm for alleged copper thieves who victimized Carmichael Bible Church.

After being targeted overnight Tuesday and Wednesday, three volunteers at the church at 7100 Fair Oaks Blvd., in Carmichael set up a stakeout late Thursday night and early this morning, catching the alleged thieves apparently coming back for a third time.

The stakeout team, which had set up a video surveillance system, caught the intruders in the act and called Sacramento County sheriff's officials, who arrived on the scene around 4:30 a.m. and arrested two people - believed to be a man and a woman.

Sheriff's officials identified the suspects as Curtis Darnell (left photo), 36, and Howard Sanders (right photo), 26. Both were arrested on suspicion of vandalism, grand theft and criminal conspiracy.

Teaching Pastor Curt Pearson said he first noticed damage in the church air conditioning/heating units area when he showed up at 7 a.m. two days ago.

"It looks like they were just doing prep work. They had removed all the screws and panels ... and drained the Freon," Pearson said. "They knew what they were doing. They'd shut off the electricity."

On Thursday morning, Pearson said he showed up to find the cooling/heating area heavily damaged, and copper wiring and tubing had been taken from the scene.

The church, now without heat and facing estimated repair costs of more than $50,000, conferred with sheriff's officials and considered the possibility that the thieves might make one more run to obtain materials from the air conditioning/heating units area.

Pearson noted that church Pastor Matt Potratz was a key figure in consultations with authorities.

On Thursday night, church volunteers set up their video surveillance sting.

"They took turns watching, and sure enough, two people showed up early this morning, and (the volunteers) called the sheriff," Pearson said. "The sheriff came with lights and they arrested them.

"(The volunteers) have gone home to bed ... to get some sleep."

Pearson said the immediate challenge now is restoring heat to the church and making a plan to repair the damage. He added, however, that the church plans to hold services on Sunday.

"Oh yes, we'll be here. It's not the end of the world. We'll work something out," he said.

A Sacramento man is in jail accused of endangering the health of a child after he and a companion were found smoking marijuana in a car with the man's 2-year-old son.

Sacramento police officers on routine patrol spotted a suspicious vehicle in the 7600 block of Denise Street in the Meadowview area shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday. Officers contacted the two adults inside but didn't notice the child at first because marijuana smoke in the vehicle was so heavy, according to the police activity log.

JC Monroe, 24, was arrested and booked into Sacramento County Jail, on suspicion of child endangerment. Monroe's companion was not arrested because both adults had medicinal marijuana cards, said Officer Laura Peck, police department spokeswoman.

By Melody Gutierrez and Kim Minugh
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

A custodian at California Middle School was placed on administrative leave today after he was arrested by Sacramento Police for a felony weapons charge.

Sacramento police Officer Laura Peck said police were asked to do a welfare check on 52-year-old Treymal Addison, who was described as being "distraught."

By Cathy Locke

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested the husband of a woman who was shot to death in a North Highlands apartment this afternoon.

Officials said both the suspect and the victim were in their 40s. Their names have not been released pending booking of the suspect.

Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said deputies were called to the residence in the 3600 block of Bellinger Court shortly before 4 p.m. The caller, an acquaintance of the victim who witnessed the shooting, said the suspect had left the scene.

Ramos said the woman had been shot multiple times in the upper body.

Deputies received another call, this one from the suspect's father, who said the suspect was en route to his residence in the 6000 block of Mio Court in Rio Linda. Deputies went to the residence and the suspect was taken into custody without incident. Ramos said deputies also found in the residence a firearm that they believe was used in the shooting.

Although investigators have not determined the motive for the shooting, Ramos said it appears that the husband and wife were not living together.

Sean Howard, 35, of Sacramento pleaded guilty today in federal court to possessing child pornography.

According to court documents, Howard, in 2006, used an internet file-sharing network to download images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Howard deleted the images after they were discovered by his ex-wife, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

In February of this year, law enforcement agents with the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force identified a computer at Howard's address offering files of child pornography through the Gnutella file-sharing network. On Feb. 8, agents downloaded 10 files of child pornography.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has been busy today fighting wind-driven fires throughout the foothills.

As of 5 p.m., Cal Fire reported that seven fires had burned more than 130 acres in El Dorado County.

Cal Fire spokesman Dainel Berlant said the largest of the seven had burned 80 acres in a remote section of El Dorado County, off Sciaroni Road in the Grizzly Flat area.

By Loretta Kalb and Bill Lindelof
lkalb@sacbee.com

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, a young priest lauded for his work in the community and for his aid to the poor, faces arraignment Friday in a Sacramento courtroom on multiple counts of molesting a 14-year-old girl.

The 32-year-old priest surrendered to authorities Wednesday night after members of the Diocese traveled to Redding and brought him back to Sacramento.

He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $5 million bail.

The Diocese announced the charges today and said Ojeda has been placed on paid administrative leave, meaning he may perform none of the duties of an ordained Catholic priest.

Bishop Jaime Soto, head of the Sacramento Diocese, told reporters that the church received the complaint of the alleged molestations on Tuesday night from a member of the child's family and, within the hour, contacted county Child Protective Services and county prosecutors.

California Highway Patrol officials held a news conference today to honor an off-duty nurse who rendered aid to an officer who had been shot during a traffic stop on Highway 99 last month.

Joni Fletcher, a cardiac cath lab nurse at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, was buying a car with her husband at an Elk Grove dealership the night of Nov. 13 when they heard gunshots ring out.

She ran outside and saw a CHP officer lying on the ground on the highway shoulder. When he told her he had been shot, she scaled an 8-foot fence to get to him and rendered aid for up to 20 minutes before paramedics arrived.

A prosecutor told a Sacramento Superior Court jury today that a pastor accused of 12 counts of child molestation turned his Citrus Heights home "into a house of horror for five little girls" and that "it's time to put a stop to that."

"It's time to hold this defendant responsible," Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Macy said in her closing argument in the trial of Rio Linda First Baptist Church pastor Tommy Gene Daniels. "It's time for you to find him guilty."

Defense attorney Michael L. Chastaine countered in his closing argument that his client is innocent of all the charges.

"Tom Daniels is an innocent man who sits in the worst chair in the entire planet, accused of something he didn't do," Chastaine said.

At the conclusion of the closing arguments, Judge Trena H. Burger-Plavan sent the jury out to begin its deliberations.

A woman walking her dog across South Land Park Drive was struck by a vehicle on Wednesday and later died from her injuries.

The 92-year-old woman, who has not been identified pending notification of relatives, had just about crossed South Land Park Drive near 41st Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when she was hit by a vehicle driven by a 28-year-old motorist.

The woman was taken to the hospital but later died from her injuries. Her dog was later caught and turned over to someone who knew the woman, police said.

The accident is under investigation. The motorist was not arrested.

The gun that fired accidentally, killing a 10-year-old Keegan Swinney Tuesday, was a Remington Airmaster .177, El Dorado County Sheriff's officials reported Thursday.

Swinney and some friends were shooting the gun in a backyard before he was accidentally shot by one of the boys who was cradling the weapon in a non-shooting position.

The Remington Airmaster is shown as available for $79.96 on Walmart.com to buyers over 18 years old.

The Three Wise Men didn't have to label their gold, frankincense and myrrh, but in these days of terrorism fears, it's a good idea to label gifts - including those left at churches.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a suspicious package - a taped, unmarked cardboard box - at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Camino Tuesday, Sheriff's officials reported.

After a bomb squad robot was unable to identify the contents, a technician suited up and x-rayed the package, revealing that it contained books.

A specialized tool was used to open the box and confirm its contents.

"Donations are a way for all of us to help someone who may be less fortunate," according to a release on the incident from the Sheriff's Office. "When making a donation to charitable organizations please consider marking the exterior of the package appropriately so not to alarm the recipients and potentially activate emergency response."

A Sutter Nurse will be honored today for her quick administering of aid to an injured California Highway Patrol officer.

The CHP will thank R.N. Joni Fletcher today at Sutter Memorial Hospital in East Sacramento for administering first aid to the wounded officer.

The officer was shot and critically wounded and a suspect was killed during a traffic stop Nov. 13 on Highway 99 near Elk Grove Boulevard in Elk Grove.

CHP Officer Michael Bradley and hospital officials will formally thank Fletcher today for her quick action. According to a press release from the hospital, Fletcher was shopping for a car in Elk Grove when she heard gunshots and learned that the officer had been wounded.

She hopped a fence and rushed to the officer's side, stopping the bleeding from the officer's wrist and groin even while the gunman and other officers were engaged in a shootout with the gunman.

The officer is on the mend.

Photo caption: R.N. Joni Fletcher smiles as she is honored at Sutter Memorial Hospital Thursday morning by the California Highway Patrol for her quick administering of aid to an injured CHP officer last month. Photo by Jose Luis Villegas / jvillegas@sacbee.com

Three Tuolumne County Sheriff's Department squad cars were torched last night in Sonora.

The cars were destroyed, along with a pickup truck, according to Capt. Grant Miller with the Sonora Fire Department.

"It is very suspicious and being considered an arson," said Miller. "It is under investigation. No arrests have been made yet."

Firefighters responded about 3 a.m. to the call regarding the burning vehicles in a patrol office parking lot off of Yaney Avenue. When firefighters arrived the three department vehicles and the pickup were on fire.

Firefighters quickly doused the blazing vehicles with water.