Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.
QUESTION: Back in the late 1980s or early '90s a gold miner named Pete Sanger was killed in Old Sacramento. Was anyone ever convicted of the crime?
Submitted by: Leslie, Sacramento
ANSWER: One man pleaded no contest to being an accessory in the shooting death of gold miner Pete Sanger, a resident of Forbestown in Butte County, but the primary suspect was not charged in the case.
A massive fire burned Thursday in one of the hydroelectric generating units connected to Oroville Dam on the Feather River.
The fire began at 7 a.m. Thursday in the Thermalito Pumping-Generating Plant, downstream of Oroville Dam at Thermalito Forebay.
No one has been injured in the fire, which is believed to have started in the control room, said CalFire Capt. Keith Castillo.
Damage is likely to be extensive to the equipment in the building and the structure itself, said Ted Thomas, a DWR spokesman.
No power outages are expected, nor any water shortages for customers of the State Water Project.
-- Matt Weiser
A Chico mortgage broker was sentenced today in federal court in Sacramento to three years and 10 months in prison for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Kesha Danine Fortune Haynie, 41, was convicted by a jury in March of two counts of mail fraud in connection with the scheme. She was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia.
According to testimony presented at trial, Haynie operated Empire Mortgage in Chico. From April through December 2007, she originated fraudulent loan applications in connection with a cash-back-to-buyer mortgage fraud scheme, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.
By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com
A Chico man serving a mandatory 10 years in prison for growing marijuana has had 21/2 years cut off his sentence by federal prosecutors who are notoriously hard-nosed about pot dealers.
Bryan James Epis, (pictured) an inmate at the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution in Southern California, should now be released in early 2014 instead of September 2016.
Epis, 45, who was one of the first in the state to establish a cannabis club after passage in 1996 of California's law permitting medicinal use of pot, has been locked in a pitched battle with law enforcement for nearly 20 years over his cultivation and use of marijuana. He was found guilty in June 2002 by a jury in Sacramento federal court of conspiracy to manufacture 1,000 or more plants at his home within 1,000 feet of Chico High School. But for much of the intervening time, he was free pending efforts to overturn the conviction.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said today a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion may have made Epis' challenge more viable.
"As set forth in the settlement agreement, Bryan Epis claimed that his trial attorneys rendered ineffective assistance to him with respect to their advice concerning the United States' pretrial plea offer," Wagner said in a prepared statement. "As also detailed in the agreement, his trial attorneys did not refute that claim, and under recent Supreme Court precedent, Epis therefore might have been entitled to some relief."
U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. signed off this morning on the settlement agreement hammered out in weeks of negotiation between Epis attorney John Balazs and Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong, who is known as one of California's toughest marijuana prosecutors. The rare pact vacating a sentence that had been upheld by federal appellate judges required approval from the highest levels of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
By Denny Walsh
Johnny E. "Jay" Grivette Jr., once a top lieutenant of Lawrence Leland "Lee" Loomis, alleged by the government to be a major fraudster who has yet to be charged, was sentenced Friday in Sacramento federal court to 4 1/2 months in prison and 4 1/2 months of home confinement on his guilty plea to a marijuana-growing conspiracy.
Grivette, 37, a Butte County resident, will remain free for at least the next three months while he continues his assistance in the government's investigation of Loomis, formerly of Granite Bay.
A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted four men -- from Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, Folsom and Oroville -- charging them with attempting to entice a minor to engage in prohibited sexual conduct.
The men were identified while they were online seeking to have sex with minors, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. In each case, the men allegedly traveled to meet a fictional minor and were met instead by law enforcement officers.
Brandon Marks, 25, of Rancho Cordova was indicted June 21 and charged with attempted enticement of a minor, as well as two counts of receipt and two counts of distribution of child pornography. Nicholas Perry, 34, of Sacramento and Eric Johnston, 21, of Folsom were indicted today and charged with a single count of attempted enticement of a minor.
Categories: Butte County, Courts, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, Sacramento County, Sex Crime
Firefighters from Cal Fire and Butte County Fire have contained a 100-acre blaze in Butte County. One outbuilding was destroyed.
The fire, near Highway 70 and Palermo Road, started about 2 p.m. and was fueled by winds from the northeast and low humidity, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.
Berlant said aircraft dropped fire retardant and water on the fire, which was contained by approximately 4:30 p.m.
Berlant advised homeowners to be especially cautious this weekend.
"With these kinds of conditions, a fire can quickly grow out of control," he said.
A six-month "50 percent off" amnesty program allowing drivers in Butte County with outstanding traffic tickets or non-vehicle code violations to pay off certain infraction violations at a discount is due to end June 30.
The program, which began Jan. 1, targets drivers with outstanding traffic tickets or non-vehicle code infraction violations that were due to be paid before Jan.1, 2009. To qualify for the program all of the following must apply:
• You either failed to appear in court or failed to pay in full.
One person was killed and another seriously injured in a collision this afternoon near Oroville.
Sgt. Mark Taylor of the California Highway Patrol said the crash was reported at 1:05 p.m. Two people in a compact car were traveling eastbound on Forbestown Road when the vehicle entered a curve west of Lumpkin Road. It had been raining and the roadway was wet. The driver, a woman, lost control and the car spun about 270 degrees into the path of a westbound tow truck.
Taylor said the tow truck struck the car broadside at a speed of about 45 mph.
