Today's coverage - UPDATED

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

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Aside from what was reported yesterday - questions about immunity
ER Both “Jane Does” testify, immunity deals criticized
Immunity is usually granted so people don’t incriminate themselves, said University of San Francisco Law Professor Robert Talbot.

In this case, Doe 2 pleaded the Fifth Amendment and received an immunity deal.

Doe 1, however, was offered an immunity deal when being interviewed by investigators from his office, not for being on the stand, Gallegos said after the hearing.

If Doe 1 pleads the Fifth, immunity could be offered to her, he said.

TS Defense questions alleged rape victim
When Jane Doe 1 took the stand, she testified that she would not have appeared without having been subpoenaed. She testified that she was hired by former Blue Lake Chief Floyd Stokes, and became romantically involved with Gundersen while on the police force in 2001. They married in 2005, she said.

Jane Doe 1 said that she had been looking for photographs that might have been taken without her consent before she talked to law enforcement about something Gundersen had been doing to her “that was not all right.”

She said she later learned that some photos had been discovered on a computer hard drive owned by Gundersen, which had been seized during a warrant search on his McKinleyville home in February.

Clanton objected to the line of questioning, saying it appeared its purpose was meant to smear Gundersen's character.

Gallegos argued that the photos offer circumstantial evidence to corroborate Jane Doe 2's claims that she was raped under the influence of a controlled substance.

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

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Douglas, Zanotti enter not guilty pleas

***URGENT UPDATE/ALERT! This case was TOSSED by the Judge - never made it to trial,
☛ ER http://eurekareporter.com/article/080826-judge-throws-out-douglas-zanotti-case
Feeney said the indictments the grand jury handed down to Douglas and Zanotti in December 2007 weren’t supported by probable cause. Insufficient evidence regarding the former leaders’ alleged failure to oversee other law enforcement was also presented to the grand jury, Feeney said, and instructions given on “exigent circumstances” were inadequate.
The grand jury should have also been instructed on justifiable homicide by law enforcement officials, Feeney said.***

update in TS, more tomorrow Former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas and Lt. Tony Zanotti pleaded not guilty this afternoon in Superior Court to charges of involuntary manslaughter.

Related coverage Links to articles, letters and Op-Eds

Wha-? Why?

TS Redway man flees, drowns in river
WEOTT -- A traffic stop turned fatal Sunday afternoon after a Redway man reportedly ran from a Humboldt County Sheriff's deputy, jumped over a 60-foot embankment and drowned in the Eel River. ...The man was identified as Andrew Jackson Gressett, 24... At about 12:10 p.m. Sunday, a Sheriff's deputy pulled over the man on Avenue of the Giants north of Weott.

”After initially failing to yield, the driver of the vehicle pulled to the side of the road and jumped over a 60-foot embankment toward the river,” the Sheriff's news release stated.

ER - Gressett had two outstanding warrants out for his arrest, HCSO spokesperson Brenda Godsey said....

The passenger, 21-year-old Kelly Elizabeth Stradinger, of Redway, was eventually arrested, the HCSO said. She reportedly continued to fail to comply with the deputy's instructions and kicked him several times while her dog bit him in the leg. Stradinger was arrested for resisting/obstructing a peace officer and misdemeanor possession of marijuana...

More on yesterday's hearing - UPDATED

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

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From today's ER ...Clanton requested a continuance based on having received more evidence from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office the day before...

...District Attorney Paul Gallegos argued against the continuance on the grounds that the additional evidence shouldn’t significantly increase the workload for the defense...

...After the recess, Reinholtsen said his presiding over the hearing might present a conflict of interest, since his brother is a member of the law firm representing Jane Doe No. 1....

...After moving to another courtroom presided over by Judge John T. Feeney, Gallegos called Jane Doe No. 2 to the stand....

,,,Although Jane Doe No. 2 couldn’t remember the date that it occurred, she testified that at some point she and Gundersen started dating and eventually moved in together.

In March 1999, she testified, Gundersen forced her to have sex after an argument in their McKinleyville home about his marital status....

...She said she reported the incident to the Eureka Police Department because she feared the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would do nothing – Gundersen’s ex-wife worked there at the time....

...Toward the end of the hearing, Clanton asked Jane Doe No. 2 whether she made any arrests with Gundersen when she worked at the TPD. Jane Doe No. 2 pleaded the Fifth Amendment, which is invoked when someone doesn’t want to incriminate themselves.

After Feeney said he would appoint a public defender for Jane Doe No. 2, Gallegos offered her immunity for anything she might say on the stand and said he would bring paperwork to today’s hearing.

“That should enable her to testify,” he said.

After the proceeding, Gallegos said he didn’t know she was going to plead the Fifth, but added that it wasn’t unusual.... Read the rest

The ER also has a log of the testimony. Read it here

TS 'Jane Doe 2' tells court of rape by Blue Lake chief
TS EPD reportedly didn't follow up on 1999 rape report

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

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Gundersen alleged rape victim testifies in hearing - UPDATED

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

****

EUREKA -- District Attorney Paul Gallegos called an alleged rape victim to the stand in his case against Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen today, asking her to reconstruct the alleged gun-point assault during the late 1990s.

The alleged victim, Jane Doe 2, testified at a preliminary hearing in Superior Court that she and Gundersen were living together in McKinleyville and planning to get married when she found out he was still legally wedded to his now-ex wife. While they were arguing about it, she said, he grabbed her, pushed her into a back bedroom and attacked her, tearing her clothes. He then raped her, she said.

At one point Gundersen put his gun on the pillow or bedside table, which she saw as a threat... TS breaking news link The hearing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.

It was earlier reported that The amended complaint alleges Gundersen did willfully “kidnap or carry away” a second victim for the purpose of committing forcible rape in March 1999, and that the alleged crime was committed with the use of a firearm.
***
A comment in the thread below notes: Movement from one part of the house to another is not kidnapping. Please read below.

§ 207. Kidnapping defined: (a) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any person in this state, and carries the person into another country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping.

Movement across a room or from one room to another cannot reasonably be found to be asportation "into another part of the same county" within the meaning of Pen Code, § 207, defining kidnaping, and when in the course of a robbery, the robber does no more than move his victim around inside a residence, place of business or other inclosure, his conduct will generally not be deemed to constitute the offense of aggravated kidnaping as proscribed by Pen Code, § 209. People v. Daniels (1969) 71 Cal 2d 1119, 80 Cal Rptr 897, 459 P2d 225, 1969 Cal LEXIS 307, 43 ALR3d 677.

209(b) states:

(1) Any person who kidnaps or carries away any individual to commit robbery, rape, spousal rape, oral copulation, sodomy, or any violation of Section 264.1, 288, or 289, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole.

(2) This subdivision shall only apply if the movement of the victim is beyond that merely incidental to the commission of, and increases the risk of harm to the victim over and above that necessarily present in, the intended underlying offense.


UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

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Did you feel it?

3.7 quake. According to the Times-Standard - It occurred almost directly under Eureka,It occurred almost directly under Eureka, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website, at a depth of 13 miles.

Heraldo's 420 post

has one of the funniest videos to date. Don't miss it. What happens if participants in a business meeting behave like Internet commenters? A funny (because it’s true) video clip.

Here's the link. It's very glitchy, at least on my computer. But funny.

CAST Open House

ER Working for justice

CAST, the Child Abuse Services Team, of Eureka held its open house Friday afternoon to allow community members and city officials to tour the facility and meet with the various employees that form the organization that is CAST.

Several county and state agencies participate in the investigations that the members of CAST facilitate including employees from the County of Humboldt Department of Health and Human Services, the Rape Crisis and Sexual Assault Response Teams, and the District Attorney’s office.

TS Team's mission: Ease young victims' trauma

Since its inception locally in 1996, CAST has interviewed 1,967 children -- an average of 16 a month. A total of 487 convictions for physical or sexual abuse of children have resulted.

This week's Journal

The Notebook of Alternate Juror No. 4
What it's like to sit in judgment of an alleged child molester

...First up was the slightly rumpled, graying Deputy DA Arnie Klein, a recent transplant from Los Angeles, who kept peering at us over his bifocals. He told us of the victims, "Boys will be boys." We would learn that apparently the two accusers, those young rascals, may have been involved in a series of 911 prank calls that tied the county's emergency system in knots for weeks in early 2007, but they weren't on trial for that. And they were being raised by their grandmother because the mother had some major drug issues and had lost custody of her sons a couple of times, once for sharing her marijuana with them on their eighth birthday. But the mother wasn't on trial either. The defendant, we were told, is the one on trial for a number of alleged crimes, including possession of pornography involving children, and, after a long period of time befriending the boys, repeated molestation.

Road map No. 2 was presented by the defense attorney, Glenn Brown. He told us his client, the defendant, age 23, was an Eagle Scout and assistant leader of his Boy Scout Troop who, yes, befriended many neighborhood boys — and girls — in the trailer park where they all lived, teaching them computer skills, handing out keys to his shed adjacent to the trailer he lived in so they could use his computer to play games when he wasn't around. He was especially close to the two boys, twins. He was a father substitute even, taking them camping, helping with their homework and getting them involved in scouting. Why? Because he, too, had a drug-addled mother, an absent father, and was raised by his grandmother....

Related post
Related articles:
Verdict reached in Davis’ child molestation case
Gag order requested in child molestation case 4/13/07

Another admission, another mistake

District Attorney Paul Gallegos said some of the children’s testimony regarding the charges of oral copulation were contradictory, and that he thinks the transcripts from the victims’ interviews may be inaccurate.

“The fault is on my shoulders,” he said, adding that the DA’s office recently switched to a different interview transcribing company that charged a less-expensive rate.

And though the oral copulation charges were reduced to charges of lewd and lascivious acts, the sentencing range for both are the same — three, six or eight years in prison.

“It really has no impact on what his prison sentence is likely to be,” Gallegos said. Read the rest: ER Molestation charges reduced

TS Alleged child molestation case takes hit

Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Marilyn Miles held up charges of lewd behavior with a minor against accused child molester Andrew Belant Wednesday, but told the district attorney that the evidence didn't support felony charges of sexual assault on the dates outlined in the complaint.
Read the rest: TS Alleged child molestation case takes hit

Last month it was the admission that an alleged rape victim's confidential information had been released to the media and the public.

Another big pot bust

Huge bust nets 137 pounds of bud

Acting on information from the Illinois State Drug Task Force, local drug enforcement agents on Tuesday arrested two men in the tiny hamlet of Honeydew for allegedly conspiring to distribute marijuana.

More than a dozen agents with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force, the sheriff's office and the Illinois Drug Task Force served a warrant on Applewood Road and arrested Christopher Cramer and Leland Bauer without incident. Cramer was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and Bauer was booked on misdemeanor warrants, and will be indicted for an alleged conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

The officers allegedly found 93 pounds of processed marijuana bud in the residence, another 40 pounds in Cramer's pick-up and 4 pounds in Bauer's car. They also seized a Glock .40 caliber handgun, a .30-.30 caliber rifle and two shotguns.

No pot growing operation was taking place currently at the large greenhouse on the property, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force said.

Cramer lives at the residence, the task force said, and Bauer was visiting. The task force said that there is an indication that at least some of the marijuana was destined for Illinois. TS breaking news

ER Agents find 137 pounds of pot

Horses on the beach

photos by/and courtesy of Angela Burgess
Dennis Mayo, beside a sign that closes an area he had enjoyed riding on for 50 years. Little River State Beach, right there by Moonstone Beach. This is near the trail that skirts around the backside of Clam/Little River Beach, along the frontage road. Closed for more than 4 years now.
An Equestrian's View - Finding Common Ground

☛ TS Work together to solve equestrian riding restrictions problem An Op-Ed by Uri Driscoll 11/23/08

More in Blue Lake - UPDATED

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

****

Blue Lake's remaining officers placed on leave

Blue Lake's two remaining police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave by City Manager Wiley Buck, days after the officers signed a letter of no confidence in the city manager.

Buck confirmed officers Jody Poulnott and Joseph Dominic Gerace were placed on leave Friday, but said the decision had nothing to do with the letter, which Poulnott said was signed by himself, Gerace, Records Supervisor Ruby Seal and Public Works Director Mike Falor.

”Don't tie those together,” Buck said Monday. “They are two separate issues that are unfortunately happening at the same time.”

Buck said the decision to place Poulnott and Gerace on leave was due to the fact that they have been working without a supervisor in the department, which he said opens the city up to liability issues.

BLPD evidence storage facility burgled

The Blue Lake Police Department's evidence storage facility was recently burglarized, but it remains unclear exactly what, if anything, was taken.

Humboldt County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brenda Godsey said the department responded to an alarm call from the facility located in the Blue Lake Corp Yard at 2:30 a.m. on March 10.

”We found some pry marks around the door and went and made entry, but we couldn't determine if anything was taken,” Godsey said.

Humboldt County District Attorney's Office Chief Investigator Michael Hislop was called to the scene, Godsey said, as someone who was familiar with the facility because of his office's investigation into a criminal case against Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen. Hislop said it didn't appear anything had been taken from the facility.

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

****

2 years and counting

URGENT ALERT! This case was TOSSED by the Judge - never made it to trial.
☛ ER http://eurekareporter.com/article/080826-judge-throws-out-douglas-zanotti-case
Feeney said the indictments the grand jury handed down to Douglas and Zanotti in December 2007 weren’t supported by probable cause. Insufficient evidence regarding the former leaders’ alleged failure to oversee other law enforcement was also presented to the grand jury, Feeney said, and instructions given on “exigent circumstances” were inadequate.
The grand jury should have also been instructed on justifiable homicide by law enforcement officials, Feeney said.
***

previous coverage
No mention in today's papers? Odd.

How are you going to do that, Estelle?

Candidate Estelle Fennell issued a statement this week alleging that Supervisor Roger Rodoni has watched a job loss “epidemic” during his time in office.... Fennell stated that it is clear to her that the Second District has suffered more than others when it comes to overall timber job losses, which she said she would change if elected.

How are you going to do that, Estelle?

Are you in a position to call off the dogs? Bring back all the mills? All the trucking companies? Timber Yes. Fraud NO. is a nice bumper sticker. It won't fix what has happened here.

Maybe if you could go back in time you could solve the Headwaters deal, stop Earth First! Stop the lawsuits. Stop the Park Expansion. Save the Mills, at least a few.

Too bad you can't. 'Cause then there would be no Ken Miller, no Humboldt Watershed Council shams. No Richard Salzman. No Paul Gallegos. All your buds. They haven't shown that they can fix anything.

SoHum Parlance: Ed Denson's questions for Estelle (or anyone else)