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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A local businessman and Lake County Chamber of Commerce Board member pleaded on Friday to two counts related to the sexual battery of a former girlfriend last year.
Richard Alvin Hamilton, 60, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and false imprisonment at an appearance in Lake County Superior Court on Friday, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Ed Borg.
Messages left by Lake County News for Hamilton's attorney, J. David Markham, were not returned.
Hamilton was held over for trial following a July preliminary hearing, and was set to go to trial on Nov. 2.
In July 2015, during a visit to his ex-girlfriend's home in Lakeport, Hamilton jumped on the woman, held her down and tried to push up her clothes while removing his own. He did not stop despite the woman telling him to, and the incident only ended after the woman managed to kick him off of her.
The woman did not go to police immediately, but after she made a report in October 2015, Lakeport Police Det. Dale Stoebe launched an investigation that ended days later with Hamilton's arrest.
The District Attorney’s Office initially charged Hamilton with attempted rape, rape by force, assault with the intent to commit rape, sexual battery and false imprisonment.
Court records also revealed that Hamilton – who owns a local sign company, works as a Realtor and has remained a Lake County Chamber of Commerce Board member since his arrest – had been accused of raping a woman in Sacramento County in 2001. That case was dismissed after two mistrials.
Borg said that by Hamilton pleading to the sexual battery and false imprisonment charges, the remaining charges against him were dropped.
Hamilton was sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years' summary probation and 20 hours of work service, and must complete a 52-week batterer's treatment program, which is required by law because Hamilton and the victim had a prior dating relationship, Borg said.
Additionally, Borg said a restraining order preventing Hamilton from approaching his victim is in effect for 10 years.
The plea agreement also results in Hamilton being required to register as a sex offender, Borg said.
Sex offender registration requirements include registering with the law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the convicted offender lives; updating their information annually with law enforcement within five working days of their birthday; and notifying law enforcement of a change of address within five days of a move, according to the Megan's Law Web site, which includes an online registry of most registered sex offenders, except for those granted exclusions, based on their charges.
Borg said the case resolution was discussed with the victim prior to settling the case, and that she was OK with the outcome.
Additionally, District Attorney Don Anderson had no involvement in the case due to a distant acquaintance with Hamilton, Borg said.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is partnering with researchers at the University of California, Davis on an innovative multi-year study of tule elk herds in Colusa and Lake counties.
CDFW and UC Davis researchers plan to collect elk pellets and study DNA extracted from the pellets during a two-part study scheduled to begin later this month.
While fecal DNA has been used to estimate abundance and other population data in several deer populations in California since 2011, this study will be the first on free-ranging tule elk.
The effort will help CDFW staff determine the population, distribution, movement and habitat use of tule elk within the study area, and the results will guide conservation planning efforts.
The Cache Creek, Lake Pillsbury and East Park Reservoir tule elk herds often roam public land, offering viewing and hunting opportunities for the public, and the herds also frequent private land.
This presents an opportunity for landowners to aid CDFW's elk conservation goals by facilitating research activities on their property.
In the opening phase of the study, biologists will use helicopter net-gunning and ground-based tranquilizer darting to capture and place satellite collars on 56 tule elk in the Cache Creek, Lake Pillsbury, Bear Valley and East Park Reservoir herds.
The collars will log GPS coordinates for an elk's location every 13 hours and the locations will be stored in an online database accessible to CDFW biologists.
Collar data will also guide site selection for the second phase of the study, a DNA-based survey to estimate numbers of individuals in the population and measure gene flow among herds. This phase is scheduled to begin in late summer of next year.
DNA profiles will be obtained from elk fecal pellets collected by CDFW and UC Davis personnel. The pellets will be analyzed at the Mammalian Ecology and Conservation Unit of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the DNA used to identify individuals, their sex and familial relationships to other elk.
The use of DNA extracted from fecal pellets to estimate the size of wildlife populations is a recently developed technique that has become more favorable among wildlife researchers over the past decade.
This safe, non-invasive approach minimally disturbs animals, enables surveys in low-visibility habitats where sight-based surveys may be relatively ineffective, and can be implemented more frequently than other costlier survey methods.
Tule elk are a native subspecies of elk unique to California. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, they numbered more than half a million statewide. The population rapidly declined in the mid-1800s due to unregulated market hunting and habitat loss.
Tule elk dropped to such low numbers that they were once thought to be extinct.
In 1875, an estimated two to 10 tule elk were discovered on a ranch near Lake Buena Vista in Kern County.
The ranch owner, Henry Miller, is credited with protecting the last remaining tule elk and allowing them to multiply on his property.
Tule elk have since been closely managed. Beginning in the early 1900s, they were captured and relocated to reestablish herds throughout their historical range in California.
The Cache Creek herd was established in 1922, and is the oldest free-ranging tule elk herd in the state.
The Lake Pillsbury herd was released in 1978 and many of those elk dispersed throughout the Mendocino National Forest and into surrounding areas. By the early 1990s, some settled near Stonyford and established the East Park Reservoir herd.
Since 1975, CDFW has captured and relocated more than 1,500 elk and currently it is estimated that there are more than 5,100 tule elk distributed in 22 herds throughout California.
Landowners willing to provide access and become partners in tule elk conservation can contact CDFW Wildlife Biologist Josh Bush at 916-374-9137, or at
For more information about tule elk, visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/conservation/mammals/elk/tule-elk .
LUCERNE, Calif. – Local officials will join with Lucerne's Neighborhood Watch group to host a town hall on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
The town hall will begin at 6 p.m. at the Northshore Community Center, 3985 Country Club Drive.
Supervisor Jim Steele, Northshore Fire Protection District Chief Jay Beristianos and a representative from the Lake County Sheriff's Office will be on hand for the meeting.
Topics to be discussed include Neighborhood Watch, Lucerne water rate changes and fire preparation, Steele said.
Steele told Lake County News that he also plans to discuss introducing a permanent town hall group for the Lucerne area.
“There are many issues that could use a consistent community involvement, such as the neighborhood watch reports, water quality and pricing, community development, etc.,” he said.
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Via a NASA-led citizen science project, eight people with no formal training in astrophysics helped discover what could be a fruitful new place to search for planets outside our solar system – a large disk of gas and dust encircling a star known as a circumstellar disk.
A paper, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and coauthored by eight citizen scientists involved in the discovery, describes a newly identified red dwarf star, AWI0005x3s, and its warm circumstellar disk, the kind associated with young planetary systems.
Most of the exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, that have been imaged to date dwell in disks similar to the one around AWI0005x3s.
The disk and its star are located in what is dubbed the Carina association – a large, loose grouping of similar stars in the Carina Nebula approximately 212 light years from our sun. Its relative proximity to Earth will make it easier to conduct follow-on studies.
"Most disks of this kind fade away in less than 30 million years," said Steven Silverberg, a graduate student at Oklahoma University and lead author of the paper. "This particular red dwarf is a candidate member of the Carina association, which would make it around 45 million years old. It's the oldest red dwarf system with a disk we've seen in one of these associations."
Since the launch of NASA’s Disk Detective website in January 2014, approximately 30,000 citizen scientists have performed roughly two million classifications of stellar objects, including those that led to this discovery.
Through Disk Detective, citizen scientists study data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission (WISE), the agency’s Two-Micron All Sky Survey project, and other stellar surveys.
"Without the help of the citizen scientists examining these objects and finding the good ones, we might never have spotted this object," said Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who leads Disk Detective. "The WISE mission alone found 747 million objects, of which we expect a few thousand to be circumstellar disks.”
The eight citizen scientist co-authors, members of an advanced user group, volunteered to help by researching disk candidates. Their data led to the discovery of this new disk.
“I’ve loved astronomy since childhood and wanted to be part of the space program, as did every boy my age,” added Milton Bosch, a citizen scientist co-author from California. “I feel very fortunate to be part of such a great group of dedicated people, and am thrilled to partake in this adventure of discovery and be a co-author on this paper.”
Disk Detective is a collaboration between NASA, Zooniverse, the University of Oklahoma, University of Córdoba in Argentina, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Space Telescope Science Institute, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Carnegie Institution of Washington, University of Hawaii and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
To learn more about opportunities for the public to participate in NASA science and technology projects, visit http://www.nasa.gov/solve .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Oct. 8, 2016, family and friends of Cyndra Busch lost a beautiful soul.
Born on June 27, 1976, at Ukiah General Hospital where her mother, Joyce Busch had been born 35 years earlier, it was evident from an early age that Cyndra was destined to become a force in the creative arts and film world.
Cyndra, whose given name Cynthea means “moon goddess” in Greek, demonstrated above-average aptitude in creative writing, art, culinary endeavors, fashion, equestrian proficiency, dance and modeling. During her lifetime Cyndra never met a camera she didn’t love. It was apparent the feeling was reciprocated.
Cyndra began dancing as soon as she could maintain her balance. She gave performances on the huge fireplace hearth in her home and demanded her brother Craig “PAY ATTENTION.” Cyndra had a grace and flexibility and interpretation of dance, unmatched by someone her age. This held her in good stead throughout her modeling career and life.
Cyndra was enrolled in Hodge Podge Lodge under the tutelage of Vernise Pelzel and she participated in dance and plays throughout the ensuing years, ultimately being awarded the role of the Sunbow Fairy in the wonderful “Story of Orange.” This play was performed at many local and regional theaters and was very beloved by all.
The theme of Orange was every individual is special and almost anything may be achieved by repeating the mantra “I’ll try” and by putting one foot in front of the other.
Cyndra was also enrolled in Borenbega and her progression of talent was evidenced as she continued to perform in plays and dance. It was at this point that she was extended the honorable invitation to consider entering the San Francisco School of Ballet.
It became obvious to many that Cyndra’s creative force would open doors and follow her through most of her life. Cyndra was initially signed by IMG Models in New York but within the year she was scouted by Elite Modeling Agency in New York to enter the million dollar “Look of the Year” contest.
Among hundreds of candidates submitted from around the world, Cyndra was selected as one of the 10 finalists in the United States. She was 13 years old and remained with Elite for the next 20 years until she retired.
In addition to Elite, Cyndra’s local modeling agency was Metro in San Francisco and later Look Modeling Agency in San Francisco. Through these agencies, Cyndra worked all over the world including, but not limited to, Italy, France, Germany, the U.K., Canada, Mexico and Japan. Cyndra won both the commercial of the year award and the model of the year award in Australia.
Cyndra’s first television commercial was for the Make a Wish Foundation and her fist national print ad was with Seventeen Magazine. Many more national ads were to follow.
Because of her beauty, Cyndra was frequently hired by the hair and skin care companies such as Clairol, L’Oreal, Revlon, Graham Webb and KMS to name a few. These ads appeared in all of the major magazines in the U.S. and foreign countries.
Additionally, Cyndra also walked the runways in San Francisco, New York and Italy and modeled for I. Magnins, Macy’s, The Emporium, Bloomingdales and Armani and Versace in Italy.
Two of Cyndra’s memorable commercials were with First Union Bank and Dove, both of which were played during the Super Bowl. She also acted in commercials for Toyota and in Japan as a Geisha, additionally she was in some hilarious ice cream commercials in Australia, for which she won the aforementioned commercial of the year award.
For 22 years, Cyndra was the face of Pretty Lady Grapes in the U.S. and several foreign countries. She is still featured on the Sunlight International Web site.
Cyndra’s personal life included her passion and skill in equestrian pursuits. She showed her beloved quarter horse Skip N Chic who was trained by her father, professional horse trainer H. Buffer Wright. She won many ribbons and high point awards. Her horse Skip qualified for Cal Grand at the age of 27. Before an injury at age 14 ended her riding career, Cyndra had often beat adults in competitions, much to their chagrin.
Cyndra chose to maintain a very low profile most of her life. Many were unaware of the extent of her modeling and film careers.
Cyndra had a love of both NASCAR and local racing and she often went to the race track at Fontana, Sonoma and Avondale, Ariz. She was friends with one of Richard Childress’ racing crew members and was allowed to participate behind the wall, which she loved. Her favorite driver was Kevin Harvick who was with Childress at the time. Cyndra felt honored to have been filmed in Dale Earnhardt’s #3 race car.
It was a super fun time when Cyndra moved home and we all got together to support the #16M Modified race care to a championship with driver Mark Marek, Crew Chief Charlie Beck and John Wills.
Cyndra loved working with children and was often referred to as “the pied piper” or “auntie” as she led them in dance, games, songs or swimming. Her special bond with her brother Craig was evidenced by their interaction and shared love. They were fiercely loyal to one another and enjoyed riding horses, four wheelers and trying to outdo one another playing board games and cards.
Cyndra was predeceased by maternal grandparents Sen. Burt W. Busch and City Clerk Leonora “Babs” Busch and paternal grandparents Lincoln and Myrtle Wright, ranchers and residents of Kelseyville and her uncle Terry Wright. She was also predeceased by her faithful friends Jr. and Cowboy.
Cyndra is survived by her mother Joyce Busch, her brother Craig Busch and her father H. Buffer Wright. She is also survived by cousins Buffi, Rusty, Karen and Kristi and Uncle Marlin.
The family wishes to acknowledge the outpouring of love, concern and affection received from the many friends of Cyndra. A very special thank you goes to Jordan, who stayed the course and provided much care, comfort and support through this long, difficult journey.
Donations may be made to the Make a Wish Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital or a charity of your choice.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino College invites the community to join the festivities as the college faculty, staff and students host the fourth annual Día de los Muertos celebration which will take place in the Student Plaza of the Ukiah campus on Wednesday, Nov. 2, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Everyone is welcome at this free event so bring your family and friends and join in for an entertaining evening which will include live music, traditional dancers, arts and crafts, food, piñatas, altars and much more.
The Ukiah campus of Mendocino College is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.
To reserve a space to create an altar or for more information, contact Juvenal Vasquez at 707-468-3115.