How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The service of a search warrant on Tuesday resulted in two arrests and the seizure of marijuana and concentrated cannabis.
Detectives arrested Lakeport residents Wade Aaron Knowles, 44, and 65-year-old Aldo Clolosardo, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
On Tuesday narcotics detectives secured a search warrant for a residence located in the 4000 block of Eickhoff Road in Lakeport, serving the warrant at 1:30 p.m. that day, Brooks said.
During the search warrant service, detectives located and detained Knowles and Clolosardo without incident, according to Brooks.
During the search detectives noticed one of the bedrooms inside the residence had been converted into a marijuana drying and processing area. Brooks said there were several marijuana plants which were hanging and drying inside the room.
Inside the bedroom closet, detectives located a vacuum sealer and packaging material and in the kitchen area Brooks said detectives located another vacuum sealer, packaging materials and several plastic bins containing marijuana shake.
Inside the bedroom Knowles identified as being his, detectives located additional packaging material. Brooks said they also found evidence that indicated Knowles was mailing marijuana to the East Coast.
Inside Knowles’ nightstand, several bags of concentrated cannabis were located and seized. The concentrated cannabis had a combined weight of 8.5 ounces. Brooks said detectives also located a cellular telephone on the nightstand, which contained text messages related to the sales of narcotics.
On the property, detectives located two large hoop-style greenhouses containing marijuana plants. There were also several marijuana plants growing outside in large planters, Brooks said.
Brooks said detectives also found and eradicated a total of 85 marijuana plants from the property, and seized 3 pounds of processed marijuana and 23 pounds of marijuana, which was unprocessed and still on the stem.
Both Knowles and Clolosardo were arrested for cultivating marijuana and possession of marijuana for sales. They were both transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked.
Bail was set at $15,000 each, with jail records showing that they later posted the required percentage of bail and were released.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency/Public Health has received confirmation of a case of whooping cough (Pertussis) in a local child.
Public Health nursing staff members are conducting a contact investigation of persons who may have been exposed in collaboration with the Mendocino County Assistant Health Officer for Communicable Disease Dr Charles Evans.
HHSA Public Health reminds residents that whooping cough is a highly contagious but preventable disease and encourages everyone to be vaccinated through their primary care provider particularly pregnant women and children.
Adults should be current with their booster shots to reduce the spread of the whooping cough. Booster shots for whooping cough are critical because, unlike some other vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, neither the whooping cough disease nor vaccine confers lifelong immunity.
It is important that both children and adults are up-to-date on their immunizations, health officials reported.
The symptoms of whooping cough vary by age. For children, cases of whooping cough typically start with a cough and runny nose for one to two weeks. The cough then worsens and children may have rapid coughing spells that end with a whooping sound.
Young infants may not have typical whooping cough symptoms and may have no apparent cough. Parents may describe episodes in which the infant’s face turns red or purple. For adults, whooping cough may simply be a cough illness that persists for several weeks.
To avoid the spread of whooping cough the California Department of Public Health recommends:
- Pregnant women receive a whooping cough vaccine booster during the third trimester of each pregnancy, even if they received it before.
- Infants can be vaccinated against whooping cough as soon as possible. The first dose is recommended at two months of age. Young children need five doses of pertussis vaccine by kindergarten (ages 4-6).
- California seventh grade students receive the whooping cough vaccine booster as required.
- Adults receive a whooping cough vaccine booster, especially if they are in contact with infants or are health care workers who may have contact with infants or pregnant women.
More information about whooping cough is available on the CDPH Web site, www.cdph.ca.gov , then click on the tab for “Health Information.”
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – One man was flown to a trauma center Thursday evening following a head-on crash that temporarily closed Bottle Rock Road.
The crash was first reported shortly before 6:30 p.m. by the California Highway Patrol.
Reports from the scene indicated a gray Ford Explorer and a rust-colored SUV collided head-on in the area of Bottle Rock Road and Kahms Lane, near Moore Family Winery.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bertelli said the driver of the red SUV, the vehicle's sole occupant, had to be extricated.
The man suffered major injuries and was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Bertelli said.
Bertelli did not report any injuries for the two occupants of the Explorer, who he said were not transported.
Cal Fire, South Lake County Fire and Kelseyville Fire all responded to the scene, Bertelli said.
The CHP said traffic had been blocked at Harrington Flat.
The County Road Department was called to help clean up gas and oil on the roadway, according to Bertelli.
Bertelli expected Bottle Rock Road to be reopened at around 9 p.m., once the roadway cleanup was complete.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lower Lake man was seriously injured early Thursday when his motorcycle collided with a car on Highway 175 over the Hopland Grade.
Matthew P. Harrold, 56, sustained major injuries in the crash, which occurred at 6:50 a.m. west of Lakeport, according to the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office.
The CHP said Harrold was riding a 2013 KTM motorcycle westbound on Highway 175 about a mile inside the Lake County line when he attempted to pass a white utility truck over the solid double yellow lines in a blind curve.
Driving eastbound in a 1994 Ford Probe at the same time was Robert A. Hamby, 30, of Lucerne, the CHP said.
Because of the blind curve and what the CHP said was Harrold's unsafe speed, the motorcycle hit the front of Hamby's car.
The CHP said Hamby and his passenger, 36-year-old Jo Ann Cusimano of Lucerne, were uninjured. Both were wearing their seat belts.
Harrold was transported to Enloe Medical Center in Chico for treatment, the CHP said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Narcotics detectives arrested a Clearlake Oaks man, seized 4,630 marijuana plants and approximately $50,780 following the service of multiple search warrants around the county that began last week.
Bobby Rex Goforth, 57, was arrested on June 6, according Sheriff's Lt. Steve Brooks.
On that day narcotics detectives secured a search warrant for a residence located in the 7000 block of Gross Road in Kelseyville, serving it shortly before 10:30 a.m. Brooks said detectives located and detained Goforth and 53-year-old Joy Alice Emry of Lakeport without incident.
Goforth told detectives that he was cultivating marijuana for a marijuana store front and received compensation for his time and expenses. Brooks said Goforth also said he had approximately 300 plants on the property and was unaware of the county code limiting the number of plants.
Detectives also spoke to Emry, who said she and Goforth were part of a co-op. She said they were growing marijuana for 17 people. Emry also said she was charging each person $100 per month for labor and expenses, according to Brooks.
Brooks said Emry estimated that each person would receive approximately 4 pounds of processed marijuana after the plants were harvested. Emry told detectives that if there was any marijuana left over, they were going to sell it to the store front.
During the search detectives located three large hoop-style greenhouses on the property. The greenhouses contained a total of 653 marijuana plants, which were eradicated, Brooks said. Detectives searched Goforth’s vehicle and located $8,590 cash, which was seized pending asset forfeiture proceedings.
Brooks said detectives also found electrical bill receipts for an address located in the 1500 block of Martin Street in Lakeport and for an address located in the 4500 block of Eickhoff Road in Lakeport. While researching the Martin Street address, detectives learned Goforth also had property located in the 10000 block of Diener Circle in Lower Lake.
Detectives secured both the Diener Circle and the Martin Street properties, pending the application for a search warrant, which they obtained. Brooks said the detectives served both search warrants on June 6.
At the Diener Circle address, detectives located 10 large hoop-style greenhouses. The greenhouses contained marijuana in various stages of growth. Brooks said there also was an indoor marijuana grow in the garage of the residence.
Detectives eradicated 2,713 marijuana plants from the property. During a search of the residence, detectives located approximately 60 pounds of processed marijuana, approximately 7 pounds of honey oil, a butane hash lab and $42,190 cash. Brooks said the processed marijuana, honey oil and hash lab were seized as evidence and the money was seized pending asset forfeiture proceedings.
During the search of the Martin Street address, detectives located a large indoor marijuana grow containing 741 marijuana plants in various stages of growth. There were also two large hoop-style greenhouses on the property, which Brooks said contained 333 flowering marijuana plants.
Detectives located 90 marijuana plants which were growing outside in pots on the property. A total of 1,164 marijuana plants were eradicated from the property. Inside the residence detective’s located two handguns and three rifles, which were seized as evidence, Brooks said.
On June 10, 2014 detectives secured a search warrant for the property located on Eickhoff Road in Lakeport, serving the warrant just after 12:30 p.m. that day, according to Brooks.
Brooks said they located three large hoop-style greenhouses on the property. During the search detectives located 17 flowering marijuana plants in one of the greenhouses and 83 marijuana plants which were growing outside. The other two greenhouses were empty and it appeared the plants had already been harvested.
Detectives located 10 pounds of processed marijuana which was seized as evidence and eradicated a total of 100 marijuana plants from the property, Brooks said.
Goforth was arrested for cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and manufacturing a controlled substance. He was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked, Brooks said.
Jail records showed that his bail was set at $100,000, with Goforth later posting the required percentage of bail in order to be released.
Brooks said detectives have submitted the report to the District Attorney’s Office for complaint against Emry and expect additional arrests as their investigation continues.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A man with a lengthy and violent criminal history – including a 1997 killing – has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for kidnapping and threatening a woman in late 2012 because he believed she had stolen marijuana from his nephew.
Charles Vasil Statler, 54, of Santa Rosa received the sentence on Monday from Judge Andrew Blum.
On April 17 – at the end of a trial that began about three weeks earlier – a jury convicted Statler of felony kidnapping, carjacking, vehicle theft, criminal threats, and having previous strikes and prison terms after only an hour and a half of deliberations, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who prosecuted Statler's case.
Statler’s defense attorney, Mitch Hauptman, declined comment on the case or its outcome.
Statler and two Clearlake Oaks men – James Daniel Austin and Ricky Lane McCullough – were arrested in January 2013 for the kidnapping of a 49-year-old woman the previous month, as Lake County News has reported.
Court documents show that the female victim reported to deputies that the three men used a pickup to block her vehicle as she was driving on Second Street in Upper Lake on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2012. Statler pulled the woman from her vehicle and forcing her into the pickup, then took her car, with both vehicles leaving the scene.
For the next six to seven hours, she was driven to several locations around Lake County – including a remote area in Upper Lake where Statler was involved in a large marijuana growing operation – and showed a hole that she was told she would be put into if she didn't provide the information the men wanted, case documents explained.
She also had her fingers placed in a pair of pliers, and was threatened that she would have her fingers cut off. Statler and the two other men also drove the victim to other areas of the county, threatening to gang rape her, according to the investigation.
Statler, Austin and McCullough accused the woman – who acknowledged to law enforcement that she was working as a marijuana trimmer – of stealing 140 pounds of marijuana – valued at about $150,000 – from a third man, Robert Whitmire of Petaluma, Statler's nephew.
“There was never any evidence whatsoever that was the case,” said Hinchcliff of the marijuana theft allegations.
Later that night, the men took the victim back to her home and took a large amount of cash from her, based on the investigative reports.
In February McCullough pleaded no contest to false imprisonment and admitted a prior prison term, and was sentenced to four years in the county jail, case documents indicated.
In May, Austin pleaded to a charge of being an accessory to a felony, and was sentenced to 365 days in the county jail and three years' formal probation, according to court records.
Statler's criminal history includes an assault in Oregon; theft cases in Arizona, California and Texas; and the killing of 68-year-old retiree Raymond Churchill in Lake County in October 1997.
Case records showed Statler – who lived with Churchill in a trailer on Spruce Grove Road in Lower Lake – killed Churchill by hitting him in the head multiple times with a steel skillet. He hit Churchill so hard that it fractured his skull, broke his spine and severed the skillet handle.
Statler claimed he killed Churchill in self-defense during a drunken argument. However, prosecutors suggested his actions after the killing showed intent.
According to the investigation, Statler had dumped Churchill's body in the Jerusalem Valley area near Middletown, concealing it in a manzanita thicket.
Statler then went about destroying evidence, including washing his own clothes, burning Churchill's clothing, and dismantling, burning and burying Churchill's Volkswagen station wagon.
Statler also took Churchill's ring and wore it, and used Churchill's ATM card to withdraw $591 from his account the day after the killing.
Then-District Attorney Gary Luck prosecuted Statler for Churchill's killing, winning a conviction for second-degree murder, grand theft and fraudulently using an access card in the case. In March 1999 Statler was sentenced to 18 years and eight months to life in state prison, according to case documents.
However, in 2005 an appeals court overturned Statler's murder conviction, and sent it back to Lake County for retrial. Luck offered Statler a plea agreement for voluntary manslaughter, which Statler accepted the following year.
Statler ended up getting a 13-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. Records show he was paroled in the Churchill killing in August 2009.
The Monday sentencing is likely to keep Statler in prison for the remainder of his life.
Hinchcliff said Statler received 27 years and eight months, and due to the crimes' violent nature he must serve 85 percent of that term. He also was fined $8,960.
Correction: The original story said that the appeal court reduced Statler’s second-degree murder sentence. The court actually sent the case back for retrial. That is reflected in the corrected story above.
Email Elizabeth Larson at