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LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Friday, the Lake County District Attorney's Office moved to dismiss drug and human trafficking charges against two men in preparation for the US Attorney's Office taking over the drug aspect of the prosecution.
Ryan Alan Balletto, 30, of Lakeport, Calif., and Patrick Steven Pearmain, 25, of Clearlake, were arrested May 1 on marijuana cultivation and weapons charges, as Lake County News has reported.
Later, both men had been charged by District Attorney Don Anderson's office with human trafficking, statutory rape, oral copulation on a person under age 16, sodomy, false imprisonment, and annoying or molesting a child relating to a teenage girl who allegedly had been kept at the grow site. Balletto also was charged with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under age 14 or 15.
But on Friday all of the drug, human trafficking and sex-related charges were dropped without prejudice, said Anderson.
That's because the US Attorney's Office is preparing to come in and take over the drug prosecution, Anderson explained.
Anderson said that the US Attorney's Office already has gotten federal indictments secured for both men.
“It originally was a federal investigation that started the whole thing,” Anderson said of the case.
At Balletto’s 681-acre property near Clearlake Oaks, authorities found nearly 1,500 marijuana plants and a large and sophisticated cache of military grade sniper and assault rifles, automatic assault rifles and pistols, and ammunition, high capacity magazines, military grade body armor and military grade scopes.
Lake County officials stepped in after they became aware that the men allegedly had been holding a 15-year-old runaway girl from Los Angeles at the property, Anderson said.
Case records indicate that Los Angeles County officials contacted local authorities about the missing girl, who they believed had been brought to Northern California by Balletto for use in a child pornography operation.
It's alleged that the girl – who is estimated to have been at the property for about a month before the arrests occurred – was at times held in a large, specially constructed box as punishment, according to Anderson.
Anderson said he and one of his deputies, Ed Borg, who was handling the cases against Balletto and Pearmain, met with federal prosecutors about how to move forward.
“We agreed that they'll do the guns and the marijuana,” said Anderson.
He said the federal punishment for the charges the men are facing is much more severe than the penalties they would receive in local court, with the possibility that the men could serve life in prison rather than just a few years in state prison or the local jail.
In the meantime, Anderson said his staff will continue its investigation into the sex crimes and human trafficking aspect of the case, with a view to possibly refiling at some point in the future.
“There's still a lot more work that needs to be done,” he said.
Anderson said that, regardless of what the US Attorney's Office does, his office can file charges again if it's warranted.
He said federal officials are expected to come and transfer Balletto and Pearmain to federal custody in the Bay Area on Monday.
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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Caltrans said a repaving project on Highway 29 south of Lower Lake will begin on Monday, July 22.
This $1.7 million project will repave about seven miles of Highway 29 from Lower Lake to near Hidden Valley Lake with a thin asphalt overlay to provide a smoother, safer, driving surface.
The new asphalt layer will be porous, which allows water to drain through the surface. This will provide better traction and reduce tire road spray during wet weather.
Work is anticipated to be completed by the end of August.
Work hours will be 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays.
One-way traffic control will be in effect, and motorists should anticipate up to 10-minute delays.
The contractor is Windsor Fuel Co. of Pittsburg.
For the most current road information on all California State highways, please call 1-800-427-7623 (1-800-GAS-ROAD) or visit www.dot.ca.gov .
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Friday, several U.S. Representatives from Northern California called on the Brown Administration to withdraw and fully revise their proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) in light of draft environmental documents being found “biased” and “insufficient” by federal agencies in public comments made available Thursday.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service provided these comments to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) as part of a review of the draft environmental impact report/environmental impact statement.
The members of Congress condemning the plan included Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-5) and Congressman John Garamendi (CA-3), who represent Lake County.
“These reports confirm what we’ve been saying all along – this proposed BDCP is not a workable solution to California’s water challenges,” said Thompson.
“It’s rushed, flawed, hurts wildlife and puts the interests of South-of-Delta water contractors ahead of North-of-Delta farmers, fishers and small business owners,” he added. “Until we have a plan that is transparent, based on sound science and developed with all stake-holders at the table, then any process that moves us closer to building these tunnels will recklessly risk billions of California tax dollars and thousands of jobs.”
“The peripheral tunnel plan is incredibly destructive, and because it does not add one drop to our water supply, incredibly unproductive. The current plan concludes that massive water diversions south of the Delta are needed and then twists arguments to meet that conclusion. Instead, we need a scientific process, freed from the blinders of bias, to meet the legally mandated co-equal goals of ecological conservation and reliability of water supply – both of which are essential to the state’s economy,” said Garamendi.
“As an alternative to the current BDCP, I have proposed a framework that would expand our water supply and protect the Delta through greater water conservation, recycling, and storage, levee improvements, and the protection of existing water rights. We need a water system that meets the needs of all Californians,” Garamendi added.
"We have said from day one that any proposal related to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta must be based on sound science and an accurate cost-benefit analysis,” said Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09). “The recently-released reports clearly show that Governor Brown's misguided plan for the Delta is based on neither.”
He continued, “To continue to move forward without taking into consideration the concerns of all stakeholders, the countless jobs that could be lost, and the billions of taxpayer dollars at stake is a clear disservice to the people of California. I will continue to fight against any plan that would divert more water from the Delta, and to stand up for the families, farmers and small business owners who rely upon a healthy Delta for their livelihoods."
“The governor’s administration told us time and again that their process would be governed by unbiased, sound science. But these federal reports confirm the opposite,” said Rep. George Miller (CA-11).
“As we suspected, this process has been rushed, biased, and excludes viable alternatives at the behest of big irrigators and agencies that stand to gain huge profits from their increased access to northern water,” Miller said. “To proceed any further without major revisions that take into account the concerns of all stakeholders, not just those with political and financial influence, would be shortsighted, unproductive, and ultimately a failure.”
“The federal agency comments on the BDCP’s draft environmental documents continue to show not only that the project doesn’t solve the water problems that face our state, but that the BDCP as written is truly flawed,” said Rep. Doris Matsui.
“Until we have a process that includes all stakeholders and is based on sound science, we are wasting precious time and taxpayer money,” Matsui continued. “This is time and money that we do not have. In the meantime, the environment of the Delta continues to decline and our state’s water problems continue to grow. We must get on track with a process that will produce a viable solution for California’s future.”
“As someone who played a major role in California’s landmark 2009 water reforms, I have been concerned from the very beginning that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is not meeting the high standards and requirements established in that legislation,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-02). “These reports are just the latest in a series of wake up calls showing that the BDCP is headed in a dangerous direction. We need a plan for the Bay-Delta that is based on science and follows the law, and it looks to me – and clearly, to many others – like the BDCP continues to fall short.”
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force arrested a Santa Rosa man and seized methamphetamine and Vicodin tablets following a traffic stop this week.
Lt. Steve Brooks said 51-year-old Peter Jessie Molina was arrested on Monday night.
At 10:45 p.m. Monday a narcotics detective observed a vehicle traveling in front of him on south bound Highway 29, just south of Middletown. The vehicle crossed over the double yellow lines on three occasions. The detective also observed the vehicle cross over the fog line several times, Brooks said.
The narcotics detective conducted an enforcement stop on the vehicle at the intersection of Highway 29 and Shady Grove in Middletown. He contacted Molina, who Brooks said was the driver.
Brooks said Central Dispatch conducted a records check of Molina and advised that his driving privileges were suspended and he had two warrants for his arrest.
As the narcotics detective was speaking to Molina, he noticed Molina appeared to be very nervous. Molina denied having anything illegal in the vehicle. Molina was detained for the warrants and driving on the suspended license, Brooks said.
The detective deployed his narcotics detection K9, who has been trained specifically for detecting the odor of five different controlled substances. Brooks said the K9 alerted to the odor of narcotics coming from inside the vehicle.
The detective located four plastic bags. Two of the plastic bags contained a white crystalline substance and other two bags contained an orange colored crystalline substance, Brooks said.
The detective recognized the contents of the bags to be methamphetamine. There was also a glass “meth” pipe containing a white and brown residue and 16 Vicodin tablets located with the methamphetamine, according to Brooks. Molina admitted the methamphetamine was his and he was going to Clearlake to sell it.
The narcotics detective tested the crystalline substance using a narcotics identification kit. The test flashed blue, indicating a presumptive positive for methamphetamine. The approximate weight of all four bags of methamphetamine was 52.4 grams. Brooks said the estimated street value of the methamphetamine is $5,240.
Molina was arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sale, transportation of a controlled substance, possession of a specified controlled substance, possession or purchase for sale of a specified controlled substance, transportation of a specified controlled substance and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. He was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics can be contacted through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting the distant blue-green planet Neptune, the 14th known to be circling the giant planet.
The moon, designated S/2004 N 1, is estimated to be no more than 12 miles across, making it the smallest known moon in the Neptunian system.
It is so small and dim that it is roughly 100 million times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the naked eye.
It even escaped detection by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew past Neptune in 1989 and surveyed the planet's system of moons and rings.
Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., found the moon July 1, while studying the faint arcs, or segments of rings, around Neptune.
“The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system,” he said. “It's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete – the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs.”
The method involved tracking the movement of a white dot that appears over and over again in more than 150 archival Neptune photographs taken by Hubble from 2004 to 2009.
On a whim, Showalter looked far beyond the ring segments and noticed the white dot about 65,400 miles from Neptune, located between the orbits of the Neptunian moons Larissa and Proteus.
The dot is S/2004 N 1. Showalter plotted a circular orbit for the moon, which completes one revolution around Neptune every 23 hours.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office has released the name of a woman who died following a head-on collision near Kelseyville on Thursday.
Lt. Steve Brooks identified the woman as Lee Ann White, 63, of Hidden Valley Lake.
White died of her injuries at Sutter Lakeside Hospital following the crash, which occurred shortly after noon on Highway 29 north of Highway 281, as Lake County News has reported.
White was driving her 1995 Mitsubishi Expo northbound when 60-year-old Janet Lee Mix of Clearlake crossed into White's path and hit her head-on, the CHP.
Mix, who was driving southbound, had allowed her 1999 Toyota Sienna to drift onto the highway shoulder and made an unsafe turning movement to get back onto the road, which caused the vehicle to cross the southbound lane and travel into the northbound lane, where she hit White.
Mix, who had moderate injuries, was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and released to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, where White also was transported, according to the CHP.
Two children riding in Mix's vehicle, a 7-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, suffered major injuries, with the boy flown to UC Davis Medical Center with the girl taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, the CHP said.
The CHP said the crash remains under investigation.
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