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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s district attorney said his plans to release a report on the circumstances surrounding a fatal officer-involved shooting on Wednesday have been delayed, with the investigation still in process.
District Attorney Don Anderson had planned on releasing more details about the incident Thursday, but with his investigators still interviewing witnesses and compiling critical case information, he pushed the date of release back to Friday.
The fatal shooting occurred Wednesday afternoon near Lower Lake.
According to the information released so far, a California Highway Patrol officer stopped to talk to a 52-year-old male suspect who she had spotted parked along the side of Highway 29 south of Lower Lake.
The suspect, who was not a Lake County resident, allegedly was in a stolen vehicle and had warrants for his arrest.
After the CHP officer contacted him, a fight ensued, and he attempted to take her gun.
The officer shot the man once and mortally wounded him. He attempted to flee in the vehicle, crashing it on the other side of the highway. He later was pronounced dead at the scene.
Anderson said the officer was uninjured.
Neither her name nor the name of the suspect have been released officially; those details are expected to be included in Anderson’s Friday report.
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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Local law enforcement officials worked through Wednesday afternoon and evening on the investigation into a fatal officer-involved shooting near Lower Lake.
The Wednesday afternoon incident, which occurred along Highway 29 near the Twin Lakes Subdivision, occurred when a California Highway Patrol officer stopped to talk to a 52-year-old man parked on the roadside in a stolen vehicle.
The man attacked the officer and went for her gun, according to investigators.
The suspect was shot once and later died.
John Jensen of Lake County News was at the scene and compiled the video report above.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The trial of a Lake County man accused of sexually abusing a young teenager is tentatively scheduled to begin next week in the Bay Area.
Derik Navarro, 40, is facing 16 charges for his alleged yearlong sexual involvement with the teen, beginning in 2005 when she was 14 years old.
The California Attorney General’s Office, which is handling Navarro’s prosecution due to a conflict of interest with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office, said the case is set to go to trial Monday in Marin County.
In April, a change of venue was granted in the case due to publicity and other factors, as Lake County News has reported.
Mitch Hauptman of Lakeport, Navarro’s defense attorney, said that while the trial is set for next week, he wasn’t yet sure if the trial would go forward on time.
“It looks like there’s a very good chance we got bounced by a Marin case at the last minute,” he said.
At the time of Navarro’s alleged sexual activities with the girl, he was a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy, but after an investigation that began in early 2007 he was fired and arrested a week later, as Lake County News has reported.
Because of the conflict of interest involving District Attorney Don Anderson – while he was still in private practice – having at one time represented Navarro in an administrative hearing regarding his sheriff’s office employment, the case was taken over by the California Attorney General’s Office.
Late last year, Deputy Attorney General Dave Druliner, who is handling the case’s prosecution, reached an agreement with Navarro in which he would plead guilty to one count of felony unlawful intercourse with a child under age 16.
Navarro would have served no more than three months in jail and would not have been required to register as a sex offender.
The Attorney General’s Office said the agreement was reached with the approval of the victim, now in her early 20s, and her family.
However, in January Judge Andrew Blum turned down the agreement, saying it was too lenient.
“It grieves me to have to make this decision,” Blum said at the time. “Trust me, I have two daughters about your age. This is not easy for me to do.”
In April Hauptman won a change of venue citing, among other things, media coverage and the very public condemnation of the plea agreement by Sheriff Frank Rivero, who had approached both the Attorney General’s Office and Blum in an effort to stop the deal.
Hauptman said the case had become “a circus,” and retired Judge Robert Crone granted the change of venue, concluding that there was “a reasonable likelihood that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the county.”
Hauptman said the Marin court, which isn’t as busy as some other county courts around the state, agreed to accept the case after the change of venue was granted.
In January Blum had ordered Navarro to stand trial on all 16 counts. Hauptman said he had made an unsuccessful motion suggesting that some of the counts be dropped.
Hauptman said the case is being handled by Marin County Superior Court Judge James Chou.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Veterans Day – Sunday, Nov. 11 – there will be a benefit dance to support Operation Tango Mike.
This benefit will specifically raise the funds to support this year’s Christmas packages.
On the third Thursday of every month the Tango Mike volunteers gather to pack boxes to send to our troops deployed overseas.
This effort has brought comfort to troops for many years thanks to the generosity of the community and the efforts of these volunteers.
The program will include local favorite group The Funky Dozen.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with music starting at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $20 for general loge seating, $30 for table seating and tables for six can be reserved for $250. Refreshments and beverages will be on sale.
There will be a silent auction, with all profits from the event going to Operation Tango Mike.
Tickets are available in Lakeport at The Travel Center in the Shoreline Shopping Center, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St., open on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. two hours before show time on the day of any event.
Tickets also can be purchased online at www.soperreesetheatre.com .
For all the latest in information, tickets and more go to www.soperreesetheatre.com .
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County’s district attorney and his team continued Wednesday night to investigate a fatal shooting that occurred earlier in the day after a man in a stolen vehicle allegedly attacked a California Highway Patrol officer.
District Attorney Don Anderson said the incident that resulted in the death of the 52-year-old man, whose identity was not yet being released, occurred shortly after 2 p.m. along Highway 29 south of Lower Lake near the Twin Lakes Subdivision.
Anderson said the female CHP officer who shot the man is all right. Her name also is not yet being released. Earlier in the day she was reported to have been taken to a local hospital for medical clearance.
Anderson said the officer was on Highway 29 when she saw the man, who was not from Lake County, pulled over on the east side of the roadway.
The officer pulled over and made contact with the man, who was in a vehicle that Anderson said was stolen and had warrants out for his arrest.
Based on the investigation’s findings so far, Anderson said the man attacked the officer and, during the ensuing struggle, attempted to take her gun.
The officer shot the suspect once. Anderson said the male suspect then ran and got into the vehicle and attempted to flee.
However, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed on the west side of the highway, Anderson said.
The man later was taken from the car after firefighters arrived. Anderson did not have details on what measures paramedics on the scene took in treating the man.
The suspect’s body was placed under a yellow tarp under a blue CHP pop up, near a small outbuilding and vineyard a short way off the highway.
Anderson said investigators were preparing to begin examining the man’s body to determine where, exactly, he was shot during the encounter.
The investigation was to continue into the night, Anderson said.
Local residents reported that a stretch of Highway 29 near the shooting scene was closed Wednesday night.
Anderson said his office and the CHP were working together on the investigation, with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office offering its assistance.
The investigation was being carried out under the auspices of a newly updated county fatal incident protocol, Anderson said.
Anderson anticipated releasing more details on the incident in a joint report with CHP on Thursday.
The last fatal shooting involving a local CHP officer in Lake County occurred in October 2006 at the conclusion of a high speed chase near Clearlake Oaks. The suspect was shot five times after he appeared to be about to run over a CHP sergeant.
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