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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Water Resources Department said Thursday that concerned residents who reported a chemical spill along certain stretches of Clear Lake's shoreline actually were seeing an early blue-green algae bloom.
Water Resources Director Scott De Leon issued an advisory explaining that his department has received numerous inquiries over the past week regarding suspected paint or chemical spills along Clear Lake's shores near Nice and across the lake near Soda Bay.
The turquoise colored “spill” that residents reported seeing on the water's surface is likely the blue-green algae – or cyanobacteria – Aphanizomenon in bloom, which De Leon said often is mistaken for turquoise paint.
Aphanizomenon and several other blue-green algae are natural inhabitants of Clear Lake, De Leon explained.
He said that the blue-green algae bloom is an annual phenomenon in Clear Lake, although it is rare for the bloom to occur so early in the year.
The combination of water clarity and warm February temperatures may have triggered the early bloom, De Leon said.
Some types of blue-green algae can produce toxins, so as a precaution De Leon recommended that individuals of all ages and all pets avoid swimming in or ingesting lake water in the affected areas.
For more information contact the Lake County Department of Water Resources by calling 707-263-2344 during regular business hours.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Fulton man convicted this week of numerous charges associated with the October 2009 assault of a Lakeport man can expect to spend the rest of his life in prison when he's sentenced next month.
On Tuesday a jury returned guilty verdicts on 10 charges and five special allegations against 60-year-old Thomas Loyd Dudney, accused of a brutal attack on Ronald Greiner that took place on Oct. 20, 2009.
Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe said the jury found Dudney guilty of attempted murder, mayhem, torture, robbery, burglary, assault with a firearm, assault with a blunt force object, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, battery with serious bodily injury, participation in a criminal street gang, and five special allegations that included infliction of great bodily injury and gang enhancements.
“We were, of course, disappointed at the verdict, given the total 'guilty as charged on all counts' aspect,” said defense attorney Doug Rhoades.
Rhoades said there was a minor victory for Dudney in that prior strikes and prison terms alleged against him were found to not be sustained.
The attempted murder and torture charges, as well as the group of gang enhancements – which Grothe said attach to the more serious charges and therefore increase in time – each result in a life term. Plus Dudney is facing another 20 years for the other crimes.
Dudney is set to return to court for sentencing on April 4, Grothe said.
Grothe said the jury deliberations began at 3:30 p.m. last Thursday. There were several hours of read back of testimony on Friday, the jury was then off on Monday and at noon on Tuesday a verdict was announced. It was delivered later that afternoon.
Greiner had been shot at least three times, including twice in the chest, had been stabbed and beaten so severely that his ribs and jaw were broken, facial bones – including his eye sockets – were shattered, and one ear almost detached. He also was hogtied with barbed wire, said Grothe.
Grothe said the assailants then allegedly stole about 12 marijuana plants from Greiner.
At the scene of the attack Greiner identified Dudney as his attacker, identifying him by a nickname, “Ktron” – Dudney's nickname actually was “KTom,” according to Grothe – and told authorities where Dudney lived in Sonoma County.
Lake County Sheriff's detectives worked with Sonoma County authorities to arrest Dudney during a traffic stop, according to the original sheriff's report.
“Within 24 hours they had him,” Grothe said.
The prosecution alleged that Greiner had been growing marijuana for ex-girlfriend Deborah James of Windsor. On Oct. 17, 2009, James and a female friend went to Greiner's home on S. Main Street in Lakeport, where he informed them that James' marijuana had been destroyed in a storm or stolen, said Grothe.
James' friend is alleged to have gotten into an altercation with Greiner, telling him that “some big boys” were going to come back over and take care of him. Grothe said Greiner threw the women out, with James' friend claiming she had bruises from his fingers her arm.
Grothe said Greiner then screwed shut all of his doors and windows, and three days later his front door got kicked in. The gun used to shoot Greiner was never found.
James was arrested in November 2009 in connection with the attack, but the case against her later was dropped.
In January, Grothe dropped charges against Rohnert Park resident Joshua Wandrey Sr., who had been Dudney's co-defendant in the case and was facing many of the same charges.
Grothe said at the time that it was his professional opinion that there was insufficient evidence to proceed against Wandrey, but that the case would be reevaluated if more evidence was secured.
“As far as our case goes, this guy is the main guy we have evidence on,” Grothe said of Dudney.
The attack on Greiner, Grothe alleged, was based on revenge and gang affiliations because Greiner had laid his hands on a woman associated with the Misfits motorcycle gang, of which Dudney is alleged to have been a member.
“Our position from the outset was that this was NOT a gang-related event, and that Mr. Dudney was not the responsible party,” Rhoades said in an e-mail exchange with Lake County News.
Cell phone and DNA evidence “left open a world of possible other determinations, but the verdict was apparently swayed by the victim identification,” he said.
“Of key importance, was the denial of a jury view of the scene at night,” Rhoades said. “Having personally visited the scene during darkness, I cannot envision a scenario where the victim could have identified Thomas Dudney as the culprit, due to the fact that the nearest light source was 240 yards away, it was in the early morning hours, pre-dawn, of October 20, 2009, with a full cloud cover and no moon, from indoors, with the blinds and on the windows fully closed. Yet that was his testimony.”
Rhoades added, “Had the jury been allowed to see the scene as it was at the time, I do not believe they could have found that the victim could possibly have identified the perpetrator of these horrendous acts.”
He added, “Mr. Dudney maintains his innocence in this matter.”
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A man convicted in 2002 of a brutal torture case that left his former girlfriend disabled and disfigured has been denied parole, and won't be eligible for reconsideration for another decade.
A two-member panel of the California Board of Parole Hearings denied Gregory Patrick Beck’s request to be released on parole at a March 2 hearing in Corcoran.
Beck was convicted by a Mendocino County jury in 2002 of gravely injuring Sherry Carlton by means of torture, assault with caustic chemicals and corporal injury on a cohabitant. Carlton was Beck’s then 32-year-old girlfriend and the mother of their then 12-year-old child.
Today, Sherry Carlton lives in a Lake County care home where she remains unable to care for herself as a result of the attack. She cannot speak, walk or otherwise care for herself without assistance from hospital staff.
Citing Beck’s “vicious and callous” attack on Carlton and his continued lack of true remorse for the crime, the Board of Parole Hearings issued an order that Beck shall not be entitled to another parole hearing for 10 years.
The board also heard testimony against the release by Carlton's parents, Jeffrey Carlton of Kelseyville and Phyllis Kline of Southern California, and received close to 100 letters from community members speaking against the release, the Board of Parole
“We can finally breathe again,” said Michelle Carlton, Jeffrey Carlton's wife, who called Beck “an animal.”
A report from the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office explained that, after a tumultuous 12-year relationship, Sherry Carlton chose to separate from Beck and moved out of the home they had shared.
On Aug. 21, 2001, she went back to the home to retrieve some personal belongings and Beck came home while she was still at the house. According to the report, he attacked Carlton by soaking her with lighter fluid and intentionally set her on fire.
Carlton then ran from the yard and into the street screaming for help. A neighbor testified that Beck did nothing to help. Instead, Beck went about “staging” the scene to make it appear as if Carlton’s burning body was the result of a barbecue accident, the District Attorney's Office reported.
Despite her obvious agony resulting from severe burns, Carlton was still able at that time to tell responding law enforcement officers and medical personnel that Beck had intentionally set her on fire, according to the report.
The March 2 hearing, also attended by Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Shannon Cox, lasted five hours at the prison in Corcoran.
During the hearing, Beck answered questions by both the parole board and Cox regarding the circumstances of his attack on Carlton, his motivation and the steps, if any, that he had undertaken to redeem and rehabilitate himself while incarcerated.
Jeffrey Carlton and Phyllis Kline offered victim impact statements by describing the continuing agony their daughter endures and the ongoing heartbreak they continue to experience due to Beck’s “despicable” attack, which left their only daughter with no hope for a meaningful life.
Also presented were photos of Sherry Carlton prior to the attack, depicting a strikingly beautiful blonde woman in her early 30s. A video taken in January was submitted that memorialized her current state of existence: horribly disfigured, blind, confined round the clock to a convalescent bed and fed via a feeding tube.
The board also listened to the haunting 911 call she frantically made immediately after she was attacked, in which she screams in agony, begs for help, and then cries that Beck had burned and tried to murder her.
During the hearing, Beck acknowledged that he purposefully set Carlton on fire as a sort of “revenge thing” because he was upset she had left him, the district attorney's office said.
Although Beck claimed he was sorry for his actions and that he had sought to rehabilitate himself through anger management classes while incarcerated, the board determined that Beck was not remorseful for his actions and that he had little insight into why he did such a terrible thing to the mother of his child.
One commissioner noted that Beck ranked near the top of all prisoners who fail to show any emotion for the pain and suffering inflicted on a victim. The commissioner also observed that Beck has yet to admit to the son that he purposefully attacked Carlton or demonstrated that he has attempted to make amends to his son for taking away the son’s mother.
The board focused on Beck’s ongoing issues with women in general, noting Beck’s history of domestic violence against Carlton, his attempts to cast some of the blame for the attack on Carlton’s own actions, and his confrontational manner at the hearing with the all-female parole board panel.
District Attorney C. David Eyster asked Cox to attend the hearing to express his focused opposition to Beck’s release. As part of that focused opposition, it was argued during the hearing that Beck continues to pose an unreasonable danger to the community and that the original crime remains so shocking and atrocious as to deserve maximum punishment.
As part of the hearing process, the board was duly impressed by the almost 100 letters sent by various members of the community voicing outrage at the prospect of Beck’s release, as well as the hundreds of signatures on petitions opposing parole for Beck.
Michelle Carlton called the public outcry “amazing,” noting that police departments, the Mendocino County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Congressman Mike Thompson and the people who care for Sherry Carlton at the convalescent home were among those who wrote letters against Beck's release.
Eyster extended his thanks to those in the community who responded to his call for action by writing those letters and signing petitions.
In finding Beck unsuitable for parole, the parole board found that Beck was not credible in his explanation of the attack and the reasons behind the attack.
The commissioners further observed that Beck had failed to “internalize” anything he had been working on to rehabilitate himself while in prison, and, in fact presented to the board as a “self-absorbed and self-centered” felon.
Due to Beck’s gross shortcomings in rehabilitation, along with the highly callous, vicious and atrocious nature of the attack on Carlton, the board found Beck unsuitable for parole and ordered that he not be eligible for another parole hearing until the passing of 10 years.
Michelle Carlton said her family was thrilled with the outcome.
She credited Marsy's Law with allowing the parole board to set the next parole hearing out to 10 years, rather than three.
The California Attorney General's Office reported that California voters passed Marsy's Law – known formally officially as Proposition 9, the Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008 – in November 2008. The ballot measure was mean to provide rights and due process to all crime victims.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation documents explained that Marsy’s Law amended the California Penal Code by changing the period for scheduling a prisoner’s next hearing after a parole denial from up to two years for non-murderers and up to five years for murderers to 15, 10, seven, five or three years for all prisoners.
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Forest officials said Wednesday that snowpack measurements taken at Anthony Peak on the Mendocino National Forest at the end of February show that precipitation this winter is slightly above average.
The average snow pack measured at the end of the month was 78.7 inches, with water content measuring 24.9 inches. These measurements are 126 percent of average snow pack and 101 percent of average water content, according to the report.
The historic average for this time of year is 61.8 inches of snow pack and 24.7 inches of water content, forest officials said.
“The snow is extra powdery – we received 35.5 inches of snow since last month but only gained 7.5 inches of water,” said Forest Hydrologist Robin Mowery. “There are still several decent storms predicted this season and the hope is that snowpack will be at least average this year, if not better.”
For reference, 1991 was the record low with 4.1 inches of snow pack, according to forest records. The record high was in 1969 with 148.8 inches of snowpack.
Mendocino National Forest employees Conroy Coleman and Tony Kanownik took the snow measurements this month. They hiked from the junction of Forest Highway 7 and Road M4 to the survey point due to the powder conditions.
Originally established in 1944, the Anthony Peak snow course provides data for precipitation draining into the Grindstone watershed into Stony Creek and the Black Butte Reservoir, ending in the Sacramento River.
Runoff from the Mendocino National Forest is critical in providing surface water and ground water for the surrounding communities.
The state Department of Water Resources reported Wednesday that the snowpack statewide was 128 percent of normal.
The agency's third snow survey of the 2010-11 season, held last week, showed the state's snowpack was well above average. The readings were boosted by recent storms that made up for a dry January and early February.
“We appear to be on a good water supply track as we move toward summer’s peak demand period,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “Once again, however, we must emphasize that conservation should always be a priority in California.”
DWR estimated it will be able to deliver 60 percent of requested State Water Project (SWP) water this year. The estimate will be adjusted as hydrologic and regulatory conditions continue to develop.
In 2010, the SWP delivered 50 percent of a requested 4,172,126 acre-feet, up from a record-low initial projection of 5 percent due to lingering effects of the 2007-2009 drought. Deliveries were 60 percent of requests in 2007, 35 percent in 2008, and 40 percent in 2009.
The last 100 percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years due to pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish – was in 2006, the state reported.
The SWP delivers water to more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The mountain snowpack provides approximately one-third of the water for California’s households, industry and farms as it slowly melts into streams and reservoirs.
California’s reservoirs are fed both by rain and snowpack runoff and most of the state’s major reservoirs are above normal storage levels for the date.
Snowpack and water content monitoring is an important tool in determining the coming year’s water supply. The data is used by hydrologists, hydroelectric power companies, the recreation industry and other organizations.
More than 50 agencies and utilities, in coordination with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), visit hundreds of snow measurement courses in California’s mountains as part of the Cooperative Snow Surveys Program.
For more information on California snow surveys, please visit http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Needing to come up with $2.3 million in spending reductions for the coming two school years, the Kelseyville Unified School District Board of Trustees spent four hours Tuesday night going through a list of 32 items looking for places to cut.
Secretarial jobs, a library clerk, campus monitors, elementary school teacher positions and the closure of Gard Street School were among the painful proposed cuts that the board added to its recovery list.
Board President Rick Winer said of the items on the list, “These are not things we look at as expendable. These are things that we really need to have.”
However, he added, “Our hands are tied and we're forced to make these reductions,” the result of a 20-percent reduction in funds over the last several years.
The district is facing between $1.6 million and $2.3 million in cuts, the higher number resulting if the governor's tax proposals don't get voter approval this summer, district officials said.
The actions the district is being forced to take prompted teacher and parent Robin Colt to tell the board during the meeting, “It's frightening. I don't know what kind of a school we're going to have.”
Adding to the district's troubles is that it recently was placed in “qualified” status, meaning that its budget is not in balance and that it is now receiving assistance and oversight from the Lake County Office of Education.
Superintendent Dave McQueen told the group that the district's budget has to be certified by the county office and the state.
He said the “elephant in the room” for the district for many years is its health and benefits package, which his known to be the best in the county. But it's expensive for the district, as are retirement liabilities.
A list of proposed recovery elements that are related to negotiations with the certificated and classified unions, and which the board didn't include in its line-by-line review, included a proposal to change the health and welfare plan for all groups, with savings estimated between $300,000 and $900,000.
After slogging through the list before an audience of close to 70 people – teachers, classified staff and parents – the board came up with approximately $2,293,400 in items proposed for cuts, about $6,600 short of the goal.
Those cuts would amount to savings of $867,700 in the 2011-12 school year, according to district Chief Financial Officer Tiffany Kemp.
Spared – again – was Riviera Elementary, which the board had voted against closing last fall. Winer said neighborhood schools like Riviera, which the community had fought to keep open, “are the backbone of our culture.”
But Board member Chris Irwin said they may have to revisit the issue depending on how serious the district's budget issues become over the next year.
Also spared were the district's sports programs, with the board agreeing with Board member Peter Quartarolo's sentiments that sports is “an integral part of a well-rounded education.”
Board members had feared that cutting sports programs would result in students leaving the district, which would only add to the district's already declining enrollment.
The board also kept the yearbook and K-Corps electives at Kelseyville High School. When Irwin suggested that perhaps the county could help cover the K-Corps teacher's stipend since the students help in search and rescue operations, Supervisor Rob Brown approached the podium and said, “You were reading my mind.”
He added, “I would be more than happy to take that back to our board and ask for that,” suggesting that asset forfeiture money could be used to help with the program.
Among the most hotly contested proposed cuts involved school maintenance and custodial jobs, a library clerk that will be cut in the second year, several part-time secretarial positions and campus monitors.
Several people spoke out to save the library clerk, which will be cut to save the district $44,000. They argued that library resources were already thin – so thin that Holley Luia, president of the district's chapter of the California School Employee Association, said, “Something's gonna pop.”
Donna Goodwin Nelson, a district bus driver, told the board about a first grader she knows, an “amazing” little girl who cherishes her library time, like so many of the children do, because it offers her the chance to look at books. “So many of these little people, this is their only environment where they have that opportunity.”
A further reduction of library staff hours would be the equivalent of putting a cage around the books, suggested Mt. Vista Middle School teacher Cheryl Mostin.
The board also chose to save $72,000 by cutting the campus monitor spots, which are equivalent to 1.5 full-time positions.
Marcia Porter, Kelseyville High School's campus monitor, said she assists the principal every day in dealing with children leaving campus, doing drugs at school or being caught with drugs, and the associated disciplinary issues.
“I appreciate that this is just little Kelseyville but the drug problems are real,” she said, recounting going out to find children skipping class and bringing them back to school.
“I believe in my heart that it takes a whole town, a village if you will, to raise a child. I am here every day to do that and I do a good job,” she said, adding, “Think hard before you remove us from your schools.”
Teachers union President Rico Abordo also appealed to the board not to cut teaching positions further. Both the classified and certificated bargaining units have made concessions, he said, with teachers agreeing to increased class sizes of 30 students, up from 20, he said.
At the same time, teacher numbers are down. Three years ago there were 94 teachers in the district, at the start of this year they were at 81. With some of the proposed cuts, Abordo warned the number of teachers could fall to 78.
As the evening wore on and the clock ticked past 11 p.m., the board decided it wanted to look at other possible reductions to meet the goal and also see the recovery plan proposals put into writing.
But after four hours, the board and audience were all bleary-eyed and exhausted.
The result was that the board agreed to continue the meeting at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the district office board room, 4410 Konocti Road, at which time the goal is to finish up the work.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LUCERNE, Calif. – Earlier this month sheriff's deputies arrested a 33-year-old Lucerne man on a $2 million arrest warrant out of the state of Idaho.
In late February, sheriff’s detectives were contacted by the police department of Meridian, Idaho, with information that Paul Anthony Neuman, 33, was connected to a crime that occurred at a health food store in their city last December, according to a report from Capt. James Bauman.
Bauman said the incident involved an alleged robbery, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Collaborative investigative efforts between Lake County sheriff’s detectives and the Meridian Police Department led to the issuance of a $2 million fugitive from justice warrant by the state of Idaho for Neuman’s arrest, Bauman said.
On March 1 at approximately 7:30 a.m., sheriff’s deputies located Neuman at a home on Second Avenue in Lucerne and arrested him without incident, according to Bauman's report.
He said Neuman was booked at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and is currently awaiting extradition back to Idaho.
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The Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit is continuing to assist Idaho authorities with investigating the Meridian incident, Bauman said.
Anyone with information on Neuman’s involvement with the crime in Idaho is asked to contact Sgt. John Gregore at 707-262-4200.
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