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THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION ON COURT APPEARANCES.
LUCERNE – A Lucerne couple turned themselves in at the Lake County Jail on Friday after warrants were issued for their arrests this week in connection with a case of missing funds at the Lucerne Senior Center.
Rowland Mosser, the senior center's former executive director, and his wife, Jayne, were booked into the Lake County Jail shortly before 10 a.m. on Friday, according to jail booking records.
The District Attorney's Office is charging Rowland Mosser, 63, with four felony counts – embezzlement, grand theft by an employee, grand theft and keeping a false record of government funds. Mosser reportedly is working as a business consultant.
Jayne Mosser, whose occupation was listed in booking records as an In-Home Supportive Services worker, is facing a single felony count of committing grand theft. She had worked with her husband at the center.
Their attorneys had arranged for them to turn themselves after the Lake County District Attorney's Office filed charges against them on Tuesday, as Lake County News has reported.
By early afternoon Friday both of the Mossers has posted bail – which was set at $10,000 each – and been released from jail.
Center officials have estimated that more than $200,000 in center funds were unaccounted for after Mosser left the center of August of 2005, although District Attorney Jon Hopkins did not give an amount in connection with the case.
The District Attorney's Office complaint alleges the Mossers committed the acts between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12, 2005. Mosser served as executive director from July 2002 to August 2005.
Mosser also had had failed to pay the center's taxes, which caused the center serious problems with the Internal Revenue Services, and resulted in penalties and interest, as Lake County News has reported.
Rowland Mosser is due to appear in court on June 13, according to the Superior Court, while Jayne Mosser is scheduled to appear June 13.
The news of the arrests was still rippling through Lucerne on Friday.
Lee Tyree, who took over as Lucerne Senior Center's executive director in January, said people at the center were happy that the case is moving forward.
Tyree said she has not heard about possible restitution if the Mossers are convicted.
However, the county has helped the center put itself back on track, said Tyree. The Lake County Redevelopment Agency also paid to have the center reroofed – at a cost of about $30,000. Tyree said the new roof is now on the building.
People are coming back to the center and the attitude is much more upbeat, said Tyree.
“Everybody's got their whole heart in this place,” she said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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The body of Silvino Eufracio-Navarro, 48, was found submerged in an irrigation pond at Clover Valley Vineyards Wednesday morning, according to Chief Deputy James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman reported that sheriff's deputies and rescue personnel responded to Clover Valley Vineyards at 10 a.m. Wednesday to investigate an accidental death.
Arriving at the scene, first responders were led to an irrigation pond where they found Eufracio-Navarro's body, according to Bauman.
The vineyard foreman who was at the scene told officials that Eufracio-Navarro had last been heard from the previous night at around midnight when he was checking the operation of the irrigation pump station at one of the vineyard ponds, Bauman reported.
Eufracio-Navarro had called the foreman to report the irrigation pump was in good working order and he had planned to return home, said Bauman. When morning came and Eufracio-Navarro’s wife had not heard from her husband, she called the foreman and the two of them went to the Clover Valley site, where they found Eufracio-Navarro submerged in the pond below the pump station.
Bauman reported that the diesel-driven pump Eufracio-Navarro was working on the previous night was located on a wooden pier extending over the irrigation pond.
Evidence at the scene revealed that while he was working on or around the pump station, his clothing apparently became caught in the driveshaft and he was abruptly pulled through the mechanics of the system, Bauman noted. Eufracio-Navarro sustained multiple injuries as a result and ultimately fell into the pond, presumably already unconscious.
Officials performed an autopsy on Eufracio-Navarro on Thursday, said Bauman.
The official cause of death is still pending, however Bauman reported that it is believed that Eufracio-Navarro died very suddenly due to multiple traumatic injuries as a result of this tragic industrial accident.
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LAKE COUNTY – In pursuit of its goal to provide more housing to county residents who need it, Habitat to Humanity of Lake County has received another grant.
The organization recently received a $2,000 grant from State Farm Insurance, Habitat for Humanity reported Friday.
The State Farm funds will go directly to purchasing building materials for new, single-family homes.
“The condition of available housing and commercial services greatly affects the quality of life for residents and the stability of a community,” State Farm officials noted.
Habitat reported that the funds already are being put to use on its next housing project, the Clearlake Housing Project III. The money was utilized in pouring the foundation for the 11th house Habitat has built locally.
Homeowners only pay the cost to build the home – around $70,000 – with no interest charged, according to a Friday Habitat for Humanity statement.
State Farm's grant brings the total donated to Habitat from State Farm's Strong Neighborhood Community Development Grant Program to $17,000.
The local habitat chapter reported that, little by little, through such funding, the quality of housing is being improved in Lake County.
For information on State Farm and its charitable giving program, visit www.statefarm.com or speak with a local representative in Lakeport (263-7142) or Clearlake (994-7122).
For more information on how to be involved with Habitat for Humanity, please visit www.local.habitat.org/hfhlakeca or call 994-1100.
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A $3.1 million project to reconstruct parts of Lakeshore, Old Highway 53 and a portion of Burns Valley Road is set to begin April 21, city officials said this week.
“I've issued the notice to proceed and they're out marking the streets now,” City Administrator Dale Neiman said Thursday.
The project, which Neiman said is the largest contract the city has ever awarded, will be funded by state transportation funds and Proposition 1B bond money.
Thanks to early preparation, City Engineer Bob Galusha helped land the money, said Neiman. In fact, Clearlake was the first agency in the state to receive funds from the bond.
The project, the contract for which was awarded earlier this year, was bid during the winter, which is the best time to get a good contract rate, because contractors are lining up work for the season, said Neiman. The slowing economy and less construction projects also helped get a better price, he added.
The result, was that the project – originally estimated to cost $2.9 million – came in at less than $1.4 million. Asphalt prices in the bid were in the range of $70 per ton, as opposed to $140 per ton, which was the price for asphalt in the 2005 midtown overlay project, Neiman said.
The city had hoped to be able to use the leftover $1.5 million on other roads in the city, said Neiman, including Pomo, Arrowhead, Park and Lakeshore Drive starting at City Hall and going west and east for as long as the funds would last.
However, Caltrans said that plan wouldn't work because, according to its funding regulations, the area included in the project had to be contiguous, said Neiman.
So, rather than go back to the state with new plans and risk losing the money, Neiman said they'll adapt.
The plans call for starting work at the senior center on Burns Valley and moving toward, and continuing along, Old Highway 53, said Neiman. Sections of Olympic Drive not completed in the past will be done. The project also will move from Lakeshore Drive at Highway 53 and move as far down as possible.
“We think we might make it almost to City Hall,” said Neiman.
City officials reported that the project will necessitate some road closures, but alternate routes will be offered. Flaggers will help direct traffic, and there will be advance signs and handout fliers with work and traffic information that will detail dates, times and durations of planned closures.
The project's contractor is Central Valley Paving and Asphalt of Roseville.
When the work is done, said Neiman, the streets in the project area will be “brand new.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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The Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act (HR 5719) strengthens protections against identity theft and tax fraud, expands tax help for low-income taxpayers and stops taxpayer harassment by ending the private collection of federal taxes.
This bill also closes a loophole that allows government contractors to set up sham companies in foreign jurisdictions to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes.
The bill passed the House on a vote of 238 to 179, according to Congressional voting records.
Congressman Mike Thompson voted for the bill, which he also had a hand in helping to draft in his capacity as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“For too long, changes to the tax code have done little to benefit low- and middle-class families,” said Thompson. “But we took a step toward changing that.”
Data clearly suggests that the current tax code puts taxpayers at a disadvantage, Thompson's office reported.
For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that private debt collectors hired by the IRS placed over one million calls, many to innocent people, trying to reach only 35,000 taxpayers. And the IRS program that oversees debt collection has lost almost $50 million, in part because of the huge bounty paid to private debt collectors. This legislation would stop the IRS’s use of private debt collectors.
Many taxpayers are also not getting their fair share, Thompson's office reported. About 25 percent of households eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in 1999 did not claim it, and according to the GAO, working Americans may have lost out on approximately $8 billion in unclaimed earned income credits in 2004. HR 5719 would strengthen IRS outreach to make sure people know they are entitled to tax refunds under the EITC. It also would permit the IRS to refer these taxpayers to tax clinics
The legislation also addresses the rise of identity theft by requiring the IRS to notify taxpayers if there’s been an unauthorized use of their identity and it cracks down on misleading Web sites that try to get personal information by imitating the IRS.
It takes steps to close egregious corporate loopholes and stop federal contractors from using foreign subsidiaries to evade Social Security and other employment taxes. Currently, companies can avoid paying their fair share of Social Security and Medicare taxes by creating shell companies in the Cayman Islands. The Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification closes this loophole, which costs American taxpayers almost $100 million a year.
“The average American’s tax payment covers about half a second of spending in Iraq,” said Thompson. “It’s ridiculous that we’re then giving contractors in Iraq a chance to take even more American tax dollars. It’s time we close these loopholes and use our tax dollars where they’re needed – here in the U.S.”
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On April 10 a jury convicted James Wade Roberts, 46, of the October 2006 murder of 63-year-old Ruth Donaldson at the Mullen Avenue home they shared in Clearlake, as Lake County News has reported.
Because Roberts had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges, the trial requested an additional sanity phase.
That sanity hearing started around 9 a.m. Tuesday, with testimony and closing arguments finished by noon, said District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
The jury was instructed that they could could consider all the evidence from the first phase of the trial, said Hopkins. After an hour of deliberation they came out with their verdict, which was handed down at about 2 p.m.
The jury found that Roberts was sane at the time of the murder, Hopkins reported.
Defense attorney Stephen Carter said that, after the jury's verdict last week that Roberts was guilty of first-degree murder, their finding that he was sane wasn't shocking.
Carter said there was competing evidence on the issue of sanity, and added that his client didn't cooperate with two of the three doctors appointed to examine him.
“That definitely affected the evidence,” said Carter, and hurt Roberts in the case.
Hopkins said Robert is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. May 9 in front of Judge Richard Martin in Department Two of Lake County Superior Court.
Roberts has five previous strikes, according to Carter.
“Under the law he'll get life in prison,” Carter said Tuesday. “Because of his prior strikes, under any possible verdict, he would have gotten life.”
Hopkins estimated that Roberts is likely facing 86 years to life.
Carter said he's confident an appeal will be filed in the case, although that's something that he likely won't talk to Roberts about until closer to the sentencing date. In cases this serious appeals are standard procedure, he added.
He said he expects to file a notice of appeal, which in and of itself isn't an appeal, but is the first step in the process. An appellate attorney would then be appointed to take the case through the process, Carter said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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