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LAKEPORT – The story behind the murder this week of a Lakeport man took on an even grimmer tone with the confirmation that the murder victim had recently served time in prison.
Michael Anthony Dodele, 67, was stabbed to death in his home at Space 19 in the Western Hills Mobile Home Park on Tuesday morning.
That same morning, Lake County Sheriff's deputies arrested 29-year-old Ivan Garcia Oliver. Officials reported that Oliver was allegedly covered with blood and made statements admitting to attacking Dodele.
Oliver is from San Diego, where he was on parole for an assault with a deadly weapon conviction, according to a report from the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
A reader tipped Lake County News that Dodele was listed on the Megan's Law Web site, which lists registered sex offenders and their addresses.
A check of the site confirmed that Dodele was on the site, registered at the Lakeshore Boulevard address. The record noted that he was in compliance for registration.
The Lake County Sheriff's administrative office was closed Friday, so Chief Deputy Russell Perdock could not be reached for comment on the case.
Dodele, who also went by the alias Michael Salta, had been convicted of rape by force, according to the Megan's Law Web site and confirmed by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records.
Previously a resident of Sonoma County, records obtained by Lake County News showed that Dodele was committed to state prison in February of 1988 after being convicted of rape in Sonoma County. He received a 26-year sentence.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records show that Dodele was discharged from that agency's supervision in February of 2004.
According to court records he later was committed to the Atascadero State Hospital, which is where the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation commits patients including offenders with mental illnesses and those being held under the California Sexually Violent Predator Act, according to state legislation. However, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had no information about his time at Atascadero.
While at the Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, Dodele took a case to the First Appellate District Court Jan. 23, 2002. His case was argued before the court in San Francisco Jan. 29, 2003.
The court upheld his conviction, and he next appealed to the state Supreme Court, which denied his petition for a review on April 20, 2003.
It is not clear from records if that appeal was an effort to have his original conviction overturned or if it was related to his commitment to Atascadero.
While he was at Atascadero in 2005, Dodele suffered chest pains and thought he was having a heart attack. Doctors found out he had a hyatal hernia, but when they tried to arrange surgery, Atascadero personnel refused to allow the treatment, according to an article about the incident on Echoes of the Gulag, a Web site dedicated to people held under the Sexually Violent Predator Act.
In May 2006 the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of California reached a settlement concerning civil rights violations at state mental hospitals, including Atascadero, according to court documents.
An autopsy of Dodele is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 27, as part of the ongoing investigation into his murder, Perdock reported this week.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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LAKE COUNTY – State Sen. Patricia Wiggins has had a busy freshman year in the Senate. {sidebar id=35}
Like her North Coast colleague in the Assembly, Patty Berg (D-Eureka), Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) had nine of her bills signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by the October deadline.
David Miller, Wiggins' spokesman, said the 120-member Legislature sent 964 bills to Schwarzenegger’s desk in 2007, with Schwarzenegger signing 750 and vetoing 214.
Wiggins authored a total of 34 bills. Of those, 14 were approved by the Legislature and sent to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to Wiggins' spokesman, David Miller.
Of those 14 bills, Schwarzenegger signed nine and vetoed five, Miller reported.
This year comprised the first half of the two-year, 2007-08 Legislative Session, Miller reported. He said Wiggins has 13 other bills that she introduced in 2007 that are still alive going into 2008 while, at the same time, discussing potential bills with her staff for the 2008 legislative year.
During this session, Wiggins – a member of the Senate's Veterans Affairs Committee – called for an audit of the Yountville Veterans Home and held a hearing on the matter Aug. 29.
She also worked on agricultural issues, with four ag-related bills – including Lake County's pear shed bill and legislation to get more funding for state efforts to fight the light brown apple moth – receiving the governor's signature.
Legislative highlights for 2007
Among her bills signed this year by the governor, Wiggins reported that she is most proud of her environmental and ag-related legislation, including SB 319, which extended a labor law exemption allowing Lake County minors to work longer hours during pear harvest.
“Given the support of my colleagues, and the governor, on my bill, SB 319, I am optimistic that we will be able to pass new legislation, some time in the near future, to eliminate the sunset date altogether, and make this very productive provision of law permanent,” Wiggins said.
Her disappointments included Schwarzenegger's veto of SB 565, which had sought to establish a position to oversee health care management at the Yountville Veterans Home. In his Oct. 12 veto message, Schwarzenegger said the bill was unnecessary because he said such a position already existed. He said the bill also infringed on his authority to administer state agencies and programs.
Wiggins said she also was disappointed by Schwarzenegger's veto of SB 678, which would have enabled Napa County to purchase the property known as Skyline Park from the state (the county currently leases the land for a nominal annual amount); and his veto of SB 861, which would have allowed the North Coast Railroad Authority to reallocate some of its funds toward environmental cleanup.
Wiggins said she was saddened that SB 623, her bill that would have covered the cost of drug co-payments for seniors and other individuals under the Medicare Part D program, died in the Legislature.
“Clearly, this year did not lack for disappointments, but I think it is important to keep things in their proper perspective,” said Wiggins. “We have yet to implement a strategy for reforming health care, which has of course been frustrating, but we are still working at it and I remain hopeful that something will come together in the near future.”
She added, “On a personal level, while I am disappointed, and in some cases perplexed, over the Governor’s decision to veto some of my bills, I am nonetheless appreciative of the fact that he did, in the end, sign nine of my bills into law this year.”
With one exception – SB 556, an “urgency” measure establishing the Light Brown Apple Moth program within the state Department of Food & Agriculture – all of the new laws created by Wiggins' legislation will take effect next January.
Those bills signed into law and brief explanations follow.
– SB 106: Ratified the gaming compact between the state and the Yurok Tribe of the Yurok Reservation, allowing the tribe to operate up to 99 gaming machines at a fuel mart and future gaming facility on its reservation.
– SB 108: Expands the types of nonprofit organizations able to allow wine orders to be taken by wineries at their events to include civic leagues, social organizations and “voluntary employees’ benefit associations (this is an expansion of AB 1505, a 2003 bill by then-Assemblywoman Wiggins).
– SB 319: Extends to Jan. 1, 2012 an exemption to state labor law allowing minors in Lake County (16-17 years of age) to work up to 10 hours a day and up to 60 hours a week in agricultural packing plants during the harvest season (when school is not in session).
– SB 556: Creates the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) program within the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
– SB 568: Authorizes counties to administer necessary medications to inmates diagnosed as mentally ill and found incompetent to stand trial (the bill requires that the drugs be administered utilizing a medically approved protocol at a county jail facility, in the same manner as at an in-patient unit or state hospital).
– SB 581: Transfers the Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Award System (a program that provides a small monthly stipend to people who do perform long service to their communities as volunteer firefighters) from CalPERS to the California State Fire Employees Welfare Benefit Corp.
– SB 701: Reinstates the California Forest Legacy Program, which had expired in 2007 (the program, which is designed to protect forest land, including working forests, from development pressures, is necessary for the state to receive federal funds for forest conservation).
– SB 773: Allows 43-foot cattle trailers to be used in transporting livestock over certain parts of Highway 101.
– SB 813: Clarifies that a specific section of the state elections code does not apply to runoff elections (the legislation was necessary due to a conflict which arose following the 2006 race for district attorney in Mendocino County).
“We expanded or extended existing laws, and created some new ones, in areas which will benefit the state as a whole,” said Wiggins.
Looking ahead at the 2008 legislative year, Wiggins said her top priorities include the wine industry, fish and game, smart growth, waste diversion, rural telephone rates and North Coast railroad issues.
Wiggins would be termed out of service in the Senate in 2014.
Visit her Web site at http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Jim Wright is a battalion chief with both South Lake County Fire Protection District and Cal Fire. He explained that South Lake County Fire contracts with Cal Fire to run its south lake fire operations.
As Lake County News reported Thursday, local Cal Fire resources were being summoned to Southern California based on a forecast predicting high Santa Ana winds, coupled with the area's already dry conditions.
Cal Fire also had reported that an Office of Emergency Services engine at South Lake County Fire also had been notified to be prepared to leave, with a decision expected Friday morning.
That decision, however, was made Thursday, said Wright.
“That order was canceled so they are not going tomorrow morning,” said Wright. “At this point they're not going.”
Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit sent three engines to Southern California, one each from its Clearlake Oaks, Kelsey-Cobb and Middletown stations, Wright said.
Wright said Cal Fire's local resources in Southern California include several “overhead” – or fire command – personnel, along with two bulldozers and its helicopter, based on Boggs Mountain.
The helicopter, which has been in Southern California for about two weeks so far, has a 21-day commitment, said Wright.
Wright added that he has sent down two crew members as relief for the helicopter team.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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When fires broke out in Southern California in October, Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit sent firefighting personnel equipment, as did Northshore, Lakeport, Lake County and South County Fire Protection Districts, as Lake County News has reported.
Chuck Abshear, division chief of operations for the Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit, said the unit sent 10 of its 11 crews to battle the Southern California fires in October.
Those units have since returned. But with continuing dry conditions in the south, combined with a forecast for strong Santa Ana winds through this coming weekend, state officials began ordering Cal Fire resources back to Southern California, said Abshear.
“There's potential for significant fire weather,” he explained.
Fire crews and equipment originally scheduled to leave last Sunday, however, were delayed until Tuesday, said Abshear.
Cal Fire's local unit was preparing to send a strike team of five engines, with three personnel for each engine, said Abshear, plus three more engines that would combine with Santa Clara's Cal Fire resources to form another strike team.
In addition, the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit planned to send four hand crews each from two conservation camps – Konocti Conservation Camp and a Solano County camp – plus three bulldozers, Abshear reported.
The Cal Fire helicopter stationed at Boggs Mountain has been in Southern California for the last two weeks, said Abshear.
The local Cal Fire unit will retain nine engines, three inmate crews and one or two bulldozers, said Abshear. With the recent rains Cal Fire feels confident that fire danger in the unit is reduced, he added.
Like other Cal Fire units around the state, the Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit retained seasonal employees in order to respond to Southern California's fire, Abshear explained.
“We still have seasonal employees on,” he said, adding that only about one-third of the unit's 200 seasonal firefighters have been laid off.
Local assistance also was requested through the Office of Emergency Services (OES), said Abshear, with state-owned OES engines called on to report to Southern California.
Northwestern California was to send four strike teams of OES engines, said Abshear.
South Lake County Fire has one OES engine that was called on and supposed to leave earlier this week, said Abshear.
However, Suzie Blankenship, a Cal Fire fire prevention specialist, reported that plans had changed, with South Lake County Fire waiting to hear if it actually would need to respond with a crew.
“It looks like they're on standby and that a decision will be made some time Friday morning as to whether they'll be launched or not,” said Blankenship.
South Lake County Fire officials couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
Abshear, who said he has been with Cal Fire's Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit for eight years, said in that time the unit has not kept on seasonal firefighters this long.
“This year is unique in terms of its continuous fire threat and that's warranted us keeping our staff on,” Abshear said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Wendy Jensen, 34, of Lucerne somehow got onto Highway 4 near Martinez going the wrong way early Sunday morning, said California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Yox of the Contra Costa CHP office.
“We're not certain exactly where she got onto the freeway the wrong way,” said Yox.
Jensen, driving a 1997 Ford Explorer, was heading eastbound in the highway's westbound lane in an area where the highway is separated by a divider, said Yox. “She didn't cross over the freeway, she got on the wrong way.”
Yox said investigators believe that Jensen saw headlights – it was about 4:45 a.m. – and swerved to the right to avoid hitting the vehicle.
She struck the center median guardrail with her Explorer's passenger side, said Yox, and bounced back into the path of a 2005 Dodge Neon driven by Rickey Stratton, 49, of Hayward, hitting him head-on.
Stratton suffered severe injuries – including breaking both legs, suffering multiple facial fractures, punctured lungs, a lacerated kidney and diaphragm, said Yox. Stratton was taken to John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, where he was reported to be in critical condition.
Jensen also was taken to the hospital, complaining of neck and back pain, said Yox. He said she may have suffered a spinal injury.
A CHP officer who responded to the accident concluded that Jensen was driving under the influence, said Yox. “As soon as she clears the hospital she will be taken into custody.”
The charges, said Yox, will be felony drunk driving and driving the wrong way causing bodily injury.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Michael A. Dodele, 67, was found dead Tuesday in his home, located in Space 19 of the Western Hills Mobile Home Park at 3555 Lakeshore Blvd., according to a report from Chief Deputy Russ Perdock of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Dodele’s name had been withheld Tuesday until his next of kin were contacted and notified of his death, Perdock said.
Perdock reported that deputies found Dodele with what appeared to be multiple stab wounds to his left side and chest.
Arrested in connection with Dodele's death is Ivan Garcia Oliver, 29, a construction worker who lived in Space 31B at the same trailer park, according to Perdock.
Neighbors had pointed deputies in Oliver's direction Tuesday after they reportedly saw him leave Dodele's residence with what appeared to be blood on his hands and clothing, Perdock reported.
When deputies arrived at Oliver's residence, Perdock reported that they found blood on the car, in front of the apartment and at the front door. When they entered the residence to check for additional victims they met Oliver, who allegedly had blood on his hands and clothing.
Perdock reported that deputies immediately detained Oliver, who at that time allegedly made several incriminating comments, essentially admitting to attacking Dodele.
Based on Oliver's alleged statements and their observations at the scene, deputies requested sheriff's investigations personnel respond, said Perdock.
Deputies subsequently cordoned off the area and restricted movement within the park to allow the investigators to examine the scene, according to Perdock. Investigators interviewed several people who had witnessed what took place at the park Tuesday morning.
At 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, investigators secured a search warrant for the residences of both Dodele and Oliver, Perdock reported.
Detectives continued processing the scenes for evidence throughout the rest of the day Tuesday, Perdock said. Their on-site investigation finished up just after midnight Wednesday morning.
The investigation turned up what may be a key piece of evidence, said Perdock.
“We have a weapon but we're not sure if that's the weapon,” he said. “We're waiting for autopsy results.”
Dodele's autopsy, according to Perdock, is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 27.
Officials took Oliver to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for treatment of what appeared to be superficial injuries, consisting of a small cut to his right hand, according to Perdock.
Once he was treated and released from the hospital, Oliver was transported to the Lake County Jail for booking. Perdock reported that the sheriff's office initially was unable to confirm Oliver's identify, a problem that was solved once they ran his fingerprints.
Jail records show that Oliver is being held on a murder charge and a felony parole violation, the latter causing him to be held without bail.
Oliver was on parole from San Diego through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for assault with a deadly weapon, Perdock reported. A parole hold was placed on Oliver because of his alleged involvement in Dodele's death.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said Wednesday afternoon that he will be prosecuting the case, with Oliver scheduled to appear in court Monday, Nov. 26.
No charges have yet been formally filed, Hinchcliff said, because sheriff's investigators haven't yet forwarded the case to his office. “They're still working on it.”
Perdock reported that the investigation is continuing.
Anyone with information about the case who has not yet spoken with investigators is encouraged to contact Det. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff's Office at 707-262-4200 during business hours.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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