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As Lake County News reported over the weekend, Lakeport Police and the Lake County Sheriff's Office were involved in making the arrests, which took place along Ackley Road in Lakeport.
A report from Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Cecil Brown Monday explained that at 3:41 p.m. Saturday Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a reported fight in front of a residence in Kelseyville. Personnel from the Kelseyville Fire Protection District also responded.
The deputies found several excited people in front of the home, according to Brown, who told the deputies that “Jose” started a fight, and then left in a gray Isuzu utility vehicle. Witnesses told fire department personnel that a woman in the Isuzu had a small handgun concealed in her brazier.
As deputies searched for the Isuzu, Lakeport Police Officer Jason Ferguson located the vehicle on Ackley Road near Lakeport, according to Brown's report.
Lt. Brad Rasmussen of Lakeport Police told Lake County News Monday that Ferguson spotted the vehicle on Highway 29 and followed it to Ackley Road, where he initiated a felony stop and waited for sheriff's deputies.
Brown said Deputy Gavin Wells, Deputy Darren Daskam, Sgt. Jim Beland and Sgt. Brian Martin responded to the Ackley Road location. There they detained Jose Luis Valadez, 29, of Lakeport; Teresa Yepez Garcia, 48, of Lakeport; and another woman and removed them from the vehicle.
A search of the vehicle yielded a .380 caliber handgun, according to Brown's report.
Interviews were conducted at the residence in Kelseyville, at the location of the high-risk stop and at Sutter Lakeside Hospital, Brown reported. Witnesses confirmed that an altercation had occurred at the residence.
However, Brown reported that none of the involved parties wished to cooperate in the prosecution of any other party.
The interviews also revealed that Valadez and Yepez Garcia had both been in possession of the .380 caliber handgun.
Both were arrested for carrying a concealable firearm in a vehicle (12025(a)(1)PC) and carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle (12031(a)(1)PC), and booked into the Lake County Jail.
Since Saturday, Yepez Garcia and Valadez have both posted, in the amount of $20,000 each, and been released from jail, according to jail records.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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UPPER LAKE – Officials still haven't settled on the cause of a fire that broke out near Highways 20 and 29 Saturday morning.
The fire, which was reported at about 10 a.m., was located in farmland in a flat area near the junction of the two highways, according to Battalion Chief Ken Petz of Northshore Fire Protection District's Upper Lake station.
Upper Lake's station sent two attack units and one engine responded from Lakeport, along with responders from the US Forest Services and Cal Fire, said Petz.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Redhawk Palleson said Cal Fire sent five engines, a helicopter, an air attack, a dozer and two air tankers to the scene, Pallesen said.
Firefighters contained the fire between 1 and 2 p.m., Petz said.
One home was threatened, he said, but firefighters were able to protect it and avert damage.
Petz said there were no injuries.
The fire's cause still has not been determined, said Petz.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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BARTLETT SPRINGS – A collision involving a motorcycle and a pickup truck on the way to Bartlett Springs sent a Clearlake teen to the hospital Sunday night with major injuries.
The California Highway Patrol incident logs reported that the crash occurred six to seven miles up Bartlett Springs Road at 6:20 p.m.
Battalion Chief Ken Petz of Northshore Fire Protection District's Upper Lake station reported Sunday that Northshore firefighters were the first on the scene at the crash.
The CHP logs reported that the motorcyclist was a 15-year-old male from Clearlake.
Petz said the teen suffered a compound fracture and was transported by REACH helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment.
No information was available on the pickup driver.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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ANDERSON SPRINGS – A 3.1 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Anderson Springs area Sunday morning.
The quake occurred at approximately 9 a.m. Sunday, according to the US Geological Survey.
The epicenter was located three miles west of Anderson Springs, four miles east southeast of The Geysers and five miles south southwest of Cobb. The US Geological Survey was recorded at the depth of 1 mile.
Within a minute that quake was followed by a smaller, 1.6-magnitude quake within roughly the same area, according to US Geological Survey reports.
Three other smaller quakes also took place during the morning near Cobb and The Geysers, the US Geological Survey reported.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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UPDATE: This story has been corrected to reflect that no high-speed chase occurred and that the original report did not involve two women beating up a male subject. The caliber of the weapon found also has been corrected; a .380 not a .38 was found, and one subject's age has been corrected. Lake County News regrets the errors. A followup story also has been posted: "Followup: Deputies make arrests for firearm violations."
LAKEPORT – Two people were arrested Saturday afternoon near Lakeport on weapons charges.
About 3:30 p.m. authorities responded to a call about a fight that involved a gray Isuzu.
By the time authorities arrived on scene, the vehicle was gone, but shortly thereafter the vehicle was spotted traveling down Highway 29.
Lakeport Police and Lake County Sheriff's deputies followed the Isuzu to the 3400 block of Ackley road in Lakeport, about three-quarters of a mile south of Highway 175/Hopland Grade. Six law enforcement vehicles from both Lakeport Police and LCSO were on scene, with two female subjects handcuffed and placed in separate vehicles.
The male subject was placed in another car, also handcuffed. He had sustained a head injury that required medical attention, and local medics from Lakeport Fire Protection District responded to the scene to attend to him, placing a large bandage around his head.
Sgt. Jim Beland of LCSO said they had not yet determined how the man had been injured, or exactly what kind of injury he received.
Deputies and Lakeport Police searched the suspects' vehicle, removing several items including ammunition, a metal box and an aluminum baseball bat. They found at least one .380 caliber semiautomatic in the vehicle.
The sheriff's office arrest logs showed Saturday that the male subject, Jose Luis Valadez, 29, of Lakeport was arrested on felony charges of carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle with a prior felony conviction and carrying a loaded firearm in public. He remained in jail Saturday night on $20,000 bail.
Arrested on the same charges as Valadez was Teresa Yepez Garcia, 48, of Lakeport, who also remained in the Lake County Jail on $20,000 bail Saturday night.
It was not clear Saturday if a third suspect had been arrested in the case.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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As Lake County News first reported in May, the suit reached a tentative settlement May 15.
Court documents from that May settlement conference also indicated that the sale of Konocti Harbor to Page Mill Properties of Palo Alto is under way.
Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the US District Court of the Northern District of California signed the final 27-page consent order in the case on Friday, which the Department of Labor filed against Local 38 of the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Journeymen, whose Convalescent Trust Fund, Lakeside Haven, has owned Konocti Harbor since 1959.
“Workers’ retirement dreams, health and other benefits were jeopardized by the gross mismanagement of their benefit plans,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “This legal action puts the benefit plans under new, independent management and restores at least $3.5 million to the pension plan.”
A call to attorney James P. Baker, who represented Local 38 in the suit, was not returned Friday afternoon.
Citing the need to protect union workers, Chao filed the suit in November 2004 against Local 38.
The suit alleged that Local 38's current and former trustees violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in managing retirement, health, scholarship, apprenticeship, and vacation and holiday funds that cover more than 2,000 people who are employed throughout Northern California, the Department of Labor reported.
The Department of Labor Local 38's trustees of diverting more than $36 million from the funds to renovate and operate Konocti Harbor.
A statement issued Friday by Chao's office specifically named trustees Lawrence J. Mazzola Sr., Local 38's business manager and financial secretary-treasurer; his son, Lawrence Mazzola Jr.; William B. Fazande; Larry Lee; James R. Shugrue; Vohon J. Kazarian; Tom Irvine; Robert E. Buckley; Robert Buckley Jr.; Art Rud; Ron Fahy; Robert Nurisso; former plan administrator Frank Sullivan; and Local 38.
Chao's Friday statement alleged that the suit's defendants “maintained inadequate financial controls, violated plan documents, engaged in self-dealing, and imprudently spent millions to build and maintain facilities at Konocti despite the resort’s continuing financial losses.”
In addition, Chao said that those dealings caused Local 38 to profit from the interest on a $6 million loan.
The settlement appoints independent fiduciaries to manage the pension funds, replaces all but two trustees – Mazzola Jr. and Buckley Jr., who are required to attend training on ERISA fiduciary responsibilities – and permanently bars the replaced trustees and the former plan administrator from serving as fiduciaries or service providers for pension plans.
Hamilton's order includes the provisions that professional investment managers will now oversee Local 38's pension funds, and that an investment monitor will be responsible for supervising all pension plan assets.
The court also appoints WhiteStar Advisors LLC as a second fiduciary to oversee the management and operation of Konocti Harbor, as well as its sale to Page Mill Properties, which now is under way.
In a previous interview with Lake County News, Baker said he could not comment on the specifics of the sales because it is protected by a confidentiality agreement.
Court documents say Konocti Harbor's sale is estimated to fetch $25 million.
The court has ordered that the first $4 million in sale proceeds go to Local 38 to repay a loan it made to the Convalescent Trust Fund in 2000; the next $6 million will go to Local 38's Pension Trust Fund; Local 28 and the Pension Trust Fund will share equally any additional sale proceeds.
In addition, Local 38's fiduciary liability insurer must pay the Local 38 Pension Trust Fund more than $2.9 million, and pay the union's civil penalty of $583,333 to the United States Treasury.
The San Francisco Regional Office of the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated the case, the Department of Labor reported.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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