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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEAR LAKE – On Monday sheriff's deputies and Search and Rescue teams continued to look for a missing Vacaville man who reportedly fell into the lake and disappeared Saturday evening.
John Stockton fell from the back of his boat near Buckingham Point and didn't resurface, according to a report from Lake County Sheriff's Office Lt. Gary Basor.
Rescue efforts launched Saturday evening, Basor reported Sunday.
Basor, who is supervising the rescue operations, was back on the water Monday to continue the search, according to Lt. Cecil Brown.
However, no further information was forthcoming from the sheriff's office by the end of the day Monday about the status of the search.
A co-worker of Stockton's longtime girlfriend at First Priority Financial in Fairfield said Stockton, the father of two daughters, was accompanied by his girlfriend on this recent trip to Clear Lake.
The sheriff's office has been assisted in the search by REACH, and dive teams and search dogs from agencies in Alameda, Sonoma and Sacramento County, and the California Rescue Dog Association.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Editor
WASHINGTON – Rep. Mike Thompson joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Leadership outside the Capitol last week to raise awareness of the treatment barriers facing mental health patients.
According to the Government Accountability Office, 90 percent of health insurance plans impose financial limitations and treatment restrictions on mental health and addiction benefits.
In response, Thompson has co-authored the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addition Equity Act (H.R. 1424). This bill requires all insurers that offer mental health care to provide the same level of benefits as they would for any other medical condition.
"Mental illness and addiction are diseases like any other," said Thompson. "It is unconscionable that people suffering from these sometimes life-threatening diseases are discriminated against when they ask for help."
Currently, health insurers are allowed to offer mental health benefits that differ significantly from the medical and surgical benefits offered under the same plan. As a result, beneficiaries often pay more for these services and are eligible to use fewer of them.
The Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act requires any insurer choosing to provide mental health benefits to equalize the financial requirements and treatment limits in comparison to other benefits.
"There are already so many barriers for people with mental health problems, from the stigma associated with it to a nationwide shortage of providers," said Thompson. "This bill will make sure that health insurance is not one of them. It's time we leveled the playing field in the treatment of mental health. Millions of Americans are depending on it."
A majority of respondents to a National Mental Health Association survey indicated that they would support parity legislation even if it meant a $1 per month increase to their premiums. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that such legislation will increase healthcare costs less than that amount.
H.R. 1424 was introduced by Reps. Patrick Kennedy and Jim Ramstad and co-authored by Thompson on March 7.
The bill is cosponsored by a bipartisan majority of 265 Members of Congress.
For more information on Thompson's legislation, visit his Web site, http://mikethompson.house.gov/.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
KELSEYVILLE – Rescuers continue to search the lake for a Vacaville man who fell from his boat Saturday evening.
The Lake County Sheriff's Marine Patrol reported Sunday that they had received a report at 5:19 p.m. Saturday that John Stockton had fallen from the back of his boat and into the water.
Stockton, who went into the water near Buckingham Point, didn't resurface, according to the report from LCSO Lt. Gary Basor.
LCSO's Search and Rescue efforts began immediately, reported Basor. Air Ambulance Reach 6 was called and responded within nine minutes, flying over the area where Stockton was last seen in an attempt to locate him.
Search and Rescue brought in a water search dog at 8 p.m. to search the water from a boat, said Basor. However, by midnight, rescuers had not yet located Stockton.
The search resumed Sunday at 8 a.m., Basor noted, led by LCSO and the North Shore Dive Team.
Basor reported that LCSO requested mutual aid through the state Office of Emergency Services for search dogs and dive teams with sophisticated sonar equipment.
Alameda County, Sonoma County, Sacramento County and the California Rescue Dog Association responded, according to Basor.
Basor reported Sunday afternoon that Stockton still had not been found.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY – A former Kelseyville resident found guilty of the 1986 murder of his ex-wife's boyfriend and assaulting his teenage stepson with a firearm was denied parole in a May 4 hearing.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff appeared at the parole hearing for Richard Cruz, 59, at the California State Prison in Solano, where. Hinchcliff said he argued against granting parole.
Cruz was sentenced on June 8, 1987, to 33 years to life for the first-degree murder of Michael Koschik and assault with a firearm on a teenage boy.
Hinchcliff reported that the investigation found that Cruz and his wife of seven years, Beverly Cruz, had separated in 1985 and divorced in July 1986 because of Richard Cruz’s excessive alcohol abuse and problems with violence.
At the time of the murder, Beverly Cruz was living with Michael Koschik at a residence on Bell Hill Road in Kelseyville, along with her three children – the youngest of which was Cruz's biological child – and Koschik’s two children, according to Hinchcliff. The five children were between the ages of 7 and 16.
In May of 1986, Beverly Cruz obtained a restraining order against her ex-husband because of his ongoing threats and harassment, including an incident where he damaged Koschik’s truck, Hinchcliff reported. Between June and September of 1986 Cruz violated the restraining order several more times, and in September of 1986 he resisted arrest when deputies arrested him for violating the order.
Investigators interviewed several witnesses who stated that Cruz had made several threats to harm or kill Beverly Cruz and Michael Koschik prior to the murder, according to Hinchcliff.
Then, on the afternoon of Nov. 16, 1986, Cruz drove to Koschik’s Bell Hill Road home with a .357 revolver and a box of ammunition, Hinchcliff reported. Beverly Cruz, Koschik and the five children were all home, having just returned home from a sports banquet for one of the children.
When Cruz pulled up in front of the house, Koschik walked out on the front porch, according to Hinchcliff's report. Cruz got out of his truck with the gun and approached with the gun pointed at Koschik. As Koschik started to back up and turn to go back into the house, Cruz shot Koschik four times from a distance of about 12 feet while several of the children watched.
One of Cruz’s teenage stepsons, afraid that Cruz was there to kill the entire family, retrieved a shotgun, loaded it and shot Cruz as he was reloading the handgun, Hinchcliff's report noted. Cruz then fired at least two shots at his stepson.
Koschik died at the scene, Hinchcliff said.
At the parole hearing, Hinchcliff advised the parole commissioners that due to the callousness and brutality of the crime, Cruz’s violent history and the devastation caused to so many young children, Cruz should never be paroled under any circumstances.
Three of the children who were present at the murder, all of them now adults, were present at the hearing to ask that Cruz not be released, Hinchcliff reported.
The commissioners denied Cruz parole, and set his next parole hearing in five years, the maximum denial time allowed by law, Hinchcliff noted. Cruz's next parole hearing will be in 2012.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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