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July 13, 2006
HAGEN OUT, DIKEMAN NEXT?
| PLEA BARGAIN | KARUK
FIRE UNDER INVESTIGATION
HAGEN
OUT, DIKEMAN NEXT? On Friday, Deputy District Attorney Paul
Hagen, a circuit prosecutor specializing in environmental crimes,
was fired by the California District Attorneys Association, the
nonprofit organization that employed him to work in Del Norte,
Lake and Humboldt counties. Hagen, who was based in Humboldt
County, had previously clashed politically with Humboldt County
District Attorney Paul Gallegos, leading many courthouse watchers
to believe that Gallegos arranged Hagen's dismissal.
The abrupt termination of the region's top environmental
prosecutor left some confusion and anger in the regions he served.
Reached Monday, Del Norte County District Attorney Mike Riese,
one of the three DAs who shared Hagen's services, was livid at
the California District Attorneys Association not only for taking
away a capable prosecutor but for leaving him in the lurch. Hagen
is scheduled to take several cases to trial in Del Norte County
over the coming months, with one scheduled for this week; Riese
only found out that the association had fired him after the fact,
though he was assured that Hagen would be available to try the
case beginning this week.
"I talked with the director [of the CDAA]
Friday, and told them that I'm highly disappointed in the lack
of notice," Riese said. "At no time did they ever confer
with me." Riese added that if the problem was that Gallegos
and Hagen did not gel personally or politically, he would have
been happy to offer his office as a home base for the roving
prosecutor: "If he had a problem with Paul Gallegos, I would
have housed him here," Riese said.
Earlier this year, in the run-up to the June elections,
Hagen, a member of the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee,
cast the sole vote against that body's endorsement of Gallegos'
reelection campaign. He argued that the committee should not
choose between two Democrats — Gallegos and Deputy District
Attorney Worth Dikeman.
Gallegos is on vacation and could not be reached
for comment. Mike Testerman, the CDAA's assistant executive director,
said Tuesday that he couldn't comment on the issue, but said
that the association had no immediate replacement for Hagen.
"There's no way to determine when there will be a replacement
put into that position," he said. "That said, we are
working with the affected district attorneys to provide appropriate
coverage."
Among many other cases in his eight years as the
circuit environmental deputy, Hagen successfully prosecuted the
Pacific Lumber Co. three times between 1999 and 2002 for criminal
violations of the Forest Practices Act and illegal alterations
to stream beds. In addition, in 2004 he reached a settlement
in a civil suit against the company that charged it with unfair
business practices. Nearly half of the $80,000 settlement in
that case, which stemmed from sloppy logging practices in the
Van Duzen watershed, was used to fund educational programs on
salmon habitat and endangered species in local elementary schools.
Hagen said Monday that he could not discuss the
particulars of his termination, but said that he and his family
plan to remain in Humboldt County.
Meanwhile, it appears that Gallegos has filled
at least one of the positions that has been vacant in the office
for some time. The California Bar Association web site reports
that Arnold Klein, who last worked as a prosecutor in Monterey
County, now lists the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office
as his place of employment. Klein, who was admitted to the bar
in 1972, is best known for his work as a defense attorney in
the "Twilight Zone" case, which stemmed from an incident
that killed actor Vic Morrow and two child extras during the
filming of the 1983 movie.
One courthouse regular predicted last week that
the hiring of Klein would precipitate the long-expected termination
of Dikeman, a 20-year veteran of the office who ran against Gallegos
in this year's election. "Paul's going to have his own old
guy now," the regular observed.
— Hank Sims
TOP
PLEA BARGAIN: Four
men charged in the alleged kidnapping, rape, sodomy and false
imprisonment of a woman in Whitethorn have agreed to a conditional
plea bargain offered by the Humboldt County District Attorney's
office. The men — 21-year-old brothers Levi Cole Garza
and Nate Robin Garza, 31-year-old Gregory Donald Scheider and
32-year-old Deshawn Lee Moore — have faced the charges
since mid-March, following an incident that allegedly took place
over three days, March 7, 8 and 9.
According to reports, the woman testified during
a prolonged preliminary hearing that during the ordeal she was
tied to a tree overnight, threatened she would be shot with a
rifle, taken indoors and tied down and raped by three of the
men — all allegedly in retribution for her role involving
a $6,000 drug-related debt.
The trial had been set for this month. But Deputy
District Attorney Jeffrey Schwartz said on Tuesday that all four
of the accused men agreed to plead guilty to several charges.
All four plead guilty to "rape in concert" —
less delicately known as gang rape — and to false imprisonment.
Levi Garza additionally plead guilty to kidnapping and marijuana
trafficking. All four men "insist the sexual part didn't
happen," said Schwartz. And so, as part of the plea bargain,
they will take lie detector tests.
"What makes this case unusual is that we're
going to rely on the lie detector," he said. Lie detectors
are not considered reliable in the courtrroom, but they are "a
tool we use" in other arenas, such as plea bargaining, said
Schwartz. He said he has faith in lie detector tests, and that
the county's polygrapher, Jim Dawson, is "one of the best
in the state."
If the case had gone to trial, Levi Garza was facing
a maximum sentence of life in prison because of the "kidnap
for sexual assault" charge. "Realistically, I didn't
see that" happening, Schwartz said. "We had some proof
problems — was it a kidnapping, or was it not a kidnapping?"
The evidence for false imprisonment — tying her up —
is more clear, he said. It carries a lesser sentence. And, if
a trial jury had found the men guilty of rape in concert, the
maximum sentence they would have faced is nine years. Under the
plea bargain, depending on the lie detector test results, here's
what could happen:
If the lie detector says the men are telling the
truth — that they didn't rape the woman — then the
rape-in-concert guilty plea will be dropped. Three of the men
would then face five years in state prison (85 percent of which
they would have to serve), a strike under the three strikes law,
and life-time sex-offender registration for the false imprisonment
guilty plea. Levi Garza would get the strike, life-time sex offender
registration, and up to eight years in state prison.
Schwartz said the difference in sentencing, between
a trial and plea bargain, in this case likely would not have
been very significant because he didn't know if they'd be able
to prove the kidnapping charge. But, he said, "the bottom
line is, this whole arrangement is driven by the wishes of the
victim. She states that she was tied up and raped by three men
in a living room. She would have to go over that humiliating
experience in telling that to the jury. She doesn't want to do
that." She has already had to tell her story numerous times,
he added, "and her emotional level is high."
— Heidi Walters
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KARUK
FIRE UNDER INVESTIGATION: The early-morning fire that turned
a Karuk ceremonial structure into a pile of smoldering sticks
over 4th of July weekend has been upgraded to a criminal matter.
The Forest Service launched an initial investigation, but the
case has been handed over to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department,
which has consulted with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
about possible crimes and felonies committed.
The Kaatimiin dance house, located in Somes Bar
and built in 1973, was used by Karuk, Yurok and Hupa tribes for
Brush Dance ceremonies, which are healing ceremonies for children.
The annual dance that was to be held on July 22 has been canceled,
said Karuk spiritual leader and de facto spokesman Julian Lang.
He said he believes the fire was "definitely premeditated"
and is convinced that it was a hate crime.
"I've seen fires started by acts of God, like
lightning strikes," he said. "This was definitely not
an accident or an act of God."
But Siskiyou Sheriff's Department Public Information
Officer Susan Gravenkamp said that it is too early in the investigation
to determine whether or not it was actually a hate crime, and
no evidence has yet surfaced that would lead to that conclusion.
She said they are treating it as an arson case, but have no leads
or suspects.
This is the second time in less than 10 years the
dance house has been destroyed, leading Lang to believe that
the fire was indeed politically motivated. He likens it to burning
a Christian church.
"Whatever happened, it wasn't just a hit-and-run
kind of thing," Lang said. "Someone lit the fire and
tended to it as it spread. It really required some organization.
Someone was in charge and knew what to do."
The Karuk Tribal Council is finalizing arrangements
with the sheriff's office to offer a (approximate) $10,000 reward
for information that helps solve the case.
— Luke T. Johnson
TOP
Fortuna Sewer Obstruction
Muckrakers or city staff: Who's full of crap?
by HELEN SANDERSON
 The
City of Fortuna's plan to increase water and sewer rates, in
some cases quadrupling a ratepayer's bill over the course of
five years, "irritates the dickens" out of Odell Shelton
(right). So much so that the former mayor is leading a
petition drive to protest the new rates. He's even gone so far
as to spend his own money in the campaign, taking out ads in
the Times-Standard late last month.
And the movement has gained steam. Last Friday,
seated at his desk at Shelton's Auto Lube — where a plaque
hanging behind him read, "Grandpas Have Special Ways of
Fixing Things" — the 63-year-old pulled out a pocket
knife and sliced open Friday's mail: five petitions .
"See," he said, plucking a letter from
a manila envelope, "every day I get people bringing `em
in."
The deadline for submissions is July 27, and 2,300
petitions — representing just over half of all F-Town property
owners — are needed to block the rate increases. Shelton
didn't know how many were collected as of Friday, but said the
plan is to bring in 3,000 anyway.
Fortuna officials, and current members of the City
Council insist that the rate increase is necessary to pay off
construction debt on a long-needed upgrade to the city's sewage
and water system. But Shelton thinks they've got it all wrong,
and lays blame for the hike squarely at the feet of City Manager
Duane Rigge. He says Rigge has not taken care of Fortuna's money
properly, and Friendly City residents should not have to pay
for those missteps.
Shelton, who lost his bid for re-election in April,
does not mince words about his dislike for Rigge. "You got
an idiot for a city manager," he said.
Fortuna's new sewer plant, named in honor of longtime
city employee and councilman Tom Cooke, who died last year, received
$13 million in upgrades to convert it to the more efficient anaerobic
method of digesting waste. Construction is currently ahead of
schedule and will wrap in the fall.
To pay for it the city has essentially borrowed
money from itself, using reserves from various funds that need
to be paid back. The only way to raise the cash, according to
city staff, is to issue bonds. The plan is to float a $20 million
bond to pay for the sewer plant and also finance $7 million to
replace three aging reservoirs — two on Stewart Street
and one on Home Avenue, one of which is 100 years old and another
that is leaking. Water and sewer bills will then go up to pay
off the 30-year bond.
Shelton's beef is that the city already takes in
$600,000 net income per year from water/sewer bills and hookups.
On top of that, he says City Manager Rigge went about financing
the new sewer plant all wrong. Rigge should have pursued bond
money before starting construction years ago, not the other way
around. He says a more reasonable fix would be to increase everyone's
rate by just 10 percent.
"You do what you can afford to do," Shelton
said. "Don't put your grandkids in debt for 30 years."
How this might effect citizens' bills is a little
murky. On its website, sunnyfortuna.com, the city provides a
rate calculator for citizens to calculate how their rates will
increase each year through 2011. Some people freaked when they
computed their bill.
Take, for instance, Sue Long, whose current bill
is $54.85. On average she pays between $53 and $55 a month for
her family of five. They use a lot of water — 1,832 cubic
feet per month. (The base rate for the city is 250 cf per month.
Under the new rates, every 100 cf over that will cost up to $1.90
for water and $8.61 for sewer.)
Long went online and discovered that under the
city's plan, next year she'll pay $124.47. Every year after that,
for at least the next five years, the price will continue to
go up. Come 2010-11, if her family keeps using the same amount
of water, her bill will be $211.39 a month.
Most of the time, calculators don't screw up. But
Fortuna's has a glitch. So Long's projected bill might not be
completely accurate. Rigge calls it a "complicated nuance."
Here's how it gets a little tricky. As a favor
to citizens, the city is averaging the winter rates and charging
the same rate throughout the summer months. The rationale is
that as folks irrigate their lawns in the summer, water usage
goes up. But that excess flow is not headed for the sewer —
the most costly part of the service — and so the city figures
residents should not have to pay higher sewer rates. So, those
who use the calculator must consider that they will not pay more
May through October than they would in the winter.
Still, Long thinks her calculation is fairly accurate
because she hasn't begun watering her lawn yet and therefore
the rate she entered into the calculator reflects her winter
usage.
Long is on the high end of the water usage spectrum.
For a base rate user — someone who does not use more than
250 cubic feet of water of 450 cubic feet of sewage space per
month — their 2006-07 bill would be $35.51 a month. By
2010-11 they would pay $62.34, according to the city calculator.
That's a 75 percent increase over five years.
According to Rigge, water rates are currently artificially
low and from his point of view, people in Fortuna need to start
paying for what they use. Under the current water and sewer system,
"high-end" users like Sue Long's family and commercial
users are essentially subsidized by those who use very little
because the city has an average "flat rate" for water
and sewer.
And as for the $600,000 that Shelton takes exception
to, Rigge says that money is used to maintain the system —
new valves, pumps or mains. It doesn't fund "big-ticket
items," or large capital improvements like a new water tank,
or the Tom Cooke sewer plant. Over the years, the city never
socked money away for costly repairs and now Fortuna is in a
jam.
But Rigge is emphatic that the projects cannot
wait any longer. A major earthquake could destroy the reservoir
and wreak havoc on the city. "For all intents and purposes,
2010 is today," he said.
It's Rigge's opinion that Fortuna's history of
proceeding slowly has made their current situation worse and
left the city with no choice but to chase after a huge loan.
The $20 million bond on the table is a tax-free
municipal bond. If the citizens reject it the city will be forced
to pursue another way of financing the construction. One option
is to float general obligation bonds which will cost the city,
and the rate payers, more in the end.
According to Rigge, the core of the problem is
that clean water and sanitary sewers are undervalued. Some Fortuna
residents think even $35 is too much to pay. "But the same
person would tell you they gladly pay $75 for video service,
for cable," he said. "And I'm sorry, but when
one comes over the other it's insane."
Rigge urges anyone with questions about their water
bill to call City Hall and talk it out. Many people have already
done so, he said, and found that their rate will not be as steep
as they thought.
Some protesters who have discussed their bill with
city employees have since sent letters to city hall to remove
their names from the petition.
And as for Shelton, Rigge says that his Auto Lube,
with its car wash, is one of the highest consumers of water in
town. So if the petition doesn't pan out, the former mayor has
a lot to lose.
TOP
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