Judge Kaleb Cockrum today set a Monday hearing at which Marci Kitchen is expected to enter a guilty plea to the full set of charges she is facing for the hit-and-run deaths of two teenage girls, one of whom was her daughter. More than two years have passed since Kitchen allegedly was driving drunk and […]
DUI
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Fortuna Council Places Wheetley on Paid Leave
The Fortuna City Council has placed City Manager Mark Wheetley on paid administrative leave in the wake of his sentencing earlier this week after pleading guilty to a “wet and reckless” charge, his second DUI-related offense in less than two years. “At a city council meeting on March 28, 2018, the city council voted 5-0 […]
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Fortuna City Manager Mark Wheetley Receives Jail Time for DUI
Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming confirmed this afternoon that Fortuna city manager Mark Wheetley pleaded guilty to driving involving alcohol (Vehicle Code section 23103.5, also known as a “wet and reckless”) and violation of probation due to a previous DUI arrest. Court commissioner Timothy Canning sentenced Wheetley to three years probation and 15 days […]
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UPDATE: Fortuna City Manager Arrested for Second DUI
Fortuna City Manager Mark Wheetley was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence yesterday evening, just about 18 months after a DUI arrest derailed his candidacy for a seat on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. California Highway Patrol spokesman Cy May said an officer pulled Wheetley over shortly after 7 p.m. yesterday after […]
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UPDATE: CHP ID’s Redding Man Killed in Suspected DUI Crash
UPDATE: The deceased man has been identified as Jarrod Waddle. Previously: A 35-year-old Redding man was killed early this morning when he lost control of his SUV and hit a tree off South G Street. The man, whose name is being withheld until officials can notify his family of his death, is suspected of having been […]
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Kitchen Held For Trial in DUI Manslaughter Case
Humboldt County Superior Court Judge John Feeney ruled yesterday that there is sufficient evidence to hold Marci Kitchen to stand trial on manslaughter charges stemming from allegations that she was driving drunk when she hit and killed her daughter and another girl in July. Kitchen was held to answer on charges of vehicular manslaughter and […]
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Updated: Victim in Fatal Crash Near Westhaven ID’d
The California Highway Patrol reports that intoxication was a factor in last night’s traffic death of 25-year old Glen A. Roe Jr. The Orick man was in the passenger seat of a 2010 Chevrolet Silverado traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 101 just past Westhaven when the driver, Victor Herrera, of McKinleyville, “failed to negotiate” a […]
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Sunday Crash on 101 Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Injured
An Oregon man was killed and his passenger suffered major injuries when the car they were in veered out of control before hitting the guardrail south of Tompkins Hill Road just after noon Sunday in a crash the CHP described as DUI related. According to witnesses, the driver — 45-year-old Johnnie David Evenson of Roseburg, […]
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Uber Arrives on the North Coast as Company Crisis Continues
There’s a new transportation option in town, but it comes with some baggage. Uber — the online ride sharing service that offers an alternative to taxi cabs — recently made its debut in transportation-starved Humboldt County. But Uber’s expansion comes in the midst of what can only be described as a rough six-week stretch for […]
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First Fatal Car Crash of Year Suspected to Be DUI
A 52-year old Eureka man was Humboldt’s first road death of 2017. The California Highway Patrol reports that at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1 the man, who has not been named, rolled a GMC Sierra off Mountain View Road near Kneeland. He was ejected and fatally injured; his passenger, also injured, walked several miles […]
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Teen Pedestrian Killed in Alleged DUI Crash
A teenage pedestrian was killed last night in McKinleyville when an allegedly drunk driver hit her shortly after 8 p.m. According to the California Highway Patrol, the girl was was northbound on the east shoulder of Central Avenue, north of Anna Sparks Way, when James Arthur Merrick, of McKinleyville, allowed his 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 […]
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Pedestrian Killed in Alleged DUI Crash
A 24-year-old Arcata man is behind bars after an alleged DUI accident left a pedestrian dead yesterday evening. According to Arcata police, officers responded to a report of the crash around 7:15 p.m. and arrived at 14th and H streets to find a 55-year-old man dying in the street. The vehicle allegedly involved in the […]