Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming says her office will need another month to six weeks to complete its review of the David Josiah Lawson homicide investigation to determine what — if any — charges are appropriate in the case. The Arcata Police Department completed its investigation into Lawson’s April 15, 2017, stabbing death and […]
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Posted inLetters + Opinion
Brave New World
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Unit has been busy. Over the course of about a week, the unit reported serving a dozen search warrants in southern Humboldt County, resulting in the eradication of more than 46,000 cannabis plants and the destruction of more than 1,400 pounds of processed weed. Working with the California […]
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Late Shift: What Eureka’s Police Officers See After Dark
Wednesday May 30, 2018, 8:30 p.m.-2 a.m. Ride along with Sgt. Leonard La France and K9 officer Vex. The E-watch shift starts with a briefing at 8:30 p.m. Sgt. Leonard La France addresses the three officers sitting at a narrow conference room table: Raymond Nunez, Matthew White and Elliott Aello. Bald with an easy smile, […]
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‘Highway Robbery:’ Drivers Allege Rohnert Park Police Illegally Seized Cannabis, Cash
Huedell Freeman was heading south on U.S. Highway 101 through Cloverdale and was just over the Sonoma County line when he said a police squad car flipped a U-turn across a 25-foot grass median and pulled up behind him with lights flashing. Freeman said he was carrying 47 pounds of marijuana in his rental car […]
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APD Touts Progress, Urges Patience in Lawson Investigation
Arcata Police Chief Tom Chapman is asking for patience as his department continues to investigate the killing of of a Humboldt State University student last April. “It’s frustrating for people that nobody’s in custody and it seems like nothing’s happening, but that’s far from the truth,” Chapman says. “A lot of things have happened in […]
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UPDATE: Attempted Murder Suspect Surrenders to Police
UPDATE: Shawn Hof Jr., the 25-year-old wanted since he allegedly shot at a state law enforcement officer last August, turned himself into police yesterday, a day after multiple agencies announced a renewed effort to bring him into custody, complete with a $20,000 reward. See the full press release from the California Fish and Wildlife copied […]
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TL;DR: How Andrew Mills Barely Escaped Humboldt
In case you missed it, Humboldt County bid former Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills adieu last week. We offered a handful of stories looking at his tenure in town and what’s next for EPD. We encourage you to take a few minutes to look at the coverage and weigh in. But there are also a few […]
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Masterpiece
It was an atypical meeting, with the police chief sitting across from the defendant in the chief’s office. The captain in charge of patrol sat nearby as the two, in kind, measured tones, discussed the matter at hand. Six days earlier, the chief’s officers had arrested the 57-year-old defendant — Christopher “Blaze” Boyle — shortly […]
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Witnesses Sought in Fatal Arcata Stabbing
The Arcata Police Department is looking to interview everyone who attended the house party where a 19-year-old Humboldt State University student was fatally stabbed early Saturday morning. “Sometimes people are witnesses without really knowing they were witnesses, so we’re doing our best to reach out to and speak to everyone,” said Arcata Police Chief Tom […]
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Under the Color of Authority
Adam Laird’s career ended in less than three seconds. You can watch it happen in real time in the grainy video footage captured by the dash-mounted camera of a Eureka Police Department patrol car. You can see the 14-year-old suspect splayed out on the street near the curb on California Street, his baggy white sweatshirt […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Roll the Tapes. All of Them.
It really shouldn’t be this hard. This week’s cover story examining the prosecution of Adam Laird is the culmination of years of work. But that’s not to say the story took particularly long to write or even to research. No, instead, the more than two years of work invested in this story were spent fighting […]
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California Doubles Down on Sanctuary Status, Arcata Mulls Next Move
An executive order taking aim at sanctuary cities that President Donald Trump signed in his first days in office has cities, states and counties throughout the nation scrambling in all directions — some distancing themselves from the term “sanctuary” and others running toward it. California is placing itself firmly in the latter category. Meanwhile, North Coast municipalities […]