Bay Area News Briefs

By Maya Strausberg

May 7, 2008

Vallejo City council votes unanimously to file bankruptcy

The Vallejo City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday night to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-2009 budget starting July 1 and unsuccessfully negotiated with its police, firefighter and electrical workers unions for contract concessions through 2012. Public safety salaries comprise 74 percent of the city’s general fund budget.

Most of tonight’s 30 speakers urged the council to file bankruptcy so the city can restructure its finances.

John Riley, president of the International Association of Firefighters, said he is disappointed by tonight’s 7-0 vote to file bankruptcy.

“I think it was premature. I don’t think they exhausted all their options,” Riley said.

Riley said an independent auditing firm disputes the city’s numbers supporting the decision to file bankruptcy. He called for an independent state audit.

The council and several speakers said the city simply will have no money on July 1 and cannot tell its employees to come to work because there is no money to pay them.

Councilwoman Stephanie Gomes, an ardent supporter of filing bankruptcy, said, “I want to make sure the City Council is in charge of this city and not those who comprise 80 percent of our general fund.”

Countering the assertion that bankruptcy would tarnish the city’s image, Gomes said, “Who wants to move to a city that can’t address its problems?”

Mayor Osby Davis said bankruptcy would be “a long, hard, difficult process.”

“We will rise out of this darkness and we will shine again,” Davis said.

Davis said he believes the city should honor its contracts with the unions, but he was persuaded the city can’t pay its debts at this time.

“It’s time to do something different. I wish there was another way. I will support this resolution and I don’t want anyone clapping for me. It’s something I must do as the mayor of this city.”

Council members noted the city can still negotiate with its unions on long-term contracts and if that is successful the city can “pull the plug on bankruptcy.”

Two ducks and dozens of fish found dead from chemical spill

Two mallard ducks and dozens of small fish were found dead Tuesday afternoon in an irrigation ditch near the site of a toxic chemical spill in Richmond’s Parchester Village, the California Department of Fish and Game reported.

The spill, now estimated to be about 3,300 gallons of the chemical solvent toluene, occurred sometime between Friday night and Monday morning when a thief cut through a fence surrounding Reaction Products Co., Inc., located at 840 Morton Ave., and stole brass fittings from five above-ground chemical storage tanks.

Cleanup crews recovered about 3,000 gallons of toluene and water mixture Monday, and had recovered another 1,300 gallons of the water and chemical mixture from the irrigation ditch and surrounding area as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

Cleanup crews have been using vacuum trucks to pump liquid out of the drainage ditch, booms to contain the chemical once it reaches the water and a charcoal filtration system designed to clean the water as it heads back out to the bay.

The response to the spill, however, was marred by delayed and inaccurate reporting by Reaction Products Co., Inc. Owner Dwight Merrill, Gagan said at a news conference at the spill site Tuesday morning.

Merrill allegedly discovered the spill at 8:15 a.m. Monday, but didn’t report it until 10:39 a.m., and when he did, he allegedly told officials that 500 gallons of mineral spirits had spilled and that he had hired a contractor to clean it up, Gagan said.

Merrill notified the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials program at 10:45 a.m., but he was still claiming that the spill was 500 gallons of mineral spirits. He told county officials that he had the spill contained and declined county assistance, according to Gagan.

Personnel from the contract company, Clean Harbors Environmental Services, realized that the material spilled was not mineral spirits and notified the U.S. Coast Guard at 11:09 a.m., according to Coast Guard officials.

Meanwhile, residents of Parchester Village were breathing the chemical fumes, which smell like a combination of rubber cement glue and spray paint and are believed to be carcinogenic, and the product was making its way into sensitive habitat and toward the bay.

Fatal stabbing suspect arraigned on murder charges

Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield was arraigned Tuesday on murder charges for the stabbing death of University of California, Berkeley student Christopher Wootton in a late-night confrontation on fraternity row near campus.

Dressed in yellow jail clothes and sporting a crew-cut, Hoeft-Edenfield, 20, appeared in court only briefly Tuesday in connection with the incident in the 2400 block of Warring Street in Berkeley about 2:45 a.m. Saturday and will return to court on Thursday to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea.

Alameda County Deputy Public Defender Tony Cheng represented Hoeft-Edenfield, a Berkeley City College student and Jamba Juice employee, at Tuesday’s hearing but said he needs to find out if his office has a conflict of interest in the case before deciding if he will represent Hoeft-Edenfield on a permanent basis.

About 15 family members and friends of Hoeft-Edenfield attended Tuesday’s hearing.

According to Berkeley police, Hoeft-Edenfield and Wootton, a 21-year-old senior from Bellflower who was due to graduate with a nuclear engineering degree later this month, were part of a larger group that was involved in a verbal exchange that quickly developed into a physical fight.

Police say that during the fight Hoeft-Edenfield stabbed Wootton.

Hoeft-Edenfield’s mother, who said her first name is Ellen but declined to disclose her last name, told reporters outside court, “We do feel this case is a tragedy. We do grieve for the Wootton family and I’m so sorry.”

San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Rebecca Young, who accompanied Hoeft-Edenfield’s mother and said she’s a family friend, Hoeft-Edenfield “is not someone who glorifies violence or tries to lord it over someone.”

Apartment fire causes $500,000 in damage

A two-alarm fire that burned an apartment building in Walnut Creek Tuesday night caused an estimated $500,000 in damage, according to Contra Costa fire Battalion Chief Dave George.

The fire was reported at 9:42 p.m. in a two-story, four-unit apartment building at 152 Roxanne Court and was upgraded to a second alarm within 30 minutes, George said.

According to the battalion chief, 36 firefighters were on the scene and the fire was contained within 45 minutes and controlled by 10:40 p.m.

The fire appears to have started in one of the first-floor units, and spread into the unit above and the attic space, George said. One unit was destroyed, another received heavy damage, and the two other units in the building will be uninhabitable, he said.

A 93-year-old woman received burns and was transported by helicopter to the UC Davis Medical Center as a precaution due to her age. Another woman in her 40s received burns to about 25 percent of her body and was taken by helicopter to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

Two others received minor injuries, and it was unknown how many residents were displaced by the blaze, George said.

Investigators remained on scene late Tuesday night to determine the cause of the fire.

Judge orders U.S. EPA to speed review of carbon monoxide standards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was ordered by a federal judge in San Francisco Tuesday to reevaluate its standards for human exposure to carbon monoxide in the air by May 2011.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, ruling in a lawsuit filed by four environmental groups, said the EPA violated a “nondiscretionary, statutory duty” under the U.S. Clean Air Act to review the standards every five years.

The law requires the agency to look at pollution limits, known as national ambient air quality standards, every five years and decide whether revision of the standards is needed to protect human health.

The EPA last reviewed carbon monoxide standards in 1994 and last revised the limits in 1971.

The agency admitted that it missed the five-year deadline, but began a review process last year and proposed to finish the review by October 2012.

White ruled, however, that it would be feasible for the EPA to finish the process by May 2011.

Representatives of the groups that sued the EPA last year praised \the ruling and urged the EPA to strengthen the standards.

Jeremy Nichols, director of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, said, “Sadly, current health standards allow our children to be exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide across the country.”

Shana Lazerow, a lawyer with Oakland-based Communities for a Better Environment, said, “Poor people and people of color suffer most from carbon monoxide, which is spewed by the refineries and power plants located in our communities, as well as the congested highways in our backyards.”

Camel slapped on rear at Six Flags, suspect apprehended

An unsuspecting young camel at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo was smacked on the rear by a suspect who was apprehended by police after a brief pursuit Sunday afternoon.

A 16-year-old boy told security officers that he had witnessed a young man enter the area near the camel exhibit and whack a 1-and-a-half-year-old dromedary named Dekar, according to park spokeswoman Nancy Chan.

The witness said he saw the suspect enter through the southwest side of the 135-acre park, climb over a wooden retaining wall and reach through an iron gate to slap Dekar’s rear, Chan said.

The camel exhibit is on the side of the park adjacent to Lake Chabot.

The witness then told one of the park’s educational guides who reported it to security. The suspect fled, but security officials did a park sweep and were able to detain the suspect and his friends near the lakeside pavilion area, Chan said.

While security was turning the suspect over to Vallejo police, the suspect ran and jumped over a 12-foot fence and into a waiting vehicle, which sped away.

Vallejo police were able to post police at all highways leaving Vallejo and were able to pull over the fleeing vehicle and arrest the suspect.

“Originally the guy would’ve been cited and released but now has multiple felonies to answer to,” Chan said. She said causing injury to an animal is a felony but causing only “distress” is a misdemeanor.

There is no word on a possible motive in the incident.

“How harming an animal can be seen as fun for some people is beyond any of us,” Chan said.

“The camel is fine, just a little distressed,” Chan said.

Vallejo police were not immediately available for comment.

Police say teen nearly died of alcohol poisoning after party

The Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety reported Tuesday that a 15-year-old girl nearly died Friday night of a lethal level of alcohol in her blood after an impromptu, unsupervised party.

Sgt. Art Sweeney said the girl attended the house party with nine other teens in the D section of Rohnert Park and was found on a picnic table by two partygoers in Dorotea Park around 10 p.m.

The girl was unconscious and was gurgling when she tried to breathe, Sweeney said. The teens took her in a car to the Rohnert Park Health Care Center on Medical Center Drive but it was closed, Sweeney said. They then called 911.

Firefighters found the girl unconscious and barely breathing and they performed rescue breathing to keep the girl alive in an ambulance en route to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Sweeney said.

Hospital personnel determined the girl had a blood-alcohol content of 0.578 percent, a level usually found only after someone has died of alcohol poisoning, Sweeney said. The girl survived and returned home Sunday, Sweeney said.

Police officers who went to the party house found other teens who were highly intoxicated, Sweeney said. The teens’ parents were called and said they had been told mistruths about where their children would be that night.

There were no adults present at the party house and it is unknown who procured the vodka the teens were drinking, Sweeney said. Sweeney said firefighters, medical staff and investigators were astounded the girl survived.

Sweeney said the “miracle” of the girl’s survival should remind parents to make sure they know where their children are and who their friends are.

Closing statements in trial of man accused of murdering wife

The marriage between a Daly City man and his wife whom he stands accused of fatally stabbing in 2006 was described as “violent, drunken on the part of the defendant, and marred by irrational jealousy,” by a San Mateo County deputy district attorney Tuesday.

During his closing statements Deputy District Attorney Al Giannini told the jury that their decision of whether Quincy Dean Norton Sr., 33, is guilty of stabbing his wife hinges on one simple question: “Do you believe that Dion and Quincy Jr. (the couple’s sons) heard their mother scream the day she was murdered?” Giannini asked jurors.

Tamika Norton, 31, was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of their Mira Vista Court home on July 22, 2006, by Daly City police. Both of her sons, aged 7 and 9 at the time of the murder, testified that they heard banging coming from the bedroom that morning, and Quincy Jr. said he heard his mother scream out his name.

Defense attorney Patricia Fox spoke to the jury about reasonable doubt, and said that while Quincy Norton had a long history with a variety of women, Tamika Norton was “the one woman in his life who he married.”

Giannini said the reason that the boy’s testimony was so important is because of the way Tamika Norton died. She was stabbed multiple times, but a stab wound to the neck caused an air embolism, which killed her in minutes. If they heard her screaming that morning, it means that Quincy Norton was definitely in the home at the time that his wife died.

Court orders asylum proceedings for vet’s daughter raped in Philippines

A federal appeals court ruled in San Francisco Tuesday that a Millbrae woman who was raped in the Philippines because her father was a World War II veteran is entitled to apply for asylum.

Rosalina Silaya, 39, who is now a health care worker in Millbrae, says she was kidnapped and repeatedly raped and abused over three days in 1982 by soldiers from the New People’s Army, a violent revolutionary group opposed to the Philippine government.

Silaya’s father had served in World War II under General Douglas McArthur.

At the time of the assault, Silaya was 23 and had been living in Manila with a sister for her protection, but had come home for a visit to her parents in a small town called San Mateo Sur.

She said the men from the New People’s Army told her they knew about her father and kidnapped her from the family home after overpowering her parents. She said the men repeatedly raped and hit her over the next three days, poured hot liquid on her, burned her and left her hanging upside down after allegedly telling her they were doing so that she “will learn her lesson.”

Silaya came to the United States in 1985 to work as a nanny and applied for asylum in 1991, but during years of proceedings was turned down by an immigration judge and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals.

In Tuesday’s decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned those ruling and sent the case back to the immigration board for further proceedings.

A three-judge panel said the evidence showed the rape was not random but was carried out because the attackers attributed pro-government political views to Silaya as a result of her father’s military service.

The court ordered the board to consider granting asylum on either of two grounds – either because of fear of future persecution or under a doctrine known as humanitarian asylum.

Three suspects arrested in Potrero Hill robbery

Three men who were arrested Monday morning in connection with an armed robbery in the Portero Hill neighborhood were charged in the crime Tuesday, according to San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.

Tony Carter, 20, Dejuan Bankston, 21, and Artes Tims, 19, were charged with robbing a 38-year-old city resident at gunpoint near the intersection of 17th and De Haro streets around 12:15 a.m., Harris said.

“We deserve the right to walk our city’s streets without fear of harm,” said Harris in a written statement. “We’re prosecuting 34 percent more robberies than a year ago and sending a loud and clear signal to those who consider violating our citizens that they will be held accountable.”

Bankston, who allegedly held the weapon during the incident, is additionally charged with use of a gun during the commission of a robbery. Because of a prior conviction, Bankston was also charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Carter also faces a misdemeanor and felony motion to revoke probation for carrying a concealed firearm or grand theft.

The three suspects are scheduled to be arraigned today.