Bay Area News Briefs

By Maya Strausberg

May 1, 2008

Union ordered to tell members to work on day of planned protest

An arbitrator Wednesday ordered for the second time in a week that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union must tell its members to report for work today despite scheduled protests against the Iraq war along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco.

During a phone hearing with union representatives and officials with the Pacific Maritime Association Wednesday morning, Coast Arbitrator John Kagel announced the order.

According to Kagel’s proceedings, he previously ordered the union on April 24 to inform its locals and individual members that they must work a normal day today.

The Maritime Association, who employs the port workers, approached Kagel again because of information that came to light about what the union was reportedly telling its members.

“It was clear to us today that the ILWU is saying one thing and doing another,” said association spokesman Steve Getzug.

Despite the fact that the union previously said participating in the protests was voluntary, Getzug said there was “increasing information that the union is telling union members not to show up for work.”

But, according to Kagel, “the union maintains that the information received by the employers (the Pacific Maritime Association) is hearsay and thus not to be credited.”

“The reason why the Pacific Maritime Association has taken the steps ahead of tomorrow is because any disruption on the water is unacceptable,” said Getzug Wednesday. He added that “thousands of jobs are affected beyond the waterfront.”

One of many protests planned for today in California, Oregon and Washington will be in San Francisco, where workers are scheduled to meet at the local union office at 10 a.m. before marching along Embarcadero to Justin Herman Plaza for a noon rally. Scheduled speakers include Danny Glover, Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg.

Clarence Thomas, an executive board member of San Francisco-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 said, “This is an historic event, the first time in recent memory American workers have stopped work to stop a war.”

Case against Clift Hotel sexual assault suspect dropped

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Wednesday announced that the case against a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a guest at a city hotel in March has been dropped pending further information.

Daly City resident Christian Rojas, 30, had been charged with burglary and sexual battery following an incident at the Clift Hotel, 495 Geary St., on March 2.

Officers responded to the hotel after a 39-year-old woman reported the alleged assault around 5 a.m., police spokesman Neville Gittens said. A man allegedly entered the victim’s room using a key card, sexually assaulted her and left.

Officials determined that the key used to enter the room was assigned to Rojas, who worked in the hotel’s housekeeping department, according to Gittens.

District Attorney Kamala Harris’ spokeswoman Erica Derryck said Wednesday that the decision to refile the case would be made after an investigation into the incident.

Governor issues statement after death of soldier from Lafayette

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday released a statement in recognition of Jonathan A.V. Yelner, a 24-year-old soldier from Lafayette who died Tuesday in Bagram, Afghanistan when his vehicle came across an explosive device.

“Senior Airman Jonathan Yelner answered the call to defend the United States with bravery, integrity and a relentless devotion to the ideals and freedoms that we all hold dear,” the statement read. “As the people of California honor Jonathan’s service to our country, we are reminded of the extraordinary sacrifices made to protect our way of life. Maria and I offer our deepest condolences to Jonathan’s family and friends as they mourn his loss.”

Yelner was assigned to the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron of the U.S. Air Force and was based in the Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Capitol flags are being flown at half-staff in honor of Yelner, according to the governor’s office.

Daly City man accused of fatally stabbing wife testifies

A Daly City man who is accused of fatally stabbing his wife in 2006 began testifying Wednesday afternoon in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Quincy Dean Norton Sr., 33, told the court that he met Tamika Norton, 31, while driving southbound on U.S. Highway 101 in May 1996. They pulled off the side of the freeway to exchange numbers and began dating soon afterward. The two had a tumultuous relationship, with Norton moving in and out of her home a number of times.

Daly City police detectives said they found Tamika Norton’s body in the bedroom of their Mira Vista Court home on July 22, 2006.

Defense attorney Patricia Fox asked Norton to discuss an incident that occurred in 2003 when Tamika Norton accused him of domestic violence. Tamika Norton later recanted and said that she got in a fight with Anitra Johnson, 35, a woman who Quincy Norton has a daughter with and was seeing at the time.

The night of the fight, Quincy Norton said he was out with Johnson at a club in San Jose and the two drove to his then-San Francisco home to get some clothes. When they arrived at the house Tamika Norton went outside to yell at Johnson, who was sitting in the car.

According to Quincy Norton, he went back outside a minute later and saw the two fighting on the front lawn. He said he pulled Johnson off of Tamika Norton and drove her back to her house.

Quincy Norton said he “never touched my wife,” during this altercation or any other time. He said that the two fought often, usually regarding his infidelities or his drinking, but that he would just leave the house when they fought.

Mark Powell, a forensic scientist, testified Wednesday morning that two DNA samples found in the Nortons’ kitchen could have been left by Johnson. Powell said that there was not enough DNA evidence to exclude Johnson, but not enough to positively identify the DNA matter as hers.

The Nortons’ son Dion testified earlier in the trial that he heard his mom and dad arguing the morning his mother died, and that his mother screamed his and his brother’s names.

Dion said that morning his dad collected him, his brother and sister, then ages 7, 9 and 1, put them in his mom’s green Honda and drove them to a cousin’s house where he left them.

Quincy Norton evaded police over a month while being sought for questioning following the fatal stabbing. Police arrested him in San Jose on Aug. 27, 2006. He remains in custody on a no-bail status.

Jail inmate arrested on suspicion of killing cellmate

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has identified 68-year-old William Moore as the Santa Rita Jail inmate who was allegedly killed by his cellmate Friday.

Deputies were called at about 8:13 p.m. to the jail, on Broder Boulevard in Dublin, on reports of a fight inside one of the jail’s housing unit cells.

Arriving deputies found Moore not breathing and suffering head injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. Emergency personnel were unable to revive him and he died at about 8:42 p.m.

Sgt. J.D. Nelson said that it does not appear that a weapon was used and that blunt force trauma was a contributing cause of the death.

Moore’s cellmate, 32-year-old Gregory Vanhuisen, was arrested and is facing charges of murder, Nelson said. Vanhuisen, a Byron resident, remains at Santa Rita Jail where he was booked on March 23 for allegedly committing a robbery in Oakland.

Expulsion pending of two students for racially divisive incidents

Two Rodriguez High School students in Fairfield remain suspended and face an expulsion hearing for two racially divisive incidents at the school earlier this month.

The male students were suspended for dragging a large teddy bear with a noose around its neck from a pickup truck as they drove through the school parking lot April 3.

On April 4, the same students drove recklessly through the parking lot waving a confederate flag.

Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District spokesman Stewart Savage said a hearing is pending on whether the students will be suspended and a decision will likely be made by the district’s school board at its May 8 meeting.

The district has already held two parent meetings on the incidents, Stewart said.

Rumors of a racially motivated fight on April 18 spread through the district on April 17 via e-mails, text messages and MySpace pages. Many parents kept their children home or returned after the start of school to pick them up, the district said. Final attendance numbers showed 1,900 students were absent on April 18, according to the district.

The district said there was no evidence of a planned fight at the high school and all students who did attend school on that day were safe.

Stewart said there have been no other incidents at the school this month.

Napa man found guilty of murdering alleged cult leader

A Napa County Superior Court jury found Alexander Taylor guilty Wednesday of the first-degree murder of alleged cult leader George Paul Davis.

A trial will begin Monday morning to determine whether Taylor, 26, of Napa, was sane when he killed the 62-year-old Napa man when he fired five shots into his head in Davis’ Redwood Road apartment in Napa on April 22, 2007.

Taylor pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Trial testimony has centered on whether Taylor fatally shot Davis in self-defense or if he intended to kill him.

Defense attorney Jess Raphael has argued his client suffered mental problems that caused him to believe Davis was a danger to him. He said Taylor believed Davis, who practiced black magic witchcraft, had invaded his mind and body and he needed to be rid of him.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Van Camp tried to convince the jury Taylor intended to shoot Davis. He said Taylor confessed to the shooting.

The sanity trial Monday is in Department F of Napa County Superior Court.

Facility converting landfill gas to fuel scheduled to operate in 2009

A plan to begin converting landfill gas into clean vehicle fuel at a Bay Area facility by 2009 was announced Wednesday through a partnership between Waste Management and Linde North America.

The $15.5 million program, which will purify and liquefy gas created by organic waste at the Altamont Landfill near Livermore, is slated to receive grants from the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, according to Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews.

The decomposing waste in a landfill creates gas that is commonly flared or burned off, Andrews said.

A gas collection system at the Altamont Landfill currently uses some of the gas to produce energy, Andrews said. Once the facility to create liquefied natural gas is complete, that electricity may be used to power the process, she said.

The process will include collecting and purifying the natural gas, leaving methane, Andrews said. The methane gas is then chilled to 260 degrees below zero, liquefying it, Andrews said.

The product will be used to fuel Waste Management’s fleet of garbage and recycling collection trucks that have been converted to run on natural gas, according to Andrews. Some of the liquefied natural gas may also be sold, she said.

Program officials estimate landfill gas could produce 13,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas each day, beginning in 2009 when the facility is scheduled to open. The facility will be the largest of its kind, according to Waste Management, the largest waste management company in North America.

“Natural gas is already the cleanest burning fuel available for our collection trucks, and the opportunity to use recovered landfill gas offers enormous environmental benefits to the communities we serve,” Duane Woods of Waste Management said in a prepared statement.

Shooting victim testified against man accused of attempted murder

An Oakland man who was shot six times when he came home from his cleaning job at the Oakland Coliseum shortly after midnight five years ago limped into court Wednesday to testify against a man who’s charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident.

Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Augustine Andrade, 55, who walks with a cane, told jurors in the trial of Monterrio Davis that he was shot twice in his upper right arm and once each near his left temple, the back of his neck, the lower left area of his back and the right side of his
buttocks.

Asked by prosecutor Chris Lamiero how the shooting incident in the driveway of his home at 1342 60th Ave. about 12:15 a.m. on Feb. 19, 2003, has affected his life, Andrade said, “In a very bad way. I’m in pain, I’m unable to work and I’m a wreck.”

Davis is consequently charged with attempted murder for aiding and abetting the shooter in the incident, Lamiero said.

The attempted murder charge is one of the lesser charges against Davis, 25, who’s also charged with three counts of murder and one count each of attempted robbery and being an ex-felon in possession of a gun. The attempted robbery charge stems from the incident in which Andrade was shot.

Davis also faces two special circumstances clauses: murder during a robbery and multiple murder. He faces a sentence of life in prison without parole if he’s convicted of all the charges against him.

Lamiero told jurors that Davis planned “an evening of slaughter and mayhem” the night of Feb. 18, 2003, and the morning of Feb. 19, 2003, that included two shooting incidents in Oakland and one in San Francisco as well as robberies and attempted robberies.

Lamiero said the crime spree began when Davis “gunned down” 22-year-old Daniel Martinez and 47-year-old Miguel Maciel-Galena near the corner of 68th and Bancroft avenues about 8:45 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2003, while the two victims, who were day laborers, took a break from an English class.

The second incident was about 12:15 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2003, when Davis and the other three men shot and attempted to rob Andrade, Lamiero said.

The prosecutor said Davis picked out Andrade to be a victim, gave one of the other men his gun and said, “This one’s on you,” meaning that it was his turn to rob someone.

Lamiero said Davis was the lookout in a third incident at 3:36 a.m. on Feb. 19, 2003, in which 26-year-old Armando Arce was shot to death by another suspect on Willow Alley near Polk Street in San Francisco. He said some of the culprits in the San Francisco incident were different than some of the participants in the Oakland crimes, but Davis was involved in all of the incidents.

FCJ Editor

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