|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Richard Christopher Cordova, an 18-year-old Pleasanton resident, is in Santa Rita Jail after being arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism, police announced today. The district attorney also pressed felony vandalism charges against 18-year-old Michael Daniel Page, from Menifee, in Riverside County.
The charges stem from a beating that occurred at a July 2 party that was advertised on the social networking Web site MySpace. According to police, approximately 70 to 80 juveniles and young adults showed up at a residence in the 1600 block of Whispering Oaks Way, bringing alcohol with them. The boyfriend of a female resident of the home asked the uninvited guests to leave and a brawl ensued.
Within 24 hours of the incident, police arrested a 17-year-old male, also from Menifee, and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism. His name has not been released because he is a minor.
During the investigation, police interviewed approximately 50 witnesses to prepare the case for the county district attorney. Warrants were issued for Cordova and Page Tuesday, but as of this report it is unclear if Page was arrested and police declined to comment further.
The victim, a 17-year-old Foothill High School senior, was attacked with a baseball bat and wooden chair, in addition to being hit and kicked. While he did receive emergency care for life threatening injuries at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, the victim’s condition improved and he went home last week.
am so disappointed in one fact, and that is the fact that most parents do not want to take responsibility for ‘what is going on’ by telling their kids that they will (and then actually do it) randomly read their myspace pages. I am one of those parents who do, and I have tried to talk to other parents to tell them that their kids are in serious need of more ‘boundaries’, and less privacy.These parents chose not to listen, and now these kids have criminal records. Guess what? It is all over myspace! Parents seem to think that it is cool to be able to ‘allow’ their kids to have myspace accounts, and not know what in the world they are doing on these accounts. Parents…. I challenge you to sit down with your teen TODAY, tell them that you would like to go through their myspace with them, because you love them and want to help them to become the person they should be. Guaranteed, you have NO idea what is going on in Pleasanton, and once you do, you will understand why we ALL need to monitor our kids MUCH better than we are. I thought I knew my kids…until myspace came along. Signed, A very concerned, yet aware parent.
I agree as well. I thought I new my son and his friends until I started reading his myspace. My son was becoming more and more moody, acting out more, and just generally being disrespectful. I caught him late at night on MySpace and confiscated his computer. What I found on his myspace and computer was very upsetting. My son is a top notch athlete and was an honor student before his grades started to slide. What I found on his computer was very disturbing subject matter and conversations between he and his friends. Including links to free porn sites. Frankly a lot of stuff a 14 year old kid just didn’t need to know about yet. We immediately modified his computer useage. Slowly but surely his attitude changed and he was back to his old self. He now is only allowed to use the computer in our family room when we are home. I also tell every parent I meet to check out their childrens myspace accounts on a regular basis. People need to get back to caring enough about their children to be their parents not their friends. Hey just my two cents though.
although i did not know this person personally, i would like to know why they decided to beat my boyfriend. I would also like to know why all those people showed up at my house. Trust me there was more than 80 people there. This was not planned. No one was invited. I would also like to know why somone posted it on the internet.This was the most frighting and painful event for me personally that i know will live with me forever. And i dont understand why people i go to school with would act this way.
This recent arrest should hopefully be a wake up call to all Pleasanton students that should you choose to engage in malicious behavior that you will be punished. Hopefully, this person will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and be made an example of.
The police stated that these parties happen all of the time, and the usual result is vandalism, and not usually an assault.
Now we go back to one of the core questions of this incident. Who posted the fact that the home was parent-free and why? Another poster questioned why all those people showed up to the house, but someone obviously knew the parents were gone and decided to publicize that fact.
I would like to tell you all that I think you all are ignorant as can be. As for the girl who’s house it was. That is a lie. You did invite people over because even i heard about your party and it was way before any of these events happened, in the afternoon or so. So i’m wondering why the people you didn’t know where asked to leave and not the other 100 people that were on the premises? sounds like a planned party to me. You all need to know the facts before you go around and preach. I’ll tell you right now. There was no reason for weapons to have been brought out at all. And i’ll tell you that the kids that were arrested were NOT the kids that brought them to the party in the first place. The kids that were arrested were in the wrong, but don’t think for ONE SECOND that the girl who had the party was completely innocent, or the other kids there. because i’ll tell you from being a teenager you should be able to remember that there are ALWAYS two sides to a story, and neither of them are innocent completely. A fight takes two people, not just one.
this goes to someonewhoACTUALLYknows:
i personally do not know if u were there or not, and i agree that there are two sides to the story. heres mine, i personally was teling EVERYONE to leave. Screaming it actully. Now i know that everyone said that they were there for ” my little sisters’ party”. Let me tell u something, this wasnt planned. I know there was talk of it and i thought i stopped it and before go and accuse me or my sister for starting this party get ur facts strait. And another thing where do u get off saying my boyfriend help start this fight. He wasnt the one jumpping on the cars, breaking things, throwing bottles at my windows. He was walking up to people teling them to get off cars and leave and they Throw a chair at him and they pick up the bat and hit him. Honestly who do u thik u are. Accusing my boyfriend and i not being innocent. I would really like to know who u are.
There was no reason at all for anyone to assault the boyfriend of the girl whose house it was. You can say that it takes two people to be in a fight, but for someone to pick up a bat and hit another person isn’t something that can be excused. That was not right to say.
However, to the girl who had the gathering, you stated “I know there was talk of it (the party)”. Why was there talk of it in the first place? This goes to the heart of the issue everyone is discussing. Do we know what our kids are doing and where they are going when parents are out of town?
i do not know why there was talk of a party. The people there were not there because of me. They had no idea that i lived there. And when i asked them to leave they refused becasue “i didnt live there”. This is what angers me.
Reading these postings is an eye-opening experience in several regards, not the least of which is that Pleasanton students are not learning English grammar in our schools. Very sad.
To someonewhoknows,
you are a FREAKING stupid!! Why in the Hell would you put on myspace that your house is empty and people can come over! everything that happened was your own fault! Don’t blame anyone but yourself because if u had not told half the world that your house was empty it most likely would of not happened. Use your head Dumb ass!Be smart stay in school!
you will need it
I am a teenager who was at this party with several of my friends here to clear something up. To answer the young girls question as to why her boyfriend got beat up so badly: Your boyfriend did not simply ask everyone to leave peacefully as the article states, as a matter of fact I clearly remember him asking everyone to leave with a bat in his hand. Court documents should show in this case that the bat used on the victim was actually the victims own bat. He had thrown the bat in frustration and hit the wrong kid thats all. The other kids did not need to get involved with Mr. Cordova’s self defense, and yes it did go to far, but we must not forget who caused the situation, the victim himself. A clear self defense case.
I am a teenager who was at this party with several of my friends here to clear something up. To answer the young girls question as to why her boyfriend got beat up so badly: Your boyfriend did not simply ask everyone to leave peacefully as the article states, as a matter of fact I clearly remember him asking everyone to leave with a bat in his hand. Court documents should show in this case that the bat used on the victim was actually the victims own bat. He had thrown the bat in frustration and hit the wrong kid thats all. The other kids did not need to get involved with Mr. Cordova’s self defense, and yes it did go to far, but we must not forget who caused the situation, the victim himself. A clear self defense case.
I was also present at the party and must stress that there are in fact two sides to the story. One side everyone knows is that Mr. Ortega got jumped, but no one is asking why. Do you really think the convicted kids did this for no reason? I must confirm that I witnessed Tony Ortega askng people to leave with a bat at the ready. I clearly remember Mr. Cordova getting struck with the bat and the “jumping” follwed. The party was planned a week in advance, at least thats when I heard about it. Personally I think the wrong party is being prosecuted although self defense will surely have Mr. Cordova a free man with out a doubt.
And one more thing, those of you who were there with me will also remember that the man using the bat on Ortega wasnt even Dova, mike paige or the minor from so cal. No names but come on the kid who did it is only a sophmore! why isnt anyone going after him?
Im glad to see the free dova organization is finally taking some steps but its kind of late.. just another voice, and i know this is a little harsh, ortega deserved it, at least from what i saw