$1-million worth of marijuana plants found growing in East Bay Regional Park

East Bay Regional Park police officers recovered about $1 million worth of marijuana plants early Friday morning when they raided a growing operation in a remote area of Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, police said.

About 3,300 plants were recovered in the raid, which was conducted at about 4 a.m. at an area between Castro Valley and San Ramon, police said.

The growing operation had been found earlier during routine park patrols. An elaborate irrigation system tapped into the park’s water supply was watering the plants.

Grow operations are of particular concern to the park district since the suspects remove areas of native vegetation and use fertilizer, poisons and pesticides around the marijuana plants, according to police.

The plants were taken to an undisclosed location and destroyed.

Anyone with information about the growing operation is asked to East Bay Regional Parks Police at (510) 881-1833.

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Danville police are hunting for a man who groped a teenage girl in a public park Thursday evening.

The 14-year-old girl was walking past the tennis courts in Diablo Vista Park around 8:30 p.m. Thursday when she was approached by a man, police Lt. Jeff Moule said.

The suspect approached the girl, grabbed her in an embrace and touched her chest “in an inappropriate way,” Moule said.

When the girl broke away and ran to a family vehicle, the suspect fled into a wooded area east of the park.

A search of the area was conducted using forensics technicians and dogs, but the suspect was not located.

Police Friday released a sketch of the suspect created by a police artist, and will be canvassing the neighborhoods near the park looking for witnesses or information about the suspect.

The suspect was described as an Indian man who is about 60 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and has a medium build and a gray mustache. He was wearing a black tracksuit.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Allan Shields at (925) 314-3710 or ashields@danville.ca.gov.

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The city of San Francisco’s pioneering ban on tobacco sales by pharmacies has survived its latest challenge, a constitutional lawsuit by the Safeway grocery store chain.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland Friday dismissed a lawsuit in which Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc. claimed the measure was an unconstitutional restriction on its right to conduct a lawful business.

Wilken wrote that the current version of the law is “a reasonable and permissible use” of the city’s power to pass laws to protect the public.

“The protection of a vested property right in a business permit generally must yield to the state’s concern for the public health and safety and its authority to legislate for the protection of the public,” Wilken wrote.

The law banning the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products by pharmacies was originally enacted by the Board of Supervisors in 2008 and was the first of its kind in the nation.

The board’s rationale was that because pharmacies provide health-related services, they should not be allowed to give consumers “tacit approval” for disease-causing cigarettes by selling the products.

In its initial form, the ordinance exempted from the ban so-called “big box stores” that contain pharmacies, such as Safeway grocery stores and large discount retailers.

But the Board of Supervisors amended the law to eliminate that exemption last year after Walgreen Co. won a state court lawsuit that claimed the law discriminated against stores that operate primarily as pharmacies.

Safeway, which has 10 grocery stores containing pharmacies in San Francisco, then filed its federal lawsuit in February.

Safeway spokeswoman Susan Houghton said company officials had not yet seen the ruling and would not be able to comment until next week on whether they plan to appeal.

“We’re certainly disappointed,” Houghton said. “We will have to read the ruling and evaluate our next steps.”

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, whose office defended the law, said, “Those who operate pharmacies have chosen to participate in our health care delivery system, and that should not include the delivery of cigarettes.”

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More Saturday news provided by Bay City News services:

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A coalition of San Jose community groups Friday gathered to send a

loud message of disapproval to Police Chief Chris Moore on his decision to

keep a pair of recently enlisted federal immigrations investigators.

“Our message is clear: we don’t want ICE here,” Stefanie Flores, a

spokeswoman for Silicon Valley DeBug, said at a news conference Friday

morning. “We want to work with the police to find real solutions.”

DeBug is part of a handful of San Jose immigrant and civil rights

groups that oppose Moore’s recent decision to enlist the help of two

investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the

Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Community Shield” program.

The groups said the program increases the community’s distrust of

law enforcement, cultivates fear and undermines immigrants’ civil liberties.

“Now, more than ever, there needs to be a culture of trust between

immigrant populations and the Police Department,” said Jazmin Segura, a

spokeswoman for the group Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network,

or SIREN. “This program will invariably damage that trust.”

At a community meeting hosted by Sacred Heart Community Service on

Wednesday night, Moore said the agents are helping the department target

escalating gang violence, which he said has contributed to more than half of

the city’s homicides this year.

He said they are working strictly within those guidelines and that

he would remove them if they overstepped their boundaries.

Moore’s promise, however, does not appear to have quelled the

suspicions of the immigrant community, who questioned why the decision was

made without input from the community and who fear that the department’s

collaboration with the two ICE agents will increase the chances of racial

profiling and deportations.

They claim that there have been cases across the country where

agents have been authorized to question undocumented immigrants despite their

criminal history or affiliation with gangs.

-0-

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and other city officials Friday unveiled

security cameras that are aimed at combating a crime wave in parts of

Oakland’s Fruitvale District.

At a news conference at the Otaez Restaurant in the 3800 block of

International Boulevard, Quan said if video cameras had been in place

earlier, the suspects who killed owner Jesus “Chuy” Campos in a botched

robbery attempt when he opened the restaurant the morning of April 8 probably

would have been caught.

“Should there be another occurrence, the suspects likely would be

caught on camera,” Quan said.

City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who represents the Fruitvale

District and had been friends with Campos, 58, for 35 years, said he believes

that installing 100 security cameras at 35 locations in a 2-square-mile area

“will protect businesses, families and customers.”

De La Fuente said the investigation into the death of Campos, who

was a community leader and had been president of the Mexican-American

merchants association, has been “hard” but police are working diligently and

“haven’t given up.”

Campos’ daughter, Darlene Franco, who helps run the restaurant,

said crime in the area is so bad that “merchants don’t feel safe” and “people

don’t want to come to Fruitvale anymore.”

Franco said the restaurant was broken into a month after her

father was killed and a man was shot outside the restaurant several weeks

ago.

She also said prostitutes plied their trade near the restaurant

the day after her father’s funeral.

“There’s no respect by the villains,” Franco said.

She said she hopes the security cameras will help, adding,

“Villains, you will get caught.”

Travel agency owner Hugo Guerrero said he hopes the cameras will

fight crime.

“For the first time, people in this neighborhood are scared,” he

said.

Oakland police Officer Jorge Pereda said the cameras will not stop

crime in the area but he thinks “they will help a lot.”

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A Concord man was ordered to stand trial this week on charges

including involuntary manslaughter in the dog-mauling death of his step

grandson, but a judge declined to add a count of second-degree murder.

Steven Hayashi, 53, will be arraigned Monday Aug. 1 on charges of

felony child endangerment, maintaining a dangerous animal and involuntary

manslaughter in connection with the death of 2-year-old Jacob Bisbee, Deputy

District Attorney Mary Knox said.

Knox had asked that Hayashi also be charged with second-degree

murder, and cited as a precedent the case of San Francisco resident Marjorie

Knoller, who was convicted of murder after her dogs killed Diane Whipple in

2001. Judge Clare Maier ruled against the move on Thursday, however, instead

adding the manslaughter charge.

“Judge Maier gave the evidence a lot of thought, and she found

(in) the case I was relying on, the Knoller case, that the defendant’s

conduct there was more egregious with regards to their knowledge of the

dangerousness of the dogs,” Knox said. “She found that the evidence of this

case did not quite rise to that level.”

Jacob Bisbee was killed on the morning of July 22, 2010, at

Hayashi’s home at 1785 Trailcreek Court. He lived there with his father and

older brother, along with Hayashi, Hayashi’s wife and their two teenage sons.

The boy’s father, Michael Bisbee, had left for work around 5:30

a.m. Hayashi left with his son a couple hours later to play tennis, leaving

Jacob, his 4-year-old brother and Hayashi’s wife asleep upstairs.

Around 8:45 a.m., Jacob went into the garage, where Hayashi kept

three pit bulls, and was attacked. After he was found, he was taken to John

Muir Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He suffered skull

fractures and severe bleeding from multiple dog bites.

Knox has argued that Hayashi knew the dogs were aggressive,

particularly toward children, and that he did not take adequate steps to

protect the children from the dogs.

Hayashi’s attorney, however, has argued that there was no evidence

that Hayashi was responsible for the children when the attack happened or

that he knew the dogs were vicious.

-0-

A bill that would prohibit criminal convictions based solely on

the uncorroborated testimony of a jailhouse informant has passed the state

Assembly.

The bill, SB 687, implements a 2006 commission recommendation that

the state establish safeguards to protect against wrongful convictions based

on informant testimony, the bill’s author, state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San

Francisco, said.

“We know that when used properly, jailhouse informants can be a

good investigative tool for prosecutors, but they can also be destructive,

crime-producing and corruptive,” Leno said. “SB 687 ensures that in-custody

informant testimony is supported by corroborating evidence that connects the

accused with the crime that was committed.”

Other states have similar laws in place, and the Los Angeles

District Attorney has adopted a voluntary policy requiring corroborative

evidence when the testimony of an informant is used.

“We have not had any problems obtaining convictions as a result of

our policy and believe it has helped us to assure the reliability of witness

testimony to avoid mistakes in criminal prosecutions,” Los Angeles County

District Attorney Steve Cooley said.

The bill has the support of prosecutors including the San

Francisco district attorney, and is co-sponsored by the California Public

Defenders Association, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the

American Civil Liberties Union.

SB 687 passed the Assembly 47-26 Thursday, and now awaits a

signature from Gov. Jerry Brown.

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An alleged Sureno gang member who told a California Highway Patrol

investigator he fatally shot Vallejo musician Dewey Tucker on Interstate

Highway 80 in 2010 also admitted fighting a rival gang member who was found

stabbed to death in a Santa Rosa schoolyard in January.

Raul Vega, 19, who is charged with both murders, said he and Juan

Carlos Angel-Esparza, 20, fought at the Kawana Springs elementary school on

Jan. 8, Santa Rosa police detective Bryan Reynolds testified Friday afternoon

at a preliminary hearing in Sonoma County Superior Court.

On Thursday, CHP violent crimes detective William Harm testified

Vega admitted he shot Tucker from the passenger seat of a stolen Honda as

Tucker drove by in a white Nissan on westbound I-80 near the Carquinez Bridge

on Jan. 12, 2010.

Vega and three co-defendants went to the Vallejo apartment complex

where Tucker lived looking for a rival gang member, according to the Sonoma

County District Attorney’s Office.

When Tucker drove quickly past the defendants in his Nissan, Vega

and 20-year-old Javier Juan Carreon-Lopez pursued him in the stolen Honda,

believing he was the rival gang member, Harm testified.

The other defendants, Hector Barragan and Christopher Mancinas,

both 29, followed the Honda in a separate vehicle, Harm testified.

Harm said Vega told him he learned the next day that he had

mistakenly shot Tucker, whom neither he nor his co-defendants knew.

Tucker, 24, who played bass for Lauryn Hill and Bobby Brown, was

on his way to a music session that night, according to testimony during the

hearing.

Reynolds testified Friday that Vega reluctantly admitted on Jan.

10 that he fought Angel-Esparza at the school south of Santa Rosa.

Vega claimed Angel-Esparza, an alleged rival gang member from the

Varrio Sureno Locos set of the Sureno gang, confronted him about his gang

affiliation, Reynolds said.

Vega said he identified himself as a member of the Angelino

Heights sect, “and the fight was on,” Reynolds said.

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A bill that would strengthen the legal rights of non-biological

parents was approved by the state Senate Friday.

The Protection of Parent-Child Relationships Act, AB 1349, passed

the senate on a 23-14 vote and now awaits a signature from Gov. Jerry Brown.

Written by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, and sponsored by

Equality California and the Association of California Adoption Lawyers, the

bill would allow courts leeway in cases where there is both a non-biological

parent who has an established relationship with a child and a man who has

signed a voluntary declaration of paternity.

It was written in response to a ruling that said the courts could

not recognize a non-biological parent who has raised a child if another man

has signed a voluntary paternity declaration, even though the biological

father had no relationship with the child and or any intention of raising

him.

“Parenting is more than just biology,” Hill said. “It’s about

nurturing and a sacred bond between and a child and a guardian that should

not be severed by external forces.”

The law would also apply to situations where a same-sex couple has

split up and the non-biological parent is seeking legal recognition.

Currently, if a sperm donor has signed a declaration of paternity, the courts

could not recognize the non-biological parent.

“It is critical that state courts take into consideration the

established relationship between a parent and child when determining legal

parentage,” said Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia.

“This bill would protect families from being broken up by preserving

children’s established family relationships, and this includes LGBT

families.”

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Oakland police have identified a 21-year-old woman whose body was

found burning in the city’s Rockridge neighborhood Thursday morning, a police

spokeswoman said.

The body of Monica Rodas, a Union City resident, was found at

about 4:40 a.m. Thursday at Ivanhoe and Chabot roads, police Officer Holly

Joshi said.

Rodas appeared to have suffered trauma before her body was burned,

and the case is being investigated as a homicide, police said.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Police

Department’s homicide unit at (510) 238-3821.

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The Bay Area is expected to be cloudy with fog and drizzle this

morning, becoming partly cloudy, with highs in the mid 50s to lower 60s.

Tonight is expected to be cloudy with fog and drizzle, with lows

expected to be in the lower 50s.

Sunday is expected to be cloudy, with fog and drizzle expected in

the morning, and highs expected to be in the mid 50s to lower 60s.

Patricia Decker, Bay City News

Patricia Decker, Bay City News

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