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Local News

• Natomas school district's legal fees top $450,000 in land suit



Attorneys' fees are piling up for the Natomas Unified School District as it continues to battle two development firms that school officials allege charged too much for a 41-acre school site.

The bill so far: $454,878.03.

That includes all legal costs before and since the property's purchase in 2007, said Heidi Van Zant, school district spokeswoman.

And the tally is sure to continue. Natomas Unified sued both companies – AKT Investments Inc. and West Lakeside LLC, headed by developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos – in September. Also named in the suit are Sacramento attorney Martin Steiner and the law firm where he works, Hefner, Stark & Marois, LLP; real estate broker Mark Skreden; and appraiser Christopher Ferguson and the firm Ferguson & Associates.

The district paid $13.3 million for the property – $10.4 million too much, said Teri Burns, school board president. District officials have contended that appraisals for the property were inflated.

District officials want to cancel the original contract and renegotiate the cost at current market value. If that isn't possible, they want to return the property in exchange for canceling the contract.

"We are ready to hand the property back, absolutely," Burns said.

The district has been planning to build a bioscience magnet school on the site once the residential housing market gains some steam, said interim Superintendent General Davie.

Burns said the district has some new options. District staff will look at the possibility of building a school at the Arco Arena site if it becomes available.

"This is a real valid alternative for us," Burns said.

But the district has some time to decide. It may be awhile before the court case is heard, said Michael Cannon, Natomas Unified assistant superintendent of facilities and planning. "We are a prisoner of the backlog in the courts," he said.

While district officials wait for the case to wend its way through the court system, they continue to try to resolve the problem through mediation, Burns said.

Davie said the district isn't likely to recover its attorneys' fees if it settles the matter in mediation, but may be able to get a judgment in court.

"I'm certain we are going to ask for them," Davie said.

The lawsuit follows two years of community outrage over reports about the purchase, initially reported in The Bee. The suit was filed after a grand jury report in May that alleged the district paid six times the value of the land and that then-Superintendent Steve Farrar didn't oversee the purchase properly. Farrar has since retired.

• Natomas-area couple bring Haitian orphan home




Noel VanDeviver and friend Laurie Green strap Christopher, 2, Noel and Derek VanDeviver's newly adopted son, into his car seat Sunday at Sacramento International Airport after picking him up at an adoption agency in South Florida. The Haitian quake sped up the adoption process.

Christopher, a Haitian orphan, has been through unknowable tragedy in the 2 years and 4 months he's been alive.

He's the size of a 1-year-old and hardly makes a peep, looking at the world with eyes wide open.

But his future is bright as can be.

Sunday, he arrived at Sacramento International Airport with his new parents, Natomas-area residents Derek and Noel VanDeviver.

Strapped securely to Noel's stomach, he was wearing khaki pants and socks with little cartoon monkeys on them.

The VanDevivers had been arranging his adoption with an orphanage in Port-au-Prince for the past year, and because of the earthquake, were able to bring Christopher home earlier than expected.

They said they wanted to adopt an international child, someone they could visit and send presents to at the orphanage. They visited Christopher in Haiti in July 2009 and thought they would not be able to take him home for another year or so.

"We were matched with Christopher because he and Derek look alike," said Noel.

Elated and exhausted, the couple said they hadn't slept since Thursday. They flew to south Florida on Friday to pick him up.

Although Christopher has not been formally adopted yet, the VanDevivers are confident the paperwork will be completed soon.

They got him out just as the Haitian government was cracking down on orphans leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that the government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.

Christopher was one of 52 children from a Port-au-Prince orphanage flown to the United States aboard a chartered flight on Friday, Noel said.

Standing at the luggage claim, Noel said Christopher behaved well on the flight home. He threw up once, she said, probably because he was nervous.

The VanDevivers know he can walk, although they haven't seen him do it yet.

They haven't heard him speak either. But he seems to understand them, they said. When he started getting fussy on the flight home, Derek soothed him with a few Haitian Creole phrases.

"I was telling him it's going to be OK, and everything's fine," Derek said. "After that he seemed to understand and calm down."

Christopher is the second youngster from Haiti adopted after the earthquake by a family in the region. On Jan. 21, Marie Guerline Clerge, 7, arrived to join the family of Scott and Debbie Bryditzki of Lake of the Pines near Auburn.

Before the 6.9-magnitude quake on Jan. 12, Haiti was home to an estimated 380,000 youngsters living in orphanages or group homes, according the United Nations Children's Fund. Now, that number has probably increased by thousands, so many that officials won't venture a guess. Most of the other children at Christopher's orphanage were left behind, Noel said, tearing up.

Christopher is lucky. He's going home to parents who are already planning his education.

His biggest concern now is getting used to his new, suburban life. Noel will stay home for the next few months with him.

"The dogs will be the first obstacle," Noel said, laughing.

• Sam's Club store to close in Natomas



The Sam's Club in Natomas will close this month along with nine others nationwide in a housecleaning move to eliminate underperforming stores, the parent company announced on Monday.

The Natomas store, which opened in 2007 in the midst of one of the region's most commercially saturated communities, will close Jan. 22 and the pharmacy will close Jan. 25, according to Sam's Club representatives.

Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is a membership warehouse club with five other locations in the region.

The 144 full- and part-time employees at the Natomas location were told about the closing on Sunday and are among 1,500 nationwide who will lose their jobs.

In a written statement, regional general manager and vice president of Sam's Club Paul Stone said: "Over the years, we have worked to improve this club's financial performance. Despite our efforts, the club continued to lose money, and we have decided to close it."

The company, which owns the 136,000-square-foot building and leases the land it's on, has no immediate plans for the property, according Kory Lundberg, a company spokesman.

Sam's Club was an anchor in the 663,000-square-foot lifestyle center, The Promenade at Natomas, that opened several years ago near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Truxel Road. Another anchor, Linens 'N Things closed in 2008, leaving Target, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy and other retailers.

The shopping center was the last major one to open in Natomas and might have come too late to the table, said Garrick Brown, research director at the Sacramento office of Colliers International real estate.

"It was banking on a lot of housing that didn't happen," he said.

After the center gathered a healthy collection of retail banner names, the housing market collapsed, hitting particularly hard in the sprawling, new suburb.

The nail in the coffin came in 2008 when the Federal Emergency Management Administration declared once-booming Natomas a hazardous floodplain. As a result, building stopped and won't restart until levees are fortified enough to reach the 100-year flood-protection level, which means they can withstand a flood that has a one in 100 chance of occurring in any given year. The moratorium could last until 2011.

When it comes to retail, "you really have an overbuilt market in Natomas," Brown said, given the expectations were based on another estimated 4,000 homes there.

The Promenade is across the street from another large center with a Walmart, Michael's and other shops and movie theaters. Kohl's department store anchors another large Natomas shopping center.

Because much of Natomas housing sold during a time when subprime loans were handed out, residents there could have taken a disproportionately bigger hit by the mortgage crises, Brown said, and could be struggling to cover mortgage payments that have adjusted to higher rates.

Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division is doing well overall, said Joel Bloomer, an analyst with Morningstar, an investment research firm based in Chicago. Most Sam's Clubs that close reopen in larger, newer locations, Bloomer said.

Certainly, the 10 stores closing this month doesn't signal a change in the company's commitment to grow the brand, he said.

"They haven't grown in the last couple years, but they're dedicated to the concept," he said.

Though Sam's is a discounter, a category that has weathered the recession better than others, it still needs a base population and traffic to succeed, Bloomer said.

Though the per-unit price of Sam's products might be lower or competitive with grocery stores or even its retail brother Walmart, shoppers must pay a higher upfront cost at discount warehouses, he said.

There are few individual servings for sale at warehouse discounters, which rely on families who can afford bulk purchasing, Bloomer said.

Another customer base is small businesses that buy in bulk, he said. A lack of small- business growth would cut into Sam's Club customer base, he said.

"If that didn't pan out for the community, the small retail that pops around a new population, then you don't have that customer base for a Sam's Club," he said.

Though memberships at Sam's Club can be used at any location, the company will give refunds to members who want them. Representatives will be at the store to answer questions or provide refunds.

• Natomas budget cuts



Natomas Unified School District officials received notice this week from the Sacramento County Office of Education that the district is at risk of being unable to meet its financial obligations. Wednesday night, Natomas trustees approved $15.2 million in budget cuts through 2013.

Among the cuts for this year:

• Immediate freeze on hiring and spending, with exceptions for items including bus fuel and school meals. (Savings to be determined.)

• Reduction of staff stipends for assistant sport coaches, yearbook, band, drama, journalism, senior project and drill team by $65,000.

• Leave an elementary counselor position vacant, $100,000

• Shorten the school year by five days. Savings to be determined, depending on whether the Natomas Teachers Association agrees to furloughs.

Cuts approved for 2010-11:

• Eliminate all counselors except two at each high school, $600,000.

• Increase kindergarten through third-grade class sizes to 30 students, $500,000.

• Reduce elementary prep periods, resulting in elimination of four positions, $232,000.

• Reductions in athletic costs, $50,000.

• Reduce ROP program costs, $50,000.

• Shorten school day of high school juniors and seniors, resulting in the layoff of four teachers, $232,000.

• Reduce district support staff by 20 percent and school support staff by 10 percent, $690,000.

• Eliminate five assistant principal positions at Heron School, the middle schools and high schools, leaving two assistant principals at each high school, $460,000.

• Shift funding for an assistant superintendent, $60,000; eliminate two classified director/supervisor positions, $200,000; reduce one administrative assistant, $85,000, for a total of $345,000.

• Postpone adoption of new textbooks, $915,000.

• Eliminate purchases of consumable books, $300,000

• End technology contracts for $120,000

• Change the number of lunch periods at Natomas High to two, expected to generate $45,000.

• Eliminate all home-to-school transportation except for mandatory special education busing, $480,000

• Carry over cuts for 2009-10, about $100,000

• Natomas schools hit by harsh budget bloodletting



Teachers, parents and students packed the Natomas Unified School District headquarters Wednesday night to beseech board members to save classes and special programs.

But bloodletting was unavoidable.

The County Office of Education had exhausted all warnings to the district and, as of Wednesday morning, had stepped in to right the district's finances. County education officials told Natomas trustees to cut $200,000 from this year's budget and $5 million from the budgets of each of the next three years.

Assistant Superintendent John Christ told The Bee Thursday that the district's financial trouble is due to a number of factors, including administrators being overly optimistic about incoming federal money and potential state budget cuts. He and other district leaders didn't want to upset the staff by sending out March 25 layoff notices, he said.

"We wanted to retain, support and maintain our highly motivated staff," Christ said. "We didn't want to go down that road."

By summer, that wasn't an option and the district sent out layoff notices.

"We knew we were in trouble then," Christ said. "We hadn't made the level of cuts needed. We went into this year knowing we would need some more cuts."

Natomas' financial situation got worse at the beginning of the school year when district officials realized enrollment was down. Children were moving out of the district, and 400 had migrated to charter schools. The enrollment reduction will result in a loss of $2.5 million in daily attendance funding by the end of the year.

On Wednesday night, Board President Teri Burns laid a share of the blame for the district's problems on the teachers union, which has yet to come to a contract agreement with the district.

She said some of the layoffs could have been avoided if teachers had agreed to take some cuts and let go of pay raises built into their contract.

Superintendent Steve Farrar said that while classified and unrepresented staff agreed to furlough days – 12 and eight respectively – and a salary freeze, teachers maintained their annual automatic raises, which total $2 million a year.

Natomas Teachers Association President Cynthia Connell could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Wednesday night, after five hours of testimony from 40 speakers, the school board voted to freeze hiring and spending for this year, cut stipends for assistant coaches and club advisers by $65,000 and remove senior projects as a graduation requirement. They shortened the school year by five days and will allow classes to grow to 30 students if needed.

"We've fought the fight, but this is where we have to be," said board member Bruce Roberts.

Terri Ryland, the financial adviser assigned by the County Office of Education to watch over Natomas, sat in the front row, pad and pen in hand, tallying up the cuts.

The board eliminated vice principals and counselors at all but the high schools, reduced elementary prep periods, cut funding to athletics and regional occupation classes, trimmed the school days of high school juniors and seniors by one class period, chopped district support staff by 20 percent and school support staff by 10 percent and cut 3.5 administrative positions.

They shaved another $1.4 million from the deficit by canceling technology contracts and voting not to adopt any new books.

Board members then turned to Ryland.

"That's $3.3 million so far," she said looking at her pad.

Trustees turned back to their list of proposed cuts. They voted to eliminate transportation except for that mandated for special education students. They eliminated stipends for advisors of clubs, cheer, journalism and sports for at least the next three years. And an assortment of odds and ends hit the cutting room floor.

Close enough, agreed the board. $4.936 million.

"No one likes it, but it's where we're at," said Burns, the school board president.

Christ, the assistant superintendent, said he's worried about the midyear cuts and other variables.

The district had already made $31.2 million in budget cuts this year, including $8 million in reductions to the 2009-10 budget that included increasing class sizes; laying off 74 employees; instituting furlough days; and reducing busing, athletics, physical education classes, summer school and the number of library technicians.

At the end of Wednesday's meeting, Ryland gave school board members their marching orders: Begin to identify every possible layoff for March 15. Make sure everyone knows about hiring and spending freezes. And prepare to pay class-size penalties – "They're cheaper than teachers," she said.

And she put down her pen.

• Troubled Natomas schools get aid from Sacramento County education office



Sacramento County Office of Education officials have stepped in to ensure that the Natomas Unified School District balances its budget.

In a letter to Natomas Superintendent Steve Farrar dated Monday, County Superintendent of Schools David Gordon states: "It appears the district will not be able to meet its financial obligations for this year or next."

He said a review of budget and enrollment projections for Natomas Unified found that the district's financial situation had worsened since it submitted its 2009-10 budget in June. He said enrollment was overstated, savings had not materialized and there were unexpected expenditures.

The district also failed to meet a Sept. 15 deadline to turn in a revised budget and a report on its spending for 2008-09.

Gordon's decision to move Natomas into "negative status" allows him to appoint a financial adviser to assist the district with its budget revisions.

Terri Ryland, a former school business officer turned independent consultant, has been appointed as the adviser. Ryland will not tell the Natomas school board what to cut, Gordon said, just how much needs to be cut. She has the power, however, to deny expenditures unless other cuts have been made to balance the budget.

Ryland began working with the district several weeks ago, even though the negative status wasn't official until Wednesday.

"The relationship is that we are there to help them get back on track," Gordon said. "To make sure they don't go bankrupt and go into state receivership."

A district can go into state receivership if it runs out of money and must borrow it from the state. The state can set aside the school board's authority until the district can repay the loan, Gordon said.

Natomas Unified officials seem relieved to get the help.

"We have a close working relationship with the county office," board President Teri Burns said before a special meeting Wednesday night. "They are doing their job."

The meeting was scheduled so that the board could make the cuts necessary to get out of the negative status.

"Hopefully, we can be out of it (negative status) by the end of October," Burns said.

Among the cuts the board was considering for next year was elimination of school counselors, sports and all regional occupational classes. It was also going to consider enlarging class size.

County Office of Education officials will have 10 days to review the revisions and to determine whether or not to rescind the negative status.

The board had already cut $31.2 million from its 2009-10 budget by laying off 74 employees, instituting furlough days and reducing busing, athletics, physical education classes, summer school and the number of library technicians. Kindergarten through third-grade class sizes were increased from 20 to 25.

Gordon said district officials have received numerous letters from the county Office of Education since January apprising them of Natomas Unified's precarious status.

Just how the district got into the situation is subject to debate. Burns said state cuts were larger than expected and that failed negotiations with the teachers union caused layoffs.

Gordon said his office reviews school district budgets at least three times a year, more if they are faltering financially. Districts are deemed to be in positive, qualified or negative status.

The Natomas district had been in qualified status since January, before falling into negative status.

The last time a district fell into negative status is when the districts of North Sacramento, Del Paso, Grant and Rio Linda merged into the Twin Rivers Unified School District. He said the district was in a unique situation because it was under constraints from the education code in regard to staffing.

"It isn't unheard of," Gordon said. "The good news is you have to correct it. You have to make reductions."

Gordon said that it was once unusual for schools to be in qualified status, but more and more district have moved into that category as schools find themselves slashing budgets due to state cuts.

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Regional News

• Sacramento drunken killer, road-rage slayer due parole hearings



A man who killed an 18-year-old while he was drunk and a man who shot to death another motorist in an act of road rage are among Sacramento area convicts who have paroles hearings scheduled next week.

They are:

-March 18, Kenneth Roy Stark, 55, Mule Creek State Prison.

A Yolo County Superior Court judge sentenced Stark to life in prison for the June 13, 1985 beating death of a homeless man, The Bee reported.

The body of Ronald Eugene Meyers, 42, was dumped in a Yolo Bypass field.

-March 18, Ralph Kendall Blasingame IV, 34, California State Prison, Solano.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Blasingame to 19-year-to-life in prison for fatally shooting an 18-year-old stranger in a drunken act of bravado, The Bee reported.

Blasingame killed Sean Michael Renfro with a single bullet fired from 100 feet at a car leaving a river party late at night on Oct. 16, 1993.

According to testimony, someone had shouted an obscenity and Blasingame, who was standing on the road, mistakenly thought the passing Honda was filled with people he and his friends had tangled with earlier that night. He claimed to have fired wildly into the night, never knowing he hit anything.

-March 18, Thongsanh Phongsavat, 34, California State Prison, Solano.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Phongsavat to 18-year-to-life in prison on April 26, 1996 for shooting and killing a motorist in a driving dispute on Interstate 80, The Bee reported.

Killed during the rush hour as he exited Interstate 80 at Northgate Boulevard on Oct. 10, 1995, was Brit C. Bahn, 24. Bahn and his brother, Chad, 25, were driving from Woodland to a store to return a television.

Bahn was hit in the temple with a single rifle shot fired from a Honda in which Phongsavat was riding as a passenger.

The incident began on I-5 when the Honda was tailgating the truck, and the occupants became embroiled in an exchange of gestures and racial slurs.

-March 18, John Lee Hart, 52, California State Prison, Solano.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Hart to life in prison for shooting to death Charles Mojeske, 22, of Sacramento at his home in 4200 block of May Street, The Bee reported.

The July 27, 1991 attack also resulted in injuries to two of the victim's brothers, neither of whom was hurt seriously.

Hart shot Mojeske when he opened the door to his house. Testimony showed that Mojeske earlier had been involved in a fight with Hart's 15-year-old brother.

-March 19, James Elmer Harmon, 69, California State Prison, Solano.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Harmon to life plus 17 years in April 1987 for a kidnap-robbery with a couple of accomplices that netted them $3,000, The Bee reported.

Harmon hit the victim with a pipe in the September 1986 crime.

Harmon had an extensive criminal history going back to 1959. The deputy district attorney who prosecuted him for the kidnap-robbery was the son of the deputy district attorney who won a conviction of Harmon in 1960.

If you want to give your opinion of an inmate's suitability for parole, you may mail a letter to:

Martin Hoshino, executive director

Board of Parole Hearings

1515 K Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

For more information on the Board of Parole Hearings, go to:

http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/BOPH/

• Sac sheriff: Woman arrested in imprisonment, torture of man



A Sacramento woman accused of beating a man and holding him against his will was being held in lieu of $1 million bail tonight at the Sacramento County Jail.

Kathlyne Alycia Smart, 46, of Sacramento, was arrested late Friday by Sacramento Sheriff's deputies on suspicion of torture with intent to cause cruel or extreme pain, false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon with the likelihood of causing great bodily harm after deputies were called to an apartment in the 5100 block of Andrea Boulevard, said Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran.

Neighbors told deputies they heard sounds of screaming coming from the apartment about 10:50 p.m. Friday, Curran said.

Deputies arrived to find a 41-year-old man who said he was being held against his will. It was unknown how long the man had been held.

Curran said the man had been beaten and burned and was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries and released.

Curran did not know the extent of the pair's relationship, but said the two were acquainted.

Smart is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court.

• Sacramento postal worker indicted for worker's comp fraud



A federal grand jury has indicted a 46-year-old Sacramento postal worker for allegedly illegally claiming $278,000 in workers' compensation benefits, according to the U.S. attorney Benjamin Wagner.

The 15-count indictment issued earlier this week alleges that Nicki Lee Buxmann falsely claimed to have been injured on the job and then denied she had outside employment and income, Wagner said in a news release.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurel Loomis Rimon, who is prosecuting the case, the indictment alleges that Buxmann defrauded the Postal Service by claiming that she had injured her back, neck, and shoulder while on the job and then denying that she had outside employment and income while receiving benefits.

The indictment alleges that Buxmann owned and operated TNT Takeover/MMA Boxing and Fitness 180 businesses in Elk Grove and Roseville, Rimon said.

Buxmann is also charged with separate counts of theft of U.S. property and false statements or fraud to obtain employee's compensation, Rimon said.

The case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General, Wagner said.

• Sac sheriff asking public's help in finding robbery suspect



Sacramento County sheriff's detectives are seeking help in identifying a man suspected of attempting to rob a fast-food restaurant.

Robbery detectives said that about 4 p.m. Feb. 21 a man ordered food at the Del Taco restaurant in the 9100 block of Keifer Boulevard and asked to speak to the manager.

When the manager approached, the man pointed a handgun at him and demanded money. The manager ran behind the counter and the suspect fled without cash.

The suspect is described as a black male in his 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He has a tattoo on the right side of his neck.

Anyone with information is asked to call robbery detectives at (916) 874-5115 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

• Sacto 9-1-1: Sacramento child killer among inmates up for parole hearings



A man who murdered his 1-year-old son in 1996 and a woman who killed a man in 1988 who she suspected of being a child molester are among the Sacramento area convicts who are up for parole hearings early in March.

According to the Board of Parole Hearings, a division of the State Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, the following hearings are scheduled for these convicts who are serving life sentences:

-March 8, Robert Ramirez Vela Jr., 34, Avenal State Prison.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Vela on July 18, 1997, to 15-years-to-life in prison for the murder of his 1-year-old son, Daniel Vergos, who died of a massive skull fracture, The Bee reported.

An autopsy revealed that the victim had toxic levels of prescription drugs in his blood system, according to court documents. The drugs, which included codeine, were of such high doses that they alone would have killed him, said Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely.

During the trial, Vela said he accidentally bumped his son's head against a wall when he was rocking the boy. Prosecution evidence showed the child's head injuries were so severe they were equivalent to a fall from a building several stories high.

-March 10, Frederick Brinkley, 47, Avenal State Prison.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Brinkley to life in prison in November 1983 for a nine-day kidnapping and robbery spree in 1982.

Brinkley and a second person kidnapped three persons and robbed four others in separate crimes that took place in parking lots.

One victim was bound, gagged and left in the trunk of an abandoned car. She was able to free herself and pick the lock with her fingernails.

-March 10, Joy Celeste Pense, 43, California Institution for Women.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Pense of Martinez in December 1989 to 27-years-to life in prison for killing a man because she believed he had molested the 3-year-old daughter of a friend, The Bee reported.

Pense was convicted of the Nov. 12, 1988, gunshot slaying of Tracy James Helling, 19, of Concord.

According to trial testimony, Pense lured Helling to a remote area of the Delta in Sacramento County with a promise she could get him some good drugs, then produced a gun and shot Helling several times in the torso and head, including one fatal round to the heart.

After leaving Helling's lifeless body on the shoulder of a road in the Sandy Beach area, Pense returned to Martinez and told the mother of the molestation victim that she had killed Helling. "Boom, I shot him in the head and in the gut," the mother quoted Pense.

The mother explained to the jury that she had learned from her daughter in May 1989 that Helling had been playing a "secret game" with her 3-year-old daughter and had attempted unsuccessfully to get the Contra Costa County authorities to prosecute him on child-molestation charges.

Pense was the child's baby sitter and shared in the mother's frustration with the criminal justice system, she testified.

-March 11, George Edward Mixon, California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

No background information was available.

If you want to give your opinion of an inmate's suitability for parole, you may mail a letter to:

Martin Hoshino, executive director

Board of Parole Hearings

1515 K Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

For more information on the Board of Parole Hearings, go to:

http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/BOPH/

• 'On-call' Sacramento sheriff's deputy arrested on sex charges




Eric Cephus

A 39-year-old man employed by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department as an "on-call" deputy has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl at a Lincoln hotel, according to authorities.

Eric Cephus was taken into custody late Tuesday night in San Jose, said Lincoln police acting Chief Paul Shelgren.

He was booked into the Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 and transporting to commit rape, Shelgren said. He is expected to arrive in Placer County this afternoon.

Police began investigating Cephus on Feb. 27, after a Lincoln patrol officer came across the girl walking in the area of Ferrari Ranch Road and Joiner Parkway in the early morning, Shelgren said.

The girl was "pretty forthcoming about what happened" hours earlier, Shelgren said.

He said detectives suspect that Cephus met the girl "through the course of his employment," but declined to elaborate.

Shelgren said the girl was not brought to Lincoln against her will. It's unclear to detectives at this point whether the sex was forced; however, Shelgren said he found it hard to imagine a scenario in which sex with a 13-year-old girl would be consensual.

In addition to the two sex-related charges, Shelgren told The Bee earlier today that Cephus had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in an act of prostitution. However, he said this afternoon that detectives did not have enough evidence to support such a charge.

He declined to say whether the girl characterized herself as a prostitute or whether Cephus paid her.

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness confirmed that Cephus is employed as an "on-call" deputy sheriff, although he is on administrative leave because of the arrest. He said Cephus had been employed as a full-time deputy sheriff until he was laid off in August as a result of department-wide budget cuts.

At the time he was laid off, Cephus had been employed by the Sheriff's Department for a "couple years," McGinness said.

Cephus lives in San Jose with his girlfriend and the couple's son, according to their babysitter, who spoke briefly to The Bee but did not give her name. A message for Cephus' girlfriend, left with the babysitter, has not been returned.

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National News

• Actor Corey Haim dies

Actor Corey Haim, who appeared in a number of movies during the 1980s, died early Wednesday of a possible drug overdose after being taken to a hospital, Los Angeles police said.


• Mexico to U.S.: Allow cross-border trucking

Mexico asked the United States to move forward with creating a proposal to end a ban on cross-border trucking in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.


• Man pleads guilty after security scare

A New Jersey man who breached security to give his girlfriend a kiss, causing scores of flight delays, pleaded guilty Tuesday to defiant trespass, his lawyer said.


• Graduates rally for embattled school

Graduates of the nation's most vilified high school descended upon campus Tuesday evening to support the school's fired teachers. They also had a message for President Obama: Don't bash our school.


• Archdiocese defends decision to deny children over lesbian parents

The archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, is defending its decision not to re-enroll two children in a Catholic school in Boulder next year because their parents are lesbians.


• Sheen set to return to '2 and a Half Men'

Charlie Sheen is set to return to the set of his sitcom "Two and a Half Men," his publicist said.

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