The Anatomy of Public Corruption

Police open murder probe as 1 of 2 nerve agent victims dies

 

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, July 5, 2018, an unidentified British police officer guards a cordon in Salisbury, England. Officials say Saturday July 7, 2018, that a police officer is being tested for possible medical problems related to the recent Novichok nerve agent poisoning of two individuals in southwest England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, July 5, 2018, an unidentified British police officer guards a cordon in Salisbury, England. Officials say Saturday July 7, 2018, that a police officer is being tested for possible medical problems related to the recent Novichok nerve agent poisoning of two individuals in southwest England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)


LONDON (AP) — A woman who was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in southwest England died Sunday, eight days after police think she touched a contaminated item that has not been found.
London's Metropolitan Police force said the case had become a homicide investigation now that 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess had died in a hospital in Salisbury. She and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, 45, were admitted June 30 and remained in critical condition.
Police said tests showed the pair was exposed to Novichok, the same type of nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March. Police suspect Rowley and Sturgess handled an item from the first attack, which Britain blames on Russia.
Moscow denies involvement.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "appalled and shocked" by Sturgess's death.
"Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being treated as murder," May said.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Britain's top anti-terrorism police officer, said the death "has only served to strengthen our resolve" to find those responsible.
More than 100 police officers have been working to locate a small vial or other container thought to have held the nerve agent that sickened the two. Officials say the search and cleanup operation will take weeks or even month.
Counterterrorism police are also studying roughly 1,300 hours of closed circuit television footage in hopes of finding clues about the couple's activities in the hours before they became violently ill.
Detectives want to know where the couple was to get new leads on where the contamination might have occurred.
Britain maintains the March attack on the Skripals had been ordered by the Russian government, a charge denied by representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case led to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Britain, the United States, and other countries, and tit-for-tat retaliation by Moscow.
The new poisoning has frightened some residents who thought an extensive cleanup had removed the threat of any further Novichok exposure.
Hospital officials said late Saturday that a number of people including a police officer had sought medical advice in the last week but had been found not to need any treatment.
John Glen, the Conservative Party legislator for the region, said the new poisoning has threatened an economic rebound from the slowdown caused by the attack on the Skripals.
"We need to establish quickly what they came into contact with and where," he said. "The sentiment in the city is frustration, we want to get back to normal."
Britain's interior minister visited Salisbury and nearby Amesbury, where the couple fell ill, on Sunday to reassure residents that the risk to the public remains low.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the area is open for business and urged people to visit what he called one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
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The Pamela Vitale Murder - an out of tune riddle played on a fiddle




Horowitz recounts finding wife's body

Friend says TV legal analyst 'pretty sure' who bludgeoned wife

Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Posted: 9:40 a.m. EDT (13:40 GMT)

Horowitz: "I just told her, 'I love you, and you're beautiful.' "
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Daniel Horowitz
San Francisco (California)
LAFAYETTE, California (CNN) -- High-profile defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz said Tuesday he knew his wife, Pamela Vitale, was dead as soon as he saw her lying inside their temporary home Saturday evening.
"I took it all in, and I knew she was dead," Horowitz told CNN's Nancy Grace in an exclusive interview.
"You scream, you cry. But I just basically sat with her, and I just told her, 'I love you, and you're beautiful,'" Horowitz said.
"It didn't matter any more what was around her, or the horror," he said. "I had just so much time with Pamela, so I just looked at her face, and it was beautiful." (Watch Horowitz describe his last minutes with his wife's body -- 4:50)
After reporting her death to police, Horowitz said he was put in the back of a squad car and not allowed to return to the trailer to see his wife.
He was later taken to the police station, where he was placed in a room normally used for juveniles.
Horowitz, 50, said police monitored him as a person who might commit suicide, but he said he had no intention of killing himself.
Horowitz said he found Vitale, 52, when he returned from San Francisco to the mobile home where the couple was living while their dream house was being built nearby on a remote hilltop near Lafayette in Contra Costa County east of Oakland.
Medical examiners concluded Monday that Vitale died from blunt trauma to the head, said a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department.
Investigators were still on the property Tuesday looking for evidence.
Horowitz said he had been in San Francisco preparing for the trial of Susan Polk, accused of stabbing to death her millionaire husband in 2002.
The judge declared a mistrial Monday in the high-profile Polk case because of Vitale's slaying.
On Tuesday, Joseph Lynch, a tenant on Horowitz's property, dismissed as "ridiculous" the suggestion that police were focusing on him as a suspect, telling CNN he had nothing to do with Vitale's death.
"I am innocent. I have not been on the premises up there," Lynch said.
Officials have described Lynch as cooperative and said he is one of many people they have spoken with about the case.
Four months ago, Horowitz and Vitale petitioned for a restraining order against Lynch, charging that he was dangerous. But Horowitz told CNN they never had the order served because they feared inflaming the situation.
Lynch acknowledged he has had trouble with alcohol and drugs, including methamphetamines, for more than 20 years, but he said he has put those troubles behind him.
He said Horowitz had been supportive, even writing a letter on his behalf to the judge after he was charged with driving while under the influence.
"I've been a real jerk over the years, but now I'm clean, sober and trying to concentrate on the present and the future," Lynch said. He would not say how long he had been off drugs, only that he was "currently clean."
Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, said Monday that the case remains "wide open."
"We're looking at all possible theories and motives. We're not focused in one area," Lee said.
Ivan Golde, a fellow attorney and friend of Horowitz, said Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live" that Horowitz "is pretty sure who did this crime" but cannot identify the person publicly.
Golde had earlier said police were "zeroing in" on Lynch as a potential suspect.
In response, Lynch said, "It doesn't matter what he says. I didn't do it."
Golde, who is Horowitz's co-counsel in the Polk trial, said he was "confident" there was no connection between that case and Vitale's slaying.
Horowitz and Vitale had been building a 7,000-square-foot Italian-style mansion for the past two years. It was primarily her dream house and she supervised the project down to the last detail, Horowitz told CNN.
He said he is aware that media attention will "probably" turn to him as a suspect in his wife's death.
"I don't care," he said. "My wife is gone. ... It doesn't matter. What's the difference?"
Horowitz has represented numerous high-profile defendants and appears frequently as a legal analyst on cable television networks, including CNN.
Golde said Horowitz carried a gun because "he received threats from time-to-time."
"Dan had to protect himself," he said
CNN's Rusty Dornin and Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.
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The McDonalds Take Down

The Anatomy of a Commercial Real Estate Transaction


Identify Site Location: Walnut Creek McDonalds
Identify Jurisdiction: Local Friendly Officers (Pre-Chaplin) 
DA Friendly No Prosecution: Contra Costa DA Mark Peterson 


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AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT)

By Jon Peterson

Washington, D.C.-based AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) and San Mateo-based Sares Regis Group of Northern California are planning to start development in May on the 260-unit Cadence apartment project in South San Francisco. The address of the project is 398, 400 and 405 Cypress Avenue.
The BIT has made an equity investment into the project of $143 million, as stated on the investor’s Web site. The project is being done in a partnership with the BIT and Sares Regis Group, and it has an official groundbreaking planned for May 17th. The projection is that the development will take 20 months to complete once it gets started.
Sares Regis feels that the site is a very strong location. “I think that the renters in the project will like that our project will be only a quarter mile walk to the Caltrain station. This will allow them to have public transportation either to San Francisco or Silicon Valley. The renters could also walk to downtown South San Francisco to get to shopping and entertainment locations,” says Ken Busch, senior vice president with Sares Regis Group of Northern California.
All of the apartments in the development will be market rate units. Some of the amenities in the project will include a rooftop lounge, fitness center and club rooms. The project will have five stories over two levels of parking.
“We are very excited to have this new project coming to our city. It will help with the demand for housing that we have. It will be part of our downtown specific plan that we approved in 2015 where at least 1,450 units could be added to our city going forward. Cadence will also replace a site that has been a vacant site for several years and was the home of an old Ford car dealership,” said Alex Greenwood, director of economic and community development for the city of South San Francisco.
The BIT has a significant presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to its 2016 fourth quarter report on its Web site, it has a portfolio in the region with a net asset value of $700 million. This region amounts to 15.3 percent of its $4.67 billion total net asset portfolio. Four of its top 10 holdings are based in the region. These are the San Pedro Square Apartments in San Jose, Hacienda Crossings shopping center in Dublin, the Alameda Landing Shopping Center in Alameda and an office building in Fremont. The trust has also invested $88 million of equity into the development of the 395-unit MacArthur Commons apartment development in Oakland, which broke ground earlier this year. This development is being done with the Trust and Houston-based Hines.

BIT’s long-term investment strategy is to build and maintain a stable and diversified pool of assets through the acquisition and development of core properties in target markets throughout the United States. Its major markets besides the San Francisco region include Seattle, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami and Philadelphia.
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OBIT: Susan Kennedy - Friend from Danville




bill kennedy - retired so good - Bay Alarm Company | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-kennedy-356aa345
Clayton, California - ‎retired so good - ‎Bay Alarm Company
View bill kennedy's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. bill has 1 job job listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn 
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Ken Salazar

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OBIT: Kadeem Hodge

Man Arrested Saturday for Theft at Concord’s Sunvalley Mall Killed in Shooting on Sunday in Antioch

DECEMBER 4, 2017 15:21 PM · 38 COMMENTS
A murder victim has been identified by the Contra Costa County coroner’s office today as 19-year-old Antioch resident Kadeem Hodge, who was shot and killed early Sunday morning in his hometown, police said.
An Antioch resident with the same name was arrested a day earlier for allegedly shoplifting at the Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord, but Concord police did not immediately confirm whether it is the same person, however, friends of the victim have confirmed he is the same man.
Antioch police found Hodge on Empire Mine Road at 2:27 a.m. Sunday with what appeared to be gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead where police found him.
Concord police on Saturday were patrolling the Sunvalley Shopping Center when shoppers alerted them to an alleged shoplifting case.
Witnesses provided a description of the suspect vehicle, which police found quickly as the vehicle entered the highway.
Officers pulled the vehicle over and found stolen merchandise from several stores.
Police said besides Hodge, they also arrested Tiana Mayberry of Antioch.
Hodge and Mayberry were arrested on suspicion of shoplifting, conspiracy and possessing burglary tools.
Town December 4, 2017 at 3:38 PM
Arrested and killed in one day? Didn’t even spend one day in jail? Good job California.
Chicken Little December 4, 2017 at 3:38 PM
Prop 47 cost him his life.
Oh boy... December 4, 2017 at 3:39 PM
I see a lawsuit coming from his family. This will somehow be the police’s fault for releasing him back into the public.
Cellophane December 4, 2017 at 3:43 PM
Arrested one day, back on the street the same day, killed the next…
When will the bleeding hearts wake up? I’m not holding my breath…
Anon December 4, 2017 at 4:26 PM
Cellophane you are so right and I’m not holding my breath either.
L December 4, 2017 at 4:31 PM
Wow, don’t understand people thinking these days….
So he was caught shoplifting, someone didn’t like the fact he didn’t get away with it so they killed him, what a POS!!
Original G December 4, 2017 at 4:36 PM
Was reported this makes TEN killings for antioch so far this year.
Maybe December 4, 2017 at 4:40 PM
Paul Blart is going vigilante on us.
Pony December 4, 2017 at 4:40 PM
Arrested on Saturday, dead at 2:30am Sunday. How do you even make bail that quick. Oh well, saves the county money. Now only if this catch, release, eliminate could become standard procedure.
Always Right December 4, 2017 at 5:00 PM
The body count grows as the Democrat war against the poor continues.
In the long term, weak laws and poor enforcement hurt the poor the most. This young man would be alive today if we had elected a Republican governor or had a Republican legislature.
JD December 9, 2017 at 3:59 PM
So, he wouldn’t have enemies based off an election?!?
In The Ozone December 4, 2017 at 5:02 PM
Perhaps Mr.Hodge had one of those off-street “Pay Day Loans” come due, And the botched Sunvalley heist was an attempt to reconcile that debt. Maybe Claycord / Antioch police can provide some insight as this evolves…
Lambie December 4, 2017 at 5:11 PM
He was released hours after being arrested? Unbelievable.
Mr Big December 4, 2017 at 5:23 PM
Aw, too bad.
Fed up December 4, 2017 at 5:24 PM
The new “bring your own bag” law is really working (for thieves).
Amy December 4, 2017 at 5:32 PM
“Live by the sword, die by the sword “.
JD December 9, 2017 at 4:00 PM
What sword are you claiming he lived by? Are you saying stealing is a crime people should die for?
Fred December 4, 2017 at 6:51 PM
Lambie-It’s called proposition 47-no one goes to jail-deal with it
Your liberal friends voted for it
Fritzhugh Ludlow December 4, 2017 at 6:59 PM
…….about 2002 Empire Mine Road was known as “The Shadow Lands” due to Ghosts and other Supernatural events….It was also gated in later years so the involved subjects are also guilty of trespassing.
Jeff December 4, 2017 at 7:40 PM
Wonder what happens to people like this? I see he went to st Ignacius for 5-8th grade, so someone had to love him to pay that much money for his education. Crazy.
Acc December 4, 2017 at 7:48 PM
@Pony, haven’t you heard? Bail is racist
SmileWC December 4, 2017 at 8:32 PM
Where are the parents? Son, you were arrested for shoplifting today – no, you can’t go out tonight!
At @ 2:00 a.m., son, where are you? – You need to be home in bed, it’s late
Yes, we;re talking about a 19 year old, I have one too – they are accountable if they are living at home!
JD December 9, 2017 at 4:04 PM
19 year olds make their own decisions. Do you think someone on the street at 2 in the morning follows directions? If your teen found a way outside at that time and was murdered that you’d be accountable?
Dr. Jellyfinger December 4, 2017 at 9:37 PM
Geez! …….. Lavar Ball said it was no big deal.
MeCrazyWoman December 4, 2017 at 10:27 PM
My first reaction doesn’t jive with any of these comments. My thoughts are that this is so sad. I don’t like crime but we are talking about someone’s life. It could be your kid that messes up.
Elwood December 4, 2017 at 10:59 PM
Kadeem definitely did not have a good weekend!
tita December 5, 2017 at 1:08 AM
Only one life What will you do with the time you have? Where will you spend eternity? No “do overs”…Such a waste…Apparently stealing was easier than working..If his parents could afford a good education they probably could afford his Bail…Sometimes its better to let the kid experience some Jail and hopefully it will scare them straight…
JD December 9, 2017 at 4:06 PM
He was cited and released.
Sign from Above December 5, 2017 at 7:45 AM
@ Pony
He was most likely out before the officer left the jail! Welcome to California! This is how the voters want it!
Sign from Above December 5, 2017 at 7:51 AM
@ MeCrazyWoman
This “kid” didn’t just mess up. Given the fact that he was arrested just hours before “should” show you that this was more of a pattern. The criminal/thug life can be dangerous. All of our life decisions have consequences. He made his choice on what direction he wanted to go.
G. December 5, 2017 at 8:28 AM
Wow, it’s really surprising what the anonymity of the Internet has done to our community. I will pray for each and everyone of you who have fallen off of the path, to be led into such hateful and judgemental thoughts.
Toxic emotions spread like wildfire, I implore you to get a handle on it before it’s too late. Bless you all.
Kyle H December 5, 2017 at 9:38 AM
We use to party out on that road 15 years ago and now sec.8 made it all bad.
My poor hometown.
anon December 5, 2017 at 10:18 AM
“I see he went to st Ignacius for 5-8th grade, so someone had to love him to pay that much money for his education. ”
total waste of good money
JD December 9, 2017 at 4:08 PM
Says you. What if his soul was saved over those years?
Michael December 5, 2017 at 1:28 PM
Young life tragically cut short? Great time to dust off some prejudices and stereotypes and drag the poor boy through the mud.
Rollo Tomasi December 5, 2017 at 5:54 PM
@ MeCrazyWoman:
“Messing up” is forgetting a homework assignment, or failing to put the garbage cans back in the yard, or getting ticketed for rolling through a stop sign. This scumbag committed a CRIME. Your attitude is unfortunately reflective of our elected state representatives.
hmmmm December 8, 2017 at 8:24 AM

@L
Conjecture much?
Where in the article did it say the murder was committed by those who tried catching him for shoplifting?
Silva December 9, 2017 at 5:29 PM
Some of our children are damaged.
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OBIT: Marie Coon



The Untimely Suicide of Marie Coon

MARIE WAS THE NORDSTROMS TAILOR WHO
TAILORED SUITS FOR
PETE BENNETT
WHOSE SUITS WERE LOST
WHEN HIS DRY CLEANER COMMITTED SUICIDE


WALNUT CREEK — Marie Coon is an Iraq war casualty. But not in the traditional sense.
Her stepson’s fatal injuries from a sniper attack in Iraq in 2007 ended up causing two deaths — his and hers.
“She was having a hard time dealing with Jimmy’s death,” her husband, Jim Coon said Friday. “She just kept saying how she missed Jimmy.”
On Mother’s Day — after struggling for more than two years to cope with the loss of the young man she loved as her son — Marie committed suicide by locking herself in the cab of a pickup truck at Lake Arrowhead with portable lighted barbecues and a pail of burning coals. She left a note, saying she wanted to be with Jimmy. She was 48.

sssss
“I’m just walking around pretty much in a daze,” said Jim, 51, who moved with his wife about a year ago from Walnut Creek to Paradise in Northern California. “I’m hoping that she’s in heaven. I’m hoping she’s with Jimmy. If she’s not, I hope she’s having a great life wherever she is. I never wanted to see her get hurt.”
Jim said he planned to attend Walnut Creek’s Memorial Day service Monday with his daughter and brother, to honor his son Army Pfc. James Coon and Cpl. Sean Langevin. Both were Walnut Creek soldiers who died in Middle East conflicts.
James, whom his parents called “Jimmy,” was a 22-year-old Las Lomas High graduate who died April 4, 2007, in Iraq. Langevin was a 23-year-old graduate of Ygnacio Valley High who died on patrol in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2007.
In the months after James’ death, Marie talked candidly to the Times on several occasions, expressing the highs and lows she felt as she tried to cope with her gaping loss. She was fiercely proud of her son and gratefully elated for the community recognition he received.
This included a public funeral in Civic Park, a memorial plaque at City Hall, a cross on the hillside in Lafayette, an engraved brick at the All Wars Memorial in Danville, a special teams football award in his name at Diablo Valley College, where he played, and the retiring of his No. 90 high school football jersey at Las Lomas.At the other end of the spectrum, though, Marie grappled daily with overwhelming grief.
“I just start to cry for no reason,” she said in the fall of 2007. “My husband calls them ‘the moments.’ He’ll say, ‘Are you having a moment?’ I’ll just say, ‘Yeah,’ and he’ll know what it’s about. I’ve had days where I’ve been reduced to tears only once. But other days, it’s been all day long.”
She joined the ranks of Gold Star Moms when Jimmy died — a sisterhood of mothers who have lost their children in the military. The women supported each other, talking about their grief.
“It doesn’t go in any smooth order where it gets easier,” Marie said tearfully. “All of a sudden, you have a day that’s worse than it was three months ago. You can’t even anticipate what will set you off.”
She smiled as she reminisced about the happiness Jimmy brought into her life, when he was in sixth grade and she was dating his father.
Jimmy’s biological mother died when he was 9 years old, eight years after his parents divorced.
Marie married his father a year later and cherished her role as Jimmy’s mother — watching him grow up, cheering him on at football games and talking to him about the joys and sorrows in his life.
“I just want to see him,” she said longingly. “I just want to talk to him about anything.”
She refused to bury Jimmy, because she didn’t want to leave him behind if she moved away. Jimmy was cremated and the family spread his ashes at Lake Tahoe, after Marie visited clairvoyant Lisa Williams. Marie believed Jimmy told her through the medium that he wanted the lake to be his final resting place. The couple’s marriage deteriorated and Jim said Marie left him in March, after they tried counseling. He filed for divorce, but it was never finalized.
“I think she just pretty much fell out of love for me,” Jim said. “She didn’t have a purpose in life any more. She really loved Jimmy.”
Jim plans to spread Marie’s ashes in Lake Tahoe.
“I’m going to do the same thing as I did with Jimmy,” he said, “so she could be with him.”
Marie’s note said she did not want a memorial service. But, a makeshift memorial has appeared among the crosses in Lafayette.
“RIP Marie Coons,” it says. “Jimmy’s Mother. Died from a broken heart by her own hand.”
Representatives of military family support groups contacted by the Times said they had never heard of a parent committing suicide after the death of a child in war. Yet, Marie’s decision to take her life is a tragic reminder that such a loss creates an emotional ripple effect in the families of soldiers who are killed, leaving wounds that sometimes never heal.
Reach Theresa Harrington at 925-945-4764 or tharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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Obit: Natalie Nezera and Walnut Creek Murders

Update: Woman Identified In Apparent Suicide Leap Onto Walnut Creek Freeway

Authorities identified the woman as Natalie Nereza, a transgender from Concord

By David Mills, Patch Staff  | Updated 






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