May 24, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – A group of hikers found a severely burned human body yesterday at 11:15 a.m. while hiking approximately two miles west of Sunrise Highway (State Route 1) west of mile marker 18. The San Diego Sheriff's homicide unit is investigating and the identity of the victim is unknown.

Suspect reportedly threatened to blow up deputies with grenade 

March 28, 2010 (Lemon Grove) – Jose Gonzalez, 40, has been arrested and charged with making terrorist threats and resisting a peace officer. According to a statement issued by the Sheriff, deputies responded to a call last night in the 7900 block of Longdale Drive in Lemon Grove. Gonzalez had locked himself in his bathroom and reportedly threatened to commit suicide.

By Miriam Raftery

March 22, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – “Cold case” homicide investigators from the San Diego Sheriff’s homicide detail and the District Attorney’s office today arrested Russell Upton, 36, for the August 1995 murder of his wife, Marilane Abueg.

Upton was arrested in Reno, Nevada. At the time of the crime, the couple lived in Mission Valley. Abueg’s body was discovered August 24, 1995 about eight miles north of Interstate 8 on Kitchen Creek Road in the Pine Valley area. She had been reported as a missing person by her parents on August 20th. A post mortem examination determined the manner of death to be homicide. She was survived by a three-month old son, Christopher Michael.

 
 
March 16, 2010 (El Cajon) 9:15 a.m.– Brenda Luu, a 19-year-old mentally impaired teen from Jamul, has just been found safely by El Cajon Police at a bus stop at Mollison and Main Streets in El Cajon after a citizen reported seeing the missing girl 
 
At this time there is no evidence of foul play, though authorities have not yet fully questioned the girl who is being transported to the Lemon Grove Sheriff's substation, a Sheriff's official confirmed moments ago.

March 1, 2010 – Jose Luis Covarruibias, 46, of Chula Vista has been arrested and will be charged with raping a Spring Valley woman on February 27.

February 20, 2010 (Santee) - In early February Santee’s Community Policing Unit developed information on a prolific tagging crew consisting of seven criminal graffiti "taggers". Using the Graffiti Tracker investigation system, the San Diego County Sheriff’s office documented that the "tagging crew" had committed over 80 incidents since April 2009 with a significant spike in activity last week.

February 16, 2010 (Bonsall) – The San Diego Sheriff seeks public help to locate Joseph and Summer McStay and their two children. Last night, the Sheriff was asked by a relative member to conduct a check on the welfare of the family, who resided at 3473 Avocado Vista Lane in Bonsall. The family has not been seen or heard from by family or business associates since February 4th.

January 28, 2010 (Santee) – Yesterday morning, Sheriff’s detectives arrested eight people in Santee in connection with a burglary ring that has targeted homes in Santee, Lakeside, and unincorporated areas of El Cajon. Approximately 60 law enforcement officers participated, recovering many stolen property items as well as a firearm, heroin, and drug paraphernalia.

Is the LRAD disabled, or not?

By Miriam Raftery

January 28, 2010 (San Diego) San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore drew sharp criticism from the public and his three political opponents following an article we published last fall, revealing that his office purchased a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) and rolled it out at Congressional healthcare forums and other events.  The Sheriff’s office held a press conference in September to announce that the sonic weapons feature had been “disabled.”

Now the Sheriff has removed a press release discussing the disabling of the sonic weapons feature from the homepage and from the archives at his website. We contacted the Sheriff’s spokeperson, Jan Caldwell, to ask why the release was removed and whether the sonic weapons feature has been reenabled.

January 20, 2010 – Jared Shelton has been arrested for assaulting a man who attempted to come to the aid of Shelton’s girlfriend during an altercation outside the 7/Eleven Store at 4610 Avocado Boulevard in the unincorporated area of the County aound 1:30 a.m. on January 19th.

Mennonite Disaster Services trailer has Pennsylvania plates

January 12, 2009 (San Diego)--San Diego County Crime Stoppers is joining forces with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Ramona detectives to help identify and apprehend the suspect(s) responsible for a theft of a gray tow trailer and about $10,000 worth of tools belonging to a volunteer group that was helping those affected by the 2007 wildfires.

January 12, 2009 (El Cajon)--The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD) is conducting a practice exercise with local public safety agencies on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Cuyamaca College. The GCCCD Police, San Diego County Sheriffs’ Department, San Miguel Fire Department, El Cajon Police Department, El Cajon Fire Department, and other East County agencies will conduct a simulation of an incident involving an active shooter.

December 27, 2009 (Spring Valley) – The San Diego County Sheriff’s office has opened up a new storefront at 9736 Campo Road in the Casa de Oro neighborhood in Spring Valley. The purpose of the storefront is to “enhance the partnership between the community and the Sheriff’s Department,” according to a release issued by  Sheriff Bill Gore (photo, left).

December 22, 2009 (Anza Borrego) – San Diego Sheriff reported on December 18 that Mickey Guidry, 16, has been missing since November 26th when he ran away from his parents’ home in San Marcos. Guidry reportedly took his parents’ 1995 Jeep Cherokee without permission. On November 30th, the Jeep was located unoccupied in an extremely remote area of the Anza Borrego Desert.

December 10, 2009 (Santa Ysabel) -- Yesterday U.S. Marshal’s agents in coordination with the San Diego County Fugitive Task Force arrested Mark Kinney, 47, his residence in Santa Ysabel. Kinney’s arrest came after an extensive investigation by detectives from the Sheriff’s Child Abuse Unit with the assistanceof the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the San Diego District Attorney’s Office.

November 20, 2009 (Spring Valley) – The Sheriff’s Department has released the following information about a report of a man who tried to pick up a Spring Valley school girl and told her he had been watching her and her sisters. According to the police report, on November 18th around 8:53 a.m., the girl was walking to school near Apple Street and Paraiso Avenue when she was approached by a Hispanic male adult in a late model dark blue minivan.

October 28, 2009 (San Diego's East County)--Operation Tip the Scale was a six month multi-jurisdictional effort in East County that sought to increase public contact with law enforcement and to provide information about how to get help with drug problems. In San Diego County, methamphetamine continues to be the drug of choice for many adults, although this operation focused on all illicit substances. The folllowing report from  San Diego County Sheriff's Office offers some revealing insights into one way to reduce law enforcement costs, cut crime and get help for drug users:

The idea was simple. Could cities and the unincorporated areas in East County share law enforcement resources to create a large and visible presence against illicit drugs? Could treatment services be part of the team and talk to residents about how they could get help? And most importantly, could we do this without any overtime, especially as all participating agencies have experienced budget cuts?

October 23, 2009 (San Diego) -- William D. Gore, Sheriff, San Diego County, has announced that the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (representing the cities of Vista, San Marcos, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Poway, Santee, Lemon Grove and Imperial Beach) is set to commence a year-long anti-DUI program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on our roadways. New enforcement measures to combat impaired driving are coming as a result of a recent $ 602,600 grant awarded by the Office of Traffic Safety to The San Diego Sheriff’s Department.

October 7, 2009 (San Diego)--San Diego County Sheriff William D. Gore is announcing a unique educational program called “Adopt an SAR Dog.”
 

In its third year, the San Diego Sheriff's Search and Rescue Detail will participate in a program which offers a local elementary school class the unique opportunity to learn all about the various aspects of training a dog for Search and Rescue (SAR) work. Search and Rescue volunteers and their dogs will make regular visits throughout the year to the classrooms.

 
Tent city jails, sonic weapons, border crimes, Las Colinas prison expansion, and cuts in deputy staffing among hottest issues
 
By Miriam Raftery
Photos by Leon Thompson
 
September 15, 2009 (El Cajon) – Four candidates vying to be the top lawman in San Diego County faced off outside El Cajon's civic center on Sept. 12, dueling verbally over who is the strongest leader to protect our region from crime. The candidates also differed sharply on issues isuch as immigration enforcement, budget priorities,  prison overcrowding, concealed weapons, use of sonic weapons, and deputy staffing cuts.
 
East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery and KCBQ radio host Rick Amato co-moderated the debate, which drew raucous responses from the crowd.

PUBLIC'S HELP SOUGHT TO IDENTIFY OTHER POSSIBLE VICTIMS

September 14, 2009 (Fallbrook)--Detectives from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, Fallbrook Substation, have arrested Enrique Lopez Torres for  24 counts of possession of obscene material (depicting children under 18), three counts of annoying/molesting a Child, three counts of Lewd Acts with a child and one count of false imprisonment with violence. 
After discovering photos showing Torres having sexual relations with children as young as ten years old, authorities are seeking public help to identify other possible victims. Torres is believed to have previously resided in San Marcos, Escondido and Downey (Los Angeles area).   (photos of suspect in 2009, left, and 2000, right).

A Joint Investigative Report by East County Magazine and Liberty One Radio

By Miriam Raftery
 
September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.
 
The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups. (photo credit: Mike Russell)

East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery to Co-Moderate

September 11, 2009 (El Cajon) – East County’s top law enforcement issues will be on the front burner at the hottest political debate in town Saturday, when four candidates for San Diego County Sheriff will face off on issues ranging from border protection to a jail expansion in Santee.
 
East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery and KCBQ Radio Host Rick Amato will co-host the debate, which will take place in the ampitheater outside the East County Performing Arts Center at 200 Civic Center Way in El Cajon, 2 blocks east of the Main and Magnolia intersection.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Leon Thompson

In an exclusive interview, San Diego's new top law enforcement offer shares his goals with East County Magazine--including priorities and new initiatives for East County. 

Appointed to replace retiring Sheriff William Kolender, Bill Gore brings 42 years of law enforcement expertise to the job. As Assistant Director of the FBI in Washington D.C., he earned a Meritorious Executive Service Award from the President. He’s led efforts to bring down organized crime rings including the Triads and Yakuza, helped break up the infamous Arellano-Felix Drug Cartel, and intervened to halt airplane hijackings as a S.W.A.T. team member. (Read his harrowing account here.) In San Diego, he established the Joint Terrorism Task Force and developed the nation’s first regional computer forensic lab—which has since been replicated nationwide. After leaving the FBI, he served as Chief Investigator/Special Assistant to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. As Undersheriff, second in command under Sheriff Kolender, he revised use-of-force policies, implemented a mobile ID system and improved public transparency.

Now as Sheriff, he’s set his sights on his most ambitious goal yet: to make San Diego the safest urban county in America. 

By Miriam Raftery
Photo by Leon Thompson
 
September 9, 2009 (San Diego)--Sheriff William "Bill" Gore was destined for a career in law enforcement. His father and brother were both San Diego police officers; another brother was a deputy Sheriff. He met his wife while both were serving as FBI agents. The couple raised a son (now 25), surviving some harrowing moments along the way. Gore went on to become Assistant Director of the FBI in Washington, D.C., also serving stints in Hawaii, Washington state, Kansas City and San Diego before joining the Sheriff's Department.

As part of our exclusive interview with Sheriff Gore, we asked about his most memorable experiences tracking down criminals--and gained some insights into San Diego’s top law enforcement officer.

 
September 4, 2009 (Alpine) – The Sheriff’s Alpine & Rural Crime Prevention union has issued an urgent request for public help to locate a man accused of committing a sexual assault in the Lilac Lane area of Crest around 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday, September 2. The suspect is described as a white male adult in his 50's, 5'10", 170 lbs. with a medium build and short, bushy white hair. He was wearing a light colored shirt and shorts. The suspect was walking a 40 lb. black and white bull terrier (a breed popularized as Spuds McKenzie in beer commercials, shown in photo). He claimed he lived on Eucalyptus near the park.