On Oct. 5, 2021, at about 6:55 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a probation check on 64-year-old Randall Allison Reese at his residence on the 4600 block of Salmon Creek Road in Miranda.
Upon arrival to the property, deputies located and detained Reese. During a search of Reese, deputies located approximately 1.5 grams of methamphetamine and 35 Oxycodone pills. Additionally, during a search of Reese’s vehicle, deputies located a large amount of live ammunition, 16 Xanax bars and a billy club.
Reese was cited and released on the following charges: prohibited person in possession of ammunition (PC 30305(a)(1)), possession of a controlled substance without a prescription (BP 4060), possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(A)) and possession of a billy club (PC 22210).
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
From left: Sheriff William Honsal, Superintendent Chris Hartley, Emergency Services Manager Ryan Derby. Photos: HCOE.
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Press release from the Humboldt County Office of Education:
School sites throughout Humboldt County will no longer be in the dark
during local power outage events thanks to a state grant and
coordination between the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE)
and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). Ninety 7,500-watt
generators arrived this week and are being supplied to local schools
free of charge, paid for through the Public Safety Power Shut-off
Grant.
The effort to secure the generators began
following PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shut-offs in 2019. During
those power outage events, school districts suffered financial losses
associated with spoiled food products and experienced disruptions
with school closures.
“The amount of food loss during outages was very
expensive in the past,” Stephanie Steffano-Davis, Superintendent of
the Southern Humboldt Joint Unified School District in Miranda said.
“These generators will allow our district to keep each of our
schools’ refrigerators running in the case of power outages. We are
grateful for the support and capacity it allows for our community to
be more-prepared in case of an emergency.”
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal spearheaded
the effort to obtain the generators, recognizing the great impact the
power shutoffs had on local schools.
“State funding became available after the
Public Safety Power Shutoffs and one of the criteria for the funding
was helping schools become resilient during those shutoffs,” Honsal
said.
Honsal contacted Dr. Chris Hartley, Humboldt
County Superintendent of Schools, who then worked together with
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services Manager Ryan
Derby to secure the grant and order the generators.
Dr. Hartley says these generators are especially
important for schools in the most rural parts of Humboldt County,
which are several miles away from the nearest services and may be
impacted by a number of local emergencies requiring backup power. “On
behalf of the 31 school districts in the county, I want to express my
gratitude for this partnership with Sheriff Honsal and OES. These
generators will assist schools sites in our county with the ability
to maintain essential functions during PSPS events or any other
weather-related power outages,” Dr. Hartley said
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has a
long-standing partnership with the Humboldt County Office of
Education, the two most recently working together during the COVID-19
Pandemic to facilitate a county-wide emergency response.
“I’m very proud of our partnership with the
Office of Education,” Sheriff Honsal said. “This makes the
biggest impact; having our schools able to function amid power
emergencies.”
Humboldt County schools are scheduled to begin
receiving the generators this week.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
Jason Spillars
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information regarding the whereabouts of Jason Allen Spillars. Spillars is wanted on a nationwide extradition warrant out of North Carolina. He was last seen in the Garberville area on Oct. 6, 2021. Spillars is believed to be dangerous and may be armed. Anyone who sees Spillars should contact law enforcement immediately.
Stock image, provided by law enforcement, of the type of vehicle Spillars is thought to be driving
Associated Vehicle: White 2004 Toyota Sienna, North Carolina License Plate # FDF7655
Suspect Description: White male adult, age 33, 180 pounds, 6 feet 2 inches tall, brown hair, and brown eyes.
If you see Jason Spillars, please call 9-1-1. Reference case numbers: 202100601, 202100601, 202105181.
Screenshots from Tuesday’s meeting (clockwise from top left): First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson, Fourth District Supervisor Virginia Bass, the county seal and Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone.
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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution opposing the threat posed by potential coal exports via Humboldt Bay.
The notion that such a resolution would even be considered may have seemed implausible as recently as early last month. But then news broke that a mysterious corporation is trying to take over the North Coast Railroad Authority’s right-of-way between Humboldt Bay and the San Francisco Bay Area in an apparent effort to facilitate large-scale exports of coal from the Powder River Basin to markets in Asia.
Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson and Fourth District Supervisor Virginia Bass brought Tuesday’s resolution to the board, and in his introductory remarks Wilson said there’s fairly strong evidence that people behind the shadowy, newly formed North Coast Railroad Co., LLC, are fueled by the dirty-burning mineral.
“I think it’s reasonable for Humboldt County to take the potential for coal exports seriously,” Wilson said.
He mentioned a study commissioned by the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, back when he was on the board of commissioners, which found that coal was the only commodity valuable enough to potentially cover the hefty price of rehabilitating the dilapidated rail line between Humboldt Bay and Willits.
First District Supervisor Rex Bohn said he supports the resolution, though he considers the threat far-fetched.
“There’s a snowball’s chance in hell that coal will come out of Humboldt Bay,” he said.
Still, Bohn said he’s completely opposed to the notion of trains hauling coal through the geologically unstable Eel River Canyon.
Wilson suggested a few edits to the draft resolution in order to eliminate references to opposing coal trains, specifically, as well as some references to the Great Redwood Trail. His reasoning was that the opposition to coal shouldn’t be technology-specific, and that the board has already memorialized its support for the Great Redwood Trail, a proposal to railbank the NCRA line for the purposes of constructing a multi-use trail along the 320-mile route.
Bohn thanked him for those edits, saying he supports the Great Redwood Trail as long as the property rights of adjacent residents are respected.
With the board telegraphing its eventual support for the draft resolution, the public comment period lacked some of the fiery indignation it might have had otherwise. A pair of trail advocates, Colin Fiske from the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities and Bruce Silvey of the Humboldt Trails Council, thanked the board for its support, with Fiske urging the county to engage directly with the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency with the power to approve or reject the rail-takeover bid.
Compulsive public commenter Kent Sawatzky, on the other hand, said coal has a lot of potential. Perhaps carbon will replace lithium in battery production, and maybe carbon fiber will replace steel in construction. “Some feel carbon may be our future and our friend,” he said. He added that anyone who thinks the Great Redwood Trail will actually be built is “hopelessly naive.”
The board chose not to address these musings and proceeded to pass the resolution unanimously. The document directs county staff to start drafting an ordinance aimed at protecting the public and public trust resources from the negative health and safety impacts caused by coal.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Oct. 4, 2021, at about 7:32 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the area of Hiller Avenue and Central Avenue observed an individual who closely matched the description of a suspect from recent vehicle burglaries in McKinleyville and Eureka.
Deputies stopped to speak with the individual, who identified himself as 39-year-old John Wayne Merrell. Merrell was found to have two warrants for his arrest. Merrell was taken into custody for his warrants and searched incident to arrest. During a search of Merrell’s person and property, deputies located multiple stolen items associated with recent burglaries, including stolen bank cards.
Merrell was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), in addition to warrant charges for possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), possession of burglary tools (PC 466), felon in possession of tear gas (PC 22810(a)), possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)) and driving without a license (VC 12500(a)).
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
The second trial for Arcata rancher Raymond Frank Christie, charged with four felony counts of animal cruelty, has been scheduled for January.
This morning Judge Christopher Wilson set Jan. 31 for jury trial and Jan. 18 for trial confirmation. On Nov. 15, attorneys will present arguments on what evidence the second jury should be allowed to hear.
Specifically, will jurors learn Christie was convicted of misdemeanor charges of dumping numerous dead cows within 150 feet of state waters? And will it come out that during the first trial, the prosecution said there was evidence Christie switched identification tags to make it appear cows were organic?
Defense attorney Rick Richmond, the Los Angeles-based attorney now representing Christie, told Wilson that evidence is irrelevant to the charges of animal cruelty. Richmond wants an evidentiary hearing, with an expert testifying about the the high mortality rate in even “robust” herds.
Christie’s herd was far from robust, as he bought sickly animals at auction and tried to restore their health. Many of the animals didn’t survive. Further, there was testimony at the first trial that some cows out on pasture were starving, with no access to food or water.
Judging by comments Wilson made this morning, it appears he doesn’t believe the ear tag evidence is strong enough.
“The evidence did not connect the dots between those tags and any kind of nefarious activity,” he said.
On the other hand, the piles of carcasses could be considered “part and parcel” of the case, Wilson said.
The first jury convicted Christie of many of the 39 cow-dumping charges, acquitted him on a few and deadlocked on the rest. Jurors also could not reach a verdict on the animal cruelty charges, although the vote was 11-1 for guilt.
Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward will be the trial prosecutor, along with Deputy District Attorney David Moutrie.
Richmond is one of four attorneys with the Larson law firm, all of whom will be involved in Christie’s defense. One associate was there with Richmond today. Christie also was in court.
At an emotional legislative hearing Tuesday, lawmakers and critics subjected the Newsom administration to blistering questions about the state’s oversight of nursing homes.
Assemblymember Jim Wood, a Santa Rosa Democrat who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, questioned the state’s lack of urgency in addressing licensing concerns.
“Where is the proactive, patient centered, public safety approach here?” he asked Cassie Dunham, an acting deputy director of the California Department of Public Health. “Where is that?
“Because I don’t feel it right now. And yet here we are. Here we sit,” he said. “We have to wait for news articles. We have to wait for people to die.”
Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi of Los Angeles, who introduced legislation earlier this year to address some of these issues, also grilled Dunham about the department’s performance in caring for California’s most vulnerable residents..
“What I’m hearing is a lengthy history, that goes back decades, of the Department of Public Health failing to crack down on bad actors who are gaming the system,” he said.
The tense hearing touched on the department’s staffing levels and on nursing homes’ financial practices, issues which elder care advocates and legislators have raised for years and have triggered similar hearings.
“I struggle to accept the premise that nursing homes are underfunded when their owners are living in homes that are sometimes worth $11 million dollars,” said Kim Valentine, an Orange County attorney who has spent more than 20 years working on cases of elder abuse in nursing homes, in her testimony.
“I am petrified to get old,” she added. “This disgraceful, broken system of senior living care is something that we all need to care about. Because this is our future.”
Two officials of the embattled department acknowledged that some changes are needed but attempted to deflect criticism by pointing to the stresses of the COVID-19 crisis, which hit nursing homes especially hard.
“Throughout the (pandemic) response, the department’s absolute focus has been on saving lives,” said Dunham.
Much of the attention Tuesday was focused on longstanding licensing issues that CalMatters has documented extensively in recent months. The legislators repeatedly referenced reporting by CalMatters, which examined the state’s largest, for-profit nursing home owner, Shlomo Rechnitz of Los Angeles, and the unusual licensing decisions surrounding some of his homes. Lawmakers also cited work by KPCC and LAist, which looked at Crystal Solorzano, another controversial nursing home operator.
“This disgraceful, broken system of senior living care is something that we all need to care about.” — Kim Valentine, Orange County elder abuse attorney
A CalMatters investigation published April 6 revealed an opaque state licensing process plagued by indecision, confusion and yearslong delays. The report detailed how the state has permitted Rechnitz to operate facilities for years through a web of companies, despite license applications left in “pending” status — and some that were formally denied.
A subsequent CalMatters story on Aug. 19 revealed that the department had incorrectly listed Rechnitz as holding permanent licenses for two homes whose applications actually had been undecided. After advocates pointed out that mistake to department officials, they doubled down, admitting the error but refusing to take the licenses away.
This week, CalMatters reported that family members of residents who died as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak at Windsor Redding last fall are suing that facility for elder neglect and abuse, alleging that employees were forced to come into work while symptomatic with the virus, and that dozens of residents who fell ill were left isolated and neglected due to “extreme understaffing.” The complaint specifically refers to Rechnitz and his management companies as being an “unlicensed owner-operator” of the skilled nursing facility, since the state denied them a license in 2016.
Mark Johnson, an attorney for Rechnitz and one of his companies, Brius, has in the past expressed frustration in emailed statements to CalMatters about the state’s inconsistent approach to Brius homes. Johnson also has previously said that the facilities in “pending” status had licenses in good standing and were operated under an “interim management agreement,” which he described as “state approved.”
Tony Chicotel, a staff attorney at the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, referred to a “zombie nursing home licensing system,” which he described as “straight bananas.”
“Corrosive (Department of Public Health) inaction has created a system where operators with terrible track records take over nursing homes without approval,” he said. “What’s worse, when the state actually denies a license, it doesn’t really matter. The unfit operator can just keep operating.”
California State Auditor Elaine Howle also called out the department for being inconsistent in its licensing practices at Tuesday’s hearing,
“What I’m hearing is a lengthy history… of the Department of Public Health failing to crack down on bad actors.” — Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi of Los Angeles
Muratsuchi referred to the Windsor Redding lawsuit repeatedly during the hearing, at one point asking Howle: “Does it make sense to you that a nursing home can continue to operate when the owner’s application for a license has been denied five years ago?”
Howle in 2018 published an audit criticizing state nursing home oversight, saying that licensing lapses by the California Department of Public Health increased the risk that residents may not receive adequate care.
In response to Muratsuchi’s question, Howle said: “I don’t have that authority and that expertise. But if I had a loved one, I would be very concerned about having one of my family members in a facility like that. I would not do it.”
Muratsuchi posed the same question to Dunham of the Department of Public Health, quizzing her on how it was possible that someone with a “documented history of violations” isn’t automatically barred from continuing to own and operate nursing homes in California.
“Throughout the (pandemic) response, the department’s absolute focus has been on saving lives.” — Cassie Dunham, Department of Public Health Official
The complaint against Windsor Redding lists 142 violations substantiated by investigators including neglect, abuse, staffing and infection control issues between January 2018 and June 2021. In November 2020, the federal government fined the facility $152,000 as a result of the inspections.
In response to Muratsuchi’s question, Dunham echoed a response given to CalMatters earlier this year: Ownership applications are decided in a case by case, ‘point-in-time process,” she explained, noting that applicants’ track records may change.
“Operators may improve in their performance, operators may decline in their performance,” she said.
Muratsuchi said it was clear that laws “desperately need to be revised and changed.”
His bill, AB 1502, would forbid using management agreements to “circumvent state licensure requirements” and would require owners and operators to get approval from the state Department of Public Health before acquiring, operating or managing a nursing home.
The bill stalled in the Assembly Health Committee, where Tuesday’s hearing took place, and is not expected to be heard until next year. Wood, the committee chair, said in the spring that he believed the issue would require a lot of staff time to gather data and communicate with various state agencies, and that he wanted to make sure the California Department of Public Health and the Newsom administration were on board.
Craig Cornett, CEO and president of the California Association of Health Facilities, an industry group, said Tuesday that “substantial improvements” could be made in how the department handles licensing decisions. He expressed pride in the work of nursing home staff, especially in light of the pandemic, and said the state’s nursing homes are very highly ranked in many measures of quality. But he also noted that the industry faces “a severe workforce shortage.”
Cornett expressed frustration about long licensing delays and high licensing fees. But he said his organization opposed Muratsuchi’s bill as being punitive, “rather than addressing the fundamental problems with the process.”
“COVID cannot be an excuse to not do better.” — Democratic Assemblymember Jim Wood of Santa Rosa
The Department of Public Health has a wide range of responsibilities surrounding nursing homes; its execution of several of those was criticized Tuesday. In addition to licensing, the department is responsible for routinely inspecting the state’s 1,215 nursing homes to ensure they are meeting federal standards. It also conducts complaint investigations and can cite facilities for violating federal or state rules, and levy fines.
The hearing comes at a pivotal time. The industry is reckoning with the devastating impacts of the past 18 months, during which 9,243 California nursing home residents died of COVID-19, along with 249 healthcare workers. That data comes from the state’s Department of Public Health; some advocates and lawyers for nursing home residents say they suspect it is an undercount.
The department has been reticent to speak to CalMatters about licensing issues, refusing to put any officials on the phone. But at the hearing, legislators repeatedly called department officials to account.
“COVID cannot be an excuse to not do better,” Wood said. “We don’t need excuses. We have to do more.”
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CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
