Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On February 2, 2023, at about 12:30 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the Hydesville area conducted a traffic stop for a vehicle code violation.
The driver of the vehicle, 26-year-old John Joseph Roche, was found to be on active probation. During a search of Roche and his vehicle pursuant to the terms of his probation, deputies located approximately 2,400 tabs of LSD and approximately 9 pounds of processed cannabis.
Roche was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of a controlled substance for sales (HS 11387), transportation of a controlled substance (HS 11379(a)), possession of over 28.5 grams of cannabis (HS 11357(B)(2)) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(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.
Westwood Garden Apartments on Westwood Court in Arcata | Screenshot from Google Maps
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Following the recent approval of a big expansion of the Westwood Garden Apartments in Arcata – which will add 11 new buildings with 102 units to the property, among other changes – several tenants received eviction notices on Wednesday, something that was not discussed as a part of the project plans.
Raelina Krikston, a longtime resident of the Westwood Garden Apartments and a recent Arcata City Council candidate, brought the issue to the attention of the Arcata City Council during the Wednesday night council meeting.
“Today I come to you as a tenant who has just been served an eviction … a no-fault eviction,” Krikston said to the council toward the beginning of the meeting. “So, in 60 days I’m looking at being homeless, as well as all three of my adjacent neighbors.”
The eviction notice, issued by property owner Steve Strombeck on Wednesday, Feb. 1, states that the tenants have 60 days from the issued date to vacate the premises and that failure to do so will result in legal action. The notice states that the reason for the “no-fault eviction” is because “the owner intends to substantially remodel the residential property.”
Krikston told the Outpost that the notice was only sent to her unit – occupied by herself and her partner, James Taylor – and the other three units on her floor, two of which are occupied by families with young children. The apartment complex currently holds three two-story buildings, with a total of 60 units. It’s unclear what the remodel will entail and why only the tenants on the bottom floor of one building are being evicted. The Outpost reached out to Strombeck but has not yet received a response.
The eviction is completely legal, as a “substantial remodel” is considered a valid reason for a no-fault eviction under Cal. Civic Code 1946.2. Also, most building remodels only require a building permit from the City and do not necessarily have to be approved by the Planning Commission. But the eviction did come as a shock to the tenants, who did not think that the planned expansion project would force anyone to leave their home.
Plans for the expansion project. The existing buildings are in grey, the new buildings are in brown
Krikston told the Outpost that she thought this was “funny timing,” considering that Krikston and Taylor have publicly voiced their opposition to the expansion project multiple times and were among a group of residents who filed an appeal against the project. The expansion project was brought before the Arcata Planning Commission by Strombeck Properties and its hired consulting firm LACO Associates last year and was immediately met with concern from some residents of the apartments. Krikston and other tenants had many issues with the proposed plans, particularly the layout of the new buildings, which they said were too close to each other and to the existing buildings and would cause sunlight obstruction and issues with privacy.
After the Planning Commission requested several changes to the design – including reducing the number of new buildings by one, retaining more open space on the property and cutting down less trees – the commission eventually approved the project. Shortly after, Krikston filed an appeal of the project. During a meeting on Jan. 4, the Arcata City Council denied the appeal and approved the housing expansion project. The vote was 4-0, with Councilmember Kimberley White recusing herself, and the council requested that Strombeck Properties and its consulting firm add bike lockers to the site and work with residents to establish a space for a community garden.
During the council meeting on Wednesday Krikston and Taylor urged the council to consider adopting more protections for local tenants. Mayor Sarah Schaefer said she agreed that this is a pressing issue and requested that city staff place a discussion about tenant protections on a future agenda.
“With the Gateway looming on the horizon and more and more opportunities for landlords to increase their holdings, I’d like you to really take a look at what you can do to help people like myself in the future,” Krikston said to the council.
On February 1, 2023, agents with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force served a search warrant on Marshal Lane in Hoopa. During the service of the warrant, eleven subjects were located on the property, including 39 year old Erik McKinnon of Hoopa. During a search of the property, agents located approximately twelve grams of suspected heroin, firearms, ammunition, 47 Suboxone strips, digital scale, metal knuckles, and three stolen vehicles.
McKinnon was subsequently arrested on the following charges:
H&S 11351(a)- Possession of a controlled substance for sale
H&S 11366.5(a)- Maintaining a residence for narcotics use
H&S 11370.1(a)- Possession of narcotics while armed
H&S 11350(a)- Possession of controlled substances
PC 29800(a)- Felon in possession of firearms
PC 30305(a)- Felon in possession of ammunition
PC 496d- Possession of stolen vehicle
All other subjects were released on scene.
Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.
On Wednesday February 1, 2023, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force served a search warrant on Moon Lane in Hoopa for suspected narcotics. At the time of the search warrant service, agents located 37 year old Darrell Moon, and a two year old juvenile on scene. During a search of the residence, agents located approximately 25 grams of suspected fentanyl, a digital scale, ammunition, body armor, and two firearms.
Moon was subsequently arrest on the following charges:
H&S 11351- Possession of a controlled substances for sale
H&S 11370.1(a)- Possession of narcotics while armed
PC 31360- Felon in possession of body armor
PC 29800(a)- Felon in possession of firearms
PC 273a(a)- Child endangerment
At the conclusion of the investigation the juvenile was released into the custody of a safe caregiver.
Anyone with information regarding this case in encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.
On January 28, 2023, at approximately 11:45 p.m., a stabbing occurred in the 1000 block of G Street in Downtown Arcata. Two 16-year-old Eureka residents sustained knife wounds during a physical altercation with two adults, as both parties left a Downtown music venue. The victims survived the attack and were treated at a local hospital for lacerations and a broken jaw. The stabbing suspect was identified as 20-year-old Loleta resident Gage James Sand.
On January 30, 2023, the Arcata Police Department took Sand into custody without incident, and he was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on the following charges:
PC 245(a)(1)-Assault with a Deadly Weapon.
PC 243(d)-Aggravated Battery.
PC 273d(a)-Inflicting Injury on a Child
PC 12022.1(a)(1)-Committing a Felony While out on Bail.
The second suspect, who is wanted for aggravated battery, remains at large pending identification. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Arcata Police Department (707-822-2424).
Austin Michael Medeiros must stand trial for the alleged murder of Emily Lobba, a 28-year-old disabled woman who was found strangled to death on April 3, 2022 in her apartment on Greenwood Heights Road.
Yesterday Judge John Feeney held the 28-year-old Medeiros to answer on charges of murdering Lobba and assaulting her caretaker, who was punched in the face when she tried to stop Medeiros from stealing Lobba’s Dodge van. He also was held to answer for an alleged attack on a jail correctional officer a few weeks after his arrest.
Medeiros.
Deputy District Attorney Candace Myers called four officers to testify during Medeiros’s preliminary hearing, which had been postponed several times because of questions about his mental competency.
According to witness testimony, Lobba was born with arthrogryposis, which affects the joints and ligaments and limits mobility. She had two caretakers who were at her apartment for a total of six days a week. Lobba had introduced her friend Austin to at least one of them, and said she planned to spend some time with him because he was leaving town.
On April 3, when one of the caretakers arrived for her usual shift, she found the door locked. Then Medeiros opened the door but wouldn’t let her in.
‘’She pushed her way in,” sheriff’s Investigator Scott Hicks testified this afternoon. The caretaker told Hicks she and Medeiros had a physical altercation. He then left with the keys to Lobba’s Dodge Ram van, she told Hicks, and while she was trying to stop him from leaving “Austin hit (the caretaker) in the face.”
As to Lobba’s apartment, “Almost everything was missing,” Hicks said.
Under cross-examination by Medeiros’s defense attorney, Deputy Conflict Counsel Owen Tipps, Hicks said the caretaker reported that at one point, Medeiros told her “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Lobba was found in the bathroom, with the upper half of her body in the shower stall. Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Head testified he saw no obvious injuries. But when Head attended Lobba’s autopsy on April 27, the cause of death was ruled as “asphyxiation with the elements of neck compression.”
Head compiled a photo lineup that included a picture of Medeiros. There were six manila envelopes, each containing one photo. He provided the six envelopes to the caretaker who confronted Medeiros on April 3.
“I handed her the manila envelopes and walked away,” Head testified. He said the caretaker chose the photo of Medeiros, saying she was “100 percent positive” he was the man she had met and fought with.
Head also testified about his interview with Medeiros in Humboldt County Correctional Facility. He said Medeiros made numerous nonsensical statements, including some about a group called The Wrecking Crew. When asked whether he had a California driver’s license, Medeiros explained he “dropped his wallet in the water in a spot where he thought a body was, and the people who left the body there were the Wrecking Crew.”
Medeiros told Head he had a phone, and he gave him the number. Later the phone was found In Lobba’s apartment.
After the body was found and Medeiros allegedly fled, a hair-raising chase ensued.
Sheriff’s Deputy Hal Esget was dispatched to the Greenwood Heights residence at about 11 a.m. on April 3. The lights and siren were on as he drove south on Old Arcata Road. Then Esget saw the van in question heading north, and he did a quick U-Turn and began the pursuit.
“It took off at a high rate of speed,” Esget testified. He estimated the van was traveling 80 mph on Old Arcata Road. It continued past the Indianola Cutoff at about 70 mph. Then, around Vitus Lane, the driver veered into the wrong lane and was maneuvering between oncoming vehicles.
At Bayside Cutoff, Esget said, the van turned west toward Highway 101, reached 101 and headed north at an estimated 100 mph. The van exited in Arcata, finally stopping at the entrance to the Arcata Community Forest. The driver fled into the woods and could not be found. Medeiros was arrested a few days later in Santa Cruz.
No mention was made about the fate of Lobba’s dog, which was in the van.
About three weeks after the arrest, Medeiros allegedly attacked correctional Deputy Richard Sanchez as Sanchez was conducting a routine inmate count at the jail. Medeiros allegedly used a sharpened plastic fork, leaving a scratch on the left side of the officer’s head.
Medeiros is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Feb. 15.
CalAIM seeks to improve the availability of mental health care for young people insured by Medi-Cal but, a year since it’s rollout obstacles remain. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters.
A year has passed since a massive statewide effort called CalAIM began rolling out. Among several significant changes CalAIM promised: An overhaul of the availability of mental health care for young people insured by Medi-Cal, the public insurance program for low-income Californians.
Advocates for youth mental health say they remain enthusiastic about CalAIM’s potential, using words like “game-changing” and “transformational.”
But they also say the new framework is being born at a tricky time. Three years into the pandemic, provider burnout and escalating patient need have combined to create a severe mental health workforce shortage. Meanwhile, community-based organizations that provide many of the mental health services outlined under CalAIM say they feel left out of the loop in important conversations about coming payment reforms.
“Our members are really panicked right now,” said Adrienne Shilton, director of public policy for the nonprofit California Alliance of Child and Family Services. In September 2022, hers was one of a dozen organizations that signed a letter to the state Department of Health Care Services expressing concerns about a lack of transparency around the new rate structure. “Providers must have the ability to plan and prepare alongside their county partners,” it said.
Shilton’s organization also co-authored a letter Wednesday to legislators, decrying the proposed budget delays.
Shilton told CalMatters earlier that other issues CalAIM is meant to address, including alleviating burdensome documentation requirements, have yet to change the on-the-ground reality for many providers.
CalAIM is about much more than mental health. The initiative, short for California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal, is a five-year plan that began rolling out a year ago. It aims to provide children and adults insured by Medi-Cal with better access to a range of health and mental health services. It also strives to use a “whole person care” approach to address social issues that impact health, including housing and food insecurity.
It also redesigns the payment system to more seamlessly integrate the county mental health plans and managed care organizations that pay for those services.
The relevance and urgency of addressing children’s mental health is especially clear: Racism. School closures. Online bullying. Climate disaster. A pandemic pocked with grief, loss and fear.
All of these factors have aggravated a youth mental health crisis that’s been raging for more than a decade. Incidence of self-harm for young people, which increased dramatically even before the pandemic, has spiked further in the past few years.
CalAIM has not yet significantly shifted the on-the-ground reality for many of these young people, experts say, but a number of important policy changes are officially underway:
About 40% of the state’s children and youth are insured by Medi-Cal. They no longer need a formal diagnosis to access specialty mental health services.
The state has simplified behavioral health documentation requirements.
A “No Wrong Door Policy” should make it easier for children and adults to receive behavioral health care no matter where they enter the system, replacing what can feel like a bureaucratic maze that varies by county.
An “enhanced care management” benefit provides services and case management to members of priority populations, including those who are homeless, experiencing early psychosis or involved with the child welfare or criminal justice systems.
Other efforts, including changing the way mental health services are paid for, are also rolling out this year.
Newsom’s administration, which early on made behavioral health a signature issue, is simultaneously unveiling several other ambitious initiatives, all of which require additional staffing and funding: a statewide program to set up new court systems to address the needs of people with severe mental illness, known as CARE Court; expanded crisis response services through state funding for a 988 hotline; and a major initiative to improve mental health care for children and youth, parts of which will be affected by the proposed budget delays.
Despite belt-tightening in other areas of the governor’s proposed January budget, CalAIM continues to be funded. Newsom’s proposal would dedicate more than $10 billion to CalAIM implementation, including $6.1 billion over five years to improve local treatment services and pay for short-term stays in treatment facilities for people with serious mental and behavioral health illnesses.
“We’re committed. We’re not touching that,” he said in a press conference earlier this month.
The budget proposal does, however, delay more than $1.1 billion in other behavioral health investments over the next two years, including money intended to increase treatment capacity for adults and kids in crisis, and money for workforce development. These investments were intended in part to shore up CalAIM’s goals, according to state documents.
“We’re concerned about the delays,” Shilton said. “This is funding outside of CalAIM but … the system is so stressed. Having this additional investment from the state was really beneficial.”
The governor’s office did not respond to questions about the proposed funding delays. He will revise his budget proposal in May, based on actual state revenue, and hammer out a final funding deal with legislators in June.
While CalAIM is an important step toward meeting the mental health needs of vulnerable young people, experts say staffing shortages, especially, are complicating the picture. As a result, some say, it’s not yet clear how and when official policy changes will translate into better mental health treatment for individuals. The proposed budget would delay nearly $400 million for health care workforce training, including some social work and behavioral health pipeline programs.
“Where are the people who are going to be delivering these services?” Shilton said.
Michelle Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, calls CalAIM “an uber-ambitious reform agenda that’s sitting on top of a system that’s really been through the storm.”
Counties are being asked to implement “ambitious, sweeping new reforms on top of the worst workforce crisis we’ve ever seen,” she said.
In an emailed response to CalMatters, the Department of Health Care Services said the Newsom administration is committed to “collaborating closely” with counties, health plans and others to plan, implement, and monitor the various “unprecedented and intersecting initiatives.”
Still, community-based organizations that contract with counties and managed care organizations to provide mental health services say they are worried about the payment they will receive for their services and how that could affect their ability to recruit and retain necessary staff.
Jodi Kurata, chief executive officer of the Association of Community Human Service Agencies, which represents nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles, said the groups she works with are too overwhelmed dealing with workforce shortages to focus on the administrative transformation underway.
“The system right now is just so depleted,” she said.
She said she worries that inadequate rates could lead to a further exodus of nonprofit mental health providers from the Medi-Cal system, a concern others have echoed.
The state says a preliminary draft of revised payment rates has been shared with counties. The Department of Health Care Services said it has committed to publishing a fee schedule in the first few months of this year.
Cabrera, of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, said CalAIM’s new payment structure marks an important shift in that the state will now allow counties to pay providers without being capped, and will remove many burdensome documentation requirements. She said counties are just now seeing the new rates, and that the administration’s “aggressive” timeline will likely lead to a “bumpy ride this year” before ultimately resulting in a positive change.
When care depends on your county
Other longstanding funding problems remain unaddressed. This past fall, Young Minds Advocacy, a children’s mental health advocacy organization, published a report showing that longstanding variability in the way the state funds county specialty mental health services has translated into disparities in the kinds of intensive care offered to young Medi-Cal enrollees.
For decades, said Patrick Gardner, an attorney who founded the advocacy organization, the state has underfunded certain counties “and their performance has suffered accordingly, sometimes pretty dramatically.”
In his report, Gardner found that counties with significantly lower-than-average state funding generally provided young people with less intensive services than counties with significantly higher-than-average state funding. According to his report, in 2019-20, poorly funded San Joaquin and Madera counties provided just 16% and 17% of the estimated need for care, while the better-funded Santa Clara and Butte counties provided 86%.
While CalAIM is moving “in the right direction,” Gardner said, it fails to address this fundamental issue. (Cabrera contends that the analysis fails to capture the services that counties provide without billing Medi-Cal.)
Despite these concerns, many mental health advocates say they are already witnessing important changes to the way care is delivered under CalAIM.
“We are seeing shifts happening already,” said Leticia Galyean, CEO and president of Seneca Family of Agencies. She said her organization — which serves youth and families in 14 counties — is especially seeing “an immediate benefit” in terms of faster access to specialty mental health care for foster youth, homeless youth and those involved in the juvenile justice system.
Brian Blalock, a senior staff attorney at the Youth Law Center, which advocates for youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, called CalAIM “the most important thing California has done in a long time.”
“There’s just tremendous opportunity there,” he said.
Now, he added, “we as a state can go in either direction — either we realize that promise, or we let this pass us by.”
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
At the conclusion of the investigation the juvenile was released into the custody of a safe caregiver.
