Marine suspected of murdering toddler now in civilian hands

A New River Marine accused of killing a toddler last month in California has been transferred from base to the Onslow County Jail. Joshua Kruzik, 21, is awaiting extradition on charges of murder and injury to a child resulting in death. He is accused of killing 18-month-old Audrey Allen, the daughter of Marines he was [...]

Rep. Lewis passed over for powerful chairmanship

Republicans passed over  Rep. Jerry Lewis in favor of a veteran Kentucky lawmaker Wednesday to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The party’s steering committee rejected Lewis’s request to waive term limits that bar him from reclaiming the post he held when Republicans last held the majority. The decision deprives Lewis of a position that [...]

InlandPolitics: San Bernardino County retaliates against blogger Sharon Gilbert

San Bernardino County executives have come down hard on one of their own employees who also operates a local political blog. A blog popular with readers, but not county leaders. Sharon Gilbert, an almost thirty-year county employee, has taken on county government with great success through her website www.iePolitics.com. A widely-read blog in Southern California’s [...]

San Bernardino County Sheriff Candidates to Participate in June 1 Forum in Big Bear

The California Statewide Direct Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, June 8, and those voters who plan to request a vote-by-mail ballot have until June 1 to do so. In addition to five statewide measures on the June 8 ballot, San Bernardino County voters will have opportunity to vote for the San Bernardino County [...]

Derry’s controversial team—continued

See also: Derry buys more police protection Another Nazi Pig Comes to Town: San Bernardino County supervisor hires controversial activist Last week, The Alpenhorn News revealed that Third District Supervisor Neil Derry had appointed Wanda Nowicki to his staff as an administrative analyst, even though her background check had revealed a criminal history. At the time, the [...]

Escapades of former sheriff Gary Penrod’s Wife

See also:  Escapades of former sheriff Gary Penrod Witnesses who have been lined up to testify that the woman who has provided psychological care to members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for more than two decades engaged in multiple sexual affairs with the deputies she was hired to treat should be excluded from [...]

Attorney General threatens county supervisors with lawsuit for not waiving attorney-client privileges to assist corruption probe

SAN BERNARDINO • Frustrated that the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has not waived attorney-client privileges to aid a far-reaching corruption probe, state Attorney General Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown, Jr. sent a letter blasting county supervisors and threatening to take the matter to court. (Click here to read the letter.) “The appearance of impropriety [...]

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department buys gear from company targeted by sweatshop investigators

The Safariland website is a virtual big box retailer of tactical equipment, chemical weapons and forensics for police departments, military and private security contractors. The Premium Wallbanger System is used for SWAT team entry operations and can create a shooting port through a wall. It can use an explosive charge to breach metal doors and [...]

Man who says he spied on mosques for FBI files lawsuit

Craig Monteilh says he lives in danger. He’s been targeted for death by Islamic extremist groups, the Romanian and Mexican mafias and white supremacist groups. One fugitive now wants his head, he claims. Today Monteilh, a 47-year-old fitness consultant, plans to serve papers on the people he says put him in this bind – his [...]

Authorities say Marine’s wife was strangled

Kalyn Denise O’Barr-Poteat Patrick Poteat SAN DIEGO – Investigators say they now know how the young wife of a Marine Corps Air Station Miramar soldier was murdered, but they still don’t know why. San Diego Homicide detectives said 18-year-old Kalyn Denise O’Barr-Poteat was strangled to death with some sort of cord or rope. Police said [...]

Don Keith wins SEBA endorsement for 63rd Assembly District

Rancho Cucamonga mayor and California’s 63rd State Assembly District Republican candidate Dr. Donald J. Kurth, Jr. has been endorsed by the influential San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association.  SEBA represents San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies and many other county public safety officers. “SEBA members are pleased to announce our endorsement of Mayor Don [...]

Paul Schrader announces candidacy for San Bernardino County Sheriff

PRESS RELEASE January 19, 2010 ELECT PAUL SCHRADER FOR A “FRESH START” Paul Schrader has announced his candidacy for sheriff of San Bernardino County in the June 2010 election. Mr. Schrader has 27 years of law enforcement experience at city, county and federal levels. He currently works as a Deputy Sheriff Bonus One with the [...]

Woman files $1.5 million claim against San Bernardino County DA

A Redlands woman whose sexual harassment complaint against San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos triggered an investigation is seeking $1.5 million in a claim filed Wednesday. Cheryl Ristow, an investigative technician with the district attorney’s office, states that she was involved in a 17-month intimate relationship with Ramos that ended in 2005. She claims [...]

Jeb Stipe / Ty McDowell Procured Rapist Case

Jebidiah James Stipe Ty Oliver McDowell CASPER — A man accused of violently raping a woman inside her Casper home about two weeks ago believed he was acting out a sexual fantasy the woman requested on an Internet site, according to his attorney. Ty Oliver McDowell, 26, has been charged with three counts of first-degree [...]

Twentynine Palms Marine solicited and procured the sexual assault of Casper woman

“Enlisted in the Marines in 2001, went to Cherry Point NC, then to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, then back for OIFII, and in about 2 weeks I’m going back for a 3rd time. Married to a beautiful woman from Washington. Have 2 beautiful boys who are the lights of my life. I am getting [...]

Legal concealed weapons can help keep citizens safe

Three cheers for the three Riverside County supervisors who voted yes for resolution 2009-348, which urges Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff to allow “personal defense” as “good cause” in issuing carrying concealed weapon permits to law-abiding applicants who meet administrative qualifications. This may cause some discomfort for people who are not familiar with firearms, so [...]

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department selects the Crown Pointe Technologies FTO System

Crown Pointe Technologies, a leading technology firm focused on public safety training systems and based in Portland, Oregon, was selected to implement its FTO (Field Training Officer) System at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in San Bernardino County, California. The Crown Pointe FTO System was specifically designed to simplify the complex data entry, reporting, [...]

Massive internal fraud in San Bernardino County social services arm

News emerged this weekend related to a massive internal fraud, a portion of which was recently uncovered within the agency responsible for the delivery of San Bernardino County’s social services programs. iePolitics has learned that hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds meant to provide aid for the disadvantaged has been illegally diverted by county [...]

Big Bear: Community Needs Forum Set for Wednesday, December 2

The public has ideas, and the governments of the Valley are all ears. A community needs forum is set for Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 1:30 p.m. Members of all areas of Big Bear Valley are invited, along with merchants and service organization representatives. The audience is invited to share ideas on needs for public safety, [...]

Big Bear: Neil Derry Fired Don Allen

Don Allen wants to set the record straight. He did not resign his seat on the Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park District advisory commission five months ago. “I was removed,” said Allen, who represented the community of Moonridge on the board until June 30. Allen was serving as the commission president at the time [...]

iePolitics Commentary: Sheriff Hoops, Part 2

Sheriff Rod Hoops let’s continue from my last posting. I do not want our readers to think that misconduct such as the credentials falsification issue with Sheriff’s Captain Bart Gray is nothing but an aberration. It is actually the opposite. In other words it happens quite frequently. Not only are special accommodations made for ranking [...]

Uffer Era Ends on a 3-2 Vote

Mark H. Uffer’s five-year tenure as the county’s top administrative officer drew to a close this week with a 3-2 vote of the board of supervisors. The sacking of Uffer, who was named interim county administrative officer in March 2004 and then given the official title as CAO in September 2004, was not done for [...]

County Immigration Enforcement Plan Prompts Profiling Concern

Over the objections of eleven county residents, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week renewed a commitment to have the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department cooperate with federal authorities in identifying illegal immigrants and targeting them for deportation. While a representative of the county sheriff’s department indicated that the identification and deportation effort [...]

iePolitics: San Bernardino County to major U.S. Corporation (Google): Go away!

The news of this unbelievable episode was presented to me a couple weeks ago and I wasn’t able to gather more details until this weekend. It looks like a major U.S. corporation recently embarked on a mission to San Bernardino County. That mission? Establish a campus in the Victor Valley region of the county. A [...]

Grants to Fund County Drug Courts

San Bernardino County Superior Court will utilize two grants totaling $1,099,830 to fund its drug court operations. Court officials, under the direction of presiding judge James M. McGuire, will use one grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and another Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant to carry forth the programs, which are [...]

Sheriff Hopefuls Offer Differing Law Enforcement Philosophieschallenger,

SAN BERNARDINO— The two declared candidates for sheriff in next year’s election faced off October 7 in a forum sponsored by the Safety Employees Benefit Association, the union representing the sheriff’s department’s deputies. Sheriff Rod Hoops, the incumbent, like his challenger, deputy Mark Averbeck, has never actually faced the voters. Hoops was appointed sheriff by [...]

County Extends Contract with Corruption Figure’s Firm

The county has extended by one year the contract it has with its Sacramento lobbyist, Platinum Advisors, despite a scandal involving the company and its simultaneous representation of the county and a company from whom the county purchased the Adelanto jail for $31.2 million in 2005. After whispers of the double dealing involving former Assemblyman [...]

Anti-corruption Group Discusses Strategy

The new organization dedicated to rooting out political corruption in San Bernardino County held its first public meeting on October 6 in Redlands. The meeting was relocated at the last minute when the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA) reneged on its agreement to allow the group to use its meeting room. The organizers had [...]

Public Defender Seeking Volunteers

San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer this week moved to facilitate efforts of the public inclined to volunteer time to assist with the legal defense of those unable to pay for it. The public defender’s office is that portion of county government which is chartered to provide legal defense to those people charged with [...]

iePolitics: Turmoil in SB County Public Defender operation

Apparently, there is rising discontent among veteran attorneys in the Office of the San Bernardino County Public Defender. Sources inside the department tell iePolitics that one of the highly talented attorneys in the office who recently won an acquittal on a murder case is now on administrative leave. The sources also say that many of [...]

Deputy declares intention to run for San Bernardino County Sheriff

A 24-year San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy has announced his candidacy for sheriff in the June 2010 election. Mark Averbeck, 47, of Redlands, will appear at a question-and-answer session sponsored by the Safety Employees Benefit Association, the union representing county law enforcement employees, at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 at the San Bernardino Hilton. Averback works [...]

S.B. County gives no-bid contract to firm headed by supervisor’s

A Rancho Cucamonga firm is being paid $150,000 to measure the quality of life in San Bernardino County in a contract that did not go out to competitive bidding. The La Jolla Institute, a research and economic development nonprofit group, was awarded the contract Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. In a report to his [...]

State to join San Bernardino County corruption probe

The state attorney general‘s office will join an expanding probe of political corruption in San Bernardino County centered largely on the past activities of the assessor’s office, officials said Monday. So far the investigation has led to the arrest of former Assessor Bill Postmus and four former employees in his office. Allegations include using the [...]

Anti-drug groups push for county ban on pot dispensaries

Anti-drug advocacy groups have launched a campaign admonishing San Bernardino County supervisors for considering permitting medical marijuana dispensaries. San Bernardino County, which will begin issuing medical marijuana cards in mid-August, has issued a temporary moratorium on marijuana dispensaries while a county committee studies approaches for regulating and zoning the facilities. “The focus is on trying [...]

Check out (“Spirit of the Law”) Nancy K. Bohl (Penrod’s wife) for yourself, and see where your tax money is going

California Peer Support Association 2009 Annual Conference and Training Conference Schedule WEDNESDAY, September 16, 2009 See also: Hoops pays back the Good Ol’ Boys Raymond S. G. Pryke v. Gary Penrod, County of San Bernardino, B. Chambers, Dino Defazio and Does, filed June 23, 2009 Raymond Pryke ordered to pay sanctions, costs in libel lawsuit by Penrod’s wife

Handheld stealth

New technology should not be a tool for subverting citizens’ power to monitor government actions. San Bernardino County‘s example shows the need for cities and counties to ensure that all communications about official business are open to public scrutiny. County special counsel John Hueston raised the issue in his investigation of the county assessor’s office. [...]

San Bernardino County accused of violating Brown Act

San Bernardino County is being accused of violating the Brown Act, California’s open-meeting law, as it challenges the state’s medical marijuana user program. San Bernardino County joined San Diego County three years ago in challenging the program, which requires it to issue medical-marijuana identification cards to patients. The counties petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to [...]

Temecula Clinic Offers Consultations on Medical Marijuana

A clinic specializing in medical marijuana treatment has opened in Temecula. This is the first time such a clinic has opened in the Temecula Valley.On Oct. 11, Alternative Care Clinics ( ACC ), a San Diego-based medical group, opened an office on Enterprise Circle.

County Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Erase State’s Medical Marijuana Law

San Diego County filed papers this week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to erase California’s medical marijuana law, arguing that federal prohibitions outlawing the substance supersede California’s law allowing sick people to use it. The county is asking the nation’s highest court to overturn a state appellate court’s July decision upholding the voter-approved law legalizing [...]

Local Drug Plans Scored

In a blistering report on the county’s plan to implement Proposition 36 (Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000), a national drug policy foundation on Wednesday said the county is bolstering the criminal justice system instead of emphasizing drug treatment. The Lindesmith Center, which backed the measure that mandates treatment over incarceration as an [...]