law

The El Dorado County (EDC) District Attorney's Office recently helped with a state-wide investigation focused on offenders operating a criminal enterprise from both inside and outside state prisons.

Sixteen members and associates of a prison-based gang have been charged after a long-running investigation into drug trafficking and murders inside and outside of California’s prisons.

The EDC DA office's investigative division has the kind of highly trained and experienced detectives that are often called in to help with operations of this magnitude.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The Board of Supervisors will hold a public meeting on June 17 to go over the El Dorado County Fiscal Year 2019-20 Recommended Budget of $688.7 million. This special meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. and will be held in the Board's Placerville meeting room at 330 Fair Lane.

The County's Chief Administrative Officer, Don Ashton delivered the budget to the supervisors and it is also available online for review. State law mandates that the Recommended Budget be submitted to the Board on or before June 30th of each year.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A group of restaurants will be showing their appreciation to local law enforcement from June 3 to June 9, 2019.

This isn't the first time Azul Latin Kitchen, California Burger Co., Social House Deli and Ten Crows BBQ have honored those who are tasked with the responsibility of protecting the community. They have had first responder days, and most recently, days to say "thank you" to snow removal crews.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - When the City formed in 1965 it was incorporated as a general law city for the purpose of having more local control over public services such as police, fire, and snow removal.

Now there is discussion about changing to a charter city. During their March 5 meeting, Councilmember Cody Bass asked that this subject come forward at a future meeting and Councilmembers Jason Collin and Devin Middlebrook said they were interested in learning more about what the differences are between the two, and what it would mean to South Lake Tahoe to switch.

Former South Lake Tahoe City Attorney Tom Watson has resigned from his position with the City of Tracy, California and taken a new one as the City Attorney of Santa Maria, a community south of San Luis Obispo.

Watson will start with them on June 17 after his contract was unanimously approved by the Santa Maria City Council on May 7.

"I have confidence in his abilities to manage and lead the City Attorney’s Office for years to come,” said Mayor Alice Patino in a news release. “I look forward to him effectively managing the legal needs of our city.”

Even with the increase in anti-distracted driving campaigns, abusers of this law are on the rise according to data received during the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April.

During April, 19,850 citations were issued to drivers who violated California’s hands-free cell phone laws. This is a 3.6 percent increase from April 2018.

For more than a decade, attorney Scott Norris Johnson has made it his business to sue thousands of small business owners around Lake Tahoe and up and down the state over alleged violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Today he finds himself in hot water after a federal grand jury returned an indictment today against the Carmichael resident, charging him with three counts of making and subscribing a false tax return.

1:00 PM UPDATE: More information has been released in the arrest of Christopher Wadstein in Sacramento. Police found almost a pound of methamphetamine in the fire after his truck burst into flames.

Wadstein is a long time South Lake Tahoe resident with arrests dating back to his teenage years. Lt. Shannon Laney said their first file on him was in 2001. His previous convictions range from drugs and vandalism to kidnapping and weapons
charges. He is also believed to be a skinhead white supremacist prison gang member according to SLTPD.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Lake Tahoe natural resource and law enforcement agencies remind residents and visitors to practice proper food storage and trash disposal at all times while in bear country. Intentional or unintentional feeding of bears can result in unwanted bear behaviors, increased human-bear conflicts, and public safety issues, as well as fines and possible jail time for violators. Each year law enforcement and state wildlife officers respond to hundreds of calls in which bears may pose a public safety threat or are damaging property. In some cases, the bear must be euthanized.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Nurses Association (CNA) has served Barton Health with another ten-day notice of their RNs' intent to strike on May 24, 2019. This is the second such notice this year. Their original notice was sent on February 15 and was withdrawn on February 22.

On July 17, 1982, the body of a woman was found off of a hiking trail in the Sheep's Flat area near Mt. Rose just a few miles above Incline Village, was found. There was no identification or jewelry on the victim and investigators could tell by her clothing she may have been headed to Lake Tahoe when she was murdered.

And there was no suspect.

For over three decades, both her and her killer's identity have been unknown but with new DNA technologies, hard work by a team of law enforcement investigators and genealogists, the case has been solved.

5.10.19 Update: On Thursday, May 9, 2019, recycled water from a South Tahoe Public Utility District Luther Pass storage tank leaked into Grass Lake Creek. Water samples collected from Grass Lake Creek immediately following the spill showed no change in coliform bacteria, meaning the spill caused no significant impact to water quality. A leak from the overflow pipe inside the tank was the cause of the spill. The tank has been drained and taken off-line until repairs can be made.

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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - K9 officer Quatro retired from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) Thursday after serving on the force for 6.5 years.

During the department's annual awards ceremony, Quatro's service was recognized. He has assisted numerous other agencies, confiscated $50,000 in cash, intercepted an envelope with drugs headed to a prison inmate, and assisted his trainer Officer Matt Morrison numerous times while on duty.

Eight-year-old Quatro will continue living with the Morrison family but will no longer head to work at the lake.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - One could feel the air let out of a South Lake Tahoe courtroom as visiting Judge Gary Mullen read his decision to the five defendants, their five lawyers and family members in attendance, one that tossed out their request to drop murder charges against all of the suspects in the robbery and murder in 2016 of Dennis Wright.

Judge Mullen declared California Senate Bill 1437 unconstitutional. The bill was signed by then-California Governor Jerry Brown in September 2018 and changed the liability for accomplices to felony murder.

The following is the third in a series of stories on being a community that is prepared for wildfire.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Fire knows no boundaries, no city, county, or state lines, so why should those fighting the fires be limited by an unseen line? Fire chiefs across the country manage their fire departments based on need and available staff, but what happens when their resources aren't enough to fight a fire in their own backyard?

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. Deputies and SWAT officers from the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office (EDSO) were dispatched to a home in a rural area of Somerset on May 2 after a woman called, telling them her daughter had been shot by her boyfriend.

The woman called at 10:15 a.m. from a neighbor's house, and when law enforcement arrived they surrounded a home on Meyer Lane and were able to make contact with the boyfriend, Ulrich Smith, who was inside.

An elementary school located near the home went on lockdown as a precaution.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Starting May 25, 2019, there will be no more youth staying in the Placerville Juvenile Detention Facility. After a decision by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in February, South Lake Tahoe's Juvenile Treatment Center (JTC) will be the only youth facility in the county to serve those in the justice system 18-years-old and younger, for now.

There are several reasons for the changes including an aging facility, increasing costs and the fact that fewer youth are working their way through the juvenile justice system.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - The suspect arrested in Douglas County after engaging law enforcement in gunfire after a pursuit Friday night is now the suspect in three Bay Area homicides.

Stefon Jefferson, a 43-year-old man from the San Francisco area, started Friday off by allegedly fatally shooting a man in Oakland at 10:14 a.m., another in San Francisco at 1:27 p.m. and a third in Berkeley at 2:40 p.m.

ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. - Authorities responded in full force Thursday morning to a home in the 500 block of US 50 in Zephyr Cove after a crisis call led them to believe a teenage girl was in labor and in danger.

At 6:43 a.m. on April 18, deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) were dispatched to a residence in Zephyr Cove after the Live Violence Free crisis hotline center received a concerning call. The unidentified caller said they were a pregnant 13-year-old who believed she was in labor and had previously been raped by her father.

Did you know that Medicare has an ombudsman to help you resolve complaints you may have about your healthcare?

Congress created the job of Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman to assist people with Medicare with their inquiries, complaints, grievances, appeals, and requests for information.

The Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman also shares information with Congress, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and other organizations about what works well and what doesn’t work well to improve the quality of the care you get through Medicare.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Two women from the Bay Area have been arrested on suspicion of being responsible for several car burglaries over a two day period in South Lake Tahoe.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) received the first call at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10 after a car burglary at the Sierra Athletic Club on Tahoe Keys Boulevard. A car window had been smashed and a purse was stolen.

The second call came in at 5:30 p.m. from the Fit Republic Gym on Lake Tahoe Boulevard. The same method was used - a broken car window and a stolen purse.

At a price tag of $150 million, the California legislature is considering a bill that, if approved, would change the way the Sierra snowpack is measured each year.

For 90 years the snowpack has been measured at several locations including Phillips, just west of Lake Tahoe. Normally performed in front of media, staff from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) snowshoe into a spot where they stick a pole into the snow to measure the depth and water content of the snow.

Carson City was abuzz Thursday evening at the Nevada State Legislature, in which over 100 Nevadan residents gathered to support honeybees, and their ability to be kept by residents.

Senate Bill 389 relates to the ability to keep bees in residential zones in Nevada and has been hotly debated since it was announced on March 20. It was read during a Natural Resources Committee meeting Wednesday.

Residents attended to an extent that legislative staff needed to open an overflow room to provide for those gathered, in which the meeting was televised from down the hall.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - On Tuesday, April 2, 325 6th graders from South Tahoe Middle School, Zephyr Cove Elementary School and home-schooled youth, will spend the day at Lake Tahoe Community College going through the 16th annual Drug Store Project.

Since 2004, middle school students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) have gone through the Drug Store Project (DSP), a day-long comprehensive drug prevention program designed to educate youth about the dangers of substance use and abuse.