CALIFORNIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY INVESTIGATORS’ ASSOCIATIONCALIFORNIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY INVESTIGATORS’ ASSOCIATION

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President French opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the peace offi cers and members of the military who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

French spoke of his concerns for the victims of the Montecito mudslides and expressed that his thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this diffi cult time.

French introduced newly appointed Parliamentarian Justin Matus. Matus is the Assistant Chief Investigator with the Imperial County District Attorney, Bureau of Investigation.

French said that he and Treasurer Mike Donovan were able to attend the retirement party for Chief Investigator Gary Craft of the Monterey County District Attorney’s Offi ce this past December. He said it was well attended and was a great send-off for Chief Craft after 41 years in the business. They were able to present Chief Craft with his CDAIA retirement plaque.

French advised that he and several CDAIA board members recently spoke with training personnel from the California District Attorneys Association about the need for public integrity training for prosecutors and investigators. He said CDAA has been able to put together a one day Public Integrity Team Training scheduled for March 13, 2018, to be held at the CDAA training center located in Sacramento. The training topics will include Brown Act violations, Government Code Section 1090 and Confl ict of Interest, FPPC, and PAC issues. Additional information is available on CDAA’s website, including CDAA member and non-member tuition.

Vice President Aloise will be attending Law Enforcement Legislative Day, March 6-7, 2018 with President French and Treasurer Donovan.

Secretary Sage distributed the new Good & Welfare list, containing a few changes to the assigned contact counties for each board member. He asked the board members to make their Good & Welfare contacts and send their completed reports to him so he could get the Good & Welfare report posted along with the Minutes in a timely fashion. Sage also asked the board members to make sure the email addresses for the contact points at each county are accurate, and send any updated contact names along with their email addresses to Executive Committee Member Sosa so the RapSheet newsletter can be appropriately distributed to the membership.

Treasurer Donovan’s Income and Expense Report refl ects the association has $105,377.66 in the business checking account as of January 16, 2018 and $21,906.21 in the scholarship account as of December 31, 2017. He indicated the conference account is currently at $102,381. Donovan said there are expenditures from the training account to pay for audio/visual equipment and some instructor fees related to the 2017 training conference, and he will have an updated account balance at the next board meeting.

Donovan said the golf tournaments at the training conferences have been very successful in raising money for the scholarship account, and this year’s tournament at Palm Desert is on track to be another great event. Donovan said Riverside’s conference committee located a sponsor for the golf tournament, which may allow for reduced fees for this year’s golfers.

Donovan said the total membership of CDAIA currently stands at 2,102. There are about 10 counties who aren’t current on their membership dues, but he expects they will be paying their dues soon.

VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT

QUARTERLY MEETING

SECRETARY’S REPORT

TREASURER’S REPORT

January 17, 2018

Palm Desert, California

President French called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m., Wednesday, January 17, 2018 at the JW Marriott, Palm Desert, California.Roll Call: President French, Vice President Aloise, Secretary Sage, Treasurer Donovan, Executive Committee Members Hanley, Sosa and Tavares, Parliamentarian Matus, and Past President Mueller were present. Sergeant-at-Arms Westwood and Executive Committee Member Biggs were excused.Guests: Chief Investigator Joe DelGiudice and Supervising Investigator Fabian Granados of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Offi ce joined the board members for lunch. Riverside is hosting this year’s CDAIA training conference at the JW Marriott and they updated the board on where they’re at with planning classes, lining up instructors, locating sponsors, and organizing the golf tournament fund raiser..

Conference SponsorConference Sponsor

COMMITTEE REPORTS

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

Law & Legislation: Executive Committee Member Tavares reported on the following bills:

AB 748 – Mandates the release of video and audio captured by law enforcement if it depicts a matter of public concern. Video and audio recordings captured during an offi cer involved shooting would have to be released under AB 748.

SB 10 – Drastically changes the current bail system, and would instead switch to a system where the courts rely on an assessment of an offender’s fl ight risk and danger to the public.

AB 16 – Amends Proposition 69 by additionally requiring persons convicted of “specifi ed misdemeanors, including, among others, assault with a deadly weapon and sexual battery,” to provide buccal swab samples, full palm print impressions and biological samples for law enforcement identifi cation and analysis.

SB 8 – Authorizes a court, with consent of the defendant, to postpone prosecution of misdemeanors and some felonies and place the defendant in a pretrial diversion program if the court is satisfi ed the defendant suffers from a mental disorder, and that the defendant’s mental disorder played a signifi cant role in the commission of the charged offense.

Tavares advised that Governor Brown’s proposed 2018-2019 state budget currently refl ects cuts to programs funded through the State Penalty Fund. CalWRAP would be further reduced from $3.3 million to $2.5 million, Victim/Witness Assistance would be reduced from $11.8 million to $9 million, and the Victim Compensation Restitution Fund would be reduced from $9.1 million to $6.5 million.

Tavares said it appears that CDAA’s training budget will be maintained at last year’s level. He said this will be good for district attorney investigators to possibly take advantage of training offered through CDAA, since POST reimbursed training has taken a hit in recent years.

Donovan said the electronic version of the CDAIA directory is available on-line, and it currently contains the names and contact information for about 1,000 of our members. If the investigators from your offi ce haven’t been added to the directory, please add them right away. Donovan previously sent out instructions on how to add the names to the directory, but contact him directly and he can walk you through the process if needed. The directory is a valuable resource for all of the membership, so please help in getting it completely updated.

Executive Committee Member Sosa said he has been updating the training and employment opportunity information that’s listed on the CDAIA website. He will also be updating the website with our latest Investigator and Prosecutor of the Year. If there is information that the membership can use, please contact Sosa directly to see about getting it posted on the website.

2018 – JW Marriott Resort, Palm DesertIn Partnership with the Riverside

County District Attorney’s Offi ceSept. 10, 2018 – Charity Golf

Tournament | Sept. 11 – 13, 2018 – Annual Training

2019 – Paradise Point Resort, San DiegoExecutive Committee Member Sosa said

that San Diego County District Attorney’s Offi ce personnel have already begun planning

for 2019’s conference.

2020 – Resort at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe

We’ll be heading back to Placer County in 2020!

January 2018 – CDAIA Scholarship Application information sent out to the

membership.March 31, 2018 – Scholarship submission

deadline.March 2018 – Final endorsement

opportunity from CDAIA before the primaries. Submit endorsement requests to the board prior to the next quarterly board

meeting.April 5, 2018 – Next quarterly board

meeting.

Treasurer Donovan said he spoke with Executive Committee Member Biggs, and she said the CDAIA scholarship announcements would be sent out to the membership before the end of January. Executive Committee Members Biggs, Hanley and Tavares, as well as Parliamentarian Matus, will make up this year’s scholarship review committee.

President French said the DAI trial prep course has been revamped, reducing it to 40 hours. He said the course will remain at 80 hours for now, until the new course receives fi nal approval from POST and we can get it implemented. French said we’re looking at early 2019 for a roll-out.

DIRECTORY

OLD BUSINESS

OLD BUSINESSCONFERENCES

WEBSITE

TIMELINE

SCHOLARSHIPS

Conference Sponsor Visit the CDAIA website and click on the First Tactical logo. That link will take you to

the First Tactical website AND ensure that for any products you purchase, CDAIA

will receive a commission (at no additional expense to you).

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

Treasurer Donovan said he recently placed an order for 150 CDAIA medallions and 300 challenge coins that will be used in the CDAIA retirement plaques. Retiring DA investigators who have been members of CDAIA for at least ten years are eligible to receive a retirement plaque from CDAIA free of charge. If you have an investigator retiring with less than ten years in CDAIA, the plaque may be purchased at a reasonable price. Since the plaques are personalized, contact a board member well in advance of when the plaque is needed.

Donovan suggested purchasing ¾” lapel pins with the CDAIA logo which can be distributed to the membership, at an approximate cost of $0.92 each. He said he will research further and report back at a future board meeting.

President French said he continues to get contacted by organizations and companies that are not necessarily law enforcement related, who want to be linked to our website. This opened up discussion by the board members regarding what should and shouldn’t be posted on our website. Secretary Sage made a motion, which was seconded by Executive Committee Member Hanley, to remove and not allow the display of advertisements on our website, except for the paid sponsors of our training conference who will be allowed to have an advertisement on our website for one year. In addition, we will continue to post law enforcement training opportunities on our website. All members present voted in favor of the motion.

President French received endorsement requests from the following District Attorneys seeking re-election:

Vern Pierson – El Dorado CountyGilbert Otero – Imperial CountySummer Stephan – San Diego CountyGregory Totten – Ventura County

After discussing each candidate, Past President Mueller made a motion, which was seconded by Executive Committee Member Tavares, for CDAIA to endorse all four candidates in their elections for District Attorney in the respective counties. All members present voted in favor of the motion. President French said he would prepare letters for each candidate indicating CDAIA’s endorsement.

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

NEW BUSINESS

Conference Sponsor Conference Sponsor

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. NEXT QUARTERLY MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018

IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

JW MARRIOTT, Palm Desert

Alameda County:Chief Inspector Robert Chenault reports

Alameda welcomed six new Inspectors to the office. Carl Bonner was formerly with the San Francisco Police Department, Rick Decosta was with San Leandro Police Department, Jason Hawks was with Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office, and Phil Gall, Darrell Kelley and Mike Reilly all came from Oakland Police Department.

Butte County:Chief Rick West from Butte County

DA’s Office retired in December after 31 years in law enforcement. Rick was a staunch supporter of CDAIA and we wish him well in his retirement.

Fresno County:Chief Pat McPherson announced

the recent hiring of four new Senior Investigators: Jason Bogard from the Fresno Police Department, Yvette Galutira from the Corcoran Police Department, Michael Johns from the Lemoore Police Department, and Walden O’Neill from the Fresno County Sheriff ’s Office. All four bring considerable experience to the office and Fresno is happy to have them. The Bureau will be holding interviews for additional Investigator and Senior Investigator positions.

Imperial County:Imperial County reports DA Investigator

Gabriel Vela is retiring March 1st after 31 years in law enforcement. Gabriel started with Imperial County Sheriff ’s Office in 1987

where he worked corrections, patrol and investigations. In 2003, he went to the District Attorney’s Office and worked prison crimes, child/elder abuse, narcotics and fraud cases. Gabriel has been a valuable member of the DA’s Office Bureau of Investigation and his vast experience and knowledge will be missed. Imperial will be recruiting soon to fill the vacancy left by Gabriel.

Additionally, Imperial County District Attorney Gilbert G. Otero is facing a challenger for the first time since he was elected in 1994.

Kern County:Chief Scott Tunnicliffe would like to

announce that the budget issues his office has been dealing with for the past four years have lessened a bit and they were able to fill two previously vacant Investigator positions. Jackie Newell and Lorena Morales were members of the Kern Sheriff ’s Office prior to joining the staff. Both women bring considerable law enforcement experience to the Bureau and will be working Trial Prep and Public Assistance Fraud.

They have also been able to fill an extra-help Investigator position. Jerald Wyatt worked for the Kern High School Police prior to joining the staff. He will be working in the Lifer unit and assisting the Public Integrity Unit.

Kern is still looking to hire an additional Investigator and Investigative Aide in the first

quarter of 2018.Chief Tunnicliffe is also happy to

announce the promotion of Investigator III Jared Kadel to the position of Lieutenant. Jared worked at the Kern County Sheriff ’s Office for 10 years prior to coming to the District Attorney’s office in 2010. He worked nearly every assignment over the past eight years and developed an outstanding reputation within the office and the county. Jared was promoted in November and is supervising the Administrative Division of the Bureau.

Los Angeles County:The Los Angeles County District

Attorney’s Office reports the Bureau of Investigation is currently recruiting and hiring entry level investigators.

The Bureau of Investigation would like to welcome the following recently hired investigators to their family: Patricia Casas, Brian Stevens, Justin Benson, Adam Chang, Raymond Bustos, Richard Castro and Emily Ladino.

They bid a bittersweet farewell to the following Bureau of Investigation members that have retired: Sergeants Ronald York, Christopher Costanza, Gregory Icamen, and Jeffrey Oh. Senior Investigators William Pritchard, Robert Frailing, Mark Felix, Earl Ackerman, Nickolas Spathopoulos and Investigative Photographer Jack Nadelle.

The following promotions were recently announced by Chief John Neu and his command staff: Chris Briggs to the position of Lieutenant. Gregory Miller, Claudia Rodriguera, Andrea Marquez, Ste’ven Armenta, Roberto Estrada, Jay Lee, Steve Phan, Adam Borges, Jaime Hernandez, Brandon Rogers, and Luke Landsberger to the position of Senior Investigator. Lorena Garcia to the position of Management Secretary V.

They would also like to welcome the following professional staff employees: Dispatcher Carol Zamudio, Auto Maintenance Assistants Jose Castro-Garcia and Gregory Karchuc, Secretary V Kristine Carino, Auditor Ngoc-Giao Phan and Senior Typist Clerk Lasheath Brown.

Priorities continue to include establishing new hire and supervisory development training, continued recruitment and hiring, as well as additional staffing for the High Technology Crimes unit and the White Collar Crime unit.

Chief West (lower left) with members of his Bureau.

GOOD AND WELFARE

Marin County:Supervising Inspector Carl Chapman

retired on January 12th after 30 years of service with the County of Marin. Carl was a Sergeant with the Marin County Sheriff ’s Office before moving to the District Attorney’s Office in 2006. Carl spent most of his time in the Bureau of Investigations as the Commander of the Northern California Computer Crimes Taskforce (NC3TF). His experience and work ethic will be greatly missed. We wish him well in the next phase of his life.

Inspector John George was promoted to Supervising Inspector and will be assigned the command at the NC3TF. There is currently a recruitment process to fill two vacancies within the bureau.

Mariposa County:Mariposa County was devastated by

the Detweiler Fire mid-year which caused the town to fully evacuate for approximately 4 days. Over 60 houses were destroyed and 81,826 acres were burned as a result of the blaze.

Mendocino County:Chief Kevin Bailey reports that after

the wildland fires in Mendocino County, the DA Investigators assisted their local Sheriff ’s Detectives with locating missing persons and decedent recovery. He said both groups worked well together and were extremely professional.

Mendocino recently hired Naomi Carter as an Investigative Tech. Naomi was a former legal secretary for their office, and was most recently employed as a CSO with the Willits Police Department where she was exposed to evidence handling and processing.

Merced County:Chief Bill Olson announced Merced

is currently hiring and has two open, full-time DAI positions. Applications can be directed to https://www.co.merced.ca.us/562/Employment-Opportunities.

Monterey County:Chief Investigator Gary Craft

retired in December after 41 years in law enforcement. Gary’s replacement has not been announced.

Napa County:Chief Mike Donovan reports that the

Napa County District Attorney’s Office has an investigator applicant in background. If the applicant is successful, all positions in the Bureau will be filled.

Placer County:Chief Cameron reports that the

Bureau of Investigations is currently fully staffed. His leadership team consists of two DA Lieutenants and 17 DAI’s. In addition, the bureau also includes management of two county-wide programs, a regional HITDA narcotics unit (TRIDENT) and the Placer County Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center (MDIC). Both of these units currently fall under the day to day supervision of two DAI’s.

The newly hired DAI’s, Dave Stallions and Edward Mateo started on September 5th. Investigator Stallions is a nineteen year law enforcement veteran from West Sacramento Police Department. Dave has worked in patrol, school r esource officer, K-9 handler

and was recently assigned to the Detective Bureau robbery/assault unit. Investigator Mateo is a fifteen year Law Enforcement veteran from San Mateo Police Department. Ed has worked in patrol and was most recently assigned to the Investigations unit as a hi-tech/fraud Investigator.

On 8/8/2017, the BOS approved a 5-year contract with Social Security and the Office of the Inspector General Oakland CDI Unit. Investigators Rick Harroun and Scott Bryan have been chosen to work this assignment and reported to SSA-OIG on 9/12/2017. They are working out of the Auburn Justice Center as they serve Placer County and the surrounding region pursuing Social Security fraud.

Investigator Ross will transfer to the General Investigations Unit. Investigator Stallions will be assigned to the workers’ comp/DOI taskforce. Investigator Stallions will be working out of the office the majority of the time with periodic appearances to DOI as needed to support the DOI taskforce. They will continue to support the DOI/grant obligations as they continue to grow in this assignment.

Investigator Webb will replace Investigator Harroun in environmental crimes.

Investigator Woo will move into the General Investigations Unit after completion of the Bracamonte trial in Sacramento. Investigator Mateo will slowly integrate into the Hi-Tech Crimes position as he familiarizes with the office.

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo and Chief Craft

Supervising Inspector Chapman and CDAIA President Rob French

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

Investigator Dutto will remain assigned to the Cold Case Unit. Volunteers Bianca Ruiz and Mike Allison have joined the unit to assist working through the cases with the local agencies. Both Mike and Bianca are retired from Roseville PD. Mike was a Lieutenant and Bianca was Roseville’s crime analyst for many years.

Riverside County:Riverside County would like to report

the hiring of three new Senior Investigators. They are Nick Kean, Liam Doyle and Scott Christie. These investigators came to the office with numerous years of experience in various investigative disciplines. The Riverside District Attorney’s Office would also like to report the hiring of one Investigative Technician. IT Patricia Silva came to the office from Riverside County Code Enforcement.

Riverside County would like to announce the retirements of Sr. Investigator III Leonard Ortiz, Sr. Investigator Long Nguyen, Audio/Visual Dan Shattuck & Senior Investigative Technician Estrella Barley. We are thankful for all their years of dedicated service and wish them the best of luck with their future endeavors.

Sacramento County:Chief Schiele reports that they

are currently conducting background investigations to fill two vacant investigator positions. The new investigators will be assigned to Child Abduction and Real Estate investigations. They are also in the hiring process to fill a new full-time Investigative Assistant position to Workers' Compensation investigations.

Investigator Dave Kidd and Asst. Chief

Mike Sullivan worked with their POST representative to design a rifle course specific to the way DAIs will deploy rifles (executive protection, active shooter, etc.). POST approved the course so they will begin the training in February.

San Bernardino County:San Bernardino County DA Chief

Investigator Mike Smith reports that Assistant Chief promotions are underway due to the pending March retirement of Assistant Chief Bud Randles. Four new DA Investigators are scheduled to begin employment on February 17th. Another four new Investigators have been given conditional offers and are beginning the hiring process. Investigative Technician II recruitment will soon begin in anticipation of a technician leaving for a different job. Lastly, one DA Investigator has been reassigned to the FBI’s Cybercrime Task Force.

San Diego County:Bonnie Dumanis retired on July 7, 2017

after 15 years of service to the County of San Diego as District Attorney. Chief Deputy Summer Stephan was appointed as District Attorney by the Board of Supervisors to fill the vacant position. She has been with the San Diego county District Attorney’s Office for over 27 years, 15 of those years in management. She is running for DA in the 2018 election.

In October of 2017, the Bureau of Investigation promoted six DAIs to Supervising Investigators. The investigators promoted were Tim Johnson, Randy Alldredge, JC Smith, Jesse Cesena, Christina Burhans and Chris Raagas.

In December the Bureau made job offers to two applicants for the Crime and Intelligence Analyst positions. Both will be

assigned to the Bureau, but one will work primarily on investigative support to the DAIs focusing on link analysis, historical cellular phone tracking and other investigative tasks. The other analyst will be working on a “Smart Prosecution” project involving the review of recidivism and other statistical information.

The Bureau is currently in a hiring cycle. The first round of interviews was completed in mid-January. They had approximately 70 applicants, and 41 were interviewed. They currently have 11 positions available.

On January 6, 2018, retired DAI Charlie Gouge passed away. Charlie worked as an investigator with San Diego County DA’s Office for 19 years, from January of 1988 until his retirement in January of 2007. Charlie will be remembered as a tireless investigator who was a pleasure to work with. He worked several assignments within the Bureau, including Gangs, Superior Court/Pretrial and Special Operations. He began his service to the County of San Diego as a County Firefighter then worked with the Sheriff ’s Department prior to the District Attorney’s Office.

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation is looking forward to hosting the 2019 CDAIA Training Conference.

San Francisco County:Chief Jerry Rodriguez reports that long

time Inspector Darryl Jackson is planning his retirement in early May. He is a career law enforcement professional who has made great contributions to SFDAI and will be missed. Darryl is assigned to Homicide Section and as such has handled many of their high profile cases.

They are finishing up interviewing four candidates for two vacancies. Once selections

Senior Inspector Duffy and Chief RodriguezCDAIA Treasurer Mike Donovan, Chief Craft, and CDAIA President Rob French

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

are made, SFDAI will be at full staff.In December 2017, SFDAI held their

annual Holiday Luncheon where they all came together and enjoyed good food and company to close out the year. During the luncheon they nominated their first ever Employee of the Year, Senior Inspector Maura Duffy. Maura’s name and the year of her award will be engraved onto their perpetual plaque and will be displayed in the office.

San Luis Obispo County:Chief Bill Hanley reports that they have

just completed a successful hiring process and are in the background process for two candidate

Santa Barbara County:Chief Greg Wilkins reports that his

investigators assisted the Ventura County DA’s Office with the Thomas Fire, then assisted the Santa Barbara County Sheriff ’s Department with the same Thomas Fire when it spread into Santa Barbara County with a vengeance. Their investigators continued to assist the Santa Barbara County Sheriff ’s Department after the devastating mudslide that claimed the lives of 21 people. Two people are still unaccounted for.

Chief Wilkins will be retiring at the end of March and a replacement has been picked. Pat Clouse will be taking over as Chief on April 1st. Pat worked for the Santa Barbara Police Department, then went to Santa Clara PD where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. His last assignment for Santa Clara PD was security at Levi Stadium where the 49ers play.

Santa Clara County:Chief Pete Oliver reported that on

November 8, 2017 Criminal Investigator Mike Brown tragically passed away at the Palazzo Hotel cab station while he was waiting for his ride to take him to a Cold Case Homicide class at the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. Mike had just celebrated his 60th birthday the day before.

Mike was a preeminent homicide investigator who started his career at the Los Angeles Police Department before transferring to the San Jose Police Department in 1984. During his 26 years at SJPD, Mike worked all of the tough detective assignments to include Sexual Assault, Night Detectives and Homicide. He came to the Santa Clara DA’s Office in 2012 where he was immediately assigned to the Homicide Team and then to the Cold Case Team.

Many police officers from throughout the

state have been blessed with Mike’s teaching as he was an outstanding instructor on sexual assault, homicide, child death, officer-involved shootings and cold case investigations. He most recently authored an interview template for Santa Clara County homicide investigators to be used during the interview of subject officers involved in shootings and other types of deadly force.

A well respected investigator said this about Mike: “He’s the finest detective I’ll ever work with. Mike was never about 'Look what I can do!' It was always a team; always together; he led that way the whole time.” Mike will be very much missed.

Santa Cruz County:Chief Kent Schlumbrecht reports

that they are prosecuting a Santa Cruz brain surgeon for 48 felony counts of child molestation. Dr. James Kohut is being held on $15 million bail. The victims were children of two nurses that worked with Dr. Kohut. They have also been charged with child molestation. They are following up on leads regarding additional victims.

Sierra County:The Sierra County District Attorney’s

Office reports that District Attorney Lawrence R. Allen will be retiring at the end of 2018.

Sonoma County:Chief Investigator Brian Davis reports

that Sonoma has hired two new investigators in the last few months. Greg Wojcik and Rich

Celli both bring a wealth of experience from their previous employment with the Santa Rosa Police Department. These two additions bring their staffing to their authorized level of 14 sworn.

However, as the impact of the October fires becomes more apparent on the local economy, including a significant loss in property tax revenues projected for the next five years, the County Administrator is advising all Departments to plan for significant budget reductions. So their full staffing only lasted about two weeks.

Lisa Chapman retired in January and they will not be filling that vacancy in anticipation of severe funding reductions. They have another DA Investigator retiring in May and will not fill that position. They are hoping those two vacancies will be enough to mitigate the anticipated shortfall so they won’t have to resort to layoffs.

The cannabis industry continues to establish a strong foothold in the Sonoma community. Numerous commercial warehouses have been purchased in and around the City of Santa Rosa by cooperatives planning large scale processing facilities. The dean of the business school at Sonoma State University has been hired by one of the largest cooperatives and has stated his intention to make this area a cannabis “mecca.” The Santa Rosa City Council and their County Board of Supervisors are embracing the businesses. However, they are struggling with dealing with an increase in driving under the influence collisions involving marijuana causing significant injuries. They are finding these cases difficult to prosecute because there is not a specific measure of intoxication to present to juries and because of the overall acceptance of cannabis usage in their county.

Tehama County:Chief Clay reports the retirement of

Investigator Supervisor Rich Davidson and the new hiring of Rob Brinton as an Investigator II. Rich will be staying on as an on-call Extra Help Investigator and Rob came from the Tehama County Sheriff’s Department where he was a Deputy, Narcotics Agent, Detective and most recently a patrol Sergeant.Trinity County:

Chief Investigator Dan Dias reports that a fugitive from Trinity County, wanted since 2004 for child molestation, has been captured. The case involving defendant Eddie Monroe Van Houten was aired on America’s Most Wanted, and afterwards tips came in indicating he was in

Criminal Investigator Mike Brown

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

Robert French - PresidentMarin County3501 Civic Center Dr., Rm. #130San Rafael, CA 94903Work: (415) 473-5038E-mail: rfrench@marincounty.org

Richard Aloise - Vice PresidentLos Angeles County211 W. Temple Street, RoomLos Angeles, CA 90012Work: (213) 974-5010E-mail: raloise@da.lacounty.gov

Tom Sage - SecretaryAmador County708 Court StreetJackson, CA 95642Work: (209) 223-6444E-mail: tsage@amadorgov.org

Mike Donovan - TreasurerNapa County1127 First Street, Suite CNapa, CA 94559Work: (707) 253-4211E-mail: Michael.Donovan@countyofnapa.org

Brent Westwood - Sergeant-At-ArmsRiverside County3960 Orange StreetRiverside, CA 92501Work: (951) 955-0057Email: BWestwood@RivCODA.org

Justin Matus - Parliamentarian Imperial County940 West Main Street #102El Centro, CA 92243Work: (442) 265-1201Email: justinmatus@co.imperial.ca.us

Bill HanleySan Luis Obispo County1035 Palm Street, 4th FloorSan Luis Obispo, CA 93408Work: (805) 781-5870E-mail: bhanley@co.slo.ca.us

Mel SosaSan Diego County330 W. Broadway Avenue, Suite 1100San Diego, CA 92101Work: (619) 615-6891E-mail: mel.sosa@sdcda.org

Nuno TavaresPlacer County10810 Justice Center Drive, Suite 240Roseville, CA 95675Work: 916-543-8000E-mail: ntavares@placer.ca.gov

Lisa Biggs Fresno County2220 Tulare Street, Suite 1000Fresno, CA 93721Work: 559-600-3159E-Mail: lbiggs@co.fresno.ca.us

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

CDAIA BOARD (GENERAL E-MAIL TO ALL EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS) BOARDMEMBER@CDAIA.ORG

George Mueller - Past PresidentCalifornia Department of Insurance • 300 Capitol Mall, Suite #1700 Sacramento, CA 95814

Work: (916) 854-5764 • E-mail: George.Mueller@insurance.ca.gov

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He was unfortunately able to avoid capture for several more years. The Trinity County District Attorney’s Office placed numerous newspaper ads and flyers along Mexico’s west coast resort areas, which resulted in new tips that he was spotted in Cabo San Lucas. The U.S. Marshal’s Office dispatched deputies to the area, eventually tracking the defendant to Cancun where they arrested him on November 10, 2017. Chief Dias credits the combined efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies for assisting with locating and eventually arresting Van Houten.

Tuolumne County:Chief Jeff Snyder reports that things are

pretty “business as usual” in Tuolumne County. They have a ratio of two investigators, to eight attorneys, so they are always busy keeping up with attorney requests. In November of 2017, they took over Welfare Fraud investigations as their DSS had been without an investigator for the past year and a half. As you can imagine, there was a huge back log of cases and so far

they’ve worked these cases into their current workload as best they can! Other than that, no other major events to report.

Ventura County:Chief Mike Baray reports that in the

Fall of 2017 they lost about 8% of their investigative staff. Fortunately, they were just able to recruit and fill all of the vacancies. They recently hired Ventura Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Witkosky a 10 year veteran, Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Scherbarth a 22 year veteran, Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Gene Martinez a 19 year veteran, Santa Paula Police Officer Randy Haumann a 10 year veteran and Ventura Police Officer Brandon Conger.

The Thomas Fire kept the Bureau busy as they supported the Ventura Police Department with traffic control and other immediate needs. Their mutual aid response lasted a week and expended more than 800 hours. Unfortunately, one of their investigators contracted Valley Fever.

Yuba County:The Yuba County District Attorney’s

Office recently implemented Karpel, and they are working towards eventually becoming a paperless office. They’ve also continued to work on developing the Bi-County Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team for Yuba and Sutter Counties, and are working on expanding the team’s call-out capacity to include major critical incidents and in-custody deaths.

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER