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WEEKEND APRIL 10-11, 2010 Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Inside RED BLUFF SPORTS 1B cloudy Weather forecast 8A Partly 64/43 By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer Tehama County District Attor- ney investigators arrested a Red- ding man, Friday, suspected of sending explicit photos to a minor and trying to meet her for sexual purposes. Bryce Michael Gibson was the seventh man arrested since the office’s “Safe Sam” sting operation began in February 2008. The program works by having investigators pose as underage girls or boys online in a system devised from TV’s “To Catch a Predator.” District Attorney Gregg Cohen said the case is still under investi- gation, but announced investiga- tors, posing as a 13-year-old girl, “chatted” online over the course of weeks, with the office using a fake profile on online social network MySpace as bait for Gibson. Gibson had initially attempted to meet with the girl on Thursday, but eventually canceled the meeting. DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ TH E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Myspace sting nets arrest A second meeting was agreed on for Friday, around 1 p.m., at an undisclosed location in Red Bluff. Gibson kept his word this time and was greeted by a team of Tehama County Sheriff’s Deputies and DA Investigators, Cohen said. It was not immediately clear whether Gibson had prior criminal history. Cohen would not say whether the office or Gibson were the first to initiate contact, but said the office was careful to avoid entrap- ment. “We know what we can do, and what we can’t,” he said. The six previous suspects caught by the program have all served jail time as a result of the program, he said. The office has not always been keen to publicize the program because it depends on secrecy, Cohen said. But at the same time, the opera- tion was also designed to send a warning to the general public about the dangers of unsupervised Inter- net use. Sometimes the arrests involve earning the trust of the suspect, Cohen said. Other times, a meeting is arranged within days of initial contact. “Sometimes, they happen really quickly,” he said. Suspects who live as far away as Lassen County have been arrested through the program. In February 2009, a 56-year-old Visalia man was arrested on suspi- cion of sending explicit material to a 16-year-old Red Bluff girl. At the time, local police said they had rea- son to believe he was in contact with more than a dozen underage girls through MySpace, including one in the United Kingdom, one in Australia and another in Tehama County. To keep up with the changing Internet, Safe Sam has spread to Craigslist, Twitter and other online networks. “We’re out there,” Cohen said. Discovering a good cause Weekend Round-Up Events Round-Up Week kicks into high gear this weekend with a number of events. At 8 a.m. today, the Soroptomist Spring Run takes place at the Sacramento River Discovery Center. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the corner of Washing- ton and Pine there will be a Classic Car Show and Shine. The event will be right next to the ICS Chili Cook-Off, which opens up tasting to the public at 11:30 a.m. The State Theatre will present a screening of The Cowboys starring John Wayne at 7:30 p.m., with lobby activities set to begin at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday the Red Bluff Round-Up Association will host Mexican Heritage Days with a rodeo scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Mexican Heritage Days celebrates rodeo roots By DAVE CARR Special to the DN Today’s rodeo heritage can trace its origins directly from Spanish and Mexican history. On Sunday, the Red Bluff Round-Up Association will be celebrating the Hispanic rodeo history with Mexican Heritage Days. The celebration will take place at the Tehama County Fairgrounds. The festivities will include a grand entry, a mariachi band and Escaramuza. Escaramuza began as small groups called "Cuadrillas" that integrated into the Charreada as the "Mexican Carousel" in the 1950s where both girls and boys participated. Over the next few decades the con- test between the various groups became known as the Escaramuza, or "skirmish". This came from the tradi- tion of mounted women performing in military assign- ments. The Escaramuza will perform at the rodeo. The mariachi band will begin at 1 p.m. with a rodeo following at 1:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend. Tickets are available at the Red Bluff Round-Up ticket office at the museum or can be purchased at the gate. The beginnings of rodeo go back to the ranches of the early 1700s, when the Spanish ruled the West. The Spanish cattlemen, known as vaqueros influenced the American cowboy with their clothing, language, tradi- tions and equipment that would in turn influence the modern sport of rodeo. Duties on these early ranches included roping, horse breaking, riding, herding, brand- ing and much more. Originally a rodeo was not a sport- ing event but an effort to help all the working cattle- men. Daily News photo by Tang Lor Ali Reno, left, helps Karen Magnusson-Moore choose under which prizes to place her $20 worth of raffle tickets during the fourth annual Night of Discovery. The event, a fundraiser for the Sacramento River Discovery Center, featured informational booths, a live auction and a 50/50 slot tournament, in which half the winnings are donated back to the center. Orland fire death involved Red Bluff man By GREG WELTER MediaNews Group WILLOWS — Homi- cide and arson are being investigated in connec- tion with a Sunday night house fire on County Road 25 south of Orland, where the charred body of a man was discovered. The victim was iden- tified by the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office Friday as Donald Scott Williams, 38. At the time of his death, Williams was on parole from the Califor- nia Department of Cor- rections and Rehabilita- tion. He was released from state prison to supervised parole on Dec. 2. Williams was posi- tively identified follow- ing an autopsy and comparison of dental records. Officials said the preliminary results of the autopsy confirmed an original assumption that Williams died at the hands of another. They refused to com- ment for the time being on exactly how he died. Sheriff Larry Jones reported that Williams listed a Red Bluff address when booked into the Glenn County Jail in Dec. 2007, but said he was known to frequent the Orland area. 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 According to court records, Williams was convicted of drug pos- session in Glenn Coun- ty in May 2007. Detective Kelly Knight said it’s unknown if Williams was living in the home where his body was found, which is part of a working ranch owned since 1999 by Glenn County Supervisor Leigh McDaniel. McDaniel has said he wasn’t aware of anyone staying on the property. The house has been unoccupied at least two years, and McDaniel said power had been cut to the residence. The victim’s 18-year- old daughter, who lives with her mother, and the his parents, who live out of state, were informed of his death earlier this week. His mother traveled to Glenn County and was due to meet with investigators Friday morning. The body was found about an hour after the fire was extinguished in the living room area of the home. The 2,800 square foot, L-shaped home was leveled by the fire. Structural damage was placed at $150,000. In April 2008, McDaniel reported that the home was burglar- Rodeo comes from the Spanish word rodear, which means to encircle or to surround. To the Spanish in New Spain (now Mexico) in the mid-sixteenth century, a rodeo was simply a cattle roundup. Showing off rop- ing skill and horsemanship at these roundups became the sport that is known today as rodeo. Its roots are in the work of ranching cattle and the skills a cowboy or vaquero had to develop. ized and heavily van- dalized. Thieves ripped cop- per wiring and copper plumbing from walls, doing about $10,000 in damage. The house reportedly hadn’t been repaired, and had no running water. Detectives and fire investigators were back at the crime scene Thursday gathering fur- ther evidence. A vehicle belonging to Williams is unac- counted for. Detectives are looking for a 1995 Geo, red in color, bear- ing California license number 5AZB659. Anyone with infor- mation regarding the whereabouts of this vehicle, or information regarding the death of Williams, is asked to call Detective Kelly Knight or Sergeant Sean Arlin, at 934- 6431. The Sheriff ’s Secret Witness number at 934-6627. The horse that could not be “rode” and the cowboy who could not be “throwed” came from these early days of ranch work during the cattle baron days of the 1850s and evolved into modern day rough stock com- petition (bucking horses and bulls). Timed events such as tie-down roping (calves), team roping and steer wrestling descended directly from ranch work done at every rodeo to brand and doctor cattle and is still per- formed to this day on working ranches in the same fashion it has been done for centuries. Deputies rescue man, son in river Sheriff’s deputies pulled a man and his 10- year-old-boy out of the Sacramento River and to safety Thursday afternoon after his boat overturned. The boy, a 12-year-old girl. Michael Lambert, 36 and Harold Lambert, 39, all of Red Bluff, were reportedly in a 12-foot aluminum boat in the river near the Durango RV park, according to a Tehama County Sheriff’s Department press release. The boat was struck by a log and overturned, send- ing all four into the water. Harold Lambert and the girl were able to swim to shore, but Michael Lambert and the boy were left clinging to a bridge pilling until a Sheriff’s boating unit was sent out. The boy and Michael Lambert were pulled off the pilling into the boat, and taken to safety. “None of the subjects were injured, but all were very cold,” the release stated. The boat was later recovered, but had sus- tained major damage. The loss is about $800. —Staff Report TEHAMA TIRE SERVICE 525 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff BC TIRE SALES has been purchased by Our last day of business will be Wednesday, April 14, 2010 530-527-5272 For all warranty work, brakes & alignments call Corey or Troy at Tehama Tire. USA TODAY Ladies in PV