Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/321711
ByDonThompson TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO The Cali- fornia Highway Patrol is in- vestigating whether state firefighters had sex with a woman who later was stabbed to death in the home she shared with a battalion chief, a claim made during the subsequent homicide in- vestigation. The report, which is so far unsubstantiated, arose during the manhunt for Orville Fleming, a former state battalion chief and training officer who was arrested in connection with the death of the woman, a former escort who became his girlfriend. Fleming's estranged wife told sheriff's investigators and reporters that she had viewed a video showing the victim, Sarah June Douglas, 26, having sex with her hus- band and other firefighters on fire trucks. The California Depart- ment of Forestry and Fire Protection said this week that it has asked the Cali- fornia Highway Patrol to in- vestigate, although authori- ties say they have not found a video. Department spokesman Daniel Berlant said the re- quest was made after Sacra- mento County Sheriff's dep- uties completed their investi- gation and arrested Fleming on May 16, two weeks af- ter Douglas' body was dis- covered in the home they shared. Homicide Detective Brian Meux said then that investi- gators had not found any such video, and Sgt. Lisa Bowman said that is still the case. "If, by chance, something comes up on an electronic device they may have seized as evidence, then it will be turned over to CalFire," she said in an email. CHP Al le ga ti on s of firefighter behavior investigated By John Rogers The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Richard Martinez says he never set out to be a face of the gun- control movement and has no interest in taking deer ri- fles and shotguns from the hands of hunters. After all, he used to be one. But Martinez plans to do whatever he can to keep guns out of the hands of peo- ple who use them for mass killings, the latest of which took the life of his 20-year- old son and five other stu- dents at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Martinez, a 60-year- old criminal defense law- yer, took center stage in the gun debate when he showed up uninvited before a sher- iff's news conference a day after the May 23 killings, stepped before a bank of microphones and in a voice filled with rage and grief blamed the death of Chris- topher Michaels-Martinez on "craven, irresponsible politicians" who won't pass stricter gun-control laws. "Theytalkaboutgunrights. What about Chris' right to live?" he wailed. "When will this insanity stop?" On Thursday, an ex- hausted Martinez said he had hardly slept since that day, his hours filled with planning his only child's funeral while fielding calls from all over the world. News organizations from Canada, Great Britain and Australia want to interview him. Other people just want to say they're sorry. "I tell them, 'Look, I don't need your sympathy. What I need is for you to DO some- thing,'" Martinez said dur- ing a lengthy, late-night phone interview with The Associated Press. That something, he said, would be urging the nation's leaders to engage in a seri- ous discussion about re- stricting the availability of powerful, semi-automatic weapons such as the ones a lonely, troubled young man used to randomly shoot Mi- chaels-Martinez and two other students near cam- pus after stabbing three people to death at the apart- ment the killer shared with at least two of those victims. Police believe 22-year-old Elliot Rodger shot and killed himself after crashing his car as officers moved in. Nearly overnight, Mar- tinez has become a recog- nizable figure in hotels, res- taurants and on the streets near the Santa Barbara campus. It's a strange new situation for a man who un- til now has pretty much lived his life anonymously along the Central Califor- nia coast where he was born and raised. "I didn't choose this," Martinez said, adding that he believes responsible peo- ple have a right to keep guns for hunting, target shooting and their own safety. "I grew up on a farm and I had guns," he said. "I hunted when I was a kid. I under- stand the appeal of hunting." After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army and served two years as a military police- man in Germany. He said he had to draw his weapon once to put an end to a do- mestic dispute. "I was prepared to use it if I had to," he said. Martinez, however, said he just can't fathom the pro- liferation of high-powered, semi-automatic weapons in American society. "How," he asked of Rod- ger's weapons cache, "does a troubled kid who clearly had problems wind up with 400 rounds of ammunition and three semi-automatic handguns?" A single father, Martinez said he was incredibly close to his son. They called each other and texted several times a week. Two years ago, they traveled to the East Coast together when Michaels-Martinez was try- ing to decide which college to attend. Martinez said his son ex- pected to graduate from UCSB in 2015 after just three years and planned to follow his father's path as a lawyer. Less than an hour be- fore he died, the son was on the phone excitedly telling his father that his new girl- friend planned to introduce him to her parents the fol- lowing week. Martinez later met the parents at a memo- rial service for victims of the rampage. Martinez said his job as a defense lawyer had some- times brought him into con- tact with people charged with gun crimes. It also led him to represent the parents of troubled young people who ran up against a public mental health system that Martinez said didn't pro- vide the necessary care for their children. That's why he said he won't blame the parents of his son's killer. SANTA BARBARA RAMPAGE Fa th er t ak es c en te r st ag e in g un d eb at e CHRISCARLSON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Richard Martinez talks about his son Christopher Michael-Martineza during a memorial service for the victims and families of Friday's rampage at Harder Stadium on the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara on Tuesday in the Isla Vista area near Goleta. The Associated Press SACRAMENTO For the first time in nearly 40 years, drought-stricken Califor- nia has ordered more than 2,600 water agencies and users in the Sacramento Valley to stop pumping wa- ter from streams. The Sacramento Bee re- ports Friday that the State Water Resources Control Board imposed the curtail- ment notice this week. The notice affects wa- ter agencies, farms, cities and other property owners with so-called "junior" wa- ter rights, or those issued by the state after 1914. It extends to the Sacramento River and its many tribu- taries. Major urban water pro- viders such as the city of Sacramento are included, though most of the affected users are farmers and large irrigation districts. The newspaper reports water cuts on this scale have not been ordered in California since the drought of 1977. DROUGHT State orders water users to stop pumping from streams By Elliot Spagat The Associated Press SAN DIEGO The U.S. Bor- der Patrol's parent agency on Friday released a critical report that it commissioned amid complaints that agents used excessive force, a step that the new commissioner said was part of a commit- ment to transparency. The Police Executive Re- search Forum found some agents are suspected of in- tentionally placing them- selves in the escape route of assailants in fleeing ve- hicles before firing guns, creating justification to use deadly force. It said some shootings of rock throw- ers were questionable, es- pecially when the attack- ers were hurling projec- tiles from across the border in Mexico. The 21-page re- port, which does not ad- dress specific cases, said some agents may fire at rock throwers and vehi- cles because they are frus- trated. The report was released with revised guidelines on use of force that prohibits agents from firing at mov- ing vehicles or rock throw- ers unless there is "im- minent danger of serious physical injury or death" to them or someone else. The Customs and Bor- der Protection agency had kept the report under wraps since it was completed in February 2013, resisting calls from members of Con- gress and immigration ac- tivists. R. Gil Kerlikowske was noncommittal at his confirmation hearing in Jan- uary but said Friday that he prevailed in an internal de- bate about whether the re- port should be made public. The agency had refused to make the report pub- lic even after the Los An- geles Times reported on its contents in February. The American Civil Liber- ties Union's San Diego af- filiate sued in federal court last week to try to force the agency to turn it over. BORDER Agency releases report on use of force By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A San Francisco Bay Area school district has fired a high school security officer who faces a felony charge after he repeatedly slapped a hand- cuffed, wheelchair-bound student suffering from ce- rebral palsy and dumped him onto the floor, authori- ties said. The May 19 attack at Oak- land High School was caught on surveillance footage that shows the officer wheeling the student down a hallway, leaning down toward him and then winding up and striking him three times before pushing him to the ground. The officer appears ready to strike the student another time before another officer grabs his arm and pushes him away. Thedistrictidentifiedtheof- ficer as Marchell Mitchell and said on Thursday he was fired immediatelyaftertheincident. Mitchell pleaded not guilty on May22toachargeofcorporal injury to a child, said Stepha- nie Chan, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. Chan said she did not know whether he had an attorney. Mitchell has posted $10,000 bail, according to county records online. BAY AREA District: Student dumped from wheelchair FORSUPERINTENDENTOFSCHOOLS Makeadifferenceinourchildren'sfuture! 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