San Bernardino County judge lifts bail for Colonies’ defendants

A San Bernardino Superior Court judge on Friday lifted bail for four defendants in the Colonies Partners corruption scandal, freeing them from having to pay an annual bond premium as the one-year anniversary of their arrest nears.

On behalf of defendant and Colonies’co-managing partner Jeff Burum, attorney Stephen Larson said Burum poses no flight risk and has abided by the terms of his bail since posting bond on the $10 million bail days after his arrest last May.

Larson also spoke on behalf of the other three defendants – former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin, and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt. Their attorneys joined Larson in his motion.

“We believe it’s appropriate to release them on their own recognizance,” Larson told Judge Michael A. Smith. He said requiring each defendant to continue paying the annual bond premiums would pose financial hardship on them.

Prosecutors did not oppose the move on condition the defendants continued to abide by the travel restrictions previously imposed upon them by the court. They are not allowed to leave the country while their case is being adjudicated and must notify prosecutors if they plan to leave the state.

A criminal grand jury indicted the four last May. Prosecutors allege Burum conspired with the other defendants to secure a $102 million settlement from the county in exchange for a total of $400,000 in bribes. The Board of Supervisors approved the settlement on a 3-2 vote, with board chairman Bill Postmus, Ovitt and Biane approving and supervisors Josie Gonzales and Dennis Hansberger dissenting, on Nov. 28, 2006.

The settlement ended nearly five years of heated legal battle over who was responsible for paying for and building a 67-acre flood control basin at Colonies’ 434-acre residential and commercial development, Colonies at San Antonio and Colonies Crossroads, respectively, in Upland.

Defense attorneys have also been battling it out with prosecutors over transcribed interviews between law enforcement and key witnesses in the case, namely Postmus and former Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman.

The original documents provided by prosecutors were heavily redacted, and defense attorneys filed motions with the court seeking unredacted copies.

Larson said the defense has been able to negotiate a sit-down meeting with prosecutors to go over the redacted portions of the interviews, clarify the nature of the redactions,and possibly dwindle down a significant portion of those redactions.

Judge Smith set the next hearing for May 24. If prosecutors and the defense have worked things out to both parties’ satisfaction, Larson said he will withdraw his motion. If any issues of conflict need to be addressed, they will be addressed at a subsequent hearing on June 8.

Three reasons post bail at West Valley Detention for your loved one now

1. The West Valley Detention Center located in Rancho Cucamonga put simply can be a dangerous place. For people who are not use to this kind of environment and lack street experience and or connections an extended stay can at times prove to be rather hazardous.

2. It always makes a better impression on a judge and possibly jury should it go that far if a defendant is well dressed and relaxed in the appropriate attire rather than an orange jump suit and held in shackles while in court.

3. Being out on bail gives a defendant a better chance to fight his or her case. It puts less stress to “make a deal” and allows the defendant ample time to find suitable legal representation.

San Bernardino man arrested for triple shooting at West Valley Detention

19-year-old charged in death of San Bernardino toddler

SAN BERNARDINO — The man arrested in the shooting death of 3-year-old Nylah Franco-Torrez could face 305 years to life in prison based on charges filed by prosecutors Thursday.

Brandon Taray Barnes, 19, of San Bernardino was arrested by San Bernardino police Wednesday night after gang officers spotted him riding a bicycle near where the shooting occurred.

“He will never come out to harm another citizen of this community,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos said at a news conference at the San Bernardino Police Department.

Barnes, a suspected gang member, could be arraigned on one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder as early as today.

Police said they identified Barnes as the suspect within 24 hours of Monday’s shooting. Officers saw him at the corner of Base Line and Mayfield Avenue at 5:09 p.m. Wednesday.

They caught him in the 1100 block of North D Street after a foot chase.

Barnes was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and held without bail.

Nylah, 21-year-old La-Donna Howie and Howie’s 4-year-old daughter, Justine, were in front of their home in the 1300 block of North D Street at 7:40 p.m. Monday when a gunman opened fire. Police said more than a dozen rounds were fired.

Bullets struck the children in the head, and Howie in the neck and jaw. Howie and her daughter survived the attack, but the child was in extremely critical condition.

Patricia Prendergast, Nylah’s aunt, said Justine was placed into a medically induced coma Wednesday because doctors anticipated her head would start swelling from the wound. She showed promising signs before then.

“I know at one point she opened her eyes and moved around a little bit,” Prendergast said.

Relatives said Howie could be released from the hospital as early as today. They also said Howie didn’t realize the severity of her daughter’s wound until Wednesday night and that she didn’t know Nylah had died.

“She doesn’t remember what happened,” Prendergast said.

Police said the gunman opened fire on the house because he was retaliating against a man who stopped him from hitting a woman in the neighborhood earlier that day. Police have identified and interviewed the woman from that earlier attack.

Residents on D Street suspected the man police were chasing Wednesday night might be the suspected gunman, but didn’t receive confirmation until the following day.

“He had the nerve to be walking around this neighborhood,” said Nylah’s great-grandmother, Sophia Cardona.

Yvonne Torrez, the life partner of Nylah’s mother, Jessica Franco, said she was walking to the store when about 10 people gathered to check out the police activity.

“They were calling, `Baby killer.’ There was a lot of screaming and yelling,” she said.

Police Chief Keith Kilmer said detectives had been working continuously since the killing.

“We have not stopped. We have not faltered,” he said.

But police say their work isn’t done.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure this case is thoroughly investigated and thoroughly prosecuted,” Lt. Gwen Waters said.

Jessica Franco said the growing collection in her front yard of balloons, stuffed animals, candles and donations – some from complete strangers – has helped her get through the days since the shooting.

She had mixed feelings about Barnes’ arrest.

“Whether or not he gets put in prison for the rest of his life, it’s not going to bring my baby back,” the 25-year-old said. “I really want him to pay for what he did.”

The family is holding a car wash fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Anna’s Market, 1198 N. D St., San Bernardino.

A benefit concert will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 25 at Ray’s Downtown Deli, 168 S. E St., San Bernardino.

Donations can also be made to the Nylah Franco-Torrez Fund at First Valley Credit Union, 401 W. Second St., San Bernardino.

IMMIGRATION: Inland deportations under fire

Nearly two-thirds of Inland illegal immigrants deported under a controversial federal program said to focus on violent criminals were convicted of only minor offenses or nothing at all.

The Inland statistics are similar to national data on Secure Communities, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement effort to identify illegal immigrants booked into county jails and match them with people in its immigrant database.

Jails in Riverside and San Bernardino counties enlisted in Secure Communities last year and also participate in a separate program, called 287 (g), which trains local law enforcement officials to screen inmates for immigration status. Suspected illegal immigrants are referred to ICE for further questioning.

About 70 agencies nationwide are part of 287 (g), named for the section of a law that created the program. More than 1,500 are part of Secure Communities, which ICE hopes to make nationwide by 2013. Riverside and San Bernardino counties in fiscal 2010 spent nearly $25 million to house suspected illegal immigrants.

The deportation data trouble some immigration-rights advocates, religious groups and elected officials.

“The numbers show it’s not the worst of the worst who are most affected,” said John Andrews, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, which is part of an Inland coalition that is calling for an end to Secure Communities. “It’s not the violent criminals but people who are trying to better their lives in the United States.”

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, about 24 percent of the 3,391 people deported after being identified under Secure Communities had been convicted of the most serious felonies, such as murder, rape, child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and some categories of theft and burglary, according to ICE data. Another 13 percent were convicted of less serious felonies, or of three or more misdemeanors.

But the rest either had been found guilty of minor crimes or had no record of a criminal conviction that ICE could locate. Some had no criminal record but had ignored orders to leave the country or returned after being previously deported.

Asked to comment, ICE representatives referred to written statements. ICE says Secure Communities targets only those arrested for a crime, and that it prioritizes people “who present the most significant threats to public safety.”

The agency said the percentage of deportees who are felons tends to be lower in part because many of them are serving prison terms and won’t be deported until they are released.

Yet ICE statistics show that even those initially flagged through Secure Communities are unlikely to be major felons. In the Inland area, fewer than 16 percent of illegal immigrants were in jail for a major felony when they were fingerprinted for Secure Communities, according to the statistics.

A Flashpoint

Some anti-illegal-immigration activists say it’s irrelevant whether the person committed a minor crime or was convicted of anything. Raymond Herrera, president of Claremont-based We the People, California’s Crusaders, said the government should deport anyone found to be in the country illegally, and Secure Communities is one way to easily identify those people.

Chief Deputy Steve Thetford, of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said the program prevents dangerous criminals from returning to Inland communities. In addition, some people convicted of misdemeanors have also committed more serious crimes, he said.

But immigrant-rights advocates say the program ensnares people who pose no threat to society, instead of focusing on violent criminals.

In January 2010, Leticia Hernandez was a repeated victim of domestic violence and an undocumented immigrant whose request for a special visa for crime victims was being reviewed by federal immigration authorities.

On Jan. 3, 2010, Hernandez said, her then-boyfriend beat her and, when San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrived, the man tried to deflect blame from himself by accusing Hernandez of being the aggressor.

Police said they sometimes take both a perpetrator and victim of domestic violence to jail before sorting out who is the real victim.

After Hernandez acknowledged she didn’t have a Social Security number, ICE tried to deport the Rancho Cucamonga woman, despite her insistence that her visa application was being processed by an ICE sister agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Hernandez eventually won her case.

Pressure to end the jail-based programs has increased in recent weeks. Secure Communities has become the primary flashpoint because it is far more extensive than 287 (g). Immigration-rights advocates’ demands to end it have not subsided, despite ICE promises to make changes.

Seven illegal-immigrant college students were arrested in July during a San Bernardino protest against San Bernardino County’s participation in the programs. Three governors this year tried to withdraw their states from Secure Communities, only to be told by ICE that participation is mandatory. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus in May called for an immediate freeze of Secure Communities because of “the astonishing rate of non-criminal deportations.”

Risk Of Profiling

Emilio Amaya is executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, an immigrant-assistance agency that helped Hernandez obtain her visa in April 2010. He said he has no problem with ICE identifying and deporting violent criminals. But he said the programs can lead to racial and ethnic profiling.

Amaya pointed to the case of Cristian Garcia, who was stopped Jan. 5 by San Bernardino police while riding a bicycle without a front light. Amaya believes Garcia was stopped because, as a young Latino male, he was profiled as a possible criminal and undocumented immigrant.

Garcia, 18, said he was taken to jail when he couldn’t produce an identification card.

After acknowledging in jail that he was born in Mexico, came to the United States at age 7 and did not have immigration papers, he was taken to an ICE detention center and, after officials realized he was 17, to a juvenile facility for three months.

He is now in deportation proceedings.

Garcia was stopped because his bike did not have a headlight and because the neighborhood has had multiple burglaries, and some suspects were spotted on bicycles, said San Bernardino police spokeswoman Lt. Gwendolyn Waters.

Garcia was later convicted of possession of a switchblade knife, found when he was searched. Garcia said he was carrying the knife for protection.

Inland law enforcement officials said police do not stop people to determine if they’re illegal immigrants.

Cases Will be Reviewed

Suzanne Foster, executive director of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, which serves immigrants in the Inland area and Los Angeles County, said many people commit minor offenses such as riding without a bike light and are never stopped, and if they are, they are not hauled off to jail.

“If I forgot my ID, do you think I’d be arrested and thrown in West Valley Detention Center?” asked Foster, who is white.

Foster and other immigrant-rights advocates say they are waiting to see whether promises to adjust deportation policies lead to real changes. They said they’ve heard similar promises before.

ICE formed an advisory committee to discuss potential changes to the program and said it already is working to protect crime victims and witnesses and look for potential profiling.

In addition, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last month said the government will review all deportation cases and halt proceedings against people it determines to be “low priority.”

Napolitano’s statement drew fire from supporters of stricter immigration laws, such as Roy Beck, executive director of Virginia-based Numbers USA.

“That’s basically saying we no longer have an immigration law if you’re not violent,” he said. “That’s a back-door amnesty.”

Yet Foster said ICE should suspend Secure Communities as the agency reviews possible changes.

“While they’re figuring this out, people are being deported and families ripped apart,” she said.

“They should stop the program and then figure it out.”

Murder suspect hangs himself in jail

The man charged with murder in the death of a Lake Elsinore woman was found hanged in his jail cell at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

Ronald Wayne Paoletto, 41, was founded hanged on his bunk about 7 a.m. Monday by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies delivering breakfast to inmates, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.

Paoletto was being held in a two-man cell but was living in the cell alone, she said.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives were called to investigate.

“They found nothing suspicious,” Bachman said.

Paoletto, a registered sex offender, faced a murder charge in connection with the death of Tanya Marie Petro, 33, of Lake Elsinore.

He had pleaded not guilty to murder in January, San Bernardino County court records show.

Petro was last seen Jan. 4 when she was supposed to have gone with Paoletto to Yucca Valley to pick up his children.

Paoletto, who was alone when he arrived in Yucca Valley, told his family that he and Petro had an argument along the way and he dropped her off somewhere.

Petro’s body was found about a week later in Vans Ranch Pipe Canyon Wash in Landers.

Paoletto was arrested in Hesperia on suspicion of violating the sex offender registration requirements.

Petro had two young children who had been visiting their father in Arizona.

Petro was supposed to pick them up the week she disappeared but never showed up or called, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said at the time.

Paoletto had been convicted of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14, according to the Megan’s Law online database of registered sex offenders.

Alleged drunk driver charged in motorcyclist’s death

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – An alleged drunken driver from Montclair has been charged with vehicular manslaughter for allegedly killing a motorcyclist in a May traffic collision.

Chris David Wilcox, 33, allegedly collided with motorcyclist Sebastian Bobby Orioli Jr. on May 25 at Euclid Avenue and Holt Boulevard in Ontario.

Orioli, of Upland, was thrown from his Harley-Davidson motorcycle when he collided with Wilcox’s 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe at about 5:30 p.m.

Orioli, 38, suffered severe injuries and later died at Loma Linda Medical Center, according to a police report in Wilcox’s court file.

Wilcox failed field sobriety tests, and breath tests at the scene yielded blood-alcohol measurements of 0.26 and 0.24, about three times the legal limit of 0.08, according to the police report.

Wilcox has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, and is next due July 27 in West Valley Superior Court.

He remained jailed Friday in lieu of $500,000 bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

According to the police report, Wilcox made an illegal left-hand turn from southbound Euclid onto Holt.

As he entered the intersection, the passenger side of his vehicle was struck by Orioli, who was traveling north on Euclid and had the right-of-way, according to the report.

Wilcox suffered minor scrapes to one of his arms in the collision, possibly from when an airbag deployed in his car.

At the time of the collision, Wilcox, a manager at Old World Delicatessen in West Covina, was driving his children to hockey practice, according to the police report.

He told police he only drank one glass of wine prior to the incident. He said he drank wine while he was at work about three hours before the crash.

In addition to vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors have charged Wilcox with a DUI-related felony and two counts of felony child abuse. Wilcox’s two young children were in his car at the time of the incident.

Will Bigham, Staff Writer

Growing San Bernardino jails secure jobs

ADELANTO – With expansion under way at two jails and a third one set to reopen soon, this High Desert city appears to be experiencing a housing boom of a different sort.

That “housing” is part of the city’s plan to bring employment opportunities, give a financial boost to the local economy and take advantage of Adelanto’s abundant open land.

“That’s our biggest interest, being able to help create some jobs in the area,” City Manager James Hart said.

Adelanto encompasses a 56-square-mile chunk located west of the 15 Freeway, a major transportation artery between Southern California and the bright lights of Las Vegas.

Census estimates show the city has grown tremendously over the last decade, from about 18,000 people to about 31,700 people, as people sought more affordable housing and an escape from the hustle of city life.

The industrial section of the city, where the jails are located, is filled with older prefabricated buildings and some concrete structures. Many of them house small businesses, and a fair share are empty and for lease.

The project at the sheriff’s detention center brought about 500 construction jobs at its peak to the area, many requiring specialized skills such as iron workers, plumbers, electricians and cement workers.

Subcontractors even leased empty buildings near the job site, said sheriff’s Capt. Jon Marhoefer. When the project is completed, the Sheriff’s Department will need about another 250 people – such as safety, medical, maintenance and culinary personnel – to operate the facility, jail officials said.

“When the whole thing is said and done, it will be a giant benefit to the citizens of this county,” Marhoefer said.

The Sheriff’s Department also expects to realize cost savings. Currently, the Adelanto jail is an overflow facility for minimum- and medium-security inmates from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.

But when the expansion is completed, the Adelanto facility will be able to house high-security inmates and act as a hub serving the courthouses of Victorville and Barstow, reducing transportation costs and security risks from numerous bus trips daily through the Cajon Pass.

The cost of the jail’s expansion is partly covered by a $100 million grant as a result of Assembly Bill 900. San Bernardino County placed first on the list for the funds.

“It tells us the state agrees we have a need, and we have the ability to carry out the project,” Marhoefer said. The expansion is anticipated to be completed by August 2013.

At one expansion in an industrial area on Commerce Way, construction crews have been working on a $120 million, 1,368-bed expansion project at the sheriff’s Adelanto Detention Center.

A couple of blocks away, heavy equipment rumbled across a wide swath of land for an expansion project at jails operated by Florida-based company GEO Group.

The company invested $22 million to retrofit and renovate a jail that it bought from the city last year and will temporarily house illegal immigrants. Another $70 million investment project will raise the total beds from 650 to 1,300.

When GEO Group’s holding facility for illegal immigrants is completed, about 100 people will be needed to operate it. But most of those jobs will be offered to the 100 or so city employees who had worked there when Adelanto still operated the jail, Hart said.

GEO Group’s expansion project will need about 50 to 60 employees when completed, Hart said.

However, the sheriff’s jail and GEO Group’s operations don’t necessarily bring the city a lot of direct revenue. The city will get $50,000 a year from GEO Group to offset the costs of maintaining the contract. But the additional jobs – even the construction jobs – also benefit Adelanto in other ways.

“What it does is it stimulates the (local) economy,” Hart said. “The jobs pay well, and people will use their money to buy houses, vehicles, furniture, clothing and an assortment of other manufactured goods. They also need to eat, and local businesses feel the boost.”

The closest place to eat near the jails in the industrial area of Adelanto is Del Muro’s, a family-owned restaurant with homestyle Mexican cooking and American fare from Heriberto Del Muro and Reyna Del Muro.

The next closest place is a burger restaurant on the other side of Highway 395, so Del Muro’s has a market. The specials on Thursday at Del Muro’s included a N.Y. steak and eggs, country fried steak and a turkey sandwich.

Clientele comes from the nearby businesses, the construction crews and people visiting inmates at the jails. Some of those construction personnel come from as far away as Texas, said manager Susie Del Muro.

“I think that’s where we get most of our business, it’s not local,” Del Muro said. Jail guards and office staff stop in occasionally at the restaurant, but Saturdays are a popular day for visitors to the jail and Menudo, she said.

Del Muro can usually spot the jail visitors because they ask for dollar bills which can be taken into the jail.

The city also has dreams of building a 6,100-bed state prison near the same area, west of Highway 395, to help ease overcrowding and lessen the flow of Calfiornia’s inmates to be housed in other states.

Officials had been in discussions with the state for a couple of years to build a new prison on a 226-acre site near Highway 395, Hart said. But those talks stalled when Jerry Brown was elected governor in November.

Brown’s office has told Hart that priorities are now focused on getting a state budget.

Hart, however, remains optimistic.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that a reduction of 33,000 state prisoners was needed to correct serious lapses in medical care.

The hope behind Adelanto’s new prison proposal was that if California was going to send thousands of inmates of state to alleviate overcrowding, why not house them in Adelanto.

“That’s California revenue that’s leaving to another state, and there’s no return on that,” Hart said. The city wanted to work out a deal to build and operate the prison, which would need about 2,500 to 3,000 employees, he said.

“We would then be able to generate jobs, and then those jobs would be paying California taxes,” Hart said. “So there would be a return on the investment and help take care of overcrowding.”

Woman carting around body parts arrested held in West Valley Detention

A San Bernardino woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after she was found pushing a trash container containing human remains down an Ontario street Sunday, police said.

Carmen Montenegro, 51, was taken into police custody Sunday afternoon. She is being held at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of murder, said Detective Jeff Crittenden of the Ontario Police Department.

Investigators spent much of Monday searching a home in the 700 block of Holmes Avenue for additional evidence, Crittenden said. Police had not determined whether the unidentified male was killed at the house or was brought there.
Ontario police were called to the area of H Street and Holmes Avenue about 2:45 p.m. Sunday after several people called 911 to report a woman pushing a trash container that appeared to contain human remains.

Responding officers confirmed there were human remains in the trash bin. The investigation led them to the Holmes Avenue house, where Montenegro once lived, Crittenden said.

The remains have been transferred to the county coroner for further analysis. The race and age of the remains are not known, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Al Parra at 909-395-2752.

By MICHELLE L. KLAMPE
The Press-Enterprise

MIRA LOMA: Family’s fire-insurance claim derailed by criminal probe

In November, Mira Loma residents Raul and Lorena Velasquez and their five children were left homeless when an electrical fire in their garage spread to their 1,800-square-foot house, leaving it uninhabitable.

The four-bedroom home, which is in the equestrian-oriented Sky Country tract, remains empty and unrepaired six months later — its front yard overgrown with weeds and yellow caution tape is still wrapped around the wooden fence. A chain-link fence surrounds the property.

Some might say the Velasquez family has been victimized and revictimized.

First by the Rancho Cucamonga restoration company they hired to repair the fire, smoke and water damage — work that never got done despite a $165,000 payment.

And then by the criminal justice system, which has charged the company and its owners with more than $10 million in forgeries and more than $100,000 in insurance fraud.

The company’s assets have been frozen while the criminal case is being adjudicated, meaning the Velasquezes cannot get their money returned.

“I don’t know when they will be able to return the money,” Raul Velasquez said. “I don’t know where to turn.”

On April 14, the California Department of Insurance announced the arrests of Steven Manchester, 50, Bob Roberts Jr. 51 and Heather Reavis, 40, on 45 felony counts including grand theft and forgery. The arrests culminated a four-year probe.

Manchester and Roberts are the owners of a Rancho Cucamonga and Tustin franchise of ServiceMaster, a restoration, cleanup and construction business that is commonly hired following an insured property loss. Reavis is the controller.

The three were booked into jail in San Bernardino County, with bail for each set at $1 million. They have since been released on bond and are due in court May 18.

They have entered not guilty pleas.

“This case exhibits a willful and flagrant disregard for the law and an abuse of the insurance system,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. “Let this stand as a warning to those who think they can get away with it. My department will investigate.”

Manchester, Roberts and Reavis did not return a call for comment and the receptionist said the three were not in the office May 5.

Jeffrey Benice, the attorney representing Roberts and ServiceMaster said “somebody in the Department of Insurance has made a serious error in alleging that a crime has been committed.”

“ServiceMaster has been a very successful, well-respected business,” Benice said.

Investigators said the three defendants were involved in a scheme in which they cashed insurance company checks by forging homeowner signatures and fraudulently endorsing mortgage companies’ banking information on the back of the checks.

Work that the checks were meant to pay for was not completed by their company and, in some cases, no work was done, which led to more charges, investigators said.

That was the case with his family, Raul Velasquez said.

He said he signed with ServiceMaster after he inspected work they were doing for a neighbor in the days following the Nov. 2 fire at his home.

At the end of December, a ServiceMaster representative arrived to pick up a $165,000 check the family’s insurer had issued for damage repair.

As the weeks passed, and no work was done, Raul Velasquez said he had a friend check with Riverside County’s Planning Department to see if permits had been issued for repairs. None had been.

He filed a complaint with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in early March.

He said he was in disbelief when he learned of the April arrests.

At that point, the family was attempting to terminate the contract but were being told there was a $60,000 termination fee, Velasquez said.

Gina Kamler, spokeswoman for the parent ServiceMaster company, said the company’s privacy policy prevented her from discussing franchises except to say they are independently owned and operated businesses.

She said the company is looking into the allegations against Manchester, Roberts, Reavis and the Rancho Cucamonga and Tustin franchises.

Kamler said that in general the company has the right to suspend a franchise agreement if an investigation determines there has been a violation of the company’s business practices.

Velasquez said the insurance money allocated to the family for temporary housing is running low and he is unsure what will happen after that.

In the meantime, Riverside County is threatening to fine the family because of the condition of the Sky Country home.

He said he is contemplating a lawsuit against ServiceMaster.

“But I have to find a lawyer and see how much they will charge me,” he said.

By SANDRA STOKLEY
The Press-Enterprise

Dad pleads not guilty in slaying held on 1 million dollar bail bond

A San Bernardino man accused of killing his teenage son and attempting to kill his wife and their four other children pleaded not guilty in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Friday morning.

Ian Anthony Roderiquez, 35, remained silent as Judge Ken Barr entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The district attorney’s office charged Roderiquez with murder, attempted murder, four counts of torture and four counts of child abuse.

Earlier while sitting in a prisoner holding area in the court, Roderiquez broke down in tears while talking to his attorney, Celia Torres, a deputy public defender. He kept his head bowed and gazed down most of the time he was in court.A preliminary hearing was set for April 7, although he will be back in court March 30 for a status hearing.

Roderiquez, who is being held without bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, wore an orange jail jumpsuit with the “S/W” written in large in the front, indicating jail staff has him on suicide watch.

He was arrested Wednesday after deputies responded to a 911 call of a man screaming for help at a house in the Del Rosa area near San Bernardino and Highland. They found his 16-year-old son Richard dead inside the house and his wife, Sujal Roderiquez, 35, and their four other children with injuries.

Ian Roderiquez was inside the house when deputies arrived.

His wife, Sujal Roderiquez, 35, suffered severe injuries and was listed in critical condition earlier but her status has improved since then, said Cindy Bachman, sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Two other sons, Jacob, 13, and Gabriel, 12, are also hospitalized with less serious injuries and are expected to recover. Their daughters, Daniella, 10, and Yasmine, 8, were treated for their injuries and released to county Children and Family Services.

Sheriff’s investigators say they’re still investigating the motive behind the attack and are not releasing information on the weapons used, except to say that two different ones were used. They’ve also declined to reveal the nature of the injuries.

Investigators do not want to go into detail until they’ve talked to all the victims, Bachman said.

An early dispatch call described the incident as a stabbing and neighbors said they saw the mother and younger children covered with blood.

The complaint filed in court states in the sections charging him with torture that Roderiquez “did unlawfully and with the intent to cause cruel and extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose, inflict great bodily harm.”

Neighbors described Ian Rodriquez as an intimidating presence whose erratic behavior, which included frequent yelling, scared others.

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

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