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.

Old Fire suspect charged with West Valley Jail sex assault

The man charged with setting 2003′s catastrophic Old Fire in San Bernardino County now faces four additional felony charges involving the rape of a fellow prisoner.

Rickie Lee Fowler, 29, will appear in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom next week for a preliminary hearing on the newly filed case. Meanwhile, he awaits trial on five counts of murder and one count each of arson of an inhabited structure and aggravated arson.

Prosecutors issued a complaint against Fowler last week alleging three counts of forcible sodomy and one count of sodomy while confined in jail. The incidents occurred Aug. 21 at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where Fowler has been held since last fall.

Circumstances behind the jailhouse attack were not released, though Supervising Deputy District Attorney Vic Stull, who is handling Old Fire proceedings, said that the victim has no connection to that case.

The Old Fire destroyed 1,003 San Bernardino County homes over nine days beginning Oct. 25, 2003.

It burned 91,281 acres, wiping out entire neighborhoods in San Bernardino and surrounding mountain communities.

Six people died of heart attacks while fleeing the flames. Prosecutors charged Fowler with five of those deaths, saying that the stress of the blaze was a direct factor.

Although Fowler was considered a suspect after an early tip, he was not indicted until Oct. 2009.

Detectives believe he stepped out of a van parked alongside Old Waterman Canyon Road and threw a lighted flare into the dry brush.

Fowler and his companions were said to have been seeking revenge against a nearby homeowner — his godfather — over a drug dispute. Shortly after the fire, Fowler was arrested in an unrelated burglary case, pleaded guilty to that felony and another, and was sent to state prison.

It was there that U.S. Forest Service investigators said they got Fowler to sign an admission that he was present when the fire was set. But upon his indictment, Fowler recanted his confession, saying he did it to gain favor for a prison transfer, and “so they’d stop pressuring me.”

In January, District Attorney Mike Ramos announced that he was seeking the death penalty against Fowler. At a pre-trial hearing shortly after, Fowler’s attorney told a judge that his client was cutting himself in jail and had been placed on suicide watch.

Don Jordan requested that Fowler be examined by a psychiatrist. Proceedings were suspended through June, when Judge Brian McCarville declared that Fowler was competent to stand trial.

Tentative trial dates have been set for late October. Stull said that his office is seeking to have the forcible sodomy case transferred to San Bernardino, where the Old Fire prosecution is taking place.

Fowler will appear in Rancho Cucamonga court Tuesday on the new case.

He remains at West Valley Detention Center without bail.

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Inmate found hanging in West Valley jail cell by his T-shirt

An inmate at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga died Monday, three
days after a deputy discovered him hanging by his white, cotton T-shirt in his jail
cell, officials said.

At 11:20 p.m. Friday, a deputy found 23-year-old Lucerne Valley resident Alvaro
Ortega hanging in his cell, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.

Ortega, who had 11 counts pending against him, was taken to Kaiser Permanente
Hospital in Fontana and pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m. Monday, said coroner’s
spokeswoman Sandy Fatland.

The autopsy will be conducted by Riverside County officials because the death took place in the Sheriff’s Department’s custody.

Ortega was arrested on Jan. 18, 2008 and being held on $250,000 bail, Wiltshire said.

Ortega was charged with eight counts of robbery, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of attempted robbery.

By Jason Pesick on January 14, 2009 4:45 PM