Nipomo
Reported pursuit closes highway
A reported pursuit briefly closed part of Highway 101 between Nipomo and Santa Maria Thursday night, according to California Highway Patrol dispatchers.
CHP officers placed a “spike strip” on the highway near Tefft Street to try to stop the driver, who continued driving despite damaged tires.
The incident ended on the highway near the Santa Maria Speedway about 8:30 p.m. No further information was available Thursday night.
Santa Maria
Boy, 3, trapped under mom's vehicle
A 3-year-old boy suffered cuts and a fractured skull after he was trapped underneath his mother's moving vehicle in a parking lot in southern Santa Maria Thursday.
Around 4:30 p.m., the boy's mother, Olga Guzman, 31, of Nipomo, was reportedly moving her vehicle in reverse thinking her son was on board until she felt a bump, Santa Maria police said.
Police believe the boy may have been standing behind the vehicle. His name was withheld.
When Guzman realized her son was trapped under the vehicle, she screamed for help, Cpl. Dan Miller said.
Matt Hester of nearby business Clean & Coat Systems retrieved a large floor jack and freed the child, Miller said.
The boy was taken to Marian Medical Center and later transferred to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. His condition was unknown Thursday night.
Grover Beach
Woman arrested after truck crash
A Pismo Beach woman was arrested Thursday after she allegedly crashed her pickup while drunk.
Dawn Scruggs, 45, was driving a Toyota pickup eastbound on Manhattan Avenue approaching 16th Street when she bypassed a stop sign and drove into the intersection, according to the Grover Beach Police Department.
Scruggs struck a Chevy Corsica that was northbound on 16th Street, and the truck rolled several times. Scruggs was partially trapped under her truck, but was removed with the aid of special equipment, police said.
Evidence of alcohol consumption was found on Scruggs, according to police, and after a visit to the hospital, she was booked into custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The driver of the Corsica, Amanda Pontis, 27, of Grover Beach, was not injured.
Santa Ynez
Authorities seek info on car vandalism
Santa Barbara County Sheriff's detectives are seeking information from the public on a rash of vehicle vandalism in the Solvang and Santa Ynez area.
Tires were punctured on about 15 vehicles during the evening hours of March 2 and the early morning hours of March 3, according to the department. The damage was estimated at several thousand dollars.
Most of the vehicles damaged were on the sales lot at Gold Coast Motors at 3595 Sagunto St. in Santa Ynez. Other vehicles damaged were on First, Second, Third and Willow streets, and Village Lane, Alisal Road and Juniper Avenue in the Solvang area.
Anyone who saw anything suspicious in these areas is asked to contact Detective Tom Southwick at 686-5000.
Santa Maria
Two arrested after traffic stop
A traffic stop Thursday morning resulted in the arrest of two Santa Maria residents on drug and other charges.
Santa Maria police stopped Christina Spencer, 28, about 8 a.m. as she drove in the 1400 block of South Broadway. A $50,000 warrant had been issued for Spencer's arrest for allegedly forging stolen checks and cashing them at local businesses. In addition to the warrant charges, Spencer was found to be in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine and a glass pipe used to smoke the drug, according to police. She was arrested and her bail was set at $70,000.
The passenger in the car, Gabriel Ornelas, 31, was allegedly carrying a knife that violated the terms of his parole. A search of his belongings revealed about 19 grams of crystal meth packaged for sale and drug paraphernalia, according to police. The street value of the meth was about $1,900. Ornelas is being held without bail because of his parole violation.
Santa Ynez Valley
Flatbed truck, school bus collide
Authorities say a flatbed truck that allegedly ran a stop sign is being blamed for a collision with a school bus carrying students at Highway 154 and Edison Street Thursday morning.
None of the 28 students in the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District bus were injured but the driver, Mark Baez, 45, of Santa Maria, suffered minor lacerations, the California Highway Patrol said.
Ralph McCreery, 54, of Simi Valley, was driving a flatbed truck west on 154 around 7:30 a.m. when he allegedly ran the stop sign, said Officer Kurt Schmidt of the CHP's Buellton office. The flatbed struck the southbound bus as it was crossing the intersection.
The stop sign was installed on the highway in mid-December.
McCreery did not report injuries, Schmidt said.
Ray Kirchmaier, business manager for the school district, said the bus was on its way to College Elementary to drop off 15 of its students.
The other 13 students were from the high school, he said. Another bus picked up the students and took them to school, he added.
The 75-passenger bus is operated by Student Transportation of America out of Santa Maria, Kirchmaier said.
Grover Beach
Man arrested for alleged molestation
A 36-year-old Arroyo Grande man was arrested at his California Street home Thursday morning on suspicion of molesting/annoying a child under 14, according to the Grover Beach Police Department.
John Robert Harrington was booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail for suspicion of possessing a controlled substance after police served a search warrant at his home, said Grover Police Lt. Jim English.
The department has sent the evidence - computer hard drives, paperwork and multiple cell phones - against Harrison to the District Attorney's Office for possible prosecution of the molestation charge, English added.
Police believe that Harrison has been sending obscene text messages and leaving unwanted voice mails during the past month on a 14-year-old Grover Beach girl's cell phone. The victim goes to school with Harrison's cousin.
All of the calls, which were from an adult male, “John,” who wanted to meet the victim, and the text messages came from the same cell phone number. English said one of the text messages was of a male's genitals.
English said the girl told her mother, who then contacted the Police Department.
Oceano
Sewage spill closes beach
A roughly 50,000-gallon sewage spill forced a beach closure Thursday for a quarter-mile north and south of the mouth of Arroyo Grande Creek in the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
The spill overflowed into Arroyo Grande Creek from a blocked sewer main on a city easement behind 410 E. Branch St. in the Village of Arroyo Grande. It's unknown how much of that sewage went into the creek, county health officials said.
Raw sewage flowed out of a sewer manhole for more than a day because of a grease clog. City public works crews unplugged the clog using a high-powered jet cleaner around 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
City crews could have fixed the problem a day earlier, but a caller on Wednesday morning erroneously reported water flowing into the creek from a storm drain on a different street, Utilities Supervisor Shane Taylor said. Thursday morning, the witness called with a better description that allowed the city to find the problem.
Signs will be posted on the beach alerting beachgoers not to enter the water in the closed area just south of Strand Way, as well as access points commonly used by people along Arroyo Grande Creek, county health officials said. Those beach areas and creek access areas will remain closed at least until laboratory test results for samples are returned today, county health officials said.
Beach areas outside the quarter-mile areas will remain open.
Santa Barbara County
Driver faces drunken driving charges
A Santa Ynez woman faces drunken driving charges after her vehicle rolled along Highway 101 Wednesday night.
Sheri Lynn Larson, 35, was reportedly driving alone in a 2003 Toyota Celica south on 101 around 10:30 p.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
She lost control and overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll, the CHP said.
Larson suffered lacerations and pain to her neck and back and was treated at Marian Medical Center, said CHP officer Gus Lopez.
CHP officers found enough evidence to believe she may have been driving under the influence of alcohol, he said. Upon her release from the hospital, she was booked at the Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of drunken driving.
Goleta
Sheriff's deputies to graduate today
Some Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department custody deputies will graduate this morning.
Twenty-three correction officers are set to graduate to the classification of custody deputy in an 11 a.m. ceremony today at Goleta Valley Church, at 595 North Fairview Ave.
Custody deputies now require 385 hours of training within their first year on the job, rather than the former requirement of 240 hours.
Custody deputies manage jail inmates and provide transportation services.
Grover Beach
Capps to speak at club event
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, will be the featured speaker for the South County Democratic Club event April 4 at the Filipino Community Center, 885 S. 13th St.
The public is invited to the free forum that begins at 4 p.m.
The event dubbed “Spring Break with Lois Capps” is expected to include discussion on Democratic legislation from the beginning of the 105th Congress.
Capps has been in Congress since 1998 and her 23rd District includes portions of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. She is a member of the House Committees on Energy and Commerce; Health; Environmental and Hazardous Materials; and Natural Resources.
Sacramento
Tax officials give use-tax reminder
State tax officials are reminding Californians to report and pay use tax on Internet and out-of-state purchases on their 2006 tax returns, which are due April 17.
Sales tax applied to most in-state purchases, but the use tax applies to sales made outside the state or online when state sales taxes are not applied.
The use tax was established in 1935 to protect California retailers from untaxed out-of-state or mail-order competition, according to officials with the state Board of Equalization.
Each year more than $1.1 billion in use tax from Internet sales goes unreported, according to the BOE.
For more information see
http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqusetax.htm.
- From staff reports
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