County Lines for October 13, 2007

Grover Beach

Charges filed in possible molestation case

A Grover Beach man was arrested Friday on suspicion of molesting a 15-year-old girl he met through the social networking Web site MySpace.

Michael David Gray, 30, faces felony charges of sexual penetration of a minor with a foreign object, a lewd act with a child, furnishing controlled substances to a minor, hiring a minor to sell a controlled substance, and two counts of furnishing a minor with cocaine.

Additional charges may be added, said police. He is being held in San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

After seizing his laptop computer for forensic analysis, police arrested Gray at his home in the 200 block of North 16th in Grover Beach.

Police ask anyone with information that may be related to the investigation to call Det. Juan Leon at 473-4511.

San Luis Obispo

Hospital settles lawsuit in transplant case

A hospital has settled a lawsuit with the mother of a disabled patient who died after a failed attempt to recover his organs for transplantation.

Rosa Navarro sued Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center earlier this year, claiming her 25-year-old son Ruben was given a lethal dose of drugs to speed his death and harvest his organs.

Sierra Vista and its parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., agreed Wednesday to pay Rosa Navarro $250,000. Sierra Vista acknowledged no wrongdoing.

“We have entered into this settlement with Mrs. Navarro in an effort to put this incident behind us and to hopefully allow her healing process to begin,” Sierra Vista said in a statement.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, a 33-year-old transplant surgeon from San Francisco, was charged with three felonies in connection with Navarro's death.

Roozrokh was present at the hospital at the time working on behalf of a group that procures and distributes organs. Roozrokh's attorney has maintained his client did nothing wrong.

Rosa Navarro's attorney, Kevin Chaffin, said his client is pleased with the settlement amount and the hospital's overall cooperation.

“Under the circumstances, it's fair,” Chaffin said.

Santa Barbara

Gift will create new post at UCSB

A venture capitalist has made a $3-million donation to a planned stem cell center at UC Santa Barbara.

The gift from William K. Bowes Jr., a founding shareholder and the first chairman of Amgen Inc., will be used to create an endowed chair for the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering.

The center still needs approval by the school's academic senate.

“Mr. Bowes' generous gift provides UCSB with the flexibility to build on our existing strength as a leading center for collaborative interdisciplinary stem cell research,” said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang.

The university received $2.26 million earlier this year from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to build the center. More than 20 researchers from UCSB and neighboring research centers are expected to use the facility.

- From staff reports