Top 15 stories of 2007

BY COLBY FRAZIER AND ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITERS

In a year filled with political conflict, complicated land-use issues and a spate of crime-related stories, the single most significant occurrence of 2007, as determined by the Daily Sound newsroom, was a drastic spike in gang violence.
This escalation became blatantly apparent in mid-March when 15-year-old Luis Angel Linares was stabbed eight times in broad daylight at the intersection of Carrillo and State streets during a massive gang brawl.
While many of the stories on our list are not likely considered good news, they do offer a broad snapshot of our community during the past 12 months.

1. The year has been marked by a steady stream of gang stabbings, the severity of which was presented by Santa Barbara Police officials at a City Council meeting in November.
Gang violence jumped 60 percent in 2007, Richard Glaus, the city’s deputy chief, told the City Council.
This statistic was met with surprise from many city leaders, and in a Daily Sound editorial, Mayor Marty Blum is quoted as saying, “I knew it was way up, I didn’t realize it was that high.”
This may be the No. 1 story of 2007, but the question in 2008 will be what city leaders plan to do to make sure it does not repeat for years to come.
So far, Blum and other city council members have lauded increases in funding for afterschool programs and youth centers.
But the stabbings have continued.
In the meantime, Police Chief Cam Sanchez told a Daily Sound reporter he plans to travel to El Paso, Texas, where he will see firsthand what city officials there have done to quell gang violence.

2. On March 14, Luis Angel Linares was stabbed to death during a chaotic gang melee in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in town. The boy managed to scamper to the valet parking lot of Saks Fifth Avenue, where he collapsed in a planter and bled to death.
The murder marked the beginning of a surge in local gang violence that continues today.
Police arrested several juveniles, but 14-year-old Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez was charged with the murder. The case drew more attention when Santa Barbara County District Attorney Christie Stanley opted to try Juarez as an adult.
Juarez was ordered to stand trial by a Superior Court judge in August. The trial has been scheduled for mid-February.
While city leaders scrambled for answers and a slew of public meetings were held to address gang violence, another boy was murdered in July.
That boy was 16-year-old Lorenzo Valentin Carachure, who was stabbed at about 10:41 p.m. near his home on the 700 block of San Pascual St. Police found two other stab victims, but have not yet made any arrests in connection with Carachure’s death.

3. For two months beginning on Independence Day, a raging inferno dubbed the Zaca Fire after its starting point near Zaca Lake swept through Santa Barbara’s backcountry, scorching 240,207 acres, resulting in at least 44 injuries and costing more than $118 million to fight.
Started at 10:53 a.m. on July 4 by sparks from a welding operation conducted by two employees of a Bell Canyon ranch, who are still facing legal consequences, the fire quickly spread in dry brush, reaching 100,000 acres in mid-August and hitting 200,000 acres about a week later as it marched southeasterly toward Ventura County.
Thousands of firefighters from across the state flooded into the area, setting up a base camp at the Live Oak Campground that became a miniature city during the firefighting operations.
Although many injuries were minor and heat-related, two people sustained serious injuries when a firefighting helicopter crashed during takeoff, a truck driver broke both legs after crashing on Figueroa Mountain, and a firefighter suffered a broken leg and minor fractures after falling 30 feet in the Sisquoc River area.
As the second-largest wildfire in California’s recorded history, the Zaca Fire stayed fresh in the minds of coastal residents during its two months of fury as huge plumes of smoke rose above the mountain ranges, occasionally blotting out the sun and raining down particles of fine ash on Fiesta festivities.
Although the blaze was officially contained on Sept. 2 and fully controlled on Oct. 29, it will continue to impact the lives of Santa Barbara County residents, threatening to fill reservoirs essential to local water supplies with sediment in heavy rains. Recent winds have also whipped the barren hillsides, sending ash and dirt back into the air over Santa Barbara.

4. Authorities in Santa Barbara County seized a record 173,000 illegal marijuana plants worth an estimated $500 million dollars during 2007.
The largest seizure came on Sept. 24 when authorities spotted a massive illegal marijuana grow covering both sides of Highway 1 near Lompoc. That seizure yielded 90,000 plants worth an estimated $275 million.
But marijuana isn’t the only thing these illegal grows bring to the county. On Sept. 17, a driver on Highway 154 spotted the dead body of 23-year-old Adan Cervantes Ruiz wrapped in a sleeping bag. A couple of days after finding Ruiz’s body, officials stumbled upon the illegal grow near Lompoc and quickly concluded that Ruiz had likely been killed there.
A month later, Sheriff’s detectives arrested several men in connection with the illegal grow at a mobile home park in Perris, Calif., one of whom is believed to be Ruiz’s brother. Sheriff Bill Brown said this man was most likely present when his brother was murdered. No one has been charged with Ruiz’s murder.
Officials say the marijuana grows present a danger for hikers and other people in the outdoors, as those who guard and grow the pot plants are often heavily armed and set traps.

5. In the past two months, roughly 74,000 gallons of crude oil have spilled from North County Greka Energy facilities onto local soil.
The largest spill came on Dec. 7, when 67,000 gallons spewed onto the ground at a Greka facility located at 6084 Palmer Rd. Santa Barbara County Fire officials said this leak was the result of a faulty recirculation pump. The failure of an alarm that was supposed to notify Greka employees about the bad pump compounded the severity of the spill.
As a result of the lapses, the crude oil flowed into a dry creek bed and traveled an estimated half-mile downstream.
This spill came on the heels of three other incidents in November at a different facility, which combined, spilled about 7,000 gallons of crude. The most recent incident occurred on Dec. 22 when a state Fish and Game official discovered a natural gas leak at another Greka facility.
Fire officials have attributed the string of incidents to aging, faulty equipment.
The spills have sparked outrage from many local political officials, but none more than Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who called for Greka to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for the spills. Nava has pledged to draft legislation that would tighten restrictions on Greka and other energy companies and has scheduled a briefing to address the issue on Jan. 4 at the David Gebhard Public Meeting room on Garden Street.

6. In late August, three Santa Barbara nuns were evicted from their Nopal Street convent in order to help the Archdiocese of Los Angeles pay a $660 million priest sex abuse settlement.
The nuns, who make up the local Sisters of Bethany convent, were told the had until Dec. 31 to vacate their longtime home next to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic church.
The eviction sparked outrage by people throughout the country, who began sending the sisters donations in order to either help them purchase their convent or find housing somewhere else within the city.
A group called Save Our Sisters of Bethany was formed to help with the fundraising, but was riddled by scandal before it could get off the ground. The scandal involved Denise d’ Sant Angelo, a woman who became the president of the Save Our Sisters group. In October, the three Sisters of Bethany distributed a letter to local media announcing they did not want anything to do with d’ Sant Angelo or any group she was affiliated with.
Mack Staton, a local attorney representing the sisters, said d’ Sant Angelo was in possession of an unknown amount of money that was donated to the sisters and had not been given to them. In early November, Staton said he had sent a letter to d’ Sant Angelo asking for the money to be returned to the nuns.
The sisters did eventually move from their convent and found temporary refuge with a group of sisters at St. Mary’s Retreat House, which is located next Mission Santa Barbara.
No word yet about the status of the money held by d’ Santa Angelo.

7. For 17 days starting in August, an administrative law judge heard testimony and arguments concerning 15 unfair labor practice charges levied against the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Union representatives allege the newspaper illegally fired eight reporters, canceled a weekly column, threatened to suspend 11 employees and denied annual bonuses for antiunion reasons.
News-Press attorneys argued that the eight reporters were fired for bias or disloyalty, and that other management decisions were made for valid reasons, rather than the fact that employees had joined a newsroom union.
The crux of Judge William Kocol’s decision will likely hinge on whether union activity related to journalistic ethics and integrity is protected under the National Labor Relations Act.
While News-Press attorney Barry Cappello argued that the quality and integrity of a newspaper is purely the management’s prerogative, union attorneys characterized ethical issues as intricately tied to an employee’s ability to perform their job.
Six reporters were fired for displaying banners and signs from a footbridge over Highway 101 urging the community to “Cancel Your Newspaper Today!” and “Banish the Bias.”
Judge Kocol is expected to issue his decision in early 2008, with a final ruling by the National Labor Relations Board to come four to six months later. Appeal to a federal court of that ruling is also possible.

8. Fiesta celebrations turned deadly on Aug. 3 when Santa Barbara police shot and killed a 24-year-old man in downtown Santa Barbara after he pulled out a handgun and began pointing it at people on State Street.
Wilfred Turner, of Oxnard, had been fighting with another Oxnard man when he pulled a .45-caliber automatic handgun from his pants. Two officers on their way to break up the altercation fired 18 rounds, hitting Turner 17 times and killing him at the scene.
Despite hundreds of people in the area, no one else was injured, although a bullet flattened the tire of a nearby taxicab. Turner’s handgun was loaded.
Turner, with two friends, encountered a group of three other men, one of which had a muddied history with Turner concerning allegations that he had been romantically involved with Turner’s wife.
After the two began brawling, others joined the fray, resulting in the arrests of three men for fighting in public. Turner and his friends were servicemen in the U.S. Navy stationed in Port Hueneme, although Turner had left the service several months prior to the incident.
In addition to shocking hundreds of Fiesta revelers, the incident shortened the route of the Desfile de Los Ninos, a parade of costumed children.
The two officers who shot and killed Turner were not charged with any wrongdoing and returned to the force after an administrative leave.

9. Three of the many court cases that grabbed headlines in 2007 all dealt with people under the age of 30.
The most recent was the conviction of former UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer player Eric Frimpong, 22, who was found guilty by a Santa Barbara County jury of raping a 19-year-old female student.
Frimpong was arrested on Feb. 17 and, after 10 months of court proceedings, a jury found the man guilty of rape on Dec. 17 after less than eight hours of deliberating. They did however find Frimpong not guilty of sexual battery, which was alleged by a second 19-year-old woman. Frimpong faces as many as eight years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.
Heather Lea Hulsey, who was charged with several counts of vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol and hit-and-run pleaded guilty to two of those felonies on Dec. 10.
Hulsey admitted to vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol without gross negligence and fleeing the scene of an accident knowing that a person was injured. The charges stemmed from the July 28, 2006 hit-and-run death of Dr. Ronald Shlensky. Hulsey faces a maximum of nine years behind bars.
A high profile case involving a man who struck and killed 12-year-old Jake Boysel on Sept. 7, 2007 was resolved on May 1, when a jury failed to come to a unanimous decision about whether Ernesto Landeros Botello should be convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
The District Attorney later announced it would not try Botello a second time.

10. In a relatively quiet and poorly attended municipal election, newcomer Dale Francisco unseated incumbent Brian Barnwell, while incumbents Das Williams and Helene Schneider snapped up the top two spots to remain on the Council dais.
With three Council seats up for grabs and Measure A, an initiative that would have switched local elections to even years, as the only items on the November ballot, election tallies showed 37.1 percent voter turnout.
Williams received the most votes, with Schneider and Francisco following in second and third position. Barnwell wound up in fourth place, just 38 votes higher than fifth-place finisher Michelle Giddens.
Measure A ultimately failed at the polls, with 55.7 percent of voters giving the proposal a thumbs-down.
Francisco told the Daily Sound toward the beginning of his campaign for a Council seat that his overarching goal is to bring fairness back to local government. He also focused on public safety and responsible growth as pillars of his platform.
On Election Day, with unofficial results showing Francisco with a sizeable lead, Barnwell described himself as a “middle-of-the-road guy” and said that likely played a role in his defeat.
Election workers described the trickle of people that entered the polls to vote on Nov. 6 as the slowest in at least a decade. About twice as many people voted absentee than those who voted at the polls.

11. Land-use issues continued to spur animated discussion and public comment at local governmental meetings in 2007, with rulings on proposed developments at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, the Veronica Meadows project in the Arroyo Burro Creek area, and the proposed expansion of Westmont College.
On Dec. 4, a Superior Court judged ruled that the City of Santa Barbara had violated California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines by approving the Veronica Meadows project, a 23-unit development off Las Positas Road, effectively rescinding its approvals and sending it back to the city for further review.
At the crux of the issue is the proposed construction of a bridge over Arroyo Burro Creek that the applicant, Mark Lee, said would take the strain off of nearby Alan Road. Citizens Planning Association and Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council filed a lawsuit against the city stating that the bridge causes significant and unavoidable impacts to the creek, and that the city should have considered recommending the use of Alan Road.
The applicant remains optimistic that he will be able to secure permits to build the Veronica Meadows project.
On Dec. 10, the County Historic Landmark Advisory Commission voted 5-4 to deny a revised appeal to build a terraced plaza in the Botanic Garden, known by many as the Meadow Terrace Project.
Hours of heated discussion between Mission Canyon residents, some in favor and others opposed, left the decision in the hands of the commissioners, who voted to uphold an initial denial of the project, which called for a three-tiered plaza with rock retaining walls at the site of a diseased oak tree that had been removed earlier in the year.
Garden officials are expected to appeal the decision to the County Board of Supervisors in mid-January.
On Dec. 18, a Superior Court judge upheld a County Board of Supervisors’ approval of Westmont College’s Master Plan, which included a new residence hall, a visual arts center, a science and mathematics building and a chapel.
Judge Thomas Anderle ruled that the environmental impact report developed for the master plan is “adequate, complete, and a good faith effort at full disclosure.” He also ruled that the project is consistent with neighboring properties and the character of Montecito.
After updating its previous master plan seven years ago, undergoing an extensive environmental review and public hearing process, the college made alterations to the project following review by the Montecito Board of Architectural Review and the Montecito Planning Commission.

12. Fallout from the March 14 gang stabbing that left Luis Angel Linares, 15, dead and Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez, 14, charged with murder, wasn’t limited to the courtroom.
In early July, Deputy Public Defender Karen Atkins subpoenaed the Daily Sound for all of the photos the paper’s co-publisher and photographer Charles Swegles took on the day of the stabbing. The paper fought the subpoena, arguing that subpoenaing a newspaper’s unpublished material would compromise its ability to gather the news effectively.
Daily Sound Editor and Co-Publisher Jeramy Gordon said the California Shield Law, which protects journalists from being held in contempt of court when they fail to obey a subpoena, protected the paper. Atkins argued that the photos could show people or contain information that would aid the defense of Juarez.
Superior Court Judge Brian Hill ruled in favor of Atkins and ordered the photos be turned over. Gordon eventually complied, but published many of the photos in the Daily Sound before doing so.
In mid-October, Atkins subpoenaed the Santa Barbara Independent and the Santa Barbara News-Press for photos their photographers took that day. The News-Press turned them over without legal discussions, but the Independent has since been found in contempt of court by Hill for refusing to hand over its photos and has filed an appeal.

13. During a Friday evening Santa Barbara School District’s budget hearing in June, then-assistant superintendent of business services Ed Diaz casually announced the district had a multi-million-dollar budget surplus.
This came as news to members of the Board of Education, who just months before had cut $2.5 million worth of programs.
What had appeared to be a routine meeting quickly turned into a fiery hearing, at which Diaz was grilled on how the budget discrepancy came to be.
Diaz, who has since resigned from his post with the district, was so shaken after the meeting he stormed out of the boardroom and refused to comment to a Daily Sound reporter.
The origin of the budget surplus remains a hot topic with the board, which has since used some of that money to reinstate some of the programs it had cut.
In order to get to the bottom of the discrepancy, the board has employed the services of a private auditing firm to comb over its books.
The one thing that is certain is the reality of declining student enrollment, which has wreaked havoc on the district’s bottom line and is predicted to continue into the future, budget surplus or not.

14. After several years of limited whale activity in the Santa Barbara Channel, 2007 saw a marked upswing in whale populations during summer and fall months as sightseers, boaters and marine biologists spotted hundreds of blue whales feeding in the channel.
However, the return of the whales took a deadly turn in September, when at least three blue whales were hit and killed by large cargo ships in Southern California.
The first incident came on Sept. 8, when a dead whale was discovered in Long Beach Harbor, believed to have been pushed into port on the bow of a cargo ship. Six days later, a ship broadsided another whale in the channel, crushing its spine and leaving the carcass to wash up on a Ventura County beach.
A week following that incident, boaters spotted another blue whale floating dead in the channel, the 72-foot-long carcass eventually washing ashore at the same Ventura County beach.
After initially suspecting domoic acid poisoning, local marine officials said the deaths likely resulted from whales feeding in shipping lanes where large quantities of krill, the primary food source for blue whales, had been spotted.
Despite widespread speculation, officials all but ruled out sonar testing by the U.S. Navy near San Clemente Island, stating that the sonar would be largely diffused before reaching any whales in local waters.
Activists petitioned the federal government to impose a 10-knot speed limit for all vessels 65 feet or longer following the third whale death. Several thousand container ships use the channel each year and ship strikes have been implicated in the deaths of at least four and possibly six whales between 1980 and 1993.

15. With numerous medical marijuana dispensaries springing up in local communities during the past few years, several local communities issued emergency moratoriums in 2007 on new pot shops as municipal officials work furiously to regulate the industry.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to put a six-month moratorium in place after Westside residents spoke out about a troublesome dispensary. Officials are currently drafting an ordinance to regulate the distribution of medical marijuana in the city, including restrictions on location, hours of operation, security and onsite consumption.
The Goleta City Council issued a similar moratorium in August, extending it in October as city officials work on regulations for pot shops in Goleta.
After clearing up several administrative details, the Carpinteria City Council effectively outlawed pot shops in the coastal town. A moratorium on opening any dispensaries in Carpinteria had been in place for about a year and a half prior.
As municipal officials consider limitations on operating pot shops locally, the federal government made its position blatantly clear in 2007 through the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which issued notices to at least 19 property owners who rent space to dispensaries or operate their own, warning them that their line of work is unequivocally illegal and will result in the seizure of their property.

Honorable Mention: A proposal to paint a light blue line on Santa Barbara streets to bring attention to the potential impact of global warming drew the ire of many community members following its approval by the Santa Barbara City Council in July. Some argued that it would have a negative aesthetic impact and devalue property. Project creator Bruce Caron pulled the proposal after debate became divisive.
Santa Barbara residents also saw the return of a professional basketball team to the region with the Santa Barbara Breakers, which began play in the 2007 season. The International Basketball League team finished second in the Southwest Division with a record of 17-6. After topping Central Oregon in the quarterfinals and No. 2-seeded Everett in the semifinals, the Breakers lost 106-119 to No. 4-seeded Portland in the IBL West championships in late June to finish out the season.