LAKE COUNTY — With many well-known local cases on the Lake County Superior Court docket, the following is a summary of what is happening to whom in which location and at what time.
Erickson:
Former Lakeport police officer Richard Erickson enters his fourth week of jury trial today. Erickson faces felony charges of misappropriation of government funds, making terrorist threats and stalking, as well as a misdemeanor count of violating a protective order. He has plead not guilty to all charges.
The 11-year police force veteran was placed on administrative leave in June 2006 after the LPD launched an internal investigation in May. Testimony given in a January hearing to determine whether or not to proceed on the charges against Erickson indicated that he used company time to attend to such personal business as working on the construction of his home and having sex in his patrol car with an 18-year-old Lakeport woman.
Superior Court Judge Richard Martin began hearing evidence April 10 after jury selection in late March. Trial resumes today at 8:15 a.m. in Dept. 4, the South County Civic Center in Clearlake.
Navarro:
Former Lake County Deputy Sheriff was arrested Wednesday morning and faces 18 felony counts and 2 misdemeanor counts related to sex acts with minors. A nearly three month long criminal investigation was conducted by the District Attorney”s office alongside an internal affairs investigation launched January 23 by the LCSO.
Navarro was placed on administrative leave the same day while the administrative investigation was conducted until his employment with the LCSO ended April 11.
He is slated to appear on a warrant in court May 11 at 9 a.m. in Dept. 2 of the Lake County Courthouse in downtown Lakeport.
Hughes:
Renato Hughes, 21, of San Francisco, is charged with the deaths of his companions, Christian Foster, 22, of San Francisco, and Rashad Williams, 21, of Pittsburg which occurred during an alleged attempted robbery on Dec. 7, 2005.
Although he was not the gunman, Hughes is being prosecuted the Provocative Act Doctrine, a provision of the law that holds a person involved in a felony responsible for resulting deaths if the act was likely to provoke lethal response.
Defense attorney Stuart Hanlon made a case for a change of venue based on expert witness accounts claiming that Lake County”s population is two percent African American combined with “prejudicial pretrial publicity” made for a bad climate for the case to be tried. Superior Court Judge Arthur Mann denied the change of venue in a March 2 hearing. Hanlon requested a transcript in order to file a writ, which will go before an appeals court.
Hughes is slated to appear in Dept. 1 of the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport May 29 for a pretrial conference.
Larranaga Stabbing:
Former District Attorney Gary Luck is acting now as a deputy D.A. in the prosecution of five young men arrested for the stabbing of 19-year-old Lakeport resident Alex Larranaga.
Ricardo Muniz, 18, and Elias Hernandez, 19, are accused of attempted murder with two special allegations of street terrorism, participation in a criminal street gang and one special allegation of causing “great bodily injury-brain injury, paralysis,” according to court records. They are scheduled to appear in court on April 27 at 9 a.m. in Dept. 2 for disposition or setting of a trial date.
Muniz and Hernandez are two of five suspects arrested in connection with the stabbing. Mathew Domeier, 16, and Juan Yepez, 17, will undergo a fitness hearing April 30 to determine if they will be prosecuted as adults. A hearing for the fifth suspect, a male 14-year-old, was scheduled for Monday, April 9. The details could not be released because of his age.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
