at 7:20 p.m., an employee at the Save Mart Supermarket, 200 Country Club Center, tried to stop a man who was suspected of taking items without paying for them. The man discharged Mace at the employee, causing irritation to eyes and nose, and got away.
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Why Union School District Employees Need More $$$
Pay them more so they don’t have to steal taxpayers’ gas.
Salinas police said they arrested Alisal Union School District worker Victoria Ponce, 62, and her husband Juan Ortega, 58, Monday morning for stealing from district gas pumps multiple times.
The district superintendent said Ponce was a long-time district employee who was busted by people she works with.
“Today, she submitted her letter resigning from the district,” Alisal Union Superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas said.
Ponce worked in the transportation department as both a dispatcher and sometimes bus driver she’s even been a local school union president.
“She’s a past CSEA president of our bargaining unit here,” Zendejas said.
Followup – 11/14/08, both Ponce & Ortega pleaded guilty.
Victoria Ponce, a former district employee, pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
Ponce’s husband, Juan Ortega, pleaded guilty to one count of petty theft and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
In Salinas, Those Sidewalk Obstructions Are Out
While Salinas beautifies, over here in “historic downtown on the way to 17 Mile Drive”, they pile them on.
According to Salinas senior code enforcement officer Irma Gowin, the crackdown on illegal signs and advertising displays is intended to ensure that businesses comply with the city ban on setting up folding, A-frame signs on sidewalks and public rights-of-way, or hanging advertising displays, such as banners, streamers or balloons. She said the purpose of what she called the “first-ever aggressive enforcement action in city history” targeting illegal advertising was twofold — public safety and removal of blight.
Gowin pointed out that the city was threatened with a lawsuit earlier this year after someone’s car was damaged by a temporary A-frame sign that blew off a median. And, she said businesses are at risk for litigation themselves.
“People are understanding it’s a hazard,” she said.
In addition, she said, the copious advertising has become an eyesore.
John Kenney Guilty
Barring a successful appeal, John Kenney will die in prison for murdering neighbors Mel and Elizabeth Grimes in a dispute over a boulder and a 10-foot by 4-foot patch of dirt.
After nearly three days of deliberations, a jury Wednesday found the 74-year-old petroleum physicist guilty of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Elizabeth Grimes, 55, and second-degree murder for the slaying of her 58-year-old husband, well-known local defense attorney Mel Grimes.
Loosin’ Susan didn’t remember this
Monterey Herald 9/03/08
Pacific Grove attorney Susan Goldbeck testified that she did not remember whether she asked Kenney if he owned a gun before indicating on a court document that he didn’t.
Killer Kenney didn’t remember
Salinas Californian 8/30/08
Prosecutor Berkley Brannon repeatedly questioned him Friday about the gun used in the killings, a gun which was illegal for Kenney to possess. He had signed a 2005 restraining order against the Grimeses that declared he did not own or have access to any firearms.
Kenney told the court he didn’t remember that element of the document. “It was filled out entirely by Susan Goldbeck,” he testified, referring to his lawyer. “I just signed it.”
Loosin’ Susan filled out the statement – is he lying or she’s lying for him?
Monterey Herald 9/2/08
Pacific Grove attorney Susan Goldbeck testified this morning that she did not remember whether she asked murder defendant John Kenney if he owned a gun before indicating on a court document that he didn’t.
She agreed that Kenney signed the sworn document, filed as he and his neighbors, filed for mutual restraining orders in the summer of 2005.
Loosin’ Susan & Killer Kenney remember all this though
Carmel Pine Cone 9/5/08
Pacific Grove City Council candidate Susan Goldbeck took the stand as well, recounting Kenney’s stories about harassing phone calls in the middle of the night and people rattling his doors, which he believed were the Grimeses’ doing. According to Goldbeck, Kenney felt “alone and vulnerable,” especially after an incident in 2005 with Elizabeth Grimes that left him with a concussion.
Susan Goldbeck’s “friend”
Oh – they are both friends….
KION 9/02/08
Susan Goldbeck, a friend of Kenney’s who also happens to be an attorney also testified that she had prepared two requests for two restraining orders against the Grimes’ on Kenney’s behalf
One attorney said not to get into a confrontaion
Monterey Herald 9/3/08
An attorney testified Tuesday that he warned murder defendant John Kenney in 2006 that he should avoid confrontation with neighbors Mel and Elizabeth Grimes and that “you can’t shoot somebody just because they’re on your property.”
Nick Cvietkovich said the conversation occurred while he and Kenney were on the way to a meeting with Sheriff Mike Kanalakis about Kenney’s plans to use a boulder to block the Grimeses’ access to a disputed patch of land on their shared driveway.
Loosin Susan gave the advice to trigger a confrontation?
Monterey Herald – 8/28/08
John Kenney took the stand in his own defense this morning after listening stoically to enhanced 911 recordings of him fatally shooting neighbors Mel and Elizabeth Grimes.
In an action that triggered the fatal encounter, Kenney said he placed a boulder on a disputed piece of land on the advice of three attorneys, including former Pacific Grove City Councilwoman Susan Goldbeck.
Kenney’s security expert was none other than the former Marina City Councilman John Morrison, “who resigned in April 2007 from the Marina council after admitting he tried to pull strings to get a private security contract.”
, don’t vote for Loosin’ Susan.
Hear-Old Shrinks Pages
Beginning Monday, every Monday edition of The Herald will come in two sections.
I wish these bone heads would quit calling me to subscribe. Bad enough that I don’t need a fishwrapper every day, they are not even local!
C Muhammed called me from central Mississippi to remind me once.
D Leonard also called me all the way from Dallas, Texas.Calls “from the Hear-old” on phones from contractors residences? That’s real unprofessional.
Pervs Still On Prowl In P.G.
Pacific Grove police said a boy reported that a man tried to lure him into a car Wednesday by offering him candy.
The incident happened about 4:30 p.m. near Robert Down School when a man in a blue two-door Honda Civic pulled up alongside the child. The boy ran to the school office and police were called.
Officers said they searched the area but were unable to find the car or the man. The man is described as about 40 years old with black spiked hair and a goatee.
Letters From The Editor: Green Is The New Red
In the guise of being “green,” “modern” and “forward-thinking,” Pacific Grove’s government seems to be promulgating some of the same ideas used in the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Everything old is “bad,” everything new is “good.” Throw out everything that has been done in the past, ignore long-standing committees and organizations, fire knowledgeable city employees, or force them to leave, and then try to totally remake Pacific Grove’s institutions. The Cultural Revolution was a complete disaster. I hope Pacific Grove doesn’t follow in China’s footsteps.
Sharon Kirsch
Pacific Grove
Central Coast Stupid Silkscreen
It’s Sunday. Don’t tick off shoppers that see all the “Open” signs and stop by when you are CLOSED.
Might have been a good Sunday to be open. I found a better store anyway.
Under Exposed? No, Just Closed For Good
Seahorses In, Jellyfish Out At Fish Jail
After bringing elegance to the halls of the Aquarium for seven years, the jellyfish exhibit is calling it quits.
Today was the final day to catch the nebulous lifeforms of the sea on display because Aquarium officials said it was time for a change, as most exhibits are rotated after a two year stint.
