Category Archives: Carmel Pine Cone

Cops Sue City

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PG Cops On Break

In a lawsuit filed Nov. 3, the Pacific Grove Police Officers’ Association targets the ordinance, which caps the city’s contribution to an employee’s pension plan at 10 percent of workers’ salaries.

The city currently contributes 9 percent for general employees and 19 percent for police officers.

The PGPOA’s 26-page lawsuit, which names P.G. city manager Tom Frutchey and every city council member, alleges unfair labor practices and asks a judge to find that the council’s ordinance is unconstitutional.

Cops Sue City

Maybe The Painter Should Lay Off The Coffee

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The Pine Cone’s police log has gotten much more interesting with the addition of P.G. to the report.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13

Pacific Grove: Monarch Lane resident reported his painter called him twice in the early morning hours. The painter wanted to speak about an upcoming job. The resident spoke to him and advised him not to contact him at 0200 hours. He was concerned the painter would continue to call in the future and asked for police to speak with him. An attempt to contact the painter failed, and a message was left on his voicemail.

Maybe The Painter Should Lay Off The Coffee

Pollacci Accused Of Additional Rapes While Under Investigation

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Pollacci Parking For Jury

The latest alleged victim, Jane Doe 2, was raped in October and November 2008, her lawsuit says. Last spring, Pollacci was convicted of raping Jane Doe 1 in April 2008 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Both rapes happened in the liquor store, according to court documents.

Pollacci has already been charged with assaulting Jane Doe 2 and faces a preliminary hearing next week. But details of the latest rape have not been revealed until now.

“In or around October 2008, plaintiff entered Ron’s Liquors as a patron and encountered Thomas Pollacci, who was working in the store at the time,” the lawsuit says. “As plaintiff shopped, Pollacci approached her and persuaded, convinced and otherwise manipulated her into a lunch meeting. During the lunch, Pollacci drove plaintiff to an unfamiliar, deserted area near the beach where he sexually assaulted her” including “forcible intercourse.”

Pollacci Accused Of Additional Rapes While Under Investigation

Diver Sues Over Earache

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After diving at Lovers Point

Lovers Point Sewer Pipe.

In a lawsuit filed Oct. 21, Theresa Raglen, who claims she became seriously ill after diving off Lovers Point on Sept. 20, 2009, contends the county tested and found elevated levels of human and animal waste six days earlier, on Sept. 14, 2009, but failed to post signs to warn the public of the potential danger.

“No effort was made to warn members of the public of the potential risks of entering the water at Lovers Point Beach,” the lawsuit said. “The lack of sufficient warnings was a substantial factor in causing” Raglen to become sick. The county often posts signs warning the public of high levels of pollutants in the ocean off Lovers Point — warnings that are often ignored by swimmers, surfers and divers.


Diver Sues Over Earache

No Tagging Of Monarchs

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Monarch Molesting No Touch

The Pacific Grove City Council decided Oct. 20 to hold off on an eight-year program of tagging monarch butterflies for fear handling the insects could disrupt the population of the butterflies, which was drastically lower in the city last year than in previous years.

Tagging “requires physically touching the butterflies,” Jim Becklenberg, the city’s budget director told the council. “This year, given we have the low numbers … I think we need more information before making that decision for tagging.”

No Tagging Of Monarchs

Seaside Street Gangs Prowling In P.G.

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While everyone watches coyotes or mountain lions, stupid gang members are stealing property from our cars…

Three suspected car burglars ditched their Chevy Blazer in the middle of a Pacific Grove street and ran from the officer who had been chasing them early Sunday morning, police found one of them hiding between two parked cars in Pacific Grove, the second walking on the recreation trail, and the third in his Seaside apartment, PGPD Cmdr. John Nyunt said Wednesday.

Nyunt said the suspects appear to be affiliated with the Norteno gang, due to a T-shirt one was wearing and a five-point star tattooed on another. The shirt, which Rodriguez was wearing inside out, bore the word, “Norteno,” and listed all the area codes in which the gang has a presence.

Seaside Street Gangs Prowling In P.G.

Texan’s Kinkade Galleries Closed

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Not even a mass market art gallery can sustain.

The former Consuelo’s turned into a gallery.

Building Of Light

when Larson took over, that all changed, according to Dow. He fired the gallery’s employees and “hasn’t answered a phone call, nor has he returned one since the day this deal went through. You CAN quote me on that!” she said.

In addition to the Ocean Avenue shop, the small space next to the Tuck Box on Dolores Street and the “national archive” on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey were also shuttered, though Dow said Kinkade’s headquarters recently called and expressed interest in reopening the Ocean Avenue location.


Texan’s Kinkade Galleries Closed

Auction Company Settles

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And I was just about to see if I can pick up some painting in Pebble Beach at a good price.

A company that held several estate auctions in Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove over the last four years has been ordered to pay $140,000 for alleged auction fraud.

In May, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office filed a civil complaint against American Wholesale Jewelry, Inc., and president Alon Varsha, doing business as Kingston Auctions, for deceptive marketing claims.

Auction Company Settles

P.G. Cops Responding To Car Ripoffs

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If you lock the doors, one burglar may move on. Or the may put a rock through the window to steal an iPod.

In an effort to catch burglars in the act, Pacific Grove police officers, using unmarked cars, recently staked out areas in the city where vehicle burglaries and thefts have occurred.

“We have been able to do some surveillance programs in direct response,” Miller said.

One of the stings netted the arrest of a Pacific Grove man who was going car to car and checking door handles, trying to find an unlocked vehicle, Miller said.

P.G. Cops Responding To Car Ripoffs

Carmel Does Not Want To Be Made Fun Of Over Pet Chickens

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Pro Chicken Mack

This coming from the town that bans ice cream cones.

At the Oct. 5 meeting, Yateman, a.k.a. “the chicken lady,” reiterated her desire to keep hens because they lay nutritious eggs, are quiet, produce fertilizer, eat bugs “and even in some cases, mice,” make good pets “and are very educational for children,” while having no negative consequences.

“I had two hens many years ago, with absolutely no problems,” she said, adding that The Pine Cone’s weekly police log often contains calls about barking and biting dogs, but “never anything about hens.”

So sympathetic was the audience to her plea, no one made the obvious counter-argument: There have been no complaints about hens because the town hardly has any, while dogs are everywhere.

Carmel Chamber of Commerce CEO Monta Potter said her organization works hard to market Carmel as a sophisticated destination for visitors, and while she did not take a particular position for or against chickens, she commented, “I would hope that we are not made fun of. I think it’s important that we continue to promote ourselves as a sophisticated city.”


Carmel Does Not Want To Be Made Fun Of Over Pet Chickens