Archive for April, 2010

Convicted Rohnert Park Cop Sex Offender Resentenced

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Rohnert Park firefighter, police officer resentenced

By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8:29 p.m.

A high-ranking volunteer firefighter and police officer on parole after serving 18 months for taping minors having sex was resentenced Monday to probation.

Officials describe it as a reclassification that could send him to Sonoma County jail if he reoffends rather than to state prison.

Matthew Phillips, 35, pleaded no contest in October 2008 to six felony charges that included child endangerment, photographing a minor engaged in sexual acts and showing sexual films to a minor. Some were classified as lesser crimes.

Phillips served about 18 months of his two-year, eight-month prison sentence and was released on parole in early April. He was sent to prison for the lesser crimes and received parole for the greater crimes.

The state appellate court ruled that the original sentence was not consistent with state laws, which require that prison time be given for the greater sentence. As a result, Phillips also was placed on probation.

Assistant District Attorney Diana Gomez said Monday’s decision was not appropriate for this kind of crime.

“When there are allegations of sexual exploitation of a minor from someone in a position of power and trust, probation isn’t a serious enough consequence for that kind of behavior,” Gomez said.

Phillips had risen to captain as a volunteer firefighter with the Bennett Valley Fire Department when teen members of the Fire Service Explorers Program reported that he had engaged them in lewd sexual activities.

The boys later testified that Phillips gave them alcohol, showed them porn and convinced them that it was normal to masturbate together.

They also testified that Phillips, who also was an officer on the Rohnert Park police force, filmed them having sex with girls without the girls’ consent.

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Rohnert Park Cops Support Regressive Tax

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

originally published at pressdemocrat.com

Public safety officers endorse Rohnert Park sales tax hike

By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Friday, April 23, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.

Rohnert Park’s influential Public Safety Officers Association has endorsed the city’s half-cent sales tax measure, giving it a potential boost with about six weeks to go before the June 8 election.

Members unanimously endorsed Measure E, POA president Dale Utecht said.

Absentee ballots are being sent out in early May, interim city manager Dan Schwarz said. Before then, Utecht said, “We’ll be street walking; we’ll be putting up signs, looking for other people that are endorsing it.”

Vice Mayor Gina Belforte said the association’s backing is “huge.”

“It means a lot to us. We really need this measure to pass,” she said.

The City Council — confronting a budget deficit of about $6 million — had lobbied the POA for weeks to formally support the measure. Schwarz said cuts the public safety department already has absorbed will be a key element in the campaign for Measure E.

“The POA has a great story to tell and they have to tell it,” Schwarz said. “They have to talk about the concessions they’ve made and the impacts.”

The department’s budget has been cut by $3.5 million this year, and officers agreed to reduce their salaries by 9 percent.

Measure E proponents also received a somewhat unusual endorsement this week: the backing of the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber — not known as a tax-friendly group — decided “it’s something that’s needed to keep our community moving forward,” said Amy Ahanotu, the chamber chairwoman.

Like Cotati’s Chamber of Commerce, which got behind that city’s successful half-cent tax measure, the Rohnert Park business advocacy group decided it was in its own interest to support the tax, Ahanotu said.

“We know the city’s facing severe financial difficulty at this time,” Ahanotu said. “The city’s inability to provide services will severely impact the business community.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.

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Racial Profiling in Petaluma

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Latinos discuss vehicle-related problems
Driver’s license arrests, impounding of vehicles among main issues

By DAN JOHNSON,
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Published: Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 1:00 p.m.

Relations between members of the Latino community and the Petaluma Police Department generally improved after a few meetings were held in 2006 and 2007, but the impounding of vehicles and arrests at DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, among other things, still are causing friction, says a leader at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, which hosted the meetings.

These were among the topics to be discussed at a meeting organized by the North Bay Sponsoring Committee — a broad-based group of religious and civic groups that focuses on immigrant rights, affordable housing and worker cooperatives, among other issues — at St. Vincent on Wednesday night to help strengthen communication and understanding between the Latino community on the one hand, and local officials and other community leaders.

The meeting was to focus on Latino immigrants telling about their difficult experiences with police, rather than on having direct dialogue with officials and leaders.

“I’m going there to listen, and am more than happy to be involved,” said Chief Dan Fish of the Petaluma Police Department, before the meeting.

When Latino residents are arrested for not having a driver’s license, this creates a wide array of problems for them and their families, says Abraham Solar, who also is a leader of the local Latino community.

“And when vehicles are impounded, this often takes away families’ only means of transportation. So, they are no longer able to do everyday things in their lives, such as take children to school and activities, and visit doctors,” he said.

Undocumented immigrants haven’t been able to obtain driver’s licenses in California since 1993, and a state law passed in 1995 permits police to take vehicles of unlicensed drivers and impound them for 30 days.

Also, under a new system, fingerprints taken when people are booked into Sonoma County Jail now are being sent electronically to databases of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This was one of the main issues that drew thousands of people to a march in Santa Rosa on March 21 that called for federal immigration reform.

And some local Latinos have alleged that they have been stopped by police who know nothing about them, but think they may be illegal immigrants simply because they are Latino.

Fish says that his department has merely been enforcing laws as required, and have not been targeting Latinos or any other demographic groups.

“We’re doing the same things with all drivers,” he said. “Unlicensed drivers create a danger. Impounding a car causes a hardship for any family, but I support doing so when laws are violated.”

One of the main issues involved for Latinos is the plight of illegal aliens who have been living and working in the United States for several years, but who are having increasing difficulty renewing driver’s licenses. Many of them formerly used a false Social Security number, but now numbers are more thoroughly checked.

Also, some immigrants, in particular, are unaware of laws regarding such things as license plates, bald tires and hanging items inside vehicles — although police have spoken about such matters at public events, including a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish at St. Vincent.

Fish, along with all of the local candidates for county supervisor, as well Petaluma City Council members Mike Harris and Tiffany Renée, had agreed to attend the meeting on Wednesday, said NBSC organizers.

The three Petaluma members of the NBSC — St. Vincent, B’nai Israel Jewish Center and Petaluma United Church of Christ — also had planned to attend.

“One of the purposes is to understand police policies, rather than to debate policies or concerns,” said the Rev. Blythe Sawyer of Petaluma United Church of Christ, before the meeting.

Sawyer said that her church joined the NBSC in October.

“We have a had a long-standing commitment to being involved in the community and working for social justice, so joining the North Bay Sponsoring Committee seemed to be a good step for us,” said Sawyer. “The committee builds strength among members by being committed to each other in long-lasting ways.”

She regards the meeting on Wednesday as merely one step toward addressing the problems of local Latinos.

“I hope we can all continue to work together to help find solutions, so that they can find a way of living in this community,” she said.

“Hopefully, this will bring other meetings so that we will develop ways to connect with more families affected by these issues, and find ways to create more options for them,” Solar added.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)

originally published at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100415/COMMUNITY/100419731?p=all&tc=pgall

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Jail Staff Doesn’t Know How Many People Released

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

222 Sonoma County inmates win early release

Published: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 7:52 p.m.

Almost seven times more inmates than originally estimated were released early in the first 35 days of a new state law, according to new reports from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant Sheriff Linda Suvoy initially said on March 18 that 33 jail inmates had benefited from the change that allowed for early release of non-violent offenders as a way to save incarceration costs.

However, after combing through jail records in response to a PublicRecords Act request, officials determined that 222 nonviolent inmates had qualified for the new credits for good behavior and completed their sentences between the law’s Jan. 25 start date and the end of February.

Suvoy said the low estimate was produced before the law came into effect and didn’t take into account the number of people sentenced each day.

“I was still using that number because that’s all we knew,” Suvoy said. “I didn’t explain it well, that it was just a snapshot.”

Inmates noww can earn a day’s credit for each day served, whereas before the law they shaved two days off their sentences for every six days served.

People serving time for violent crimes, such as attempted murder, rape and felony assault, aren’t eligible for good behavior credits.

The 221 people identified in the sheriff’s report who benefitted from the new good behavior credits served time for crimes such as drunken driving, driving with a suspended license, disorderly conduct and using fraudulent checks. One inmate was not named.

Most chiseled fewer than seven days off their sentences.

In one such case, 40-year-old Matt Clark served about seven days of his 15-day sentence for selling, possessing or transporting tear gas.

Kristin Trivisondoli, 53, was convicted of drunken driving on Jan. 29 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Trivisondoli was released on Feb. 18.

Alberto Coria, 24, banked about ten days of credits under the new system, completing his 180-day sentence for battery on a police officer on Feb. 27.

About 1,700 people come through the jail each month, Suvoy said. Of those, an average of 295 qualify for good behavior credits, finish their sentences and are released each month.

State lawmakers who voted for the law said it would help stem overcrowding in California prisons.

Suvoy said the law hasn’t changed the jail’s population, which which hovers just under 1,000 inmates, well below the jail’s 1,468-bed capacity.

“When we looked at the law’s impacts, and we try to measure them daily, our population has stayed stable,” Suvoy said. “We haven’t noticed any huge benefit to this change.”

originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com

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Petaluma Police Offer to Take Over Cotati Policing, Petaluma City Council Says No

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Cotati declines Petaluma’s non-offer for police service

By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 5:59 p.m.

A county taxpayers group is urging Cotati voters to reject a sales-tax measure on the ballot next week, noting that Petaluma’s offer to take over police services would save Cotati nearly $1 million a year.

The problem is, the proposal no longer is on the table, and probably never should have been, say Petaluma officials.

And in a further sign of confusion, Cotati city leaders didn’t know untiklcontacted by a reporter that Petaluma’s proposal, presented to them Feb. 3, was no longer valid.

Petaluma city leaders describe the proposal — which wasn’t approved by the city manager or city council before it was submitted to Cotati — as preliminary and unrealistic given Petaluma’s dire financial straits.

“The council didn’t authorize it and it’s not a proposal we’re entertaining,” Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt said this week, who said she first heard of it after the Cotati council discussed it in a public meeting.

With a looming budget deficit, Cotati has declared a state of fiscal emergency and is asking voters to approve a 0.5 percent city sales tax. That would bring the total in the city to 9.5 percent, which would be the highest in the county.

According to the city, the measure would generate $600,000 to $900,000 a year, allowing the city to eliminate its deficit, “prevent potential elimination of the police department,” restore some services and staff and build reserves.

In late January, the city sought proposals for contracting its police services to save money. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Petaluma police submitted proposals, which were presented to the council on Feb. 3.

The county said it could save Cotati $29,000 a year by providing policing services, which it does for the cities of Sonoma and Windsor. Petaluma said it could do the job for $1.6 million, compared with Cotati’s current $2.5 million police budget.

Cotati council members decided the level of coverage Petaluma proposed wasn’t desirable, City Manager Dianne Thompson said, so it has decided to pursue contracting only its dispatching services if Measure A fails at the ballot box on Tuesday(April 13).

But the Sonoma County Taxpayers Association has urged voters to reject the Measure A, contending that the contract with Petaluma would solve Cotati’s budget woes without the tax.

Fred Levin of the taxpayers group also wasn’t aware that Petaluma’s proposal was no longer an option.

“It’s very strange that all of a sudden the city of Petaluma, which is also in need of financial help, took it off the table,” he said. “I think there’s more to this that meets the eye.”

Petaluma City Manager John Brown said police Chief Dan Fish and his command staff responded to Cotati’s contracting request under a deadline that didn’t provide enough time to brief him or the council.

Fish said the proposal was only a draft and the “rough numbers” should only have been perceived as “what-ifs” in a potential worst-case scenario for Cotati.

Brown said the proposal — which suggested Petaluma could handle the addition Cotati’s policing needs without increasing staffing levels — was premature and inaccurate.

“It did get out of ahead of us,” he said. “It’s not the way it would normally be handled.”

According to Cotati documents, the proposal would have provided Cotati with 2 full-time officers 24 hours a day, however they would not have been dedicated solely to Cotati.

Cotati Mayor Robert Coleman-Senghor learned this week that Petaluma’s council wasn’t aware of the proposal before it went to Cotati. “When we have relations with another agency . . . I want to know about that,” he said. “I would have been super-peeved, to say the least.”

Both he and Petaluma’s city manager, Brown, said despite the missteps, they don’t want to discourage cost-sharing efforts.

“We learn from these episodes in our lives,” Brown said. “We will do things differently it the future.”

Petaluma Councilman Mike Healy agreed: “Going forward, at least on the bigger things like this, the council and city manager need to be in the loop. The most important thing now is folks in Cotati shouldn’t be under the impression that it’s an option.”

Cotati leaders said if Measure A fails they will pursue contracting dispatch services, not law enforcement, probably with the sheriff.

The sheriff’s contracting proposal, along with the layoff of an additional Cotati police officer, could save Cotati $135,000 a year for reduced dispatch, font counter and records duties.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.

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Lake County Sheriff Investigates Challenger

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Lake County sheriff candidate target of internal investigation

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, April 5, 2010 at 5:17 p.m.

A candidate for Lake County sheriff is crying foul over an internal investigation launched six weeks before voters decide who should run the department, which is under siege in part by allegations he has brought.

“This is dirty politics at its worst,” said Francisco Rivero, a Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy who has been engaged in a bitter battle with incumbent Sheriff Rodney Mitchell since last year when Rivero publicly accused the department of racial discrimination, cronyism and mismanagement.

Rivero said he could lose his job for talking about the investigation of him.

“What’s wrong is for them to silence me. The public has the right to know that someone running has been brought up on charges of sexual battery,” he said. Allegations of “excessive use of force and gender profiling” also are part of the investigation, he said.

Rivero disclosed the allegations at a press conference Monday. He said he feared someone within the department would leak the information if he did not announce it himself.

Mitchell said it’s unlikely anyone outside the department would ever have known about the investigation. “He alone chose to make this a public issue,” Mitchell said. “This is just another one of Rivero’s shenanigans,” Mitchell said.

The Sheriff’s Office by law must investigate deputies who are accused of criminal violations, even if the department believes they’re unwarranted, Mitchell said. The same goes for all Sheriff’s departments, said Mendocino County Sheriff’s Capt. Kurt Smallcomb. It’s also protocol to order those involved not to discuss the investigation, he said.

A woman arrested in December 2008 on suspicion of domestic assault brought the complaint against Rivero in January, said Victor Haltom, Rivero’s attorney. The investigation wasn’t formally begun until the officer in charge of internal investigations returned from Haiti, he said.

Haltom said a cursory investigation into the allegations would have vindicated Rivero.

Smallcomb, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s captain, said such allegations must be both criminally and internally investigated.

Haltom contended the investigation is wrong and typical of the department. “They operate like a bunch of crude cowboys,” he said.

Haltom also has clashed with the Lake County law authorities on behalf of Bismarck Dinius, a client charged with boating under the influence and manslaughter after a speedboat driven by a Lake County deputy slammed into the sailboat he was steering, killing a passenger.

The manslaughter charge was dropped before trial and a jury acquitted Dinius of the lesser charge of causing great bodily injury or death while under the influence.

The case angered boaters across the nation and local residents, who thought the speedboat driver, Lake County Chief Deputy Russell Perdock, should have been charged.

The District Attorney’s Office was the agency that made that decision, Mitchell said.

Mitchell has posted on the department’s web site, www.lakesheriff.com, detailed rebuttals to Rivero’s allegations of racial discrimination and mismanagement, which he said are false.

Other issues in the department include a lieutenant, now demoted to sergeant, who apparently used marijuana eradication funding for helicopter lessons and a former corrections deputy who is charged with stealing an automatic trigger mechanism from the Sheriff’s Office armory.

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Lake County Deputy Charged with Theft

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Leak of Lake County sheriff’s report probed
Investigation, theft come in run-up to June election

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.

Another Lake County deputy is under investigation, adding fuel to the internal fires in the troubled department as Sheriff Rod Mitchell faces his first re-election challenge in 16 years.

Deputy Mike Morshed is being investigated in connection with the unauthorized posting of an investigative report on the Internet, Mitchell said Monday.

Morshed, who has been on paid administrative leave since Feb. 10, could not be reached Monday for comment.

The state Attorney General’s Office has agreed to conduct the investigation, said Mitchell.

The report at the center of the investigation was posted Feb. 2 on an Internet blog site devoted to unseating Mitchell, he said.

“That led to the beginning of the investigation into the breech of department records,” he said.

The posted report was part of the ongoing investigation of a former corrections officer alleged to have stolen an automatic trigger mechanism from the Sheriff’s Office armory.

Russell Wright, 37, was arrested Feb. 2 on suspicion of grand theft, embezzlement by a public officer, receiving stolen property and possession of dangerous fireworks.

Investigators were able to track down precisely when the report was copied from the Sheriff’s system and trace it to Morshed, Mitchell said.

During a warrant search of Morshed’s home, investigators also found audio and visual recording discs from a patrol vehicle, he said. Mitchell said he does not know their contents.

The investigation is the latest in a string of internal problems plaguing the Sheriff’s Office.

One of Mitchell’s opponents in the June election, Lake County Deputy Francisco Rivero, took his allegations to the television media. He’s leveled accusations of racial discrimination, cronyism and mismanagement against the department.

Mitchell also is being challenged in the election race by retired police sergeant Jack Baxter of Lakeport.

Rivero said he had nothing to do with the unauthorized posting of the report, which he said has been linked to him through innuendo, in part because Morshed is a work friend.

“It’s unfair to tar me with this brush,” Rivero said.

The department also has been tarnished with the discovery that a lieutenant, since demoted to sergeant, had been using marijuana eradication grant money to take helicopter flight lessons without authorization.

One of the most prominent of Mitchell’s problems is a case in which a Lake County chief deputy crashed his speedboat into a sailboat, killing one of its passengers.

Russell Perdock, who was off duty, was never charged with a crime, angering many area residents and boaters.

Instead, Carmichael resident Bismarck Dinius, who was at the sailboat’s tiller at the time, was charged with boating under the influence and causing great bodily injury, because he was intoxicated and allegedly failed to ensure the boat’s lights were on.

Dinius was acquitted last year and has taken steps toward filing a lawsuit.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson

@pressdemocrat.com.

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Racial Profiling in Lake County

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Lake County deputies allege bias, racial profiling

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.

One current and two former Lake County sheriff’s deputies are accusing the department of allowing racial profiling and workplace discrimination.

The three men, who filed complaints with the county in March, made the accusations public last week in a TV interview.

Sheriff Rod Mitchell has posted detailed rebuttals to the accusations on the department’s Web site www.lakesheriff.com. They include internal memos and videotaped interviews with the accusers, giving the public a rare glimpse into the internal workings of a law enforcement department.

The responses “will show the allegations are spurious,” Mitchell said. The Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the union that represents about 65 deputies, also has blasted the allegations and plans to release its own rebuttals.

The accusers say Mitchell’s responses are edited, out-of-context versions of events that skirt the most serious allegation: racial profiling.

“I have seen it. I have been told to pull over Mexicans on Highway 20 during pot season,” said Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Francisco Rivero, who has launched a campaign to replace Mitchell in the June election.

The accusations are being leveled by Rivero and former Lake County deputy Brian Lande and former Sgt. Kip Ringen.

Lande said he was instructed to find legitimate reasons to pull over Latino drivers within the first few weeks of working in the department.

Latinos commonly are referred to as “Joses,” the men said. There also have been cases of unnecessary physical abuse, Lande said.

The men filed complaints with the county in March but didn’t make the accusations public until a TV interview broadcast last week on KGO-TV. Rivero additionally submitted complaints to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Mitchell said he does not tolerate discrimination in the department. The accusers never brought their concerns to him before filing their March 27 complaints with the county, he noted.

The department investigated the accusations and found most were false or misrepresentative of what happened, he said. Mitchell said he did not launch a counterattack until after the men took their complaints to the media, which freed him to divulge otherwise unreleasable information in defense of the department.

“This is a professional organization. We’re not going to allow people to undermine the credibility of this organization,” he said.

Rivero, hired in 2007, is the only one of the three accusers who still works in the sheriff’s department.

Ringen, a 27-year veteran, was forced out in April. Rivero said it was at least in part because he complained about discrimination but Ringen, a union leader, already was in trouble with management.

According to the Sheriff’s Web site, Ringen had been under investigation prior to his departure.

Lande quit the department in April, after less than two years on the job, to join a Bay Area law enforcement department “because of the endemic bigotry and misconduct I observed while employed at the LCSO,” he wrote in his complaint.

Rivero, Lande and Ringen also claim that inappropriate comments related to race, sexual orientation and physical disabilities are prevalent within the department.

Rivero, a Cuban immigrant, said he was called a “wetback” on several occasions.

But he never complained to his bosses. When Ringen reported it to higher officials, Rivero denied they were a problem and refused to file a complaint, saying the comments were made in jest, according to a taped interview posted online.

Rivero said he found the comments unprofessional but did not report them because he is thick skinned and did not want to hurt his future by making waves.

On Wednesday, he said he was handed a work evaluation with an unsatisfactory score. He’d previously been praised by Mitchell for his work.

Ringen was placed on administrative leave shortly after reporting the slurs, Rivero said. Mitchell said Ringen was placed on leave because he refused to document the complaint in writing and already had been reprimanded for failing to finish an internal investigation report.

Mitchell said he takes all allegations of discrimination and mistreatment seriously and wants them reported immediately.

“It is inappropriate in a modern workplace and we don’t tolerate it,” he said.

Discrimination complaints against law enforcement agencies are not uncommon.

“We know it is a problem and a large problem,” said Diana Tate Vermeire, the racial justice project director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU has a pending lawsuit against the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department that alleges unlawful detentions and racial profiling of Latinos suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

Racial profiling and other types of discrimination not only are unjust, they erode the public’s trust in law enforcement agencies, Vermeire said. Discriminatory slurs, even if made in jest, can be harmful both within and without a department, she said.

Racial profiling and slurs “have no place in a police department or sheriff’s department,” Vermeire said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.

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Sheriff’s dog subdues burglary suspect in SR

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Sheriff’s dog subdues burglary suspect in SR

By JULIE JOHNSONT
HE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, April 5, 2010 at 8:48 p.m.

A parolee suspected in a string of residential burglaries led Sonoma County Sheriff’s detectives on a brief vehicle and foot chase Monday afternoon through south Santa Rosa, Lt. Greg Miller said.

Karl Winston Roe, 42, was apprehended after a sheriff’s dog subdued him in a field off Petaluma Hill Road.

Roe was a suspect in multiple burglaries along Chalk Hill Road in Alexander Valley, including one that occurred early Monday, Miller said.

Detectives on a stakeout spotted Roe in a grey Honda reported stolen from one of the homes. They tried to detain Roe just before 4:45 p.m. on Santa Rosa Avenue near Burt Street, but he didn’t stop, Miller said.

Roe sped away and led them on a chase north on Santa Rosa Avenue and across Yolanda Avenue to Petaluma Hill Road, where Roe drove across a grassy field, jumped out of the car and ran, Miller said.

A sheriff’s canine unit sent a trained dog in pursuit, Miller said. “The dog ran after him, chased him down and apprehended him,” Miller said.

Paramedics took Roe to a hospital to be treated for a bite to his arm. Roe was to be booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of residential burglary, vehicle theft, evading a police officer and parole violation, Miller said.

originally published at www.pressdemocrat.com

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