Tag: law_crime

Police throughout Santa Clara County arrested 57 motorists suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the first weekend of the annual Labor Day DUI crackdown campaign, according to a press release from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. The arrests were made from just after midnight Friday through midnight Sunday, authorities said. The crackdown effort, known as “Avoid the 13,” included a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint at the intersection of Dunne Avenue and Joleen Way in Morgan Hill, where officers arrested one DUI suspect, according to Morgan Hill police. The Gilroy Police Department will conduct a similar checkpoint in Gilroy Friday night, also as part of the annual effort by local law enforcement to keep impaired drivers off the roads during one of the summer’s busiest holiday periods, according to police.Residents can receive real-time updates on checkpoint activities and DUI arrests by following the Sheriff’s Office on Twitter at @SCCOSHERIFF, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup. Funding for the Avoid the 13 campaign, which includes saturation patrols as well as checkpoint activities, is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, authorities said. The summer campaign will continue through midnight Monday, Sept. 2, according to the press release. 

Morgan Hill police Wednesday night arrested a man believed to be a suspect in a series of recent burglaries in town, authorities said. Officers were dispatched to the area of Barnell Avenue Wednesday night on a report of a suspicious man in the backyard of a residence, according to a press release from the Morgan Hill Police Department. When officers arrived, witnesses said they saw the man fleeing the area on a bicycle toward Dunne Avenue, police said. Officers soon found the suspect’s discarded bicycle in the yard of a home on Dunne Avenue near Del Monte Avenue. Police established a perimeter around the area, and witnesses led officers to the Dollar Tree store located in a shopping center at the corner of West Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road, the press release said. As police entered the front door of Dollar Tree, the suspect ran out through the rear doors and was tackled by officers as he ran through the Monte Vista Apartments complex, police said. The suspect, later identified as Jaime Alvarado, 33 of Morgan Hill, had multiple warrants for his arrest, police said. He was taken into custody without further incident. Alvarado is also believed to be responsible for a series of recent burglaries in Morgan Hill, though police did not offer further information on those crimes. Alvarado was booked at Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of burglary and resisting arrest, police said. Police noted that the case would not have been solved, nor the property recovered as quickly as it was, without the help of nearby residents “to get involved and report suspicious activity.” 

At 7:48 a.m. Thursday, San Jose police responded to a silent alarm at California Check Cashing Store in the 2100 block of Story Road in

The case against a 20-year-old Mt. Madonna YMCA employee accused of molesting a 6-year-old girl in the organization’s childcare facility located at Paradise Valley Elementary School turned darker Tuesday.

Fire crews responded to a report of smoke at T.J. Maxx Friday morning when an electrical box inside a jewelry case caught on fire, authorities said. No injuries and no major property damage were reported, according to the Morgan Hill Fire Department and the store manager. Crews from MHFD, CalFire and South County Fire District responded to the store at 401 Vineyard Town Center about 10 a.m.There was no visible fire when crews arrived, but firefighters located the source of the smoke inside a jewelry box, where a metal light and ballast case had caught on fire, MHFD Battalion Chief Tim Main said. “We were able to quickly isolate the fire under the jewelry case,” Main said. The responding emergency crews were “concerned,” however, to find that store employees had not evacuated the building of customers as soon as they noticed the fire, Main said. “Whenever there’s any smoke, folks need to evacuate,” Main said. The store remained busy with a steady stream of customers entering and exiting after the fire was extinguished, and while firefighters were leaving the area. “The fire department’s response was excellent,” T.J. Maxx manager Leticia Esnaurrizar said. 

Police throughout Santa Clara County reported Sunday they arrested 95 drunken driving suspects on the roads during Independence Day and the post-holiday weekend. Officers from 13 law enforcement agencies throughout the county made the arrests between Wednesday and Sunday night as part of the annual “Avoid the 13” holiday DUI crackdown, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy Kurtis Stenderup. With the use of grant funds from the state and federal government, county police agencies during the DUI campaign use saturation patrols and DUI checkpoints during holiday weekends and other times when a higher-than-usual volume of motorists are on the roads, according to police. Funding for the Avoid the 13 campaign is provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Administration, police said. Anyone may call 911 to report suspected impaired motorists. 

The Morgan Hill man accused of killing his girlfriend and leaving her body near the railroad tracks behind their home June 15 was in court Tuesday for a general appearance on the charge of murder.

Antolin Garcia Torres, 22 of Morgan Hill, again declined to enter a plea to charges that he killed missing teenager Sierra LaMar, and the judge in the case explained to frustrated family members and search volunteers that the repeated delays are part of a delicate “balancing act” to ensure both the victim and defendant receive justice. Garcia Torres appeared for his scheduled plea hearing Thursday at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. He wore a brown suit, white button-down shirt and tie, and his hair was combed straight back and shorter than in previous appearances. In previous appearances, Garcia Torres wore his Santa Clara County Jail jumpsuit to court. Garcia Torres is charged with murder, with a special circumstance of kidnapping in relation to the disappearance of Sierra, who has been missing from her mother’s north Morgan Hill home since March 16, 2012. A prosecutor from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Garcia Torres’ attorney agreed on a new date of July 23 for a rescheduled plea hearing. The cause of Thursday’s delay remains the discovery or evidence sharing process, which both attorneys said is unfinished. Deputy DA Brian Welch, filling in for Deputy DA David Boyd on the Garcia Torres case, said his office is still working with the Sheriff’s Office to acquire some outstanding evidence, which prosecutors will then turn over to the defense. “The parties are talking formally about items that may be missing,” Welch said. Garcia Torres’ attorney, Traci Owens of the Santa Clara County Alternate Defender’s Office, added she is still seeking some unidentified evidence items from the DA’s office and Sheriff’s office.Owens added that gaining all available evidence is necessary to “protect Antolin Garcia Torres’ constitutional rights.”The defense and DA mutually requested the continuance of the plea hearing.Aware that family, friends and other supporters of Sierra’s are becoming impatient with the repeated delays in the case against Garcia Torres, Superior Court Judge Sharon Chatman explained that the defendant has a “constitutional right to be prepared” to answer the charges against him.“We have to make sure Mr. Garcia Torres’ constitutional rights and due process rights are maintained,” Chatman said at the end of Thursday’s hearing. “We don’t want to have to have a redo, and (we want) to take the time to do things right.” Chatman did not blame anyone for the lengthy discovery process, which has been ongoing since Garcia Torres was arrested May 22, 2012. She said the DA’s and Sheriff’s offices have been “doing their best” to share the evidence “as quickly as they can.” Investigators think Sierra was kidnapped while walking to her school bus stop near the intersection of Palm and Dougherty avenues in north Morgan Hill the morning of March 16, 2012. She was 15 and a sophomore at Sobrato High School at the time of her disappearance. Sierra’s remains have not been found, but authorities think she is dead based on her lack of any known communication with anybody since she disappeared. Volunteers and Sierra’s family continue to search for her remains or any sign of her whereabouts every Saturday in Morgan Hill. The volunteer searches started last year, weeks after Sierra’s disappearance. About half a dozen of those volunteers who have been searching for Sierra for more than a year attended Thursday’s hearing. One of those volunteers, Robert Beasley of Morgan Hill, said they are “disappointed” in yet another delay in the case against Sierra’s suspected killer.“We want to see this thing go forward,” Beasley said. Mike Nino of Sunnyvale, another volunteer searcher, said he is hopeful the case will proceed at a faster pace as soon as Garcia Torres enters a plea, which could be at his next scheduled appearance next month. Nino and Beasley have been participating in the volunteer searches for Sierra since April 2012. “We want to bring closure to the family, and let them know we’re there for them,” Nino said. “We’ll keep searching until we find her and everything is solved.” Garcia Torres also faces charges of attempted carjacking that are unrelated to Sierra’s disappearance. Those charges stem from three attacks in 2009 in the parking lots of two Safeway stores in Morgan Hill, in which authorities say he followed three different female victims to their parked cars at night, entered their vehicles when then unlocked the doors and tried to assault them. 

The Sierra LaMar Search Center has moved to Central High School in Morgan Hill, according to Sierra’s family and volunteers who continue to search for any sign of the missing teen’s whereabouts. 

Police are looking for two suspects who allegedly robbed the Citibank in downtown Morgan Hill at gunpoint Friday morning.