Crime

Police arrested a 39-year-old Morgan Hill man on suspicion of molesting a child family member last week, according to a press release from Morgan Hill Police. 

In the Morgan Hill Police Department’s ongoing undercover “shoulder tap” operation to crack down on adults who might purchase alcohol for those underage, officers arrested a suspect for doing just that last month. 

In yet another bizarre twist in the ongoing attempt to bring five suspects in the 2011 drive-by shooting that killed 14-year-old Tara Romero to trial, the attorney for one of the suspects had to recuse himself from the case Friday because his office is representing a victim of that shooting who is now a suspect in an unrelated violent crime spree that happened earlier this year in San Jose. 

Here are this week's arrests from the Gilroy Police Department arrest log.

The second day of testimony in the preliminary hearing for four of the five suspects accused of killing Morgan Hill teen Tara Romero in a drive-by shooting Nov. 4, 2011 included an emotional recollection of that night’s events by one of the surviving victims of the gunfire.

Christopher High School Principal John Perales is dispelling rumors of wild animals running through the halls and wanton graffiti as a result of a senior prank gone wrong. He concedes that some vandalism did take place on campus around midnight May 16, but adds that rumors floating around the community have blown the incident way out of proportion.

A Gilroy furniture store is under fire for allegedly scamming customers and operating without a business license for months, according to the Gilroy Police Department.

On the night May 25, the Gilroy Police Department's Traffic Unit held a DUI and Driver's License checkpoint. Of the approximately 598 vehicles that drove through the checkpoint, 43 vehicles were diverted to a secondary checkpoint. Two drivers were arrested for DUI; one was arrested because of a warrant; 29 citations were issued for driving unlicensed and four citations were issued to drivers driving on a suspended license, according to a GPD press release. Four vehicles were impounded from the checkpoint.

Gilroy Police Department Officer Noel Lemus, who was allegedly drunk when he barricaded himself in a bedroom and then resisted arrest at a home in Merced County on March 8, is scheduled for arraignment July 10 in the Merced County Courthouse.

Crews from the Gilroy and Morgan Hill Fire Departments, South Santa Clara Fire District and Calfire responded to a roughly 40-acre vegetation fire at Frazier Lake Road and Bloomfield Avenue in Gilroy this afternoon. At around 3:30 p.m. firefighters were working on "cutting off the head," or containing the head of the fire, according to an employee from Treehaven station on Hecker Pass Road.