Crime

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee, a 30-year-plus law enforcement veteran, found himself the victim of a crime when someone stole his personal vehicle April 27, according to police. The chief’s service firearm and badge, among other personal items, were inside the vehicle when it disappeared,...

Joshua Valdez, 22, the Morgan Hill resident who was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident last month, is no longer comatose and recently started speech therapy at San Jose Regional Medical Center.

Crews from five area fire departments were up all night extinguishing a giant garbage fire at the San Martin Transfer Station Friday, according to authorities. The cause of the fire at the garbage and recycling facility at 14070 Llagas Ave. is undetermined, but investigators do not think it was intentional, according to CalFire Battalion Chief Brandon Leitzke. The blaze burned in a pit of garbage and recyclable materials inside a roughly 5,000-square-foot metal building that is open on two sides to allow heavy equipment to sort through the discarded items for processing, Leitzke said. About 100 tons of garbage burned, but the fire only caused “minimal” damage to the building itself. Crews from CalFire, the South Santa Clara County Fire District and the Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Jose fire departments worked through the night Friday and into Saturday morning to extinguish the fire, Leitzke said. The fire started just after 7 p.m. Friday. A firefighter injured his wrist while fighting the fire, Leitzke said. That was the only injury resulting from the incident. The San Martin Transfer Station is owned and operated by Recology South Valley. That company’s general manager, Phil Couchee, said they had to close the site to drop-offs from the public for a couple days, but they expect to reopen by Monday afternoon. “The firefighters did an outstanding job to contain (the fire) and manage it,” Couchee said. 

A former Gilroy educator pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud for soliciting donations from individuals to help her pay for cancer treatments she did not need nor received, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Amanda Christine Riley admitted to purposely deceiving people into thinking she...

Federal officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a small plane crash near Gilroy earlier this month that claimed the life of both occupants—including a 69-year-old Gilroy man and his 18-year-old granddaughter.

Police arrested a 28-year-old Gilroy resident who shot and injured a teen in Morgan Hill early in the morning Sept. 13, authorities said.  About 12:13am, Morgan Hill Police responded to the 100 block of Ciolino Avenue after receiving multiple reports of shots fired in the...

Three Gilroy residents were arrested around 3 a.m. this morning for drug possession when they were allegedly found driving a car on the 7100 block of Rosanna Street so packed with marijuana that the trunk would not close.

The Gilroy Police Department responded to a variety of crimes last week, including carjacking, grand theft, child endangerment, assault and burglary. The arrests were recorded in the GPD blotter between Jan. 30 through Feb.5.

Timoteo Ibanez, 18, of the 700 block of Welburn Avenue, 5:30