San Francisco Bay Area Thursday News Roundup

Submitted by Reset News Feed on Thu, 01/26/2012 - 11:25am

Son Whose Father And Brothers Were Fatally Shot In Excelsior District Testifies Against Alleged MS-13 Gang Member Edwin Ramos

A son whose father and two brothers were fatally shot in San Francisco's Excelsior District as they drove home from a family outing in Fairfield in 2008 testified Wednesday that he saw alleged MS-13 gang member Edwin Ramos fire the shots.

Andrew Bologna said he saw Ramos shoot his father Anthony, 48, and his brothers Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, as the family drove near Congdon and Maynard streets shortly after 3 p.m. on June 22, 2008.

"I saw him," Andrew Bologna said from the witness stand, pointing at Ramos. "He was staring at my dad, mugging him, giving him a mean look, and that's when he pulled out a gun."

Bologna, who was 18 at the time and is now 21, began crying as he recounted the shooting, which did not injure him.

"I didn't know what was going on, it was like a movie," he said. "They shot my family like that, it doesn't make sense."

Prosecutors allege that Ramos, 25, of El Sobrante, shot the Bolognas after mistaking them for rival gang members and that the shooting was in retaliation for the shooting of a fellow MS-13 gang member earlier that day.

Ramos has admitted to driving the car used in the shooting, a gray Chrysler 300, but denies that he fired the shots.

Defense attorney Marla Zamora said in her opening statement in trial on Monday that a second man, Wilfredo "Flaco" Reyes, was in the car and that Reyes was the shooter.

Reyes, another alleged MS-13 gang member, remains at large.

Andrew Bologna testified Wednesday morning under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Harry Dorfman that he did not see anyone else in Ramos' car, and repeated the statement under cross-examination from Zamora Wednesday afternoon.

Zamora brought up testimony that Bologna gave during the preliminary hearing in 2009 in which he said he ducked when he heard the shots.

But Wednesday he said he saw the gun being fired and the bullet striking his father.

"I know Ramos was the driver and the shooter," he said.

Concord Woman Arrested On Suspicion Of Murdering Boyfriend

A Concord woman was arrested last week and charged with killing her boyfriend in November, police said.

Police responded to the 3600 block of Wren Avenue on Nov. 25 on reports that man there had stopped breathing.

Officers and firefighters attempted to save the man's life, identified as 47-year-old Danny Ray Bennett, but were unsuccessful.

Bennett's long-term girlfriend, identified by police as 41-year-old Dava Alizabeth-Ann Steen, told police that Bennett had a history of health problems, and police ruled the death was from natural causes.

But on Jan. 17, a witness contacted police and claimed that Steen had suffocated and killed Bennett during a fight. Police said they obtained additional evidence corroborating that story.

On Jan. 20, detectives arrested Steen and searched her home, collecting additional evidence, police said.

Police said murder charges against Steen were filed by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's office and she is due in court to enter a plea on Feb. 2.

Second Trial For Man Accused Of Murdering Hall Of Fame Football Player's Daughter Occurred On Wednesday

The second trial for a man accused of murdering the daughter of a Hall of Fame football player in 1999 got underway in San Mateo County Superior Court Wednesday.

Mohammed Haroon Ali, 36, is charged with killing his girlfriend Tracey Biletnikoff -- the daughter of former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff -- on Feb. 15, 1999, at a drug rehab facility in San Mateo.

Ali has admitted to strangling his girlfriend but claimed it was a crime of passion. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 and sentenced to 64 years in prison.

In 2009, an appellate court overturned the conviction stating that prosecutors had improperly dismissed at least one black juror, thus requiring a retrial.

In a packed courtroom Wednesday, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in his opening statement that Ali was a liar and a killer who threw Biletnikoff's body down a ravine "like yesterday's garbage" after strangling her twice, once with his hands and again with a T-shirt.

Defense attorney Peter Goldscheider called Wagstaffe's opening statement a "one-sided, distorted, inaccurate account of the story."

Goldscheider said that prison psychiatrists diagnosed Ali with bipolar disorder, and that he was unable to understand his actions or control himself when the argument with Biletnikoff became physical.

The defense and prosecution agreed on elements of what happened next.

Ali dragged Biletnikoff's body out a door of the office that led to an alley and put her into a van owned by the rehab facility.

He then drove to a parking lot at Canada College in Redwood City and dumped the body down a ravine, where it was found a day later, half-dressed.

Ali drove to Mexico in Biletnikoff's car and made it across the border, but was arrested the following day trying to re-enter the U.S.

Goldscheider said that the defendant turned back out of guilt over killing Biletnikoff.

Wagstaffe said the defendant turned back because he ran out of money and didn't speak Spanish.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Changes Defense Attorneys For Domestic Violence Case

The defense attorney for San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is no longer representing him in his domestic violence case.

Attorney Bob Waggener said via text message Wednesday afternoon that he is no longer Mirkarimi's attorney and that Berkeley-based defense attorney Lidia Stiglich will be taking over. Waggener did not give a reason for the move and Stiglich was not immediately available for comment.

Mirkarimi faces misdemeanor charges of domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness in connection with a New Year's Eve incident involving his wife, Eliana Lopez, during which their 2-year-old son Theo was present.

He is set to appear in court this afternoon to seek the removal of a stay-away order preventing him from contacting his wife or son.

Lopez has denied she has a complaint against Mirkarimi, but allegedly told neighbors about the incident and one of the neighbors, Ivory Madison, called police and also took a video of her conversation with Lopez.

The case is set to go to trial on Feb. 24.

In addition, court documents obtained by reporters Wednesday indicate that prosecutors plan to call an ex-girlfriend of Mirkarimi to the witness stand during the trial.

A proposed witness list filed by prosecutors in the case includes Christina Marie Flores, Mirkarimi's ex-girlfriend who filed a police report last weekend and has given media interviews saying she dated him between 2007 and 2008.

In the police report, in which Flores remains anonymous, she said Mirkarimi showed a "raging pitbull aggressiveness" and in one incident, he pinned her against a wall and shook her, bruising her upper arm.

Other people on the prosecution's witness list include Lopez, Madison and Callie Williams, another neighbor of the family's Webster Street residence, according to court documents.

Prosecutors also plan on bringing in Nancy Lemon, a domestic violence expert, as well as various police and district attorney investigators.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan And Police Chief Howard Jordan Discuss Court-Appointed Monitor Given More Power Over Police Department

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday they understand the frustration that led a federal judge to give a court-appointed monitor more power over the Police Department and raise the possibility of a court takeover of the department.

But the two executives said they hope new leadership and a new focus will produce "swift and decisive action" to bring the department into belated compliance with a 2003 lawsuit settlement requiring reforms.

"The city acknowledges and understands the court's frustration with the pace of the city's progress," Quan and Howard said in a statement released Wednesday.

"We are committed to taking action and making demonstrable progress on the reforms necessary to ensure that we meet our collective goal," the two officials said.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said in an order issued Tuesday that he "remains in disbelief" at the slow pace of reforms.

Henderson is presiding over the settlement of a 2000 lawsuit in which 119 Oakland citizens alleged that four officers known as the "Riders" beat them, made false arrests and planted evidence on them in between 1996 and 2000.

The 2003 agreement calls for the department to make 51 reforms in areas such as increased field supervision of police officers, better training and improved investigation of citizen complaints.

The deadline for achieving the reforms was originally 2008, later extended to 2010. But in a report to Henderson last week, independent monitor Robert Warshaw said that 10 reforms are still not completed and said, "We continue to be seriously concerned with the department's limited progress."

In Tuesday's order, Henderson instructed the department to consult with Warshaw before taking any action that could affect compliance with the settlement, including any policy changes and any promotions or discipline of officers.

Henderson also said that if necessary, he will consider putting the department into receivership, in which control of the department would be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.

San Jose City Council Members Voted Unanimously To Work Toward Eliminating Their Pension Plans

San Jose City Council members on Tuesday voted unanimously to take the first step toward eliminating their own pension plans.

Councilman Pete Constant, who proposed that the council and mayor lead by example and terminate their plan with the California Public Employees' Retirement System, said the council's decision would "get the ball rolling."

The council voted to notify CalPERS of its intent to withdraw from the benefit plan. CalPERS will then respond with a calculation of the cost of termination.

"I think this is the right thing to do for today's purposes," Mayor Chuck Reed said.

The city has contracted with CalPERS to provide retirement benefits for its mayor and council members since 1998.

The CalPERS retirement plan allows the mayor and council members to retire at age 55 and benefits to accrue at the rate of 2 percent for every year of service.

In the past fiscal year, the cost of the pension plan has increased from $130,727 to $159,827 and the plan is underfunded by half a million dollars, according to Constant.

Retired council members would not be affected by the termination and current members would retain benefits they have earned.

Constant said it doesn't make sense to have a pension plan for council members, who only serve for eight years or fewer.

"Defined benefit plans are traditionally used to encourage long-term tenure among employees and minimize employee turnover," Constant wrote in a memo.

In the face of ongoing budget shortfalls, the council voted last month to place a controversial pension reform measure proposed by Reed on the June 2012 ballot.

San Jose has billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities for retirement benefits for its employees.

Reed's proposal calls for setting limits on retirement benefits for new employees and retirees, but the ballot measure would not reduce payments to current retirees or cut accrued benefits that employees have earned for the past five years of service.

San Francisco Man Accused Of Fatally Stabbing Mother Of His Child

A San Francisco man accused of fatally stabbing the mother of his daughter in 2007 and sexually assaulting two of the woman's other daughters was sentenced Wednesday morning to 205 years to life in state prison.

Umar Hudson, 35, was convicted of murder on Nov. 30 for stabbing Jernell Scott, 32, on April 6, 2007, outside her home in the 900 block of Ellsworth Street in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood.

A jury also found him guilty of two counts of lewd and lascivious acts, one count of forcible oral copulation and one count of aggravated sexual assault on a minor in connection with the sexual assaults of two of Scott's daughters, who were 9 and 13 years old at the time.

Prosecutor Diana Garcia alleged during the trial that Hudson's anxiety over possibly being arrested for the sexual assaults, which the girls reported to police, caused him to attack Scott, who was found by neighbors naked and bleeding in the middle of the street.

Neighbors told police they saw a man standing over Scott and stabbing her repeatedly, then going back inside her home and coming back out with another knife, which he used to stab her again, Garcia said.

Hudson then went back inside the home and changed clothes, then returned to the street to try to blend in as a bystander in a crowd that had gathered around the body, Garcia said.

However, a neighbor pointed out Hudson as the stabber, and officers found bloody clothes in the backpack he was carrying, she said.

DNA evidence linked Hudson to the sexual assaults of the two young girls, which occurred over several months in 2006 and 2007.

Hudson and Scott had known each other since high school, and had a previous relationship, then got back together in 2005 and had a child together. The child was 16 months old at the time of the killing, prosecutors said.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Jerome Benson, who recently retired from the bench, returned to oversee Hudson's sentencing Wednesday.

Oakland Police Ask Public For Help Finding Murder Suspect

Oakland police Wednesday asked for the public's help in finding a suspect who's wanted for the murder of a 19-year-old man on Jan. 4, which was the city's first homicide of the year.

Sgt. Randy Wingate said a $1 million arrest warrant has been issued for 36-year-old Remon McDaniel, who he said has an extensive criminal history and is considered to be armed and dangerous.

Wingate said police believe McDaniel killed Isaac White, who was shot at about 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 4 outside his home in the 1800 block of East 25th Street in East Oakland and was pronounced dead a short time later at a local hospital.

White and McDaniel lived in the same neighborhood, according to Wingate.

He said it appears that the shooting death of White was "a cold-blooded act of violence" and not due to a fight but declined to be more specific.

White "was extremely well-liked in the neighborhood and we received an overwhelming response from the community and the neighborhood" in identifying McDaniel as a suspect within 48 hours of his death, Wingate said.

Wingate described McDaniel as a black man with a dark complexion who is about 5-foot-9 and weighs about 140 pounds and has a gold tooth and wears his hair in dreadlocks.

McDaniel also was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and tan cargo shorts at the time of the fatal shooting, Wingate said.

He said police have received a tip that McDaniel may have changed his appearance by altering his hair and clothing.

Wingate said that in addition to Oakland and the general East Bay area, McDaniels has ties to the Central Valley, especially Merced and San Joaquin counties.

Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of McDaniel.