County redistricting passes

STEVE MALONE / NEWS-PRESS

Former Supervisor Brooks Firestone implores the Board of Supervisors to listen to North County residents. From left,Supervisors Joni Gray, Salud Carbajal and Steve Lavagnino engage in discussion about redistricting.

Map keeps Lompoc in one district; Isla Vista stays in 3rdBy NORA K. WALLACENEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The county Board of Supervisors, in acontentious and at times acrimoniousmeeting that ended with supervisors prof-fering hugs to one another, approved a newmap that will set local political boundariesfor the next decade.

Ultimately, the board opted not to moveforward on any of the 16 boundary mapspreviously created by members of thepublic and organizations, but instead tofavor a newly created proposal by 1st Dis-trict Supervisor Salud Carbajal.

They did so on a 3-2 vote, and not before

trading stinging barbs and accusations ofpolitical financial motives. Catcalls eruptedfrom the audience at some points during thetesty meeting and several supervisorsappeared visibly shaken.

Mr. Carbajal’s map was approved withminor tweaks on the boundaries at the 4thand 5th districts solely to preserve the con-tinued participation of the 5th Districtplanning commissioner, whose address wassuddenly in another district.

Mr. Carbajal, along with 3rd DistrictSupervisor Doreen Farr and 2nd DistrictSupervisor Janet Wolf, voted in favor of thenew districts, while 4th District SupervisorJoni Gray and 5th District Supervisor SteveLavagnino dissented.

The chosen map was unveiled late lastweek by Mr. Carbajal, after a citizen mapvoted upon during the July 12 board meet-ing had already been tentatively approvedby the board majority. That map, created byGoleta resident George Relles, was con-troversial, particularly since it split the cityof Lompoc between districts.

Mr. Carbajal said he put forth his map tomeet the letter of the law in terms of pop-ulation and communities of interest, butalso to prevent “disenfranchising voters.”

“This map isn’t perfect like any other mappresented,” he said. “The challenge is tocome up with the best map possible. ... No

Please see COUNTY on A8

The secret is out La Fiesta Pequeña dress rehearsal draws a crowd

NIK BLASKOVICH / NEWS-PRESS

The Santa Barbara Mission forms the backdrop for La FiestaPequeña rehearsal Tuesday.

By KELLY HOOVERNEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

Cameras were flashing Tuesdaynight as hundreds of proud parentsand family members brought outtheir lawn chairs and sat as close aspossible to the action on the SantaBarbara Mission steps.

The dress rehearsal for La FiestaPequeña, one of the most anticipatedshows of the year in Santa Barbara, isbecoming more popular every year.It’s a great way to see a preview of theshow without all the hassle.

“We are having a ball watchingthese beautiful dancers,” said first-time Fiesta-goer Cris Arklin. “Myaunt is 89 years old and we thoughttomorrow night might be too much sowe got the inside scoop to come to thedress rehearsal.”

Of course, you don’t get the ambi-ence and magic you get with the col-ored lights that brilliantly backlightthe mission and show off the brilliant

Fiesta costumes that you do at theactual show.

For the parents of the more than200 dancers, flower girls, singers andmusicians who will take to the stagetonight for La Fiesta Pequeña, thismight be their best up-close andpersonal photo opportunity.

Wendy Moran, who has a daughterdancing for her first time at the mis-sion and another as a first-timeflower girl, getting a front row spot

was important.“I’m a hands-on mom. I like to be

involved and taking photos. This issomething my daughter has wantedto do since she was 4 years old.”

The La Fiesta Pequeña dressrehearsal is also a great time fordancers to work out any kinks andhopefully get over any stage frightthey have. Many admit they are ner-vous and that dancing at the missionis not only a dream but a lot ofpressure.

Spirit of Fiesta Marisa Leon-Haroopened the rehearsal with her soloperformance. It was more nerve-wracking than she imagined.

Thankfully, tonight those faces willbe harder to see when the show startsat 8 as opposed to the 6:30 start timeof the rehearsal.

Also nervous but overwhelminglyproud and excited are the fivegreat-granddaughters of Fiesta

Please see SECRET on A9

Jesusita Firevictims suemaker of

brushcutter

Please see FIRE on A12

By MORGAN HOOVERNEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

A group of property owners whosuffered structural losses in theJesusita Fire is suing the manufac-turer of a brushcutter blamed forstarting the fire.

About 50 plaintiffs are listed in thelawsuit against STIHL Inc., A-OKMower Shops Inc., and Orchard Ser-vices Inc.

In June, Craig Ilenstine and DanaLarsen were sentenced to 250 hours ofcommunity service after they pleadedno contest to charges related to thefire, which they are thought to havestarted using STIHL FS 110Rbrushcutters.

Mr. Larsen purchased his brush-cutter in 2006 at Orchard Services, andMr. Ilestine’s borrowed brushcutterwas purchased in 2008 by a friend atA-OK.

Campaignwatchdog

focuseson judges

By DON THOMPSONASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO — The chair-woman of the agency that monitorscampaign donations and politicalconflicts of interest in California saidTuesday that she intends to drawattention to the increasing partisan-ship of judicial elections and thepotential influence of campaign con-tributors on the courts.

Ann Ravel said the California FairPolitical Practices Commission plansto begin posting information aboutpolitical donations to incumbentjudges and judicial candidates on itswebsite next year.

“It seemed to me there has not beena spotlight on this issue,” she said in aninterview with The Associated Press.“People should know if there are someinterests that are providing a lot ofcampaign contributions.”

Ms. Ravel was a deputy assistantU.S. attorney general handling civilcases when Gov. Jerry Brownappointed her in February to head thecommission that regulates campaignfinancing. The commission was cre-ated when voters approved the Polit-ical Reform Act of 1974, duringBrown’s first term as governor.

Please see CAMPAIGN on A12

DA admits blood waivers may have been destroyedBy PETER LANCE

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS

The dog-eared copy of the Black’s LawDictionary Fourth Edition that takes up fourinches of my bookcase, defines “obstructingjustice” as “Impeding or obstructing those whoseek justice in a court, or those who have dutiesor powers of administering justice.”

On June 22, in the sidebar that accompaniedthe first part of what has now become a 10-partseries for the News-Press, I noted, “While Iwas, and remain a defendant in the case of thePeople vs. Peter Lance, I am first a citizen and

second a journalist. I’ve devoted much of mycareer to reporting on law enforcement mis-conduct. So this probe began, not as somevendetta or attempt to ‘get’ a police officer, butas an honest, dispassionate exercise in truth-finding and it will remain that way as I con-tinue to report the story and defend myself inthe criminal case.”

Just yesterday, for the first time since theseries ran, the city of Santa Barbara issued astatement acknowledging the “serious alle-gations” I have reported and stating that it is“the duty of the City Administrator, CityAttorney and Chief of Police to review” them.

Promising that officials “will carefully reviewthe allegations and take appropriate action, ifit is merited by the facts,” the city also used thatstatement in the form of a press release toeffectively justify a news blackout on thisgrowing scandal.

But despite that promise of a review, thereis a mounting body of evidence that may sug-gest a concerted effort continues to exist on thepart of the Santa Barbara Police Department,the office of the City Attorney, Santa BarbaraCounty District Attorney’s Office and the pre-siding judge of the Santa Barbara CountySuperior Court, not only to obstruct discovery

in my criminal case, but to impede my jour-nalistic investigation.

That seven-month probe has uncoveredevidence presented in prior articles suggest-ing that Kasi Beutel, the “Top DUI Officer” forSanta Barbara County from 2009-2010, exag-gerated the number of her arrests and framedinnocent drivers by lying in police reports,manipulating breath tests, withholdingexculpatory evidence from defendants andwitnessing forged waivers in which arresteesgave up their rights to blood tests; the mostreliable measure of their blood alcohol con-tent, which is used to determine guilt in a DUI

case.In a June 23 press release, sent to the media

one day into my series, the Police Departmentsought to try my case in the press. On July 11-12,letters were sent to the media by a local lawfirm representing Kasi Beutel which alsoattacked the series.

Until now I have steadfastly avoideddescribing the factual details of my arrest byOfficer Beutel on New Year’s Day. The onlyreference to a specific element of my casecame in Part Three of the series on June 24

Please see DUI on A3

It’s back toSanta Barbara

for Philip Myers

By SCOTT STEEPLETONNEWS-PRESS CITY EDITOR

Philip Eric Myers, the disbarred Santa Barbaraattorney facing several charges stemming from sales ofalleged phony securities and defrauding an elder, wasreleased from a Georgia detention facility and waspresumably on his way back to Santa Barbara County.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, leadinvestigator in at least two local cases against Mr. Myersinvolving several felonies,has refused to comment onwhen the 59-year-old, whowas in custody since July 22,would return, citing securityconcerns.

But personnel with theGwinnett County Sheriff’sDepartment said Mr. Myerswas released at 1:51 p.m.Tuesday Georgia time forextradition to Santa Bar-bara County.

As of late Tuesday, SantaBarbara County Jail per-sonnel had no record of Mr.Myers being booked there.

The News-Press obtaineda copy of the June 30 arrestwarrant affidavit, latersigned by Santa Barbara County Superior Court JudgeJean Dandona, in which Sheriff’s Department DetectiveRobert Minter recommends bail of $1 million, based “onthe reported amounts of money that have been stolen byPhilip Myers.”

In one case under investigation by the Sheriff’sDepartment, Mr. Myers is accused of swindling a womanout of $1.6 million.

In another case first reported by the News-Press, an

Arrest warrant affidavit sayshis swindling could top

$20 million

GWINNETT COUNTY SHERIFF

Philip Eric Myers wasextradited to SantaBarbara County fromGeorgia on Tuesday.

Please see MYERS on A12

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SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS NEWS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 A3

when I presented evidence fromnationally ranked handwriting expertJames Blanco that my blood-testwaiver — known as a Trombettaadvisement — and those of two otherKasi Beutel arrestees, had beenforged.

In Part Eight of the series I reportedevidence of four potential additionalforgeries confirmed by Mr. Blanco ina sworn declaration.

But in recent days new evidence hassurfaced suggesting key evidence thatmight have been helpful to the defensein my case was destroyed by one of theSanta Barbara police officersinvolved in my stop and arrest andfurther, that originals of the Trom-betta blood waivers that the districtattorney was ordered to produce incourt may have been shredded.

In this installment, I’ll report on theperception of mounting efforts bygovernment officials to restrict theflow of evidence in this investigationand my criminal case.

JUDGE HILL STOPS OPEN COURT TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES

After a hearing on July 26 in Dept. 2of the Santa Barbara County SuperiorCourt in which he encouraged two ofseven alleged Trombetta forgery vic-tims to testify under oath in opencourt, Judge Brian Hill, who is pre-siding over my case, refused at ahearing on Monday to let me or twoother alleged blood-test waiverarrestees testify.

He also denied repeated requestsby my attorney Darryl Genis to putOfficer Beutel, who was present incourt, on the stand so that Mr. Geniscould examine her under oath aboutthe forgery allegations. Finally,toward the end of the hearing JudgeHill, who is also presiding judge forthe entire Santa Barbara CountySuperior Court, ordered me forciblyejected from the courtroom after Iquestioned his decision to limit testi-mony in my case.

Surrounded by three deputiesincluding Sgt. Michael Skall whotwisted my arm behind my back, I wasnot only removed from the courtroombut the Courthouse. The judge tookthat action after denying a request bya producer for Channel 17, the com-munity access channel, to videotapethe proceedings — another change inhis previous courtroom policy — afterhe had allowed still photographersfrom the News-Press and other mediato cover the start of the blood-waiverforgery hearing July 26.

At Monday’s hearing, after previ-ously refusing to cite or sanction me orthe News-Press for violating a gagorder he imposed on July 15, JudgeHill also invited the District Attorney’sOffice to prepare a motion preventingany of the participants in the case —including me — from commentingabout it in the media; suggestinganother effort to impose a priorrestraint on me personally and myongoing coverage of the Beutelinvestigation.

CITY ATTORNEY’S OBSTRUCTION OF THE INVESTIGATION

For months, during the course of myinvestigation, in response to a series ofPublic Records Act requests filed bythe office of Darryl Genis, Lt. DavidWhitham, the records custodian forthe Police Department, respondedexpeditiously, providing therequested information within a mat-ter days and often within as little as 48hours.

But when we filed our last requeston July 19, Lt. Whitham told me in afollow-up call, that “everything now isbeing run through the City Attorney’sOffice. If you want anything you’ll haveto deal with them.” As a result, for arequest we filed on July 19, DeputyCity Attorney Tava Ostrenger took 10days to comply.

During the months of May and JuneI had a regular exchange of emails andinformation with Lt. Donald PaulMcCaffrey, the department’s formerpublic information officer. Initially hefurnished information regarding thedepartment’s use of video in patrolunits, the department’s “DUI Round-Up” published in the local media anddetails about the tenure of Kasi Beu-tel, Mark Corbett and Christine Orte-ga, on the Department’s DrinkingDriver Team.

But two months ago on June 2, inresponse to my most recent request tohim, Lt. McCaffrey sent me an emailrefusing to furnish further informa-tion relating to Officer Beutel andstating that he had “referred thematter to the Santa Barbara CityAttorney’s Office for review.” To date,I’ve received no response to thatquery.

FILING A MOTION TO QUASH A SUBPOENA

On July 21, Mr. Genis filed a sub-poena on Police Chief Cam Sanchezrequesting an explanation for variousallegations about my arrest containedin the June 23 press release that wentout under the chief’s name. Five dayslater, Reed Gallogly from the CityAttorney’s Office responded by filing amotion to quash the subpoena on thegrounds that it was “irrelevant,” “un-duly onerous, burdensome andoverbroad.”

While that matter is still pending,

Mr. Gallogly and Ms. Ostrenger playeda key role in the controversial April 8Pitchess hearing in which we soughtan inspection of Officer Beutel’s per-sonnel file by Judge George C. Eskin,then presiding in my case.

Arguing in open court at the hearingthat the only “relevant” material inher file would be complaints thatJudge Eskin might examine inresponse to our motion, Ms. Ostrengerwent into a closed-door session withthe judge, attended by Mr. Gallogly. Inthat session Sgt. Todd Stoney, thePolice Department’s supervisor ofinternal affairs, testified under oaththat there were no citizen complaintsin Officer Beutel’s file. As I later dis-closed in the series, that testimonycame at a time when at least one, andpossibly two complaints were in theBeutel file, raising the question ofwhether Sgt. Stoney, the principalofficer monitoring officer integrity atthe department, committed perjury.

When I attempted to publish a por-tion of the in-camera transcript that Iobtained legally via the CourtAdministrator’s Office, it was Ms.Ostrenger from the City Attorney’sOffice who contacted Judge Hill on orabout July 14.

Later that day Mr. Genis and I weresummoned to a hearing before JudgeHill in which he issued the afore-mentioned gag order, threatening meand the News-Press with sanctions ifwe published that transcript.

We did just that in Part Seven of theseries on July 24, and in that hearing inDept. 2 two days later, Judge Hillbacked down; announcing that hewould not seek to punish either me orthe newspaper for what we contendedwas a proper exercise of our FirstAmendment rights.

CITY ATTORNEY SILENCES THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT

Meanwhile, in the course ofresearching Part Nine in the series,published Tuesday, in which wereported for the first time that the stateDepartment of Insurance FraudDivision had opened a criminalinvestigation into whether OfficerBeutel committed workers’ compen-sation fraud, the city attorney was,again, involved in refusing to imme-diately provide details from the city’sRisk Management Division in theFinance Department, whichapproved a total of $7,762.89 in medi-cal and temporary disability pay-ments to Officer Beutel.

The payments were purportedly fora shoulder injury Officer Beutelclaimed she suffered as a result of herDUI stop and arrest of commercialfisherman Michael Kenny, on thenight of Aug. 22, 2009. After initiallyclaiming Mr. Kenny “kicked” her inthe “right hip” and after Mr. Kennywas charged with battery on a peaceofficer, the district attorney droppedthe battery charge as well as a DUIcharge when Mr. Kenny’s blood testedbelow the legal limit of .08.

Further, the official police report inMr. Kenny’s case stated that OfficerBeutel was “not injured.” Nonethe-less, two-and-a-half months later shefiled the workers’ comp claim forinjury to her shoulder. And on June 3,in a letter to the D.A., city risk man-agement officials asked that Mr.Kenny pay “restitution for damagesthat he caused.”

In a detailed email sent July 6 toRobert Samario, the city’s financedirector and Mark Howard, the riskmanager who works under him, Iasked a series of detailed questionsregarding this Beutel claim.

Mr. Howard later got back to me inan email that same day refusing toprovide any details beyond the claimnumber and the date of filing (Nov. 14,2009) referring me — as did Lt.McCaffrey and Lt. Whitham — to thecity attorney.

CITING THE CITY ATTORNEY ON POLICE COMPLAINT QUESTIONS

Nine days later, I had differentquestion for Mr. Howard relating tothe Kasi Beutel investigation. As itturned out, a number of her formerDUI arrestees who had contacted meor the News-Press after the initialfive-part series ran, wanted to filecomplaints against her with the PoliceDepartment but were frustrated whencopies of the complaints werereturned to them after filing without atime or date stamp.

In Part Seven of the series I dis-cussed the cases of two Beutelarrestees: Taurino Torres and CruzitoCruz, a City Council hopeful who eachwaited months before hearing backfrom the department after filingcomplaints that the departmentaccepted but failed to date at the timeof submission.

When I learned that the City ClerkServices Office also allows people tofile police officer complaints whichare time- and date-stamped, I con-tacted Mr. Howard because his officeaccepts hard copies of the complaintsfrom the city clerk. On July 15, I sent anemail asking for copies of any KasiBeutel complaints he had on file.

Three days later, Mr. Howardreplied with this response: “Mr.Lance, your questions have beenreferred to the City Attorney’s Officefor an appropriate response.”

CITY ATTORNEY NOW BLOCKS ACCESS TO POLICE REPORTS

As recently as the week of July 18,when people arrested by Kasi Beutel

sought copies of their police reports,they were typically furnished within48 hours of the request by Susan Seg-ura, the Police Department’s recordssupervisor. I personally filed twopolice report requests on behalf of Mr.Torres and Chris Jackson whose DUIarrest by Kasi Beutel was laterrejected by the D.A.’s office. Two dayslater Mr. Segura produced hard cop-ies of the requested reports.

But on July 29 when I sought to pickup the police report of another KasiBeutel arrestee named AaronMcCann, I was told by the watchcommander at the time, Sgt. WarrenHoltke, that I could not get Mr.McCann’s report and that if I wantedit, I would have to “speak to the cityattorney.”

“It appears that in their effort toreduce the flow of information in theKasi Beutel investigation,” saysattorney Tom Griffin who representedTaurino Torres, “the city is using theissue of police officer privacy as ashield to prevent the kind of full dis-closure that this issue urgentlyrequires at this time.”

“But from a reading of that Pitchesstranscript that the city attorney foughtto keep secret, it seems that there wasnothing in that proceeding thatimpacted the privacy of Officer Beu-tel. In my opinion they petitionedJudge Hill to issue an order to stop itspublication because they wereembarrassed by what that transcriptdocumented about the sworn testi-mony of the supervisor of internalaffairs. In a matter like this, wheresuch serious charges are coming forth,it benefits all sides, including thepolice department and Officer Beutelfor the city to be as forthright andtransparent as possible.”

“All I wanted was to be able to get mypolice report,” says Mr. McCann. “Thepolice told me I could get it. They hadme fax over a copy of my driver’slicense and a signed authorization forit to be picked up by Peter Lance andafter taking a lot of time off from workto accomplish this, we were told, ‘No.You can’t have it. Call the cityattorney.’ “

A RESPONSE FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY TWO MONTHS LATE

On July 28 I sent a five-page email toCity Attorney Steve Wiley entitled“Obstruction by The City Attorney’sOffices in the Kasi Beutel Investiga-tion.” In it I detailed most of the alle-gations cited in this article, and notingthat, “What began as a probe of OfficeKasi Beutel has now expanded into abroader examination of the SBPDafter new information emerged fol-lowing publication of my initial five-part series in the News-Press fromJune 22nd to June 26th, 2011.”

The next day, Tava Ostrenger fromMr. Wiley’s office finally compliedwith the public records request wehad filed on July 19 — taking 10 days todeliver on the kind of public infor-mation we got previously from thePolice Department in 48 hours.

“Among the information that wehad to drag from the City Attorney’sOffice,” says Mr. Genis, “was a simpleprintout indicating that Kasi Beutelhad entered the police Academy onNov. 28, 2005, a little over sevenmonths after she had contacted Rev.Thomas James, who she asked tobackdate her marriage license fromJan. 21, 1999, to May 31, 1997, the dateshe had sworn to under penalty ofperjury in her divorce pleadings inApril of 2005.”

“You tell me why Steve Wiley, apublic official, dragged his feet on therelease of that data which my client,Peter Lance, first asked Lt. DonaldPaul McCaffrey for on June 1. Why didit take the city attorney almost twomonths to furnish that simpleinformation?”

THE D.A.’S TACTICS IN KEEPING KASI BEUTEL OFF THE STANDIn Part One of my series, I reported

on how Deputy District AttorneySanford Horowitz sought to preventOfficer Kasi Beutel from taking thestand and testifying under oath to the331 DUI arrests she claimed credit forin 2009 — a total that won her the “TopDUI Officer” award from MothersAgainst Drunk Driving. A transcript ofthat hearing in front of Judge Eskin onApril 22 can be downloaded at:www.peterlance.com/People_vs_Lance_4.22.11_hearing_tr-anscript.pdf.

I believe Judge Eskin’s behavior inmocking our efforts to get OfficeBeutel to testify under oath was soextreme that I filed a motion on May 13seeking to get the judge recused forbias and prejudice:www.peterlance.com/P.L._Dec_170.1_Motion_filed_5.13.11-.pdf.

Within three hours after the motionwas filed, while denying any bias,Judge Eskin stepped down. Withindays of that hearing we got confirma-tion via a Public Records Act requestfiled with Lt. Whitham, that OfficerBeutel, in fact, had claimed that 331figure, which other Police Depart-ment records proved was an exag-geration of her true DUI arrest countfor 2009. “In other words,” says Mr.Genis, “if we’d had a chance to pin herdown under oath on the 22nd, shemight have had to take the Fifth toavoid perjuring herself.”

But Mr. Horowitz continued toprotect Officer Beutel at the first of herDUI cases to come to trial after myinitial five-part series was published.

When defense attorney William Mak-ler sought to get Officer Beutel to tes-tify regarding her possible perjury incourt filings in 2000 and 2005 — reve-lations first published in the series —Mr. Horowitz objected 27 times on thegrounds of relevance and Judge Eskinsustained him each time, even thoughhe had opened the door to that line ofquestioning.

The day before that hearing onJune 28 in the case of the People vs.Batalas, Mr. Horowitz filed a 15-pagememorandum titled “In Opposition toDefendant’s Request to ConductIrrelevant Cross Examination DuringMotion to Suppress.” As an exhibit heattached Part One of the series.

In that memo, Mr. Horowitz arguedthat my article was “Inflammatory,slanted and (a) hearsay account ofallegations of misconduct,” furtheralleging that “none of these allega-tions against officer Beutel are sub-stantiated by admissible evidence.”

LAST MINUTE ADMISSION EVIDENCE MAY HAVE BEEN DESTROYED

On July 26, at a hearing in Dept. 2 onmy case, convened to examinewhether Officer Beutel and MarkCorbett may have witnessed forgedTrombetta waivers, Mr. Horowitzfailed to comply with an earlier orderfrom Judge Hill commanding him tobring to court all of the original signedTrombetta advisories. After the judgeadmonished him, Mr. Horowitz wastold to bring those original waivers toa continuation of the hearing onMonday.

“We had been asked for this mate-rial for over half a year,” says Mr.Genis, “but suddenly after almost adozen court appearances and for thefirst time Mr. Horowitz made theshocking eleventh-hour announce-ment that some or all of those originalwaivers may have been shredded. Ifthis is true, it would constitute a fla-grant violation of the discovery anddisclosure which carries grave sanc-tions against the prosecution with-holding and/or destroyingexculpatory evidence.”

AUDIO RECORDING OF LANCE ARREST DESTROYED

When Kasi Beutel arrested me,claiming that I had a BAC of .09, onehundredth of one per cent over thelegal limit of .08, I was initially stoppedjust past the corner of Santa Barbaraand Micheltorena streets by a patrolcar driven by Officer Bruno Peterson.

In a DMV hearing on June 30, tes-tifying under oath, Kasi Beuteladmitted that she did not see that stop,yet in her arrest report she accused meof making “unsafe turning move-ments.” At an earlier DMV hearing onJune 24, Officer Peterson testified

under oath that he had “never (told)Officer Beutel” that Peter Lance“made any kind of unsafe or illegalturning movement.”

At that same hearing Officer Peter-son swore that when his patrol unitpulled up next to my vehicle on SantaBarbara Street I was “looking down at(my) lap.” When asked by Mr. Genis ifhe thought I was “asleep at a greenlight,” Officer Peterson said “No.” Heestimated the time that I was “lookingdown” at “a couple of seconds.”

His partner that day was OfficerHeather Clark, a five-year veteran ofthe Santa Barbara Police Departmentwho attended the police academy withKasi Beutel. At the time the policereport on my stop and arrest wasapproved by an department sergeanton Jan. 2, Officer Clark had submittedno arrest narrative or other writtennotes on the incident.

At a DMV hearing on July 28, testi-fying under oath, Officer Clarkadmitted she “couldn’t say” if I was“looking down,” at the time she andOfficer Peterson rolled up next to myvehicle in their patrol unit. Yet in asupplemental report that she wrote onMay 19, more than five-and-a-halfmonths after the arrest, Officer Clarkstated that she observed “a white maleadult behind the wheel with his headdrooping and his chin nearly restingon his chest.”

When pressed by Mr. Genis as to whyshe used such a phrase, the exchangeat the hearing went like this:

Mr. Genis: So, when faced with theopportunity of writing an unbiasedreport that would simply say his headwas looking in a downward directionor using a term which suggests intox-ication, you elected to use the word,“drooping,” implying intoxication.Correct?

Officer Clark: I don’t necessarilydefine intoxication using the word,“drooping,” no.

Mr. Genis: What was it that moti-vated you out of all the possible mod-ifiers to use the word, “drooping?”

Officer Clark: Just the word I choseat the time.

Mr. Genis: And it just so happensthat would be a word that would beconsistent with creating the image ofsomebody who is intoxicated; correct?

Officer Clark: I suppose that woulddepend on the reader.

SBPD USES OFFICER CLARK’S PHRASE IN PRESS RELEASE

In that June 23 press releaseattacking the News-Press DUI seriesthat was released under Chief CamSanchez’s name, it states that on thenight of my DUI stop, “One officerdescribed Lance as looking down athis lap; the other described him ashead drooping, chin nearly on hischest.”

“So they took this loaded descrip-tion of Peter Lance by Heather Clark,”says Mr. Genis, “one that goes waybeyond what her own partner Peter-son wrote in his narrative the night ofthe arrest, and five-and-a-half monthslater, at the request of Sandy Horowitzthe Deputy D.A, Officer Clark, Kasi’sAcademy colleague, casts my client asa drunk. That would be outrageousenough, but later on in that hearing,Heather dropped a bomb.”

Continuing under oath, OfficerClark admitted that she had a “pocketdigital recorder,” that she used torecord some portion of the eventssurrounding my stop and arrest, but“at some point later there was nothingevidentiary (on it) and it was erased.”

HOROWITZ ADMITS THAT BLOOD WAIVERS MAY HAVE BEEN DESTROYED

At the end of Monday’s hearing inDept. 2, after being twice ordered byJudge Hill to furnish originals of theTrombetta blood-test waivers so thatthey could be examined by handwrit-ing experts for both sides, Mr.Horowitz admitted for the first timethat some of the waivers may havebeen shredded by the department.

As far back as our first discoveryrequest sent to the District Attorney’sOffice on Feb. 24 we asked for “theoriginals of all forms and documentsfilled out by Officers Peterson, Clark,Beutel and their superiors relating to(Peter Lance’s) stop, testing andarrest.”

Questions arise about destruction of arrest-related documents

On the morning of NewYear’s Day, Officer KasiBeutel of the Santa Bar-bara Police Departmentarrested investigative

journalist Peter Lance on suspicion ofdriving under the influence. The caseis pending. After finding a number ofmisstatements of fact in the report ofthe incident, Mr. Lance started look-ing into other arrests involving theofficer. The investigation, includinginterviews with others, resulted in thisseries, which began with five partsJune 22-26. With today’s installment,there have been 10 altogether — andmore are in the works.

For updates, see newspress.com.For more on Mr. Lance, go topeterlance.com.

Behind theSeries

Please see DUI on A9

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legend, famed dancer and choreog-rapher Juan Cota.

The cousins will be together onstage for one dance and realize thehistorical significance of theirperformance.

“I am really proud to be keeping upwith a family tradition and to bedancing here with my cousins. I amproud to be a member of the Cotafamily,” said 13-year-old VictoriaGonzalez.

“I’ve always wanted to dance wheremy great-grandfather danced. We areall so proud,” chimed in 11-year-oldOlivia Ochoa. “This is the first time allfive of us have been together dancing. It is special because it makes ourfamily proud.”

Juan Cota’s daughter, Kathy Cota,said she knows her father, who died in1975, would be “tickled pink.”

“He is up there in heaven and justsmiling down,” Ms. Cota said. “To seehis great-granddaughters dancingwould be just amazing for him.”

KEYT News anchor Paula Lopezwill emcee the show, which will bebroadcast live. She is also a member ofthe Cota family and the mother of thetwin daughters in the great-granddaughter group who are alsodancing at the mission for the firsttime.

It’s a lot of emotion and excitementfor one night, admits Ms. Lopez.

La Fiesta Pequeña is at 8 p.m. todayat the Santa Barbara Mission.

To learn more about the historybehind one of Santa Barbara’s richestand important Fiesta traditions besure to turn to page A6.

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NIK BLASKOVICH / NEWS-PRESS

Alma de Mexico performs “Son De los Capires” during Tuesday’s rehearsal for La Fiesta Pequeña at the Santa Barbara Mission.

5 great-granddaughters of Fiesta legend Juan Cota to dance SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS NEWS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 A9

To underscore the importance ofbeing able to examine the originalblood test waivers to determinewhether Kasi Beutel may have forgedmy waiver, handwriting expert JamesBlanco suggested in his sworn decla-ration filed with the court May 31 that“the original Trombetta waivers inquestion be examined by a fingerprintexpert in an attempt to identify anypossible writer’s palm prints. Thepurpose of this examination is topotentially provide exculpatory evi-dence to show that Peter Lance’swriter’s palm print does not appearnear the signature on the document,and this examination may also pro-duce the writer’s palm print of theperson who actually forged PeterLance’s signature on the document.To this end, the writers’ palm prints (ofboth hands) need to be produced bythe arresting officers and by any otherpersons suspected of writing the ‘Pe-ter Lance’ signature on Trombettawaiver.”

“This is the textbook definition ofobstruction of justice and outrageousgovernmental conduct,” says Mr.Genis. “Coming less than a week afterthe admission by Officer Clark that shewrote an ex-post-facto version of theevents surrounding Peter Lance’sstop and arrest and then destroyed anaudio recording of it, we learn fromthe very deputy district attorney whoasked her to prepare that report (usedin the Police Department’s pressrelease) that crucial evidence thatcould prove definitively that KasiBeutel was a forger is now missing.Evidence that could be exculpatory tomy client? Unbelievable. I urge JudgeHill to stop threatening gag orders andcontempt and take control of theseproceedings before there are anyfurther violations of my client’s rightsand the D.A.’s office makes a mockeryof the judicial process.”

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Blood waiversmay have been

lost

1 death, 76 illnesseslinked to ground

turkey

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The government is scrambling tofind the source of a salmonella out-break likely linked to ground turkeythat has killed one and sickened doz-ens more.

Finding the source of an outbreakhasn’t been easy; the government hasbeen chasing the illnesses for months.The Agriculture Department, whichoversees meat safety, said it is stillinvestigating who produced the meat,and the department hasn’t initiated arecall.

California state health officials saidTuesday that the one death was inSacramento County. Seventy-six peo-ple in 26 states have been made sickfrom the same strain of the disease.

The illnesses date back to March,and the federal Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention said Mondaythat cultures of ground turkey fromfour retail locations between March 7and June 27 showed contaminationwith the same strain of salmonella,though those samples were not spe-cifically linked to the illnesses.

County farmerscan get disaster aidSANTA BARBARA COUNTY TheU.S. Department of Agriculture hasdesignated Santa Barbara County acontiguous disaster county, said anews release from the office of Rep.Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.

San Luis Obispo was designated aprimary disaster county due to lossescaused by freezing temperatures onApril 8 and April 9.

According to the California Emer-gency Management Agency, the SanLuis Obispo county agricultural com-missioner reported losses to thewine grape harvest at more than32 percent and estimates currentlosses at more than $47 million.

With the disaster designation,farm operators in both counties areeligible to be considered for assis-tance from the Farm Service Agencyfor emergency loans, which can beused to restore or replace essentialproperty, pay all or part of produc-tion costs associated with the disas-ter year, pay essential family livingexpenses, reorganize the farmingoperation, and refinance certaindebts.

Farmers also are eligible for theSupplemental Revenue AssistancePayments Program, which providesfinancial assistance for crop produc-tion and/or quality losses due to anatural disaster.

For more information contact theSanta Barbara County Farm ServiceAgency at 928-9269.

— Morgan Hoover