The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 21

THE STATE Friday September 26 1997 B-3 The Modesto Bee New law tough on gun-toting criminals By Dan Bernstein Bee Capitol Bureau SACRAMENTO Emphasizing its potential impact on gang members Gov Wilson on Thursday signed legislation that will vastly increase prison sentences for people who use a gun while committing one of a host of crimes Both proponents and opponents said the so-called measure is the most far-reaching sentencing measure enacted in California since strikes in 1994 now has the toughest penalties for gun-toting criminals in the na olds a Fresno photographer and father of a murder victim who successfully championed the measure in 1994 Unlike the measure which sailed through the Legislature in its original form the measure was significantly watered down by the Democratic -controlled Legislature before it reached desk Among other things voluntary manslaughter was removed from the list of crimes covered by the bill and the bill was further amended to require that the gun be displayed rather than simply carried by a defendant The Department of Corrections estimates that the law will result in tougher sentences for about 500 criminal defendants next year But the fiscal effects of the bill expected to kick in for an additional 10 years because the minimum sentence currently received by affected offenders The department estimates that added incarceration costs from the measure would be about $10 million in fiscal year 2008-2009 growing to about $140 million by 2037-2038 according to department spokeswoman Kati Corsaut The bill was sponsored by Mike Reyn bill are murder mayhem kidnapping rape sodomy oral copulation and robbery Existing law requires mandatory of either three four or 10 years for all defendants who use a firearm while committing any felony At a bill-signing ceremony at police headquarters in Los Angeles Wilson stressed the new potential impact on gang members want every gang-banger to understand that every time they pull a gun it makes them the he said in the bull's eye and looking at 25 years to said Assemblyman Tom Bordona-ro R-Paso Robles who authored the measure AB4 is going to send a very clear message of zero tolerance We think it will go a long way in deterring (gun-related) The new law which takes effect Jan 1 provides that people convicted of certain violent felonies will have 10 years added to their prison sentence if they displayed a gun while committing the crime 20 years if they fired the gun and an additional 25 years to life if a victim or bystander was shot Among the 16 crimes covered by the We broke a record for the longest streak without rain That came to an end this morning 5 Rob Krohn National Weather Service IN BRIEF South state gets double whammy The Associated Press Residents of Seal Beach wade through thigh-high floodwaters brought on by storms and high tide on Thursday morning Storms flood cause wrecks end drought By Robert Jablon The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Storms that ran hot and cold put the squeeze on Southern California on Thursday flooding beach homes causing deadly accidents and ending a record 219-day drought in downtown Los Angeles The brunt of Tropical Storm Nora lashed Arizona but its moisture-laden edge brought sticky weather and showers to Southern California Meanwhile swells from a Gulf of Alaska storm earlier in the week churned up the surf Nora was dying rapidly but was expected to bring as much as three-fourths of an inch of rain to most of California with more in the mountains and deserts before petering out by this afternoon said Rob Krohn a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard By afternoon as much as 1 inches had fallen in some mountain areas while downtown Los Angeles saw 44 inch It was the first rain recorded there in 219 days broke a record for the longest streak without rain That came to an end this Krohn said In Imperial County a heavily irrigated desert valley between San Diego and Yuma Ariz residents said the rain that began Wednesday night was the hardest in three years The downpour coupled with Highway Patrol officers said Light rain helped firefighters battling a 1200-acre arson fire in the San Diego County town of Escondido The fire nearing containment destroyed two homes two trailers and two outbuildings Meanwhile rain from Nora heavy surf from a storm earlier this week in the Gulf of Alaska and Thursday high tide caused water to inundate beachfront homes in Seal Beach rain is from Nora The swells are from the Gulf of Alaska The combination of the two probably made it Krohn said But damage was minor garages were flooded We had two or three homes 1 hat had minimal damage Wet Seal Beach police Lt Kenny Mollohan said gusty winds had farmers worried about damage to their cotton crop In the town of Seeley 15 wooden telephone poles near an alfalfa field toppled but were repaired Thursday The storm this early in the season was unusual if not unprecedented Krohn said get this kind of storm in he said like stray desert thunderstorms This is all subtropical moisture and air that getting now why it feels sticky The weather service issued flash flood watches through Thursday night for mountains and deserts in San Diego and San Bernardino counties More than 230 accidents including at least two fatal crashes occurred on Southern California highways California Ruby Ridge suit OK SAN FRANCISCO A wounded survivor of the Ruby Ridge shootout can sue federal agents for allegedly lying about his role and adopting a shoot-on-sight policy a federal appeals court ruled Thursday The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected attempts by US marshals and FBI agents to dismiss a $10 million damage suit by Kevin Harris stemming from the August 1992 shootings at the Idaho cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver wife Vicki and 14-year-old son Samuel and Deputy US Marshal William Degan were killed Harris a friend of was hit by the same FBI bullet that killed Vicki Weaver Harris now of Republic Wash was acquitted of murder charges in federal court in 1993 but was charged with murder in state court last month by Boundary County prosecutors The local prosecutors also charged Lon Horiuchi the FBI marksman who fired the shot that killed Vicki Weaver The suit said two marshals Arthur Roderick and Larry Cooper falsely told other officers that Harris fired first in the initial confrontation on property Plane hits apartments LOS ANGELES A small plane crashed into a Pacoima neighborhood Thursday killing two people and critically injuring another a city fire spokesman said The three were the only people aboard the plane Upon impact the plane set the roofs of two small apartment buildings aflame said Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells Part of the wreckage was balanced between the rain-soaked roofs of the buildings Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire It known whether anyone was in the apartments Milk prices to rise LOS ANGELES The price of milk will rise 17 cents a gallon next week in California The price increase approved by state regulators last month takes effect Wednesday reflecting the added cost that dairy farmers can charge processors for raw milk the largest single jump in milk prices since a 12-cent-a-gallon hike in August 1996 Protesters arrested SCOTIA A half-dozen environmentalists urging safeguards for the ancient Headwaters Forest were doused with pepper spray and arrested for trespassing Thursday after they entered the headquarters of the Pacific Lumber Co linked arms and refused to leave The arrests followed a rally by about 100 people in front of the timber corporate offices Quake widely felt LOS ANGELES A small earthquake under northern Los Angeles County was felt widely Thursday The 1:08 pm tremor was magnitude 33 centered nine miles north of Sunland said Robert Tindol spokesman for seismologists at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena It was not an aftershock of an earlier earthquake he said The quake centered north of the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley was felt in West Los Angeles No big lotto winner SACRAMENTO No tickets purchased matcned all six numbers drawn Wednesday night for the twice-weekly game boosting the jackpot for draw to $7 million Here are the numbers drawn 3 6 19 20 41 and 45 The previous jackpot was $3 million Ex-molester coaching girls Soccer hands tied conviction is expunged FBI releases files on John Lennon The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A man convicted of fondling two teenage girls is coaching a soccer team and both the district office and league officials say their hands are tied the San Francisco Examiner reported Thursday The volunteer coach Rafael Siero has instead threatened a defamation suit against the mother who complained about his coaching role done anything Siero a financial services consultant told the Examiner broken any laws I don't know why all of a sudden this woman is after The Pleasant Hill-Martinez Soccer Association launched an investigation after officials were contacted by outraged parent Susan Weaver the mother of one of the girls Siero was convicted of fondling She said Siero should have nothing to do with young girls because of his past my personal opinion that he has forfeited his right forever to work with Weaver said Wednesday like putting an alcoholic in front of a har and expecting him to have a Contra Costa County senior Deputy District Attorney Bob Kochly familiar with record said that legally prevents Siero from contact with young girls or because his record has been expunged Siero successfully completed three years of probation for fondling two girls 13 and 14 in 1992 at the Walnut Creek United Methodist Church where he did volunteer work according to Contra Costa County court records He pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor child molestation He was initially charged with fondling three other teen-age girls and three women at the church but those charges were dropped according to court records A 17-year-old girl also alleged Siero fondled her in 1986 according to a police report contained in court records but the complaint was never prosecuted tioned in the Wiener a professor at the University of California Irvine and author of the 1984 book on the slain musician and singer said he would continue dogging the agency until he gets hold of the remaining 10 documents Wiener contends the agency went after the former Beatle because the Nixon administration feared his influence on 1972 presidential voting Wiener began his fight in 1981 The ACLU filed suit in 1983 on his behalf Among the documents surrendered was an April 26 1972 FBI memo from an unnamed agency source describing a trip by a Madison Wis leftist to New York where she met with and Zippie planning demonstrations at the August 1972 Republican National Convention Lennon said will come to the conventions if they are and on the condition that his appearance not be advertised Nothing in the available files gathered from 1971 to 1972 describe the singer as involved in either planning or engaging in an illegal act Lennon whose song Peace a became an anthem for the anti-war movement eventually skipped the GOP The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A university professor declared victory Thursday over the FBI after it grudgingly released the majority of its secret surveillance files on former Beatle John Lennon The 80 pages turned over a week earlier to Jonathan Wiener include information on contacts with antiwar activists his appearance on a popular television show and the talking pet parrot of one leftist that chirped on!" The agency which blacked out portions of the files continues to resist releasing the remainder of the records it amassed on Lennon in the 1970s saying they would jeopardize national security In a statement from Washington the FBI said the Freedom of Information Act requires the agency to release information from its files that was collected during an earlier era in our history when different concerns drove the FBI the US government the news media and public sentiment Under laws and investigative guidelines this type of investigation would not have been initiated by the It said the remaining information was being withheld part to protect the privacy of other citizens men More drug rehabilitation urged The Associated Press SACRAMENTO prisons and jails are bursting at the seams but little is being done to relieve the pressure with alternative sentencing and drug rehabilitation programs the Little Hoover Commission was told Thursday need to act quickly before our overburdened system goes full said Louise Fyock a member of the state Board of Corrections and director of a San Diego County resource center for parolees She recommended drug treatment and job training both in and after prison for all drug-involved offenders as a cost-ef the past have been written as impossible to rehabilitate Lip-ton said Recently however more than 50 studies have shown that such offenders can be redeemed to crime-free productive lives saving a great deal of money and cutting down on crime Lipton said prisons currently have only 1500 beds for inmates undergoing drug rehabilitation Commissioner Stanley Zax said Most do not continue live-in drug treatment in community facilities once paroled a critical component of successful programs according to Lipton and Fyock fective way of preventing their return to a life of crime Douglas Lipton senior research fellow at the New York-based National Development and Research Institutes told commissioners such intensive programs have been shown to reduce recidivism by 25 percent among the highest-risk drug-addicted inmates heroin and cocaine users with long criminal records Those addict-offenders typically each commit 40 to 60 robberies 70 to 100 burglaries and more than 4000 drug transactions a year he said are the people who in.