Crime

Former sheriff's deputy Jason T. Lei, accused of embezzling from the deputies union while acting as its treasurer, accepted a plea deal Wednesday that could land him in jail for up to three years and eight months.

Police on Thursday responded to bomb threats made over the phone to a local women's shelter, but found no evidence of an explosive, according to the Hollister Police Department.

As motorists prepare for the final holiday weekend of summer, the California Highway Patrol is joining with law enforcement agencies throughout the country and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in an ongoing nationwide drunk driving crackdown. The two-week-long “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign, which began Aug. 16, coincides with the CHP’s annual Labor Day Maximum Enforcement Period.

Due to a spike in the number of false alarm reports in the city, Hollister's code enforcement division and police department are reminding residents to register their alarms to eliminate false reports.

Authorities did not require former sheriff's deputy Jason T. Lei to stay in the U.S. during his felony embezzlement case – even after he had left the country in 2010 around the time of the investigation, only to return about three years later and face the charges.

The five suspects – including three men from Gilroy – accused of kidnapping a woman last week in the area of Compton, sexually assaulting her and threatening to force her into prostitution were arraigned Wednesday in the Hall of Justice in Riverside, according to a press release from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

On Saturday, a group of residents connected to the Hollister Community Watch Facebook page held their first community clean-up event, according to a statement from the Hollister Police Department.

Hollister police officers responded to a report of force with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm on Valley View Road involving a juvenile suspect.

A Hollister woman is suspected of embezzling thousands of dollars from the local chapter of a nonprofit that rescues Australian cattle dogs, according to court records.

San Benito County prosecutors are charging two 17-year-old males as adults in the stabbing homicide of Hollister’s Andres Guzman.