Another year has come and gone in San Benito County, full of
victories and defeats, wins and losses and the triumphs and
tragedies that define small-town life. It truly has been a year of
change for the residents of San Benito County
– both good and bad. And in the spirit of living for the future
while remembering the past, the Free Lance staff presents our
selections for the top five news stories of 2004.
Another year has come and gone in San Benito County, full of victories and defeats, wins and losses and the triumphs and tragedies that define small-town life. It truly has been a year of change for the residents of San Benito County – both good and bad. And in the spirit of living for the future while remembering the past, the Free Lance staff presents our selections for the top five news stories of 2004.
With the dawning of a new year, we look forward to once again serving our readers as San Benito County’s source for local news, features and sports. We wish you all a Happy New Year!
Miwok tribe proposes Indian casino in San Benito County
The biggest news to San Benito County residents came in August when the five-member California Valley Miwok tribe teamed up with investors from Game Won to build a casino off Highway 25 near the Santa Clara County line.
The proposal met with much resistance, most notably from the anti-casino group Casinos Represent A Poor Solution (CRAPS). However, since the proposal of a casino, California Valley Miwok Project Manager Gary Ramos and the tribe’s financial backers have been making plays to sell the community on the idea of a casino.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has said that without local support he will not grant gaming compacts to tribes that can’t prove their ties to an area. And many locals believe the Miwoks, a tribe recognized by the federal government, are “reservation shopping,” trying to get a compact in San Benito County even though they have not yet proven their ancestral roots here. The tribe says they will prove their historical connection to the county when the time is right.
The tribe recently commissioned an economic impact report, which Ramos says will illustrate the up to 2,000 jobs and other financial benefits a casino would bring to the area. The report should be ready in mid-January, he said.
Most recently, the tribe and its investors scrapped plans to build on the plot off Hwy. 25, and are now looking to build closer to the Hollister Airport, Ramos said.
District 5 election erupts into controversy
Although the District 5 Supervisor election occurred in March, county residents are still unsure if their new supervisor will be the person who won the election by only 10 votes, and in the meantime the issue has ballooned into one of the most controversial conflicts in recent history.
Preliminary numbers in the District 5 Supervisor’s race showed incumbent Bob Cruz won, but by the final count De La Cruz had won. The local League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) immediately commissioned a private investigation of the election, followed by a county investigation later in the month. Cruz’s wife, Marian, also filed a lawsuit contesting the results, which she later dropped, and requested a new race.
By early May, District Attorney John Sarsfield had subpoenaed 30 witnesses for a criminal grand jury investigation, and released a county-ordered investigation that suggesting felony charges for De La Cruz and his campaign adviser Ignacio Velazquez. The report said De La Cruz and Velazquez had illegally returned a few absentee ballots to the election’s office, campaigned too close to a polling place and coerced a voter. However, John Hodges, the county’s head election official, admitted he told the De La Cruz camp they could return the absentee ballots.
That same month, De La Cruz’s newly-hired attorney, Michael Pekin, tried to disqualify Sarsfield because of an alleged bias, and the next day Sarsfield canceled the grand jury and forwarded the matter to the Attorney General and FBI. A day later, Sarsfield claimed he was extorted and again called for the Grand Jury, which prompted Pekin to file a motion to disqualify him again – this time alleging Sarsfield was having an affair with his office manager, the niece of local LULAC member Mickie Luna. Pekin claimed the affair created a conflict of interest against De La Cruz. Sarsfield then canceled the grand jury again.
In October, Sarsfield dropped all charges against Velazquez, but charged De La Cruz in December with felony counts for election violations. De La Cruz said the charges stemmed from him mistakenly signing a petition with three signatures gathered by someone else worth a 75-cent discount toward his filing fee.
De La Cruz hired lawyer Arthur Cantu, who has had an ongoing feud with Sarsfield since losing the 2002 race for the district attorney office, to represent him in the criminal charges. He and Velazquez then hired lawyer Bill Marder to sue the county for $5 million on alleged civil rights violations.
About a week later, Cantu and Velazquez filed a complaint with the county election’s office claiming Cruz had also signed a nomination petition illegally, but should have filed it with the district attorney’s office. By the end of the year they still had not filed it with the correct agency.
De La Cruz will be seated Jan. 4, but has to be booked in the county jail before arraignment on the criminal charges on Jan. 13.
Battles bog down
District Attorney
District Attorney John Sarsfield’s turbulent second year in office made numerous headlines throughout the year.
Sarsfield faced allegations of an inner-office affair from supervisor-elect Jaime De La Cruz – who was recently charged with four felony charges for election forgery, a sexual harassment suit filed by two women in his office, a recall attempt and the poisoning of his family dogs, among other battles.
In May, lawyer Michael Pekin filed a motion to disqualify Sarsfield from handling the Grand Jury investigation of District 5 Supervisor-elect Jaime De La Cruz. The motion contained an allegation that Sarsfield was having an affair with his office manager – the niece of Latino political organization that commissioned an investigation into the election.
Soon after, two women in the DA’s Victim Witness Department, Katie Fancher and Julie Roybal, filed a complaint and later a lawsuit claiming the alleged office affair created an unfair and hostile workplace. Details for a settlement with the women are still being finalized.
In July, Sarsfield was notified a group of residents were organizing a recall effort against him. Later that month, two of the Sarsfield family’s dogs were poisoned with anti-freeze and died. Sarsfield said recall supporters were to blame – a charge they denied. He later said the poisoning marked the end of the recall campaign. By the filing deadline in December, the recall supporters had only about 1,000 of the more than 5,000 signatures needed to trigger the recall process.
In November, Sarsfield enraged family members of Ralph Santos, the 73-year-old Hollister man found dead in a mustard seed field in 2003, when he agreed to a plea bargain with one of the murder suspects. The family claimed Sarsfield agreed to the deal because he is friends with suspects attorney. Sarsfield denies the allegations and said he did not believe the confessions would be admissible in court and needed Rojas’ testimony to convict Ramos of murder. The dismissal motion will be heard by a judge in January.
County mourns for
fallen youths
What started as a joyride, ended in tragedy when three Hollister teenagers died in fiery wreck while fleeing from the California Highway Patrol in a stolen Jaguar in October.
The community mourned the loss as it tried to understand the senseless deaths of Vanessa Jimenez and Albert Hernandez, both 13, and Armando Limas, 16, killed when the car they were driving hit a power pole and burst into flames at the intersection of San Felipe, Shore and Fairview roads. Another 13-year-old girl – who has remained unnamed because she is a minor – suffered major injuries when she was ejected from the vehicle and lay in a coma at Kaiser Santa Teresa Medical Center in Gilroy until she was released in November. Toxicology reports revealed Limas, the driver, had not been drinking, but Hernandez tested positive for alcohol.
The group had allegedly stolen the car from a friend’s mother, along with several pieces of diamond jewelry. Police are waiting for the conclusion of an investigation into the accident before deciding what, if any, charges the lone survivor will face.
It’s no on Measure G
Controversial growth control initiative Measure G was overwhelmingly defeated in the March elections, ending more than a year of divisive arguments in San Benito County.
Measure G would have amended the county’s general plan to control population growth. The measure would have maintained a 1 percent growth cap and would essentially re-zone agricultural property in unincorporated areas of San Benito County. It also would have changed zoning of certain ag properties to highly restrict future development, an element some opponents believed infringed on their property rights.
The plan was originally drafted by a group of county residents to preserve agricultural land. However, they met with resistance from other local landowners who commissioned a study stating the initiative would hurt property values and force processing plants to relocate out of the county. A bitter divide erupted between Measure G proponents, who believed the measure would combat urban sprawl, and opponents, who said it would limit their ability to sell their own land or pass it on to their children.
Local farmers, real-estate agents, and the Hollister Downtown Association were only a few of the many people opposing Measure G, while supporters included members of the Citizens for Responsible Growth, who also drafted the initiative.
The measure was voted down 7,930 to 3,581 – a 69 percent to 31 percent margin – in the March election.
