Law Enforcement

Police were called out to an apartment complex on Pocket Road in Sacramento after Aquelin Talamantes, 29, of Davis, was seen with a 4-year-old boy, but not her 5-year-old daughter, Tatianna Garcia.

When police arrived they found the 4-year-old boy unharmed, but Tatianna was discovered in the trunk.  After officers attempted to resuscitate the girl, she would be pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital.

Now that the family of Halema Buzayan has dropped its case against the city of Davis, it seems fair game that I can release a few nuggets that I have been holding onto for some time.  I was actually looking for something specific and ran into old files and documents I had long since forgotten I had owned.

The bottom line is that the Buzayan case was, at its core, a bumper bender in a parking lot.  The family paid for the damage of the vehicle.  Once that occurred, the owner of that vehicle was no longer interested in the police pursuit of the case and, once she found out, she was outraged.

EMQ FamiliesFirst announced on Wednesday it would be reducing its Davis campus program and administrative staff by 77 positions effective July 31, 2013.  The Residential Treatment Program is open while they work to resolve licensing and certification issues, a statement from spokesperson Kristine Austin said.

“We are fully committed to children in crisis, their families, and the community of Davis,” said Darrell Evora, president & CEO of the agency. “This has been a very painful time for all involved. I am especially grateful to my colleagues at EMQ FamiliesFirst who have dedicated their careers to working with vulnerable young people, and to all those in Davis and Yolo County who support our mission.”

When the allegations against EMQ FamiliesFirst originally came to light, including the off-campus rape of an 11-year-old and persistent problems with the young residents going AWOL into the community without supervision, the focus was rightly on the impact, upon young and vulnerable residents, of changes to FamiliesFirst policies in the last six to nine months.

However, those policies also had serious impacts on employees.  Robert Keith Oldham is now suing EMQ FamiliesFirst after Mr. Oldham claims he was terminated on January 18, 2013, for what he is calling “falsely-alleged violations” of employee policies and procedure.

Closure is a word that, more and more, I think should not exist.  The more I live and observe, the more I recognize in human psychology there is no such thing as closure – at some point, people just move on with their lives.  But there is never closure and in most ways they are never the same.

And so this week, I too am forced to deal with one of the pivotal moments of my past, as the Buzayan family made a decision to end their case.

In June of 2005, a witness reported to the Davis Police Department what they believed to be a hit and run accident in the parking lot of Safeway in South Davis.  The witness did not report seeing contact between the two vehicles, but noticed some damage to the car as the family’s SUV pulled away.

Investigating a misdemeanor crime, Davis Police Officer Pheng Ly made the fateful decision to arrest the 16-year-old high school student Halema Buzayan at 10 pm at night, despite the family’s request that they bring her to the police station for questioning the next morning.

Last week, the state agency reviewing the FamiliesFirst situation in Davis, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), completed its investigation, in the wake of reports of a sexual assault and rape of an 11-year-old by residents at the facility who are 13 and 14 years old.

In a statement from Michael Weston, Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Outreach Programs at CDSS, “The children accused of sexual assaults and other abuse have been removed from the facility and additional staff put in place to ensure the appropriate levels of care, safety and supervision is being provided for the children who reside there. The Department is also conducting daily monitoring of the facility.”

On Monday, the Davis Police announced that a 16-year-old male Davis resident was taken into custody, and is being held on charges for the double murder of Oliver Northrup and Claudia Maupin. There are no other suspects in this case.  By early Tuesday, the Vanguard had learned the name of the suspect, but declined to disclose the information publicly until the charges became official.

Late on Tuesday, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office filed a criminal complaint against 16-year-old Daniel Marsh, who they claim “did willfully and unlawfully kill a human being, to wit, Oliver Northup, with malice aforethought. This is willful, premeditated, and deliberate murder within the meaning of Penal Code Section 189.”

On Monday, the Davis Police announced that a 16-year-old male Davis resident was taken into custody, and is being held on charges for the double murder. There are no other suspects in this case.

The investigation is on-going, and because it involved a minor, we cannot release any other information at this time.  Police officials would only confirm that the suspect is not a family member to the deceased.