Yolo County

Some of the proposed cuts will include the closure of the Walter J. Leinberger Minimum security facility which would result in the immediate release of 140 felons into the community (though it should be noted these are felons housed in a minimum security facility).

Mr. Ferguson was previously convicted back in 1982 for three separate counts of residential burglary, at the time he was age 25 years old.  Six years later he pled guilty to a single count of 1st degree burglary.  Finally in 1995, he pled guilty to a single count of petty theft with a prior.

The Vanguard covered this story back in 2007.  The defendents have alleged excessive force by the police officer.  At that time, they had been unable to come to trial because the younger brother had suffered debilitating head injuries.

The Vanguard, in the first of what could be several installments over the coming weeks and months examines, that question more closely.

He cited a lack of evidence to proceed with charges and obtain a conviction.  This ended a long and strange saga that has generated outrage and bewilderment among many on the UC Davis campus and in the community.

Yolo Judicial Watch will be located on the Vanguard but available on its own separate page: yolojudicialwatch.org .

Of these invitees only two showed up.  Woodland Police Chief Carey Sullivan sent his Lt. Don Beal and Woodland Mayor Skip Davies came and graciously and patiently addressed a group of questioners that seem to grow more frustrated as the night went on.  The crowd was very grateful to Lt. Beal who was actually on duty as the scene commander and to Mayor Davies, but they were frustrated at the lack of attendance of other political leaders.

The Daily Democrat wrote a story on this January 3 and the Enterprise on January 10.

Perhaps in another publication, the writer would have immediately realized the absurdity of it all, comparing Jeff Reisig to famed gangster-hunter Eliot Ness.

We did not sit through the trial and we only know press accounts of the case, but it has all of the familiar elemnts.

Today, Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad, a former Mayor of Woodland, has written a response that was published on the Daily Democrat site.  When I first met Mr. Rexroad, I told him that he and I would likely be adversaries quite a bit.  What I have found is that there are times when I disagree with him, but there have also been times when we have been on the same side of the issue.  This is probably the issue of the biggest disagreement between the two of us.

If you missed it last week the Vanguard embarked on a lengthy analysis of the District Attorney’s report, concluding the findings in the report are not nearly as clearcut as the District Attorney claims.  Given the circumstances involved, it seems reasonable that the shooting may have been justified, but the situation from the beginning was escalated by questionable actions by the officers involved.

In People of The State Of California vs. Santiago Rodriguez Ochoa, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office charged an 18 year old with six criminal counts; one of the counts being subject to a gang enhancement. The case was first prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Hamilton in the Yolo County Court.

A 37 page District Attorney report concludes:

“When considering all of the facts and circumstances known to them at the time, the use of deadly force by the deputies was objectively reasonable and justified and therefore does not warrant the filing of criminal charges against Sgt. Johnson, Deputy Oviedo or Deputy Bautista.”

The settlement agreement was for 300,000 dollars.  Under the agreement there was no acknowledgment of wrongdoing on the part of the city of Woodland or its four officers involved in the incident.