2000-04-04 04:00:00 PDT CONTRA COSTA -- In a surprising reversal, an appellate court agreed yesterday to rehear the case of former Contra Costa County Supervisor Gayle Bishop, who is attempting to overturn 1997 convictions for misuse of public office.
Without explanation, the state Court of Appeal granted a petition filed by Bishop's attorneys asking the court to decide whether Bishop was the victim of a political prosecution.
"We're delighted," said attorney Dennis Riordan. "Rehearing is probably granted in no more than one out of 500 to 1,000 cases. It is extraordinarily rare. It is very gratifying. It means these convictions have not been affirmed."
Last month, a three-judge panel dismissed two of four perjury convictions against Bishop and ordered a new sentencing hearing for the 61-year-old San Ramon Valley woman. And the justices seemed to suggest in their ruling that Bishop does not deserve a three-year prison term ordered by a visiting judge in 1998.
Bishop has long argued that criminal charges -- which included allegations her staff did campaign and legal work for her on county time -- were filed against her at the behest of political opponents who disagreed with her slow-growth development stance. She has also criticized the role the district attorney's office played in prosecuting her, saying it was a conflict of interest because she voted on its budget as a supervisor.
To avoid that conflict, Deputy District Attorney Jim Sepulveda prosecuted Bishop under a temporary assignment to the state attorney general's office. The appellate court called that arrangement a "charade" last month.
In papers filed last week, Bishop's attorneys argued that the lawyers who represented her at trial made a crucial error in not trying to have Sepulveda disqualified as prosecutor.
The appellate court made the same criticism in its ruling last month but noted that Bishop's appellate lawyers had not raised the issue, effectively preventing the justices from ruling on that point of law.
But in the new pleadings, her lawyers are arguing that Bishop had ineffective assistance from her trial counsel, and now the Court of Appeal will rehear her case.
"This means the court views the original opinion as raising new and complicated legal problems that it had not adequately considered before, the issue of the disqualification of the prosecutor," Riordan said.
Informed of the court's decision to re-examine the case, Sepulveda declined to comment. Ray Cardozo, the deputy attorney general handling the case did not return calls to The Chronicle.
Prosecutors have until April 21 to respond and then a new hearing date will be set
Catalina Torres, a 44-year-old mother of two grown sons, was killed on Saturday by Felix Sandoval. Torres was the cousin of Sandoval's estranged wife, Margarita Sandoval. Photo: Courtesy Of Torres Family
It's been nearly a year since Catalina Torres, a volunteer for a battered women's group, was killed during a terrifying domestic violence attack at a Martinez beauty salon. At the time, her brother Eustacio Torres told relatives he couldn't believe such violence existed.
Now Eustacio Torres, a former star wrestler at San Francisco State who paid for much of his sister's burial and welcomed one of her adult sons into his home, is dead under similar circumstances. And a Martinez family that already had too much experience with domestic violence is reeling from it once again.
"It's impossible," sobbed their mother, Rafaela Torres of Martinez.
Catalina Torres, who did outreach to women at Concord's Stand Against Domestic Violence, was slain by her cousin's estranged husband, who may have resented her efforts to help his wife get away from him.
Eustacio Torres, a 41-year-old contractor from San Diego, was fatally shot July 19 by his ex-girlfriend, who then turned her gun on herself, according to police. It was Catalina Torres' son who discovered the bodies.
Eustacio Torres was mourned a week later at the same Catholic church in Martinez that held his sister's service. And their bodies now rest side by side in a Lafayette cemetery.
"I can't believe this is happening again," said Silvia Torres-Limón, speaking from her mother's Martinez home, which her brother rebuilt at age 17 after consulting books from the library. "You wish it was a nightmare, but it's not."
"Unbelievable," said Martinez Police Chief Tom Simonetti. "Catalina was an advocate for changes in the system to protect innocent victims. It's ironic as can be that her brother would fall."
Strong and capable, Eustacio Torres was like a surrogate father to his family as a boy, relatives said. At San Francisco State, he was a Division II All-American and still ranks fifth in career wins for the university.
"My brother was big and stocky and wouldn't smile much, so some were afraid of him," said sister Patricia Bustamante of Santa Ana. "But he was very humble and generous, and you knew that when you got to know him."
She recalled that after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, her brother stayed out all night looking for survivors. He moved to San Diego in the late 1990s and launched a construction firm.
First tragedy
The family was shattered last Sept. 6, when Felix Sandoval, 49, stormed into the Martinez beauty salon owned by his estranged wife. She had obtained a restraining order against him and was receiving support from Catalina Torres, who worked in her cousin's shop.
Unable to find his wife, Sandoval followed Torres to an apartment behind the salon. As Torres shielded one of her customers in the kitchen, Sandoval shot her in the head.
He then took a blind shot out of the apartment's front door and twice struck Sgt. Paul Starzyk, 47, who was about to bust in. Though mortally wounded, Starzyk returned fire and killed Sandoval.
Eustacio Torres took his sister's death hard, relatives said, and considered not traveling north for her burial.
But he ended up standing on the steps of Martinez's police station with two of his sisters and asking why authorities had not arrested Sandoval after he made earlier threats against his wife.
Contra Costa County prosecutors said that Sandoval had been the subject of three police reports but that in each case there was not enough evidence to file charges.
Second attack
While Eustacio Torres was mourning his sister in Martinez, his ex-girlfriend - 52-year-oldBernadette Agustin - attempted suicide. His sisters now see that as a warning sign that something was awry in San Diego.
He had met Agustin five years ago while renovating her house. They became partners, buying and flipping houses that he fixed up, said San Diego police Lt. Terry McManus. But when the market crumbled, they lost money and lost properties to foreclosure, prompting tension.
At one time the couple lived together, but their romance fizzled, Torres' sisters said. They said he realized she was unstable and perhaps dangerous, but never got a restraining order.
Sometime after 5 p.m. on July 19, Agustin went to see Torres in the converted garage of a home he was renovating, police said. She shot him with a pistol she had bought.
"He was trying to handle it on his own," Bustamante said. "You have to understand, his favorite line was, 'Everything's going to be all right.' "
Dear Ms. Nardi, On Nov 1st 2011 I met with City Manager Ken Nordoff and former Chief Bryden over events regarding the CNET Scandal. I provided documents linking Danville Police to Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Taskforce (CNET) and how Chris Butler, Tanabe, Wielsch and Lombardi tried to arrest me, set me up, torch my truck with me in it but the dozens of police reports spanning over thirty years they appear to be landing in the round file. Sometimes they derail the report by not taking the report. I specifically went to Mr. Wenter in regards to whether he had specific knowledge regarding my July 2011 hit and run over in Lafayette as just a mere two weeks after the Chief told me he was the FBI contact for CNET my car was totaled and then it gets better as Captain Schultz, a detective who I've seen around town, and Sergeant Mike Chan were clearly attempting to set me up for a Police/Suspect confrontation. Feel free to watch my comments about CNET, events near me and learn how my attorney was beat up on Oak Road in the matter Bennett v. Collins which was derailed when Attorney Sage Sepahi chose his personal safety. Mr. Collins fell to his death shortly after the November 1st 2011 meeting and then a few weeks later I learn that Tanabe was the Danville Pack 36 Cub Scout Dad who was once in my house but keep in mind that both Collins, Tanabe, Collins, Butler, Wielsch, and others all worked for or with persons associated with the Danville Police Department, Collins was a Danville Building Inspector who reported to work at the same building as Tanabe. The person who attacked me in 2004 fell to his death weeks after that meeting but my former Danville neighbor Loretta Hale and former customer Roma Bhatia who worked at the former Country Wide offices in Danville. I provided specific information on a particular attorney from Walnut Creek who simply was winning too much, likely knew Butler but had other 'deaths" connected to his clients. When you win too much you're operating just like an insider trading stock tips. I wish it was this simple - derail? Try someone's been trying to kill me and no one has done anything other try to arrest me for shaking someones hand.
Walnut Creek city attorney resigns, saying he was pressured to derail Lesher Center investigation
By Elisabeth Nardi
Contra Costa Times
POSTED: 07/30/2013 10:40:40 AM PDT
UPDATED: 07/31/2013 12:42:09 PM PDT
WALNUT CREEK -- Council members tried to derail an internal investigation once it revealed that the city manager knew of the allegations of child sex abuse by a Lesher Center employee earlier than he disclosed, according to outgoing City Attorney Bryan Wenter.
Wenter said this type of pressure from the people who hired him and what he called a "difficult" work environment prompted him to resign Monday after two years as the city's top counsel.
Mayor Cindy Silva said Tuesday she was not aware of any effort to shut down the investigation.
After Wenter announced his resignation, one of his two assistant city attorneys announced she, too, was leaving.
The atmosphere at City Hall has apparently become intolerable for Wenter in the wake of the Lesher Center child abuse "mandated reporting" internal investigation. That investigation examined whether city employees fulfilled their responsibilities to report suspected abuse to police after firing a former Lesher Center employee who was allegedly having inappropriate contact with teenage girls. The employee, Jason Pedroza, was charged by prosecutors in February with two felonies and a misdemeanor, three months after he was fired.
Four employees were placed on leave until the internal investigation was complete, and all four were eventually brought back to work after the investigation found that overall they acted appropriately. But the investigation revealed that City Manager Ken Nordhoff and others had the same information as the employees on leave.
"As you may know, the City Attorney's Office undertook that difficult, time-consuming, and thankless work, through independent outside counsel and an independent investigator, for a variety of important reasons, including potential civil liability the city may yet face," Wenter said in an email to city staff announcing his resignation. "Avoiding that challenge or shutting down the investigation when the pressures mounted internally because the investigation went 'up the chain' was not a legal or moral option I could support."
Wenter told this newspaper Tuesday that at the end of April, about a week after the council was made aware that Nordhoff knew more of the Lesher Center situation than he originally disclosed, Silva and another council member he declined to name asked him to make legal recommendations on the investigation that were not his own. At that meeting, he said he was accused of abusing the power of the City Attorney's Office, and his upcoming job review was mentioned.
Subsequently that day, Wenter said, he received a call from another council member who told him that he needed to watch his back and that the investigation needed to end.
"I continue to interpret both conversations, including raising the specter of a performance evaluation in the middle of an ongoing investigation, as efforts to alter my legal advice and influence me to shut down the investigation," Wenter said.
Silva and Councilman Bob Simmons acknowledged they met with Wenter in late April but disputed his account of what transpired. The goal was to find ways to bring "closure" to the situation, not to stop it, Silva said.
And it couldn't have been stopped anyway because interviews were already done, Silva said.
"The whole intent was to try and bring everything to resolution," she said.
Simmons agrees with Silva's recollection, and said that at the time Wenter was the only one in the city empowered to make any decisions in regards to the Lesher situation. Simmons said he wanted to give Wenter ideas, such as setting a due date for the investigation to conclude. He wanted the investigation completed, not to stop it, and mentioning Wenter's review was not an implied threat, Simmons said.
"The city attorney job is to provide legal advice; you don't insert your own sense of what is right or wrong when you are giving legal advice," he said.
Wenter declined to name the council member who called him to say he needed to watch his back, but Councilwoman Loella Haskew acknowledged Wednesday it was her.
Haskew said that when she told Wenter to "watch his back," it was not a threat. She thought he had chosen a side and that people on that side would turn on him, so he should watch his back, she said. In no way was she trying to get him to do anything "nefarious," she said.
"It's not in my style ever to threaten," Haskew said. "I am the most open guileless person I know. I have no threats. And I honestly believe that all three of us were trying to get to resolution so the city could move on to the city's business."
Wenter made it clear in the resignation emails he sent to the council and to the city staff that he had planned to stay at this job for much longer.
Following his move, assistant city attorney Katy Wisinski submitted her resignation effective Aug. 23. She is one of two assistant city attorneys.
Wisinski declined to comment about her exact reasons for leaving, but in an email to all Walnut Creek employees she made clear that Wenter's resignation was key to her decision. She commends him for his leadership and says she is proud of what he has accomplished.
"I have taken tremendous pride in being one of your attorneys, and I had expected to remain here for many years," Wisinski said in her email. "My heart is very heavy, but I can see that it is time to go."
With a nearly vacant attorney's office by the end of August, the City Council will need to act soon. Silva said it's a council decision on what to do about finding a new city attorney, even an interim one. As of Tuesday, no meeting had been called to discuss the issue.
Wenter's is the second high-profile resignation in the wake of the scandal. Last week, Human Resources Director Sally Rice, one of the four employees at the center of the investigation, resigned to take early retirement.
Silva said it saddens her when anyone in the organization leaves, but employees continue to do an incredible job for Walnut Creek.
"We will be able to work together to set a positive course for the future," she said.
Nordhoff is out of town and could not be reached for comment.
This appeared on the same public record the night I spoke.
I have strong opinion on MaceRich's management of the property as the spate of robberies are troubling. There are many reasons this long range plan should be paused as the recent smash and grab reflects a great impact on Police Resources when stores are allowed to place valuables in easy to break cases.
My former business in the eighties was operating a large commercial casework operation. I know from walking around that many stores are complacent with the city's casual atmosphere is the weakness.
Growth at the expense of others
The mall security is not a failure but Mace-Rich is consumed with growing their footprint. The smash and grab is a standard ploy, one fast car, one big sledgehammer. In 1981 thieves drove a truck through the doors of Eids TV and Video who was one my early customers.
Their take was about 50 G's in TVs. Nothing has changed but D & L would have survived this attack with a few details. The close quarters of glass to street is a problem and sooner or later a car will plow through a window and another heist will occur.
I am reading the Walnut Creek master plan and will be commenting on that. I will put on my analyst hat for that one and real estate equity firms will understand the risk when they see what happened to Vice - by the time this is over Walnut Creek will have lost all their gains to litigation.
Good luck with the changes as it's going, going, gone.
BROADWAY PLAZA LONG RANGE MASTER PLAN
Kenneth Nodder, Senior Planner, reported that the Broadway Plaza Long Range Master Plan concept would be introduced for conversations to commence between the eventual decision-making bodies and the applicant, Macerich, with the intent of identifying and defining the project focus and direction. Macerich presented the public’s feedback from recent community meetings. No formal action was taken by the Council or the Commissions.
Chuck Davis, Macerich Vice-President of Development, presented the Macerich’s long range vision for Broadway Plaza. Yann E. Taylor, Architect, Field Paoli Architects, presented architectural features.
Mr. Davis outlined the specifics of their desires and noted they don’t intend to bring a project forward until the master plan and its pieces are approved. He invited the Council and the commissioners present to participate in the same exercise as they have been doing with the community.
Mr. Davis, Mr. Taylor and Cecily Talbert Barclay, Perkins Coie, legal counsel for Macerich – responded to questions clarifying that: five decisions will come to the City Council – Floor Area Ratio increase, abandonment, Planned Development (PD) zone, the DDA and an EIR approval; master plan area does not include all of Broadway Plaza, however the PD zoning includes all the property; the Master Plan would cover parcel 2 as well; including Macy’s (Federated) is being worked on concurrently; and details regarding entitlements are forthcoming.
The Mayor invited public comment – no members of the public spoke.
The attendees engaged in an exercise reviewing thematic pictures from 5:20 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The public was invited to turn in cards. Council and commissions provided their input on the pictures.
Late on a November night last year, several days after she first reported to police that her 15-year-old daughter was missing, Minnie Norrell awoke from a fitful sleep and went to look outside her bedroom window.
There in her front yard, amid the many candles that well wishers carefully had placed and lit in her front walk, she saw a stranger.
She watched quietly as the man moved some of the shining candles aside to make room on the brick walls that line her front path for the one he had brought. He then lit the candle on the walk, which had become a symbol of hope for Norrell and her community, and disappeared into the darkness as silently as he had arrived.
“Pittsburg people are special,” said Norrell, nearly a year later, recalling those agonizing nights and the outpouring of public sympathy and support she felt. “I can’t tell you how many thousands of people were in this house. And I’m talking thousands.”
The tragedy of Lisa Diane Norrell’s disappearance and the news of her murder eight days later brought the community of Pittsburg together in fear and mourning like few other events in recent times, and has helped spark an effort by city officials and religious leaders to address problems of violence and youth alienation.
Lisa’s murder “heightened awareness of people and their surroundings,” said Mayor Federal Glover, 43, a lifetime resident of Pittsburg. “Emotionally it draws the community together. We all learned from the tragedy."
“She was a good person, who happened to find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Glover went on. “Emotionally it makes you want to do more outreach.”
To that end, the city has held conferences on youth issues and set aside funding for a new teen center and skating park over the past year since Lisa’s killing, which remains unsolved. The city also holds open forums during city council meetings to promote dialogue between the teenagers and adults.
But one of the biggest changes since Lisa’s murder has been in the way Pittsburg officials discuss the problems of the city. According to Pittsburg’s Assistant City Manager, Glenn J. Valenzuela, 50, the city’s leaders were never so involved with young people as they are now.
“Involvement with the youth before Lisa’s death was a priority, but it was not at the front burner,” said Valenzuela. “Now, wherever you go in this city and hear elected officials speak, one of the first words that come out of their mouths is in support of young people. That is real rare in any city.”
Taking Comfort in Family
Pittsburg, a close-knit industrial town of 54,117, is located 40 miles east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay. Its hard-working residents are a diverse mix -- 47.2 percent Caucasian, 23.7 percent Hispanic, 17.1 percent African-American, and 11.2 percent Asian, according to the 1990 census. Many of its residents have lived all their lives in a town where Dow Chemical is one of the major employers along with a steel company called USS-POSCO.
They take comfort in their families, do the best they can to get by, and take pride in the city’s multi-ethnic character, which sharply contrasts with other, largely white, suburban towns in otherwise affluent Contra Costa County.
Indeed, at least one Pittsburg official, school board trustee Jim MacDonald, charges that local industries pollute the air and water more freely in Pittsburg than in other Bay Area communities precisely because of the city's working-class and ethnic makeup.
Earlier this month MacDonald proposed that the city demand that the Federal government declare Pittsburg "an environmental justice community." Such status, part of an environmental protection agency program begun five years ago to reduce the effects of pollution and toxic waste in poor and minority areas, would allow the government to oversee the industries and provide funding for education programs.
At first glance, Pittsburg, nestled next to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, has a small-town feel, a safe haven from the problems of the major metropolis. But looks can be deceiving, for like many suburban towns across America Pittsburg is not immune from urban dangers: drugs, prostitution, youth gangs and violence among them. Lisa’s murder was one of at least six last year.
For some time, Pittsburg police have been at a loss about how to eliminate prostitution and the drug houses that became common sights on Ninth and Tenth streets. Gang warfare even began to claim lives.
One such death touched Father Ricardo Chavez enough to prompt him to do something about it. When a teenager named Douglas Askern was killed in a drive-by shooting only a few weeks before Lisa’s death, the town, numbed by the constant violence, did nothing.
“What got to me was that there was no reaction,” said Father Chavez, the priest at a local Catholic church who grew up in Pittsburg. “Nobody put a marker out there, nobody put up a flower or a cross. This was now the umpteenth death and I began to sense that everyone was like I was--you just expect it.”
Lisa Norrell’s murder soon followed, along with the deaths of several prostitutes from the area and brought hordes of Bay Area media attention to Pittsburg (See ETHICS). Finally, people were paying attention.
“The town just kind of adopted her, kind of like a strange phenomenon,” said Christine Rohde, one of Lisa’s teachers at Pittsburg High. “It was just this cute little girl who wouldn’t hurt a fly and all of a sudden she’s just gone. And violently and horribly.”
"A Wake-up Call to Residents"
In the aftermath of the killings, Father Chavez launched Families Against Violence, a group dedicated to teaching parents how to talk to their kids about violence. The city formed a task force in hopes of combating the problem and after school programs were instituted along with midnight basketball to help keep kids out of trouble.
Mark C. Leonard, 45, a resident of Pittsburg for six years, President of The Rotary Club and a member of the Board of Directors for the Chamber of Commerce and Boys and Girls Club, said that Pittsburg is no worse than any other city when it comes to crime. Still, he said Lisa’s killing has been a "wake-up call" for residents and police alike to do a more effective job at maintaining security.
“Personally, I don’t want my kids out after dark,” said Kathy C. Meidinger, Executive Assistant at the City Manager’s office and a mother of four. “And I preach to them ‘don’t put yourself in a compromising position,’ which is really what Lisa did. Just don’t walk alone in the dark.”
Lisa disappeared on Nov. 6, 1998 after leaving a rehearsal for a quinceañera party for a Latina girlfriend in an Antioch Hall. She reportedly left in anger and decided to walk home along the largely desolate Antioch-Pittsburg Highway. She never returned home. Her asphyxiated body, her hands knotted in fists, was found face down in the yard of a landscaping firm a week later.
It was a devastating time that council member Frank R. Quesada, 65, among many others in Pittsburg, will never forget. A retired postal worker, and Pittsburg’s mayor at the time of Lisa’s disappearance and murder, Quesada was an old family friend of Lisa and her family. Lisa’s 17-year-old brother Tony Quesada is Frank’s nephew by adoption.
“It was … heartbreaking,” said Quesada. “I saw her grow up. We would go to family functions and see each other. To me it was pretty personal, I knew her since she was a kid. The whole tragedy made you want to help the community.”
Like many, Quesada can’t make sense of the tragedy. He hopes the $60,000 reward money recently offered by Governor Gray Davis for information leading to arrest and conviction in the case will produce progress in solving a case that has seen little thus far.
“The funny thing, I don’t know what got her to be walking out there,” said Quesada. “It is not a heavily used road, people only used it for east-west traffic for work. Otherwise there is no traffic and no lights, it is very dark. I wouldn’t walk there and I am 65 years old. I know better.”
A statue of a fisherman adorns the Piazza di Isola delle Femmine on the Marina, representing the Pittsburg of the past, a predominantly Italian fishing community where Sicilians had come to make a better life in the early 1900’s. Originally named New York of the Pacific, the town became Black Diamond in 1905 after the discovery of coal in the hills just south of town. In 1911, residents voted to change the name to Pittsburg, after the Pennsylvania city, to reflect its industrial development. The “h” was dropped to simplify the spelling.
When commercial fishing in the bay and rivers was banned by the state legislature in the late 1950’s, the Italian community deteriorated and people began to move out. By then, an influx of people from all over the world had begun to call Pittsburg home and the population grew significantly. The largely Italian community began to give way to a new Latino population along with African-Americans and Filipinos. The change resulted in the exodus of many whites to neighboring Antioch, which consisted mostly of whites, as it does today.
In Pittsburg, the various races learned quickly to live with each other. “As far as I can remember, we got along well,” said Father Chavez. “It was such a small community that there weren’t really a lot of opportunities for doing wrong.”
Pittsburg saved its animosity for Antioch. For as long as residents can remember, there has been a rivalry between the two small towns that culminates in a raucous annual football game between their high schools each Fall.
“Antioch was our mortal enemy,” said Minnie Norrell, a graduate of Pittsburg High. “The Pittsburg-Antioch football game was the last of the year always. They had a lot of security out there because the funnest thing to do on Saturdays was to go to Antioch and start a fight.”
Remembering Lisa
These days, Minnie Norrell continues to mourn her daughter. The mention of Lisa’s name still brings tears to her eyes. But she is also doing what she can to find ways to better Pittsburg after the tragedy. She has been a vocal leader in seeking ways to bring new legislation so that children up to 16 years old will be considered missing instead of being automatically labeled as runaways.
She is also starting a non-profit organization called Lisa’s Closet to provide new clothes to needy children in the area.
And Norrell said she still takes great comfort in the citizens who have helped her cope, all the people who made a point to come to her and tell her how her daughter had touched their lives. She remembers the memorial for Lisa at the school, which drew over 2,000 students, many of whom were looking for ways to express their fear and grief. Norrell sat in the front row as Lisa’s teacher, Christine Rohde, gave a speech.
“It was very hard to speak looking at them because nobody knows what you’re going through until you look and see the pain in their eyes,” said Rohde. “Kids who didn’t even know Lisa just wanted to go up and hug her. She sat there for like two hours and just let kids come up and hug her.”
The children also remembered Lisa by decorating her locker with posters, cards and flowers. They held a candlelight vigil, walking from the high school to Norrell’s house, all the while singing Lisa’s favorite song, “Dreaming of You” by Selena. They crafted yellow ribbons and tissue paper flowers and gathered in Rohde’s room to weep and remember her.
Adults showered Norrell with gifts, flowers, constant visits, phone calls and the rapidly increasing collection of candles on her front walk, where so many strangers took the time to pay their respects.
Today, nearly a year later, a few candles still line Norrell’s front walk and a poster bearing a picture of Lisa remains in the front yard. Students from the high school stop by every once in a while and friends and neighbors still check in on her.
But for Minnie Norrell, who now lives alone in her modest corner house, things will never be the same.
“There is never going to be any closure. When they catch this guy and they kill him, I don’t have any closure,” she said. “My daughter is gone.”
2000-04-04 04:00:00 PDT CONTRA COSTA -- In a surprising reversal, an appellate court agreed yesterday to rehear the case of former Contra Costa County Supervisor Gayle Bishop, who is attempting to overturn 1997 convictions for misuse of public office.
Late on a November night last year, several days after she first reported to police that her 15-year-old daughter was missing, Minnie Norrell awoke from a fitful sleep and went to look outside her bedroom window.
Pittsburg, a close-knit industrial town of 54,117, is located 40 miles east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay. Its hard-working residents are a diverse mix -- 47.2 percent Caucasian, 23.7 percent Hispanic, 17.1 percent African-American, and 11.2 percent Asian, according to the 1990 census. Many of its residents have lived all their lives in a town where Dow Chemical is one of the major employers along with a steel company called USS-POSCO.
In the aftermath of the killings, Father Chavez launched Families Against Violence, a group dedicated to teaching parents how to talk to their kids about violence. The city formed a task force in hopes of combating the problem and after school programs were instituted along with midnight basketball to help keep kids out of trouble.
A statue of a fisherman adorns the Piazza di Isola delle Femmine on the Marina, representing the Pittsburg of the past, a predominantly Italian fishing community where Sicilians had come to make a better life in the early 1900’s. Originally named New York of the Pacific, the town became Black Diamond in 1905 after the discovery of coal in the hills just south of town. In 1911, residents voted to change the name to Pittsburg, after the Pennsylvania city, to reflect its industrial development. The “h” was dropped to simplify the spelling.
She is also starting a non-profit organization called Lisa’s Closet to provide new clothes to needy children in the area.
Yes and no one brought the chips!