HIGHWAY LANE CLOSURES:

There will be highway lane closures in the westbound direction of State Route 4 between Somersville Road/ Auto Center Drive and Railroad Ave. Monday through Friday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm.

There will be highway lane closures in the eastbound direction of State Route 4 between Bailey Road and the State Route 4 / State Route 160 connector ramp on Monday through Friday from 4:30 am to 12:00 pm.

There will be highway lane closures in the eastbound direction of State Route 4 between A Street / Lone Tree Way and the State Route 4 / State Route 160 connector ramp on Saturday from 7:00 am to 11:00 am.

There will be highway lane closures in the westbound direction of State Route 4 between A Street / Lone Tree Way and the State Route 4 / State Route 160 connector ramp on Saturday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

LOCAL STREET CLOSURES:

There will be lane closures in the eastbound and westbound directions of Larkspur Drive between Hillcrest Avenue and Wildflower Drive on Saturday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.

There will be lane closures in the northbound and southbound directions of Hillcrest Avenue between Larkspur Drive and Sunset Drive on Saturday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.

There will be lane closures in the northbound and southbound directions of A Street/Lone Tree Way between Rossi Avenue and E. Tregallas Road on Saturday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.

There will be lane closures in the northbound and southbound directions of Somersville Road / Auto Center Drive between Delta Fair Boulevard and Century Boulevard on Saturday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

For questions or comments please send e-mail to info@4eastcounty.org

By Sergeant Tom Fuhrmann, Antioch Police Investigations Bureau

A painstaking and detailed investigation into the murder of 44-year-old Relis Eastman on Saturday, June 25, 2016, has led to an arrest. After multiple interviews with Relis’ 22-year-old son Scott Eastman of Antioch, Antioch Police Detectives developed the probable cause necessary to obtain an arrest warrant for Scott for the murder of his father, Relis.

On Thursday, July 7, 2016 at approximately 9:00 PM a team of Antioch Police Detectives responded to the Eastman residence in the 1900 block of Biglow Drive, where Scott resides with his family. Detectives took Scott into custody without incident.

Scott was booked into the Contra Costa County Main Detention Facility on murder charges and is being held with no bail. Detectives plan on filing this case with the Contra Costa County Office of the District Attorney early next week.

The investigation is ongoing and no further information will be released at this time. Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call Detective Colley with the Antioch Police Department at (925) 779-6922. You may also text a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using key word ANTIOCH.

Washington, DC — Today, (Thursday, July 7, 2016) Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D, CA-11) issued the following statement on FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Oversight & Government Reform Committee.

“FBI Director Comey clearly demonstrated that the extensive, 12-month investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails did not warrant prosecution.

For the Republican presidential nominee, who immediately and outrageously claimed the entire system is rigged, we doubt he is aware that Director Comey was first appointed during the Bush Administration. Today’s hearing assured the country they can, and should, have confidence in public officials, like FBI Director Comey, who put the best interests of America and the U.S. Constitution ahead of partisan politics and self-aggrandizing.

While there is no doubt Director Comey made the only appropriate decision given the facts, the Oversight & Government Reform Committee and Congress need to review lessons learned from Secretaries Powell, Rice and Clinton, and clarify best practices for communications and data security.  Moving forward, the rules should be crystal clear to the Secretary of State and every State Department employee.”

According to a news report on Politico.com, “During an extended exchange with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Comey affirmed that the FBI’s investigation found information marked classified on her server even after Clinton had said that she had neither sent nor received any items marked classified.

“That is not true,” Comey said. “There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents.”

Asked whether Clinton’s testimony that she did not email “any classified material to anyone on my email” and “there is no classified material” was true, Comey responded, “No, there was classified material emailed.”

“Secretary Clinton said she used one device. Was that true?” Gowdy asked, to which Comey answered, “She used multiple devices during the four years of her term as secretary of state.”

Gowdy then asked whether it was true that Clinton, as she said, returned all work-related emails to the State Department.

“No, we found work-related emails, thousands that were not returned,” Comey said.

Attempts to reach DeSaulnier asking for a comment on Comey’s testimony that portions of Secretary Clinton’s previous testimony before his committee were untrue, were unsuccessful.

Allen Payton contributed to this report.

Antioch Police highlights as published in City Manager Steve Duran’s Weekly Report dated June 30, 2016 and provided by Chief of Police Allan Cantando.

Weekly Calls for Service, Case Reports and Arrest Data Summary:

Time Period: 06/23/2016 00:00:00 – 06/29/16 23:59:59

Number of Calls for Service: 1,738

Number of Case Reports: 223

Number of Arrests: 76

Felony: 31

Misdemeanor: 45

Arrests with DUI charge: 2

The data is based upon unaudited CAD/RMS data at time of report generation.

• ·On 6/28/16 at 10:42 pm, 43 year old Lola Robinson was found by an officer lying on the sidewalk of San Jose Dr. near Delta Fair Blvd. Robinson was extremely intoxicated and unable to care for herself. Robinson was arrested and booked into county jail for public intoxication.
• ·On 6/28/16 at 9:00 pm, officers responded to the area of Vista Grande Dr. and Lone Tree Way on a report of a driver having fallen asleep at the wheel. Officers arrived and contacted 39 year old William Poate who was passed out in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. The vehicle was stopped in middle of the number two west bound lane of Lone Tree Way. The vehicle was in neutral and Poate had his foot on the brake at the time of the contact. Officers were able to safelyput the vehicle in park and wake him up. Poate displayed symptoms of intoxication. He was ultimately arrested and booked into county jail for DUI.
• ·On 6/28/16 at 4:02 pm, officers were dispatched to the 2000 block of Blossom Dr. for a prowler. Officers contacted 26 year old Nathan Watson as he was walking away from a backyard. He was detained by officers on scene. The reporting party advised she saw Watson trying to open her front door and then go in the back yard. When Watson was not able to make entry into the house, he jumped to the next yard to try his luck. He was detained by officers shortly after going in the second yard. Watson was taken into custody for trespassing and was found to be on felony probation for burglary and under the influence of drugs. He was sent to county jail.
• ·On 6/27/16 at 6:59 pm, an officer noticed a stalled vehicle blocking the roadway of southbound Somersville Road just south of the Hwy 4 off ramp. The officer stopped to assist, and when he advised dispatch of the license plate, it was discovered to be a reported lost/stolen plate. Officers contacted the occupants and saw 26 year old Rocky Sims trying to hide something. A search was conducted and methamphetamine was located where Sims was seated. Once he was taken into custody and placed in the patrol car, he began kicking the patrol car door and window. He refused to comply and was ultimately placed in a restraint device. The owner of the vehicle, 30 year old Samantha McEwen, admitted to stealing the plate off another vehicle and placing it on hers. McEwen was cite-released from the scene. Sims was transported to county jail.
• ·On 6/27/16 at 6:01 pm, an officer conducted a pedestrian stop in the 2700 block of Lone Tree Way and contacted 50 year old Kevin Addington. Addington was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and was arrested. He was released on a citation.
• ·On 6/27/16 at 11:41 am, officers were dispatched to Wal-Mart regarding a subject detained for shoplifting, but found to have five warrants. 51 year old Kevin Cooper was in the loss prevention office and arrested for his warrants. He was found to be in possession of a flare gun. Cooper was booked into county jail.
• ·On 6/27/16 at 12:03 am, APD dispatch received a couple of calls regarding 4-5 gunshots heard in the area of G St. behind Celia’s Restaurant. Officers located 4 spent 9mm casings in the roadway on G St. and two bullet holes in the apartment building. One bullet hole was located above the garage and the other was next to an upstairs window belonging to apartment 4. The rounds never entered the apartments and there was no suspect or vehicle information.
• ·On 6/26/16 at 12:51 pm, officers conducted a traffic stop near 97 S. Lake Dr. and contacted 45 year old Harlan Bingham. He was found to have a warrant for his arrest. He was arrested and booked into county jail.
• ·On 6/25/16 at 4:47 pm, as officers dealt with a large fire on Burwood Way, they were checking the backyard of a residence in the 900 block of Burwood Way and noticed the windows were boarded up from the inside. Officers later contacted the residents, 24 year old Qiao Cen and 24 year old Qiaohuie Cen. During an interview, they admitted that the house was used for a marijuana grow house. The residents gave verbal and written consent to search the house. During a search approx. 500+ plants at various stages were located along with several pounds of already packaged marijuana. The PG&E meter appeared to have been bypassed as well. The Investigations Bureau was advised and a team came out and took over the scene. Both residents were arrested and booked into county jail.
• ·On 6/25/15 at 12:05 pm, officers contacted 27 year old Shane Stange walking on Lone Tree Way. During the contact, Stange was found to be in possession of drug paraphernalia and an open container; both of which were in violation of his probation. Stange was arrested and booked into county jail.
• ·On 6/24/16 at 8:19 pm, officers were dispatched to a shots fired call in the 500 block of W. 19th Street. According to the caller, one male was shooting at another male who got out of a white Lexus which was still at the location. Officers began to arrive and located several spent shell casings, but no witnesses to the actual shooting. A male subject was seen leaving the area at a high rate of speed and was detained driving a similar vehicle. He was aware of the shooting and knew who the intended victim was but had little more information. The only suspect info was a blue Toyota Prius driven by the responsible. By the end of the night, no victims had been located.
• ·On 6/24/16 at 8:07 pm, the victim entered the Quik Stop on West Tregallas Rd. and purchased some items. When he exited he observed a male subject sitting on a car and another male sitting inside. He decided to make a comment to the effect of “you shouldn’t do that here” referring to selling drugs. Both the males and two additional females began beating him. Eventually they stopped and he fled the scene. He later reported that he was missing cash. He had no idea who took his money in the struggle and could not identify the subjects. He suffered minor cuts and abrasions to his face and arms. There are limited investigative leads.
• ·On 6/24/16 at 8:19 am, an officer conducted a suspicious vehicle check in front of 85 S. Lake Drive. 35 year old Katrina Johnson was in the vehicle and consented to a search of the truck. A pill bottle with suspected cocaine and prescription pills was found inside Johnson’s purse. Johnson was issued a citation on her signed promise to appear and released at the scene.
• ·On 6/23/16 at 10:54 pm, 41 year old Jaime Nazario was contacted during a pedestrian stop and found to have warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody without incident and booked into county jail.
• · On 6/23/16 at 7:47 am, an officer conducted a suspicious vehicle check in the parking lot at the foot of G St. and contacted 24 year old Richard Lewis. The officer located two grams of suspected methamphetamine on Lewis during a search of his person. Lewis was issued a citation and released on his signed promise to appear.

By Allen Payton

According to Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen, the Save The Yard initiative proponents turned in 214 petitions with 5,139 signatures on Tuesday, July 6th.

The initiative, formally labeled the “Rivertown Town Square Ordinance,” would require the Antioch City Council to preserve as a park and event center, the former Antioch Lumber Company lot, between West Second, West Third and E Streets in downtown instead of a planned, mixed-use development with both townhomes and retail space.

There were 44,365 registered voters as of March 5th when the proponents submitted their paperwork to start the process. That means they need 4,437 valid signatures of registered Antioch voters for the initiative to be placed on the ballot.

“We tossed out the ones from people who live outside the city,” Simonsen said.

He submitted the petitions to the County Elections Office on Wednesday morning. According to County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, Joe Canciamilla his office has 30 business days to count and verify the signatures.

The deadline for placing items on the November ballot is August 12^th so the verification process could take it beyond that date which would place the Antioch initiative on the November, 2017 ballot instead.

There are three other initiatives that have been received before and are in front of Antioch’s, two from Richmond and one from San Ramon. Plus, they have a large quantity of voter registration cards to process, some from Antioch but mostly from Richmond.

“We’re going to be bringing extra help on board to process those on a parallel track,” Canciamilla stated.

Asked if he believes his office will be able to count all the signatures and new voter registrations by the August 12^th deadline, he responded “That’s our goal.”

Signature gatherers for the initiative petitions are required to be registered voters in the county. Asked if he knew about the signature gatherers who worked on the Antioch initiative, Canciamilla responded, “I would think the firm that hired them would know that. But, I haven’t seen the petitions and I haven’t talked to the staff about them, yet. So I don’t know what they look like.”

Then he spoke about the size of the November ballot.

“We have 17 statewide ballot measures confirmed, there are still two in the hopper,” Canciamilla shared. “Plus, we have two regional measures, from BART and CCTA.”

“The potential of the state voter handbook could be 200 plus pages,” he continued. “Our local handbook we expect to be 100 plus pages.”

Save The Yard initiative leader Joy Motts was not available for comment prior to publication time.

To read the language of the ballot initiative, click here: Final Initiative Ordinance

By Nick Goodrich

Mayor Wade Harper strongly advocated for the use of body cameras in the Antioch Police Department during a City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 28th. The council also received a report on the progress of the under-construction Antioch BART station, and heard multiple complaints about the state of Antioch’s Animal Services during Public Comments.

Animal Services Complaints

Antioch Animal Services (AAS) was the target of several complaints at the council meeting. During the Public Comments section of the meeting, several Antioch residents—as well as an Oakland resident—spoke before Council on the state of the city’s Animal Services department.

AAS is currently run by the Antioch Police Department, which was a talking point for many of the speakers. The APD, already understaffed and overburdened by crime in the city, is in charge of caring for the animals and putting them up for adoption.

Nicole Salis, a 15 year resident of Antioch, suggested that the animal shelter be moved outside the Police Station to its own location—or, at the very least, be made it’s own department.

Willow Liroff, the longest active volunteer at the Oakland Animal Shelter, made the trip to Antioch to speak about the AAS. She noted that the “Died-in-Care” rate in Contra Costa County—the amount of animals that die in shelters—is currently 0.8%, while the rate in Antioch skyrockets to 4.7%.

The majority of these Died-in-Care cases are cats, said Liroff, which is not too surprising considering the size of Antioch’s feral cat population—but nonetheless unacceptable.

“AAS needs experienced animal welfare professionals,” said Liroff, noting that police are not suited to the job of caring for these animals—and are needed elsewhere in the city, besides.

Police Body Cameras

Continuing a lengthy process of reviewing the effect of introducing body cameras to the APD, Council heard a report from Police Chief Allan Cantando on Tuesday.

While the majority of City Council appears to be in favor of adding the body cameras to Antioch’s officers, growing concerns about the cost stalled the process.

Cantando reported that the biggest cost of any body camera project the city could choose would be that of data storage—thousands of hours of video footage would be recorded, and would need to be stored safely and accessibly, which would present a fairly expensive undertaking. These costs would only grow over time as more footage is added, said Cantando.

He noted that in addition to data storage, extra police staffing would be another cost to consider, and combined these could reach up to an extra $500,000 in spending per year for Antioch.

Cantando also cited several other concerns that factored into the Council’s considerations. A big question mark for him is the fact that most body camera projects undertaken by cities are relatively new, and little is known about the overall long-term costs and effectiveness of such projects. Cantando’s advice to the Council was to wait and see how other cities fared before making the decision.

Several Antioch residents added their comments to the discussion. Samantha Bee and Frank Sterling spoke to Council in favor of the cameras, and three others wrote in their support as well.

Sterling, who was the victim of police brutality and settled out of court with the City of Antioch in 2013, believes body cameras are a big step toward preventing police violence and presenting crucial evidence in cases where it does occur.

“The video of my case exonerated me,” said Sterling, referring to a recording taken from outside of his house as the incident was occurring. He believes body cameras would help others in situations like his.

Mayor Harper, a former police officer, was strong in his support for the cameras, but emphasized the officer protection aspect: the recordings could be used to determine an officer’s innocence if he or she was falsely accused.

These arguments are different sides of the same coin. However, Cantando’s report dissuaded the rest of the Council from offering similar support for the project.

“I don’t disagree that we need body cameras,” said Mayor Pro Tem Lori Ogorchock, “But I don’t think right now it should be a priority.” She believes that the proposed costs of the cameras would be better used adding additional officers to the APD, as criticism of Measure C has grown in recent months.

One of Measure C’s goals was to increase the number of police officers employed by the city, but it has resulted in a net gain of only 9 officers in the past 2 years, according to Sal Sbrante, former member of the Measure C Citizen’s Oversight Committee.

Council Member Mary Rocha was concerned with the reported costs of pursuing the project, and Council Member Tony Tiscareno agreed with Chief Cantando that more time should be given in order to see the success or failure of other cities’ body cameras.

“I want it to happen,” he told Harper, “But today’s not the right moment.” The Council received Cantando’s report, but Harper remained adamant in his support of the cameras, promising to continue pursuing the project in future meetings.

Antioch BART Station

City Council also heard a presentation on the status of the Antioch BART station, given by Joel Keller, former Mayor of Antioch. Antioch’s new BART station will be positioned on the median of Highway 4, with parking lots and facilities adjacent to the highway.

The station is nearing completion quicker than expected, reported Keller. He told Council that test trains would begin running on Friday, July 1^st, more than a week sooner than had been anticipated.

And more good news: the project is not expected to exceed the budgeted $5.5 million, ensuring that the city won’t be overpaying for its long-awaited entrance into the BART system.

Overall, the council appeared very pleased with the progress report, emphasizing the responsiveness and helpfulness from BART throughout the process. This was underscored by Keller’s report that the BART station will now include escalators, asked for by Council after a previous presentation.

“You have been very, very responsive to the needs of Antioch,” said Harper. “You have done your due diligence, and I want to thank you for all that.”

By Allen Payton

After announcing in March that he would be a candidate for the Antioch City Council, this year and holding a campaign kick-off event on Monday, June 27th, Ken Turnage has instead withdrawn from the race.

In a Facebook post on his campaign Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon, July 6th, Ken Turnage wrote:

Hello,
With much thought I have come to a decision that I will not be running for City Council. Due to a personal decision I will not be able to continue at his time. It is my full intent once this has taken its course that I will run in the future.

I want to thank you for your support and generous donation to help me along the way. I do apologize if I had caused any inconvenience.

Those that have donated will be getting a check sent to you as re-imbursement. I will close this page tomorrow thank you

Sincerely,

Ken Turnage II

A call to Turnage for further comment was not answered or returned.

Turnage is the owner of K2GC, Inc. a general contractor in Antioch and was the chair of the Antioch July 4th Parade on Monday.

The Contra Costa District Attorney has filed eight felony counts of grand theft by fraud and embezzlement against Quyen Tran, age 60, and his wife, Mai Han Tran, age 56, both of Antioch, for conducting a Ponzi scheme that lasted over four years. The total loss to eight victims was $256,000.

Quyen “Tony” Tran and Mai “Lisa” Tran, made friends with the victims in the Vietnamese church and social community. Mai Tran invited the victims over to her house in Antioch for a social event, but once there, Quyen invited the victims up to his office and told them of his 25 years of investment experience, his investment savvy,  and how he could make a lot of money for them through his investments skill.

He told one victim that he had an inside line on a Pharmaceutical company IPO, that was later found to be non-existent. The victims were impressed by Quyen’s lavish lifestyle and expensive jewelry and cars and his perceived financial acumen and appearance of wealth. Victims believed him when he told them he never lost any money. The investments, primarily in cash, ranged from $4,000 to $156,000 and the agreements were all verbal.

In this classic Ponzi scheme, instead of investing their money, Tran used the victim’s money for personal expenses, and to maintain his lavish lifestyle, and to pay dividends to early investors, in order to keep the illusion that he was making money in order to attract new investors. When some of the victims demanded their money back after receiving nothing after several months, he told them it was a loan, or that the money was generating returns and was locked up and if he returned money it would be taxed at 45% tax rate. He told other victims that he had lost their money and his bank accounts were frozen. When the victims demanded proof that he had purchased stock, he never provided any. Tran did engage in some minor day-trading, but lost money in 4 of 6 years. In the two years that he made a small profit, he never returned any money to the investors. But Tran continued to tell new investors that he never lost any money.

A forensic accountant and an investigator found that there were several victims from years beyond the four year statute of limitations who lost money to Tran, but these victims never went to the police, because of the cultural shame and distrust of the police.

In addition to the eight counts of fraud, both Trans are charged with money laundering, conspiracy, sale of unlicensed securities and a white collar enhancement of stealing over $100,000. The District Attorney also filed a Temporary Restraining Order and a Lis Pendens on the Tran’s residence which has some equity that could be used to pay restitution.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the Tran’s arrest. If you have been a victim of the Trans in the past ten years, please contact Inspector Al Cofer at the District Attorney’s office at 925-957-8761.