A group of veterans has received new bicycles to replace the 16 bikes stolen from a shed last month at Naval Medical Center San Diego.

UnitedHealthcare donated $50,000 to Ride 2 Recovery, a non-profit organization for vets. The money was used to buy a new fleet of bicycles – 10 road bikes and six mountain bikes – for the organization’s Project HERO (Health Exercise Rehabilitation Opportunity) program. The bikes were presented to the group on the USS Midway flight deck Tuesday.

In late March, 16 bicycles belonging to Ride 2 Recovery were stolen from a storage unit at Naval Medical Center San Diego near Balboa.

The bikes are used by vets as a way to get out of a hospital bed, exercise and clear their heads. Wounded Warriors also use the bikes year-round to manage their injuries and post-traumatic stress, while training in cycling.

“When we go out and ride, it takes our minds of things. It allows us to go outside and get out of our houses and stop thinking about the things that we don’t want to think about anymore,” Ride 2 Recovery veteran Alex Bictorino explained.

John Mateczun, of UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans, said once UnitedHealthcare heard the bikes were stolen, the organization knew it had to help replace all of the bikes to get vets back on the road.

“Whether they’re riding here on the flight deck of the Midway or across Southern California on a road ride, it’s a real privilege for us to be able to provide this opportunity,” Mateczun told NBC 7.

After the ride on the USS Midway flight deck, the Ride 2 Recover veterans planned to take their new bikes for a spin around San Diego.

UnitedHealthcare has been serving as Ride 2 Recovery’s title sponsor for the past six years, providing financial and volunteer support to help America’s injured veterans.

As for the stolen bikes, Naval police were still investigating the theft as of early April but had not made any arrests. Anyone with information on the crime should contact police at (619) 556-1527.
 

You can get free legal advice and all it takes is a phone call.

NBC 7 is teaming up once again with the San Diego County Bar Association to host the “Ask A Lawyer” phone bank. Thirty attorneys with a variety of legal backgrounds will be taking calls Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Last year those calls ranged from financial and family law to civil rights and criminal defense. The number to call is 619-321-4159.

The BAR attorneys will also be taking questions on Facebook here.

After the program, the public can get in touch with a local attorney through the Lawyer Referral Service at 619-231-8585.

A Southern California man who killed his ex-wife by pummeling her with a brick as she took out the trash outside her home will be sentenced for the violent murder Tuesday.

Rand Huffman, 65, of San Gabriel, Calif., pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the fatal beating of his ex-wife, Martha Huffman, 64.

In February 2014, Rand attacked Martha with a brick as she took out the trash at her home in San Diego’s Chula Vista community. Martha suffered critical head injuries in the beating and later died at the hospital.

According to police, neighbors heard Martha’s screams coming from her home on Twin Oaks Circle. When officers arrived, they found Rand with his knee on the victim’s throat, trying to cut off her air supply. He was wearing gloves and was armed with a knife and Taser.

Witnesses told police Rand had beaten Martha with a brick before dragging her to the back of the home.

Police said the Huffmans had been divorced for decades and hadn’t even spoken to each other in nearly 30 years. At the time of the brutal beating, Rand had recently rekindled a relationship with his son who lived with Martha in Chula Vista.

Though neighbors didn’t know much about Rand, witnesses told police they saw the suspect sitting in a car parked in the neighborhood the weekend before he attacked Martha.

Investigators believe Rand’s attack on his unsuspecting ex-wife was premeditated.

According to police, Huffman parked several blocks away from Martha’s house on the morning of the attack and waited for his ex-wife to come outside. He picked up a brick at the scene and used it to striker her.

The Huffman’s son was home at the time of the incident. Police questioned him and tried to determine whether he or Martha were Rand’s intended target. Investigators said the son had taken out a restraining order against Rand after a financial dispute over a piece of property.

Police said that dispute may have been the “catalyst” that led to the violence.

Rand was arrested in late February 2014. He has been held without bail at the George Bailey Detention Facility for more than a year.

San Diego police are looking for a jogger who may have information about the unsolved murder of a man gunned down while sitting in his car in Golden Hill.

On Nov. 5, 2014, at around 6:40 a.m., Vaafuti Togiailua was fatally shot in the 900 block of 26th Street. Police discovered the 41-year-old father wounded and slumped in the passenger seat of his parked Mazda. He had suffered gunshot wounds to his upper body and died four days later.

The murder has remained unsolved.

On Tuesday, the San Diego Police Department released a photo of a jogger wanted by homicide detectives for questioning regarding Togiailua’s murder.

Police said the jogger – a brunette woman wearing a light-colored top and black pants – was in the area at the time of the shooting and may have information about the murder.

Anyone who recognizes the unknown jogger should contact the SDPD Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

According to police, the shooter was described as a person on a motorcycle wearing a full helmet and long-sleeved gray jumpsuit.

The shooter, police said, may have been riding an older-model Honda or Kawasaki motorcycle with chrome exhaust pipes. After parking the bike, the motorcyclist approached the victim and shot at him multiple times through the window of the car, officials said.

The victim was parked just two blocks from his apartment at the time of the deadly shooting.

After the shooting, the person got back on the motorcycle and drove off eastbound on E Street.

Togiailua was described by loved ones as a devoted father and friend with a passion for his family and rugby. Togiailua was the assistant coach of the Old Mission Bay Athletic Club Rugby team.

A Navy veteran who lost his leg in Iraq – and went on to try out for several Major League teams -- threw out the first pitch in Tuesday’s San Diego Padres game.

Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Daniel “Doc” Jacobs will take the mound shortly before the 7:10 p.m. Padres-Astros game at Petco Park.

A Scripps Ranch resident, Jacobs has said his passion for baseball led him to try out for several MLB teams, including the Dodgers, the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

This came despite losing his leg below the knee, three fingers on his left hand and two toes on his right foot in the Iraq War in 2006.

When he had tried out for the Dodgers in 2013, Jacobs told the Long Beach Press Telegram that he intended to make a statement.

"It's all about the experience, and letting America and these guys know that not all disabled veterans are going to be a statistic in the news," he told the newspaper.

Jacobs has continued to try out for MLB teams over the years, including this year's spring training, and Tuesday's first pitch is his latest time on a baseball field.

A rare surgery at Rady Children’s Hospital marked the end of a very long road for Sayed Touhid – a road potholed with health issues, surgeries and discouragement.

The 25-year-old has a rare genetic condition called Cherubism, which causes the bones lower portion of his face to decay and be replaced by tissue.

"My teeth fell out at an early age,” said Touhid in an exclusive NBC 7 interview, “so, I couldn't really eat hard foods as much like apples." He explained there is no cure or way to combat it.

Affecting him most of his life, Cherubism made Touhid look a lot different from other kids growing up. It also caused problems with his sight and made him unable to breathe through his nose; a tracheal tube has helped him inhale for the past 20 years.

But on Tuesday, that tube was taken out in the last of four surgeries Touhid has undergone in the last three years.

He told NBC 7 he almost gave up when he first went under the knife.

“It's been tough,” Touhid said. “Like honestly, after the first surgery, I was like no more, but you can't just quit midway."

Since then, Rady’s doctors have completely reconstructed his face. During Tuesday’s appointment, Touhid said they wanted to make his nose a bit smaller and do a few touch ups.

Dr. Steven Cohen, who performed the surgery, said he has never seen a case of Cherubism as severe as Touhid’s.

“I think for the family, it’s got to be unbelievable,” said Cohen. “And for Sayed, I mean, he’s an amazing kid as I’ve gotten to know him anyway, and from a personality point of view, what could be better when you have an amazing personality and now you’re kind of a normal and nice looking kid?”

He said he is absolutely thrilled with the result.

But his excitement is nothing compared to Touhid’s, who told NBC 7 he is no longer self-conscious about how he looks.

“I was going over my pictures the other day from when I was a kid, and I was shocked,” he said. “I don’t remember it being that bad.”

He hopes the surgeries will help him achieve a lot of his goals, which include owning his own business: “I just can’t wait until it’s over.”
 

Hundreds San Diego taxi drivers who want to go in business for themselves seem to have avoided a dead-end in court Tuesday.

Entrenched companies trying to maintain a citywide cap on taxi permits had hoped to run them out of the market, by way of a lawsuit challenging an 8-1 city council vote backing the would-be competitors.

But the industry, which critics claim has a virtual monopoly on citywide cab operations, didn’t get any mileage out of Judge Ronald Prager.

"There's about 993 cabs (the current permit limits) that are on the road right now as we speak,” taxi driver Abdi Abdisalan told reporters outside the downtown Hall of Justice pretrial hearing in the case.

"There's about 800 or a thousand cabs that have been requested by drivers,” Abdisalan noted, predicting that under the council’s proposed industry overhaul, “the number might shift just to the drivers who are driving their own cars, and better cars at the same time -- drivers that are not working ridiculous hours, like 70 hours a week."

Abdisalan said many cabbies are making far less than minimum wage under their leases and expense obligations.

The city's fee for the limited cab medallions is $3,000 – but they often fetch for as much as $150,000 on the so-called "grey market" created by the fixed supply.

“We don't have the means to buy one medallion at that sort of price,” Abdisalan said. “We have a family to feed … and then we go to an individual that owns a cab and we lease a cab from them. So when we get involved in this kind of cases, the backlash can be -- they can take the vehicle away from us."

In court, lawyers for the San Diego Transportation Assn. – comprising the established companies -- argued that the environmental impact of unlimited Metropolitan Transit System permits for the upstarts hasn't been legally assessed.

Judge Prager, who took a preliminary injunction ruling under advisement, aggressively questioned them as to how adverse such an impact could be – given the city-approved requirements that new licensees must drive electric, hybrid or low-emission vehicles.

"Today was not exactly a victory for the other side,” SDTA lawyer John Howard insisted during a media briefing following the hearing. “Today what they did is avoided disaster, and that's pretty much all they avoided … it's going to be a long case."

Responded Chief Deputy City Atty. Meghan Ashley Wharton, representing MTS: "Everything that they really care about -- and everybody knows -- is the fact that they're going to lose a monopoly, and they're losing money."

Beyond the flood of new permit applications and operator’s licenses filed with MTS, the industry is facing increasing online competition from the likes of Uber and Lyft.

Conventional wisdom forecasts a setback for the industry, followed by appellate motions and an order blocking the processing of new permits until the case is tried in Superior Court -- or settled by legal higher authorities.

It's expected there'll be a court 'stay' during the appeal process or a long trial, so any new fleet of wheels won't be rolling for a while.

A decomposed body found in a remote area of Orange County, California, Monday was preliminarily identified as that of a woman who went missing after a Valentine's Day date, Orange County Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

The remains of Erica Alonso, 28, of Laguna Hills, were found one mile east of a US Forest Service Station in San Juan Capistrano along Ortega Highway in the Cleveland National Forest. A team of biologists with Caltrans discovered the body and notified authorities at 10 p.m. Monday.

Coroner's officials will officially identify the remains through fingerprint or dental records and determine a cause of death, officials said.

An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.

Alonso was last seen leaving her on-again-off-again boyfriend's home in Irvine on Feb. 15.

She had gone on a Valentine's Day date, then later that night befriended another couple at a nightclub, officials said. The four left the club about 1:30 a.m. to continue partying at the home of Alonso's date in Irvine, authorities said.

Alonso and her boyfriend got into an argument, and the other couple left about 3:45 a.m., Hallock said. Alonso left the home about 15 minutes later, Hallock said.

On March 25, Alonso's white 2014 Honda Civic EX was found near Cedarbrook and Redwood in the Glenwood Park neighborhood, which is about a mile from her home, Hallock said.

At the time, investigators said all statements by the boyfriend "checked out."

Several San Diego natives on the Great White Way were recognized by the 2015 Tony Awards Tuesday.

Five artists with local connections will be in the running for varying awards, which honor achievements on Broadway for both plays and musical theater productions. The awards will take place June 7.

Beth Malone, an actress that previously stared in several San Diego productions, Casey Nicholaw, a director and artist who used to be involved in local productions and Gregg Barnes, a costume designer who used to work at the Old Globe, all scored nominations for their work this season.

Nicholaw was nominated for Best Direction of a Musical and his work on “Something Rotten!” Barnes was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical and his work on the same musical. “Fun Home” actress Beth Malone was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical.

Chita Rivera and Roger Rees, leads in the Best Musical-nominated “The Visit,” previously had projects in San Diego as well. “The Dancer’s Life,” Rivera’s musical, had its world premiere at the Old Globe. Rees directed the Old Globe’s “Dog and Pony,” a musical comedy that premiered in San Diego.

“An American in Paris” and “Fun Home” both lead with 12 nominations total, and shortly after “Something Rotten” followed with 10 and the revival of “The King and I” with nine.

Two San Diego-connected productions, “Doctor Zhivago” and “Side Show,” were both left out of the running this year. “Side Show” first premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and “Doctor Zhivago” first premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse nearly a decade ago. The 2015 nominations are a stark contrast to the 2014 cycle, where the original Old Globe production “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” swept up four wins amid 10 nominations.

San Diego native Nicholaw was once heavily involved in San Diego Junior Theatre productions in the late 1970s. Costume designer Barnes, a previous winner for his accomplishments, worked on various productions at the Globe, including “Robin and the 7 Hoods” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and was named an associate artist at the theater. Most recently, Malone starred as Annie Oakley in San Diego Musical Theater’s “Annie Get Your Gun.”

For a full list of nominees, click here. 

An 18-year-old Discovery Bay, Northern California, man was charged Tuesday with murder after a 9-year-old boy was stabbed to death Sunday at his home. Prosecutors claimed in court that William "Billy" Shultz used a knife to fatally stab his friend's little brother as the third grader slept.

Shultz's family left the courthouse without comment Tuesday after learrning he will not be arraigned in court until Wednesday. "They feel terrible, they feel horrible — their thoughts and prayers are with the family of this child," said Contra Costa County Public Defender Robin Lipetzky, who is representing Shultz.

Lipetsky said there was "no question in her mind" that mental illness is what led to this tragic event.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with the Contra Costa Times on Monday, Shultz said he stabbed Jordon "Jordy" Almgren of Discovery Bay to "see what it was like." "I wanted to see what it was like to take a life before someone tried to take mine," Schultz said in the interview.

Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Paul Graves said prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for Shultz because of his age and because he had no prior criminal record.

Shultz  was also charged with the special circumstances of lying in wait and residential burglary, Graves explaned that in addition to stabbing Almgren to death on Sunday with a knife, Shultz is charged with taking a car key from a room in the Almgren home and the circumstance of taking a victim by suprise or ambush before killing him or her.

Shultz is being held on $1 million bail.

Lipetzky said the family did all they could to get their son mental health help. The Contra Costa Sheriff's Department confirms Shultz's family called officers requesting a mental health check less than 24 hours before the stabbing.

Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputies said Shultz was briefly hospitalized on Saturday after his family requested an evaluation of his mental health status. "The deputies responded to his house and made contact with Shultz," said Contra Costa sheriff's deputy Jimmy Lee. "Based on their evaluation they said he did not meet the criteria" to be placed on an involuntary mental health hold.

According to the California Welfare and Institutions Code, a mentally unstable person can only be detained if they show signs that they are a danger to others or themselves.

Still, Shultz voluntarily agreed to be taken to the hospital and was later released by a doctor, deputies said. He went to sleep at the Almgren home on Saturday night. There were others sleeping at the home too, Graves said.

On Sunday morning, deputies say Shultz stabbed the boy about 10 a.m. at his Discovery Bay home in the 1800 block of Frost Way.

About 3 p.m. that same day, Schultz was arrested at a Kaiser hospital in Antioch after an alert nurse recognized him from social media and alerted authorities, Contra Costa County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Westermann said.

Shultz suffered two stab wounds on his wrist, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Attempts to interview Jordon's parents were unsuccessful.

A new app is taking dog walking to a whole new level for the first time in San Diego.

Los Angeles-based company Zingy allows dog owners to find certified dog walkersby downloading their application

The app is free to download from both iTunes and Google Play and, from there, it takes approximately 20 seconds to book a dog walker. There have been 200 applicants so far in the San Diego area, so community members will have no problem finding someone to walk their pup.

The app says security is not an issue for those concerned. Zingy says it puts its dog walkers through a rigorous background check and a 16 module training course at Zingy Academy. Owners are able to see reviews on walkers beforehand and track their dog step-by-step through Zingy’s GPS.

Once the walk is complete, owners will receive a notification in the app as well as snapshot of their walked dog.

Zingy plans to expand outside of LA and San Diego and will bring its services to Orange County in the next two weeks.

A burn victim is being taken to UC San Diego with serious injuries sustained in a residential structure fire, officials said. 

The incident happened around 6:15 p.m. on Mesa Drive in Oceanside, where Oceanside Police said a residential fire left one person with injuries. 

North Comm Fire said the person was being transported via helicopter. 

No further information was available. 

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story. 

A sig alert is in effect following a fatal crash on Seaworld Drive that left a 51-year-old woman dead, officials said. 

Police said the woman was walking southbound on Seaworld Drive along the crosswalk around 8 p.m. Tuesday night when a 32-year-old man driving a Honda hit her. 

The woman was pronounced dead at UC San Diego Hospital, police said. 

The offramp from Interstate 5 onto Seaworld Drive has been closed as officials investigate. 

The car stopped after the crash, police said. 

Police said the man driving had the right of way and is not being cited for anything. 

It is unknown how long the area will be closed.

Two men were sentenced for five and twelve years for their roles in running a sham law firm out of Oceanside that ultimately robbed more than 3,000 of its clients out of more than $13 million. 

Dean Gregory Chandler, the former president, chief executive and attorney of 1st American Law Center, and Michael Eccles, a former manager in the firm’s telemarketing call center, were sentenced to 144 months and 60 months respectively. The men were convicted of defrauding 3,261 homeowners across the nation in a loan modification scheme. 

Chandler was convicted of eight felony counts, including three counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count each of conspiracy and money laundering. Eccles was convicted of five counts, including conspiracy and two counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud.

“The real tragedy of this case is that the defendants chose to profit from the suffering of others. In difficult economic times, they exploited a particularly vulnerable segment of our population—homeowners who were desperately trying to make ends meet and stay in their homes,” United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy said in a statement.

Chandler created the firm in partnership with convicted drug trafficker Gary Bobel, who was separately convicted and sentenced for his role in 2009, according to evidence presented at trial. Bobel oversaw the call center and the team of telemarketers, who pitched loan modification services on behalf of the law center.

The team of attorneys would negotiate on behalf of their clients with the mortgage lenders and draft all documents to be sent to the mortgage lenders, the prosecutors say. The firm promised “attorney retainer fee” averaging $3,495 would be preserved in an attorney-client trust account until the client was satisfied, according to evidence presented at trial. If they were not satisfied, the clients were protected by a money-back guarantee.

The U.S. Attorney says the firm proceeded to funnel client’s money into other account to pay co-schemers, sales commissions and company expenses, and they failed to provide refunds to many clients who requested them.

Eccles was later promoted to the manager of the call center in December 2009, where he fabricated more lies to suggest to clients that they could take comfort in the established success of the firm they would hire, according to trial evidence. Evidence at trial determined Chandler’s primary role was to mislead regulatory and enforcement agencies that threatened the law firm’s operations.

The Houston Astros feasted on Padres pitching for a second straight night, racking up 17 hits in an ugly 14-3 win at Petco Park on Tuesday.

They got to Tyson Ross early, tagging the Friars starter for four runs in five innings. That included a first-inning two-run home run by Evan Gattis that went off the glove of Padres center fielder Wil Myers.

Myers got his revenge in the fifth, launching his fourth homer of the season in the fifth inning. Justin Upton added his sixth long ball of the year in the sixth.

But it wasn’t enough, as the Astros scored 10 runs off three Padres relievers.

The teams play an afternoon game on Wednesday, starting at 12:40 p.m. at Petco Park.

The Navy has removed the commander of a San Diego-based guided-missile cruiser from his post, citing a loss of confidence in his ability to command.

The Navy on Tuesday announced the removal of Capt. John Banigan, saying the action was based on findings of an investigation into the poor command climate aboard the USS Lake Erie.

Officials would not elaborate, saying the case is still under investigation. Banigan could not be reached for comment.

Banigan has been temporarily assigned to the staff of commander of the Naval Surface Force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

He had commanded the guided-missile cruiser since May 2013.

Capt. Douglas Kunzman has been temporarily assigned to command the ship.

On Tuesday morning, San Diego City Council approved joint settlements against the San Diego Police Department, authoring $1.5 million for three alleged victims of former police officers.

A woman who says a former SDPD Officer Donald V. Moncrief groped her in a patrol car while he took her to Las Colinas Detention Facility will be paid a quarter of a million dollars. Another two women who brought charges against former Officer Christopher Hays will split more than $1.3 million.

Councilmember David Alvarez, who voted against the payouts, issued the following statement in response, “I did not vote in support of this settlement because this is simply not an issue we can continue to sweep under the rug.

"The actions that led to this settlement sicken me, and if I was at liberty to talk about them, I think the public would agree we need to face this problem head on and hold management accountable.”

But SDPD Lt. Scott Wahl said Chief Shelley Zimmerman was already worked to hold her officers accountable, going as far as firing those who cannot uphold their standards and rolling out body cameras for all officers.

"Chief Zimmerman has tackled issues head on and has not swept anything under the rug. From Day One she has brought reform to this organization and has implemented a culture of excellence. It starts with her as the Chief of Police all the way through our newest recruit and our entire civilian staff," Wahl's statement said in part.

The City Attorney's office recommended the settlement payment to the alleged victim of Moncrief.

Moncrief, a 6-year veteran of the police department, was never arrested or charged with the February 2013 incident. The victim was a suspect arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border in a gang-related auto theft.

In a federal lawsuit filed against the city, the woman alleges Moncrief touched her inappropriately while she was handcuffed in the back of his patrol car.

The woman's attorney, Dan Gilleon, said this case was difficult because unlike other SDPD misconduct cases, his client was the only alleged victim of Moncrief. Similar to the other cases, though, she does have a criminal background.

"She grew up in a very gang-infested area, and there are certainly some issues with prior drug abuse, and the people she would hang out with were very questionable characters," Gilleon said.

Gilleon claims Moncrief chose his victim because he didn't think anyone would believe her because of her extensive criminal history and drug problems.

"It's difficult sometimes when these officers are savvy and they are selective in who they hurt," Gilleon said. "I think Moncrief knew he could get away with it because if she ever says 'Hey, you won't believe what this guy did to me.' He's going to say, 'Who are you going to believe? Me or her?'"

The District Attorney's office declined to file charges against Moncrief because investigators had insufficient evidence.

"As with any case, whether it is a police officer or not, we can only file charges when we believe we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt," said DA Public Affairs Officer Tanya Sierra.

In late April 2014, Moncrief filed a claim against the city seeking damages for defamation, among other things. That claim has not yet been settled.

Gilleon said his client passed a lie detector test, while Moncrief did not take one.

Another two women brought allegations against Christopher Hays, which led to his conviction of misconduct on the job.

Hays pleaded guilty to felony false imprisonment as well as misdemeanor counts of assault and battery under the color of authority by a peace officer on Aug. 22, 2014.

Hays’ case put the SDPD under fire, further marring the department’s image, which has faced a wave of public scrutiny for quite some time.

When news broke of the alleged sexual misconduct crimes, then-Chief William Lansdowne ordered an outside audit of the police department from the U.S. Department of Justice. Lansdowne’s successor, Chief Shelley Zimmerman, supported the audit.

“We are not going to tolerate this misconduct and betrayal of our badge and our profession,” Zimmerman said in March 2014.

Former San Diego police officer Anthony Arevalos is currently serving prison time for multiple felony counts of sexual battery, assault and asking for bribes while in uniform as a police officer patrolling the Gaslamp from 2009 to 2011.

On Sept. 25, 2014 attorneys and city officials announced that a San Diego woman who was victimized by Arevalos will receive $5.9 million in a legal settlement negotiated between the victim and the City of San Diego.

The woman, known only as “Jane Doe,” filed a claim of police misconduct after an interaction with then-officer Arevalos inside a 7-Eleven store bathroom on March 8, 2011.

According to prosecutors, the corrupt cop conducted a routine traffic stop on Jane Doe and then suggested the two of them go into the nearby convenience store. The two entered the restroom with the agreement that she would give him her panties, and in exchange he would not charge her for a DUI.

Jane Doe's lawsuit was one of 13 filed by victims of Arevalos, who was convicted in November 2011.
 

A Rancho Penasquitos, California, woman says a faulty meter read resulted in a $908.29 water bill for the months of March and April, even though her average water bill is between $200 and $300.

“I almost cried when I opened the bill,” said Kristy Wissmath, who has lived in her North County home for four years. “I usually get a message at the bottom of my bill that says ‘Thank you for conserving water.’”

Wissmath, who lives with her two teenage children, says she tracks all her family’s water usage very carefully and is even replacing her front yard with artificial turf. Many have been working to conserve water as the Californian drought stretches into its fourth year and Gov. Jerry Brown has called for a mandatory reduction in water usage. 

San Diego city officials confirmed the woman’s meter was indeed read incorrectly, adding the woman handled the issue exactly how they hope customers would respond.

“We’re out there reading thousands of meters a day and (the meter readers) are doing a great job,” said the Water Department’s Kurt Kidman. “Only an extremely small fraction of meters are misread and that’s because they’re human.”

Wissmath provided NBC7 with her water bills for the first two-month billing period of 2015 showing nearly a 200 percent increase in her average cost in water for the previous four years of bills. That bill for January and February totaled $693. In April, she received a $908.29 bill for water and sewer, a nearly 40 percent increase from the higher January and February bill. 

Wissmath said after the first bill she called the Water Department and then had an outside contractor, a water use expert, come to her home to detect for leaks. She said during the two hours the expert was at her home, he could not find anything wrong with any of her appliances, irrigation or water systems.

“Then the expert called another expert and they spent even another 45 minutes at my home getting more and more frustrated that they couldn’t determine the source of the extra water use,” Wissmath said.

As it turned out, she wasn’t using as much extra water as she was billed for, according to both the city and Wissmath.

Kidman said there are safeguards in the system that prevent misreads. Handheld devices carried by meter readers will kick a number back out of the system if it falls drastically outside the range of average for a particular home.

Kidman said Wissmath will not be billed for water she did not use. Wissmath said she was told by the Water Department she would not be reimbursed for the first $652 bill but that the Water Department did cancel the $908 bill and is re-calculating what she actually owes.

She said she believes the city is only reissuing the bill because she took a photo of her meter with her cell phone.

“That’s not true,” said Kidman. “She did send a photo of her meter which was very helpful, but in other instances we would just believe you. I don’t want to say it happens all the time because it doesn’t, but what happened in this instance is normal and the system worked.”

Water rates were slightly increased in 2013, a change that is only now in the past four months reflecting on customer’s bills.

However, if you get a water bill that is drastically higher than what you normally pay, you need to get to the bottom of why it increased so much, said Managing Director Stephen Heverly of Equinox Center, a think tank for sustainability issues.

“A large user might see a $10 to $20 increase in their water bills total because of rate increases,” Heverly said. “If their water bills are doubling or tripling then there’s something well beyond the actual rate increases that’s going on.”

Kidman said to check for leaks if your water bill is skyrocketing. If you don’t have time to call out a plumbing expert, an easy way to check if something may be going on is to turn off all the appliances and water in your house and read your meter. Wait 15 minutes and then read it again. The number should not have changed, and if it has, you may have a leak.

Because sewer rates are based on your winter water usage, if you have high readings during winter months, that could exponentially impact your sewer portion of your bill, Heverly said.  

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday called for $10,000 fines for residents and businesses that waste the most water as California cities try to meet mandatory conservation targets during the drought.

The recommendation was part of a legislative proposal Brown said he would make to expand enforcement of water restrictions.

His announcement came as his administration faces skepticism about his sweeping plan to save water and just hours before regulators were scheduled to release an updated plan assigning each community a water use reduction target.

"We've done a lot. We have a long way to go," Brown said after meeting with the mayors of 14 cities, including San Diego and Oakland. "So maybe you want to think of this as just another installment on a long enterprise to live with a changing climate and with a drought of uncertain duration."

The governor also said he is directing state agencies to speed up environmental review of projects that increase local water supplies. Mayors have complained that such projects have been delayed by red tape.

A legislative panel on Monday rejected a bill supported by Republicans to speed construction of new water storage projects.

Last summer, state regulators authorized $500 fines for outdoor water waste, but few cities have levied such high amounts. Many agencies have said they would rather educate customers than penalize them.

The mayors who gathered Tuesday with Brown did not indicate they were seeking higher fines.

Brown said steep fines should still be a last resort and "only the worst offenders" that continually violated water rules would be subject to $10,000 penalties. It was unclear what kind of violations those would be.

His proposal would also provide enforcement power to water departments that currently can't fine customers.

California is in its fourth year of drought, and state officials fear it may last as long as a decade.

Brown previously ordered a mandatory 25 percent reduction in statewide water use in cities and towns after voluntary conservation wasn't enough to meet his goals.

The state's most recent proposal, released last week, calls for water use to plummet by as much as 36 percent in some communities. Some cities say the targets are unrealistic and possibly illegal. And some Northern California communities say their longstanding legal rights to water protect them from having to make cuts to help other parched towns.

The current conservation plan is based on per-capita residential water use last summer. Some agencies have offered alternatives that reflect greater demand for water in more arid parts of the state and give credit for conservation efforts before the drought began.

"There are entities like San Diego that are doing a remarkable job on conservation," city Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in an interview after the meeting with Brown. "We're investing significant dollars in desalination and wanting to invest significant dollars into water recycling."

Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin said she was pleased that the governor intended to streamline regulations involving such things as her city's planned surface water treatment plant and a water recycling facility.

Earlier this month, an appeals court struck down tiered water rates designed to encourage conservation in the Orange County city of San Juan Capistrano, saying rates must be linked to the cost of service.

Brown, however, said the ruling does not eliminate using tiered water rates but added "it's not as easy as it was before the decision."

Brown did not release any specific language related to his proposed legislation, and it was unclear whether the Democratic governor had asked any lawmakers to carry it.

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was not aware of Brown's proposal and did not have an immediate comment, her spokesman John Casey said. Claire Conlon, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, also declined immediate comment.