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RIALTO -- Harold Cebrun, the superintendent of Rialto Unified, has been receiving death threats and racist fliers, police officials said.
Capt. Randy DeAnda, spokesman for the Rialto Police Department, said the department is investigating both death threats and racist literature left for Cebrun, who is black, to find.
"During the layoffs, hang-up calls and name-calling come with the territory, since emotions and tensions run high," district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said. "But after recognizing that these were blatant racist fliers, bigoted words were being printed to describe his specific ethnic origin, the superintendent found it increasingly difficult to brush it off. It is inappropriate, inexcusable and it has become quite obvious that the direction of this action is resulting from pure hate."
Rialto Unified pink-slipped 101 teachers and 124 nonteacher employees in March.
"There are still elements in the community that are back with racial hatred. They're back decades," school board member Joe Martinez said. "Now, it's rearing its ugly head."
The fliers, which started being sent in April, include pictures of gorillas with messages written on them like "you people are trained to run, so run" and "(racial epithet) go home." The literature has been mailed to Cebrun and dropped through an open car window. His car has also been keyed, and a Mexican flag has been mailed to him.
"The board saw what it was, and they're things that are just horrible," Martinez said. "I wouldn't want to say those (things) to anybody. I wouldn't want to hear them."
Although DeAnda would not provide details, he said the department was working on the case, which they're investigating as a hate crime, "very aggressively."
"Hate should have no place at our schools or, quite frankly, in our world," Jafri said. "Hate and bigotry are often actions that are learned behaviors. We recognize it, are deeply disappointed by it and will work with the authorities any way we can to assist with the investigation."
According to Rialto Unified's 2011-12 District Accountability Report Card, the then 26,764 student body was 13.7 percent black, 78.7 percent Hispanic and 4.6 percent white.
"We believe that, in Rialto, everybody's important," school board President Joe Ayala said. "We don't discount people: We give them opportunities. These people who are lashing out, (and) we'd like to tell them there are better ways to communicate."
This isn't the first time racial tensions have reared their head in Rialto Unified:
Earlier this spring, a girls' bathroom at Rialto High School was also covered with graffiti attacking black students, Jafri said. San Bernardino City police investigated the incident. The school is 75 percent Latino, according to the California Department of Education's most recent Academic Performance Index data.
In 2010, self-proclaimed white supremacist Dan Schruender sought a seat on the Rialto Unified school board. He ended up coming in last place, garnering only 9.64 percent of the vote, with voters instead choosing a black woman and Hispanic man.
"In education, we constantly deal with gray matter," Martinez said. "That's the color that we work with; it's not any other color." Staff writer Doug Saunders contributed to this story.
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Hundreds swap guns for gift cards
JAVIER CABRERA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Eloise Tankersley, right, forensics officer for Redlands Police, helps officers file serial numbers of guns that were traded for gift cards on Saturday morning, June 1, in Redlands.
Hundreds of people took advantage of a gun-buyback program in San Bernardino County Saturday, June 1, swapping weapons for Stater Bros. gift cards.
So many people came to the first county-wide gun-buyback in San Bernardino County that police in Redlands had to obtain more gift cards from the grocery chain and Rialto police shut down nearly three hours early when their $18,000 supply of cards was exhausted.
In all, police collected 1,424 weapons, including 23 assault weapons. Gun owners received Stater gift cards of at least $50 for inoperable weapons, $100 for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and $200 for assault weapons.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said at a news conference Friday that the guns will be melted down and used to make reinforcing bars used in construction.
"This is an opportunity for people to turn in guns that may end up being stolen," he said. "All of the weapons will be run through the stolen weapons (computer) system and any that are determined to be stolen weapons will eventually be returned to their rightful owners."
He said the weapons were being taken with no questions asked and sees the effort as a way to get guns off the street.
Gun swaps for everything from turkeys to gift baskets have been staged in Riverside County, including Riverside and Hemet, but it is not clear whether there has ever been a countywide buyback there.
DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT
A gun manufacturer teamed up with a 2nd Amendment rights group, Inland Police Officers Coalition, to set up shop outside the Stater Bros. parking lot in Redlands, offering cash in similar amounts to the gift cards in exchange for guns.
David Ives, who owns Nemesis Arms in Calimesa, would not say how many guns he purchased. He said he would be refurbishing them and re-selling them legally.
"Our taxpayer money is being wasted" in the gun-buyback program," Ives said. "They are over here buying firearms and destroying perfectly good firearms that under the 2nd Amendment can be owned and operated by legal citizens."
Bill Rhetts, a retired Los Angeles policeman, used a speaker to plead to gun owners in line at the Redlands buyback station not to turn them over to police.
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Police from 11 San Bernardino county agencies traded gift cards for guns. What is the best way to get guns off the street?
"This is a counter-productive agenda that doesn't work," he argued. "In 30 years of law enforcement … experience I've worked thousands of investigations where criminals did, in fact, use firearms. Not in any of those cases did the suspect lawfully own the firearm.
"Gun restrictions and gun laws don't work," he said, "because the criminals don't play by the rules."
BRISK BUSINESS
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies and officers from 10 police departments across the county operated gun-buyback stations Saturday at six locations: Redlands, San Bernardino, Rialto, Upland, Victorville and Barstow.
In Victorville, so many people turned out that sheriff's deputies opened their station an hour and 45 minutes early. By 11 a.m. they had to open a second lane to accommodate traffic.
Deputies there traded gift cards for 379 weapons, including 135 rifles and two assault weapons, according to department spokeswoman Jodi Miller.
Redlands police opened their station half an hour before the official 10 a.m. start when they found a line of cars waiting. By 10:30 they had used up all 350 of their $100 gift cards – to be traded for operable handguns, rifles and shotguns.
Redlands city spokesman Carl Baker said police obtained at least $2,000 more from Stater Bros. and re-opened at 11:30 a.m. By the end of the day, Baker said police in Redlands had collected 308 guns and handed out at least $30,000 worth of gift cards.
'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'
Carl Christopher, 29, off San Bernardino, brought in 10 shotguns and hunting rifles that had belonged to his 75-year-old grandfather.
"He doesn't need them any more," he said. "We'd rather get them off the street. At least we know they'll be destroyed and won't be used in a crime."
Joyce Christopher, Carl's 55-year-old mother, said she saw a flier advertising the buyback at an Arco gas station in Redlands, where she lives.
"My nephew was killed with a handgun three years ago," she said. "He pulled up to a stop sign and a somebody rode up on a bicycle and shot him three times. He lived (five weeks) and died on Christmas Day. It was the worst Christmas of my life.
"Get them all off the street," she said of guns. "Enough is enough. Anybody who has guns, turn them in."
Elvin and Paula Lightcap, drove 50 miles from Yucca Valley to exchange two shotguns and seven handguns they acquired when they handled the estate of a distant relative five years ago.
"We've been waiting since we cleared up the estate for a gun-buyback," Paula Lightcap said. "They never have them in Yucca Valley. I didn't know what else to do with them."
In Rialto, a line of cars stretched four blocks in 98-degree heat as gun owners waited to swap weapons for the gift cards. They turned in 180 guns, including 32 shotguns and 68 rifles, including four assault rifles that fetched $200 gift cards for each.
Rialto police Capt. Randy De Anda said officers also took in four specially modified weapons and three replica handguns.
"I don't know if they were movie props, but we took them anyway," he said. "They look real and they could be used in a robbery."
Freddie Lewis, 62, of Rialto, traded in a rifle and a semi-automatic Tec-9 pistol, which he said is illegal in California.
"I got two sons, 25 and 30 years old, living in the house now, so I wanted to get the guns out of the house," he said.
Martin Villegas, of Colton, got $100 for the sawed-off shotgun he traded in.
"I had the gun for a year," he said. "I didn't have kids with me, but I became the legal guardian of these (three school-age) kids. I feel good about getting rid of the gun."
Asked what he would do with the gift card, he said, "Like the man suggested, let's have a barbecue."
Follow Darrell R. Santschi on Twitter @DarrellSantschi and online at blog.pe.com/crime-blotter
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A former Rialto police officer was sentenced to more than six years in state prison Thursday for committing a series of sex acts with a teenage relative.
Theodore Ralph Fernandes, 51, of Fontana took a plea deal in February and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration against the victim's will and one count of lewd acts on a child age 14.
As part of the agreement, Fernandes also received two strikes and will have to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors said Fernandes was facing more than 40 years if he had gone to trial.
The victim first reported the crimes -- which were committed between 2002 and 2006, according to a criminal complaint by the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office -- early last year. Fontana police began investigating and spent several months completing the case due to its complexity, police said.
Around that time, Fernandes was put on administrative leave from the Rialto Police Department. He resigned later in the year following 17 years of law enforcement experience. Fernandes was arrested in May after he turned himself in at the Fontana police station. He was originally charged with 20 counts of sex crimes. The 24-year-old victim, who was 14 when the crimes began, was not at Thursday's sentencing inside the West Valley Courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga. But she wrote a letter to the court, which was read by a victim advocate.
"I feel that even a lifetime sentence would never be punishment enough," the victim wrote. "I am satisfied though with the fact that Fernandes plead guilty and is serving time for what he did. The fact that he has to now take responsibility for his actions and reap the consequences that he thought he was above serving is justice enough for me. "
According to the probation report, Fernandes first requested sexually explicit pictures of the victim, who is identified as Jane Doe, and made inappropriate comments when she was 13 years old. That escalated to oral sex and other sex acts and eventually intercourse between the two.
Jane Doe told officials she allowed the incidents to happen because she was afraid of Fernandes and wanted to protect her family.
She also provided officials with 15 emails between herself and Fernandes that indicated an inappropriate relationship between the two, according to the probation report.
Though he had the chance, Fernandes, who was wearing a protective custody jumpsuit at the sentencing, did not address the court.
But outside the courtroom, Fernandes' family spoke for him.
"He didn't do anything illegal," said Patty Fernandes, Fernandes' sister.
Patty Fernandes called the victim a liar and added that there was no physical evidence.
Other family members said there was never any indication of sex acts going on between Fernandes and the victim, which is why they didn't believe her reports.
Following the sentencing, Jane Doe's father said his daughter is doing well and wants to move on.
"We're glad it's over, but we wish he would have gotten more time," he said.
Live to Ride: Ride to Live Harley~Davidson #1 Don't take life for granted, You never know when it will be suddenly knocked out of you!! By a Mazda MPV no less!!
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Prosecutors on Thursday cleared three Rialto police officers in the February 2012 shooting of a 24-year-old Rialto man.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office said Officers Glen Anderson, Mike Martinez and Javier Pulido were justified when they opened fire on Huston Leron Parker because he pointed what they suspected was a gun at them.
Parker was actually armed with a replica gun. He survived the shooting.
Police came to a cul-de-sac in the 100 block of East Jackson Street on Feb. 8 after receiving a call about a man holding a gun and shooting at a car.
Officers later discovered that Parker called the police and armed himself with the replica gun. They found a note in his car with statements that indicated he wanted to commit "suicide by cop," prosecutors said in their report. Reach Melissavia emailor call her at 909-386-3878. Get the latest crime and public safety news on Twitter@IECrime.
Live to Ride: Ride to Live Harley~Davidson #1 Don't take life for granted, You never know when it will be suddenly knocked out of you!! By a Mazda MPV no less!!
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A jury that convicted a Rialto man of murdering a 2010 Fontana bus driver in 2010 will next have to decide whether he is insane.
Robert Darrell Johnson, 36, was found guilty of murder Tuesday, Nov. 27, for stabbing an Omnitrans driver on board a bus near a busy Rialto intersection in May 2010. The stabbing caused the bus to crash into a tree.
The jury also found a special allegation true that he used a knife.
Lawrence Kester, 47, was the father of eight and driving his normal route on Base Line from San Bernardino to Fontana when Johnson attacked him on the bus, which was carrying four other passengers. Authorities said the attack was without warning or provocation. No other passengers were injured.
Police said Johnson ran through a bank, where he dropped a knife, and into a supermarket, where he was arrested.
Johnson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder charge. A jury is set to return Wednesday to begin hearing evidence in the sanity phase of the trial.
Leading up to the trial, a judge had initially ruled Johnson incompetent to stand trial, based on two doctor's reports on his mental fitness. Johnson was ordered placed in a psychiatric facility and to undergo medication.
He was reevaluated in May, where doctors reported he was stabilized on medication and the judge found him fit to stand trial, according to court records. He had no prior criminal record in Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
Johnson could face up to a life sentence for the murder charge
RIALTO: Rodney King drowns in own pool; autopsy report pending
TERRY PIERSON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rialto Police Detective Carla McCullough, left watches as technician Noretta Barker photographs evidence by the pool in Rialto where Rodney King was found dead, Sunday, June 17, 2012.
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating at the hands of Los Angeles police officers set in motion events that would lead to the deadly Los Angeles riots of 1992, died after an apparent drowning in the backyard swimming pool of his Rialto home. He was 47.
The encounter with LAPD officers in 1991 brought King his unwanted fame. And it was law enforcement officers who provided the coda to his life early Sunday, June 17, when they jumped into the pool wearing their uniforms and equipment in an effort to save him.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday morning June 18, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller. She said toxicology tests were also being performed.
The results will take weeks to return, she said. The county coroner releases autopsy and toxicology results at the same time, she said.
Rialto police Capt. Randy De Anda said in a Sunday June 17 afternoon news conference that it was not unusual for King to go swimming at any hour, including the early morning.
He said Kelley, whom he described as "not a strong swimmer," tried to pull King out, and called 911 when she could not.
Responding officers jumped in and retrieved King. They tried to give him cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Rialto Fire Department paramedics also treated King at the scene. He was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, and pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m.
"Last night I heard a commotion," said neighbor Bob Carlberg, 53, who lives two doors away. "It really wasn't like a fight-fight-fight, but it was like yelling back and forth," he said. "He had a little party yesterday."
"He had something going on all night … the neighbors that live behind him were kind of yelling over to be quiet … the people who actually live next door to him said it was really loud," Carlberg said.
Carlberg said the disturbances were uncharacteristic of King, who lived on East Jackson Street, which is lined with single-story ranch-style and tract homes with well-trimmed lawns and shade trees. "He really kept to himself. The last couple of weeks he had more people over because he was planning his marriage. That's only my theory."
A neighbor of King said that around 3 a.m. she heard music and people talking next door and what sounded like someone who was very emotional.
"It seemed like someone was really crying, like really deep emotions," said Sandra Gardea, 31, a dental hygienist instructor who recently moved in. "And it just got louder and louder. Everybody woke up. Even the kids woke up."
She described the sound as "like moaning, like in pain. Like tired or sad, you know?"
Gardea said this went on for some time and then stopped.
"I heard someone say, 'OK, Please stop. Go inside the house.' … We heard quiet for a few minutes. Then after that we heard a splash in the back. And that's when a few minutes later we see the cops arrive and everyone arrive and we see him being taken in a gurney."
"You didn't see parties here or a lot of people. He was very withdrawn, and (kept) to himself," said neighbor Tondalaya Baker, 55, who lives around the corner from King's home. She said she most often saw him when he was working on his lawn or the front of his home.
He said he did not know the content of the conversation. "At this time I do not know what Mr. King's toxicology was, or if he was intoxicated, or whether he was under the influence of any substances." He said detectives would try to determine what was going on at the moment King fell into the pool.
On Sunday afternoon, evidence was being carted away from King's home, including what looked like a marijuana plant. King had said in interviews last year that he had a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana. Medical marijuana users are permitted some legal cultivation.
De Anda said a coroner's investigation will include an autopsy and a toxicology report. He said there were no signs of drugs or alcohol near the pool when officers arrived, and that detectives had interviewed Kelley as a routine matter. Kelley had been one of the jurors who awarded King $3.8 million in his lawsuit against Los Angeles over the beating. King said recently he had spent most of the money.
Neighbors described King as friendly and willing to talk about anything except what happened in Los Angeles two decades ago. "The best neighbor in the neighborhood," said Baker, who said she spoke to him frequently.
Asked if King ever discussed his past, Baker said, "he never wanted to talk about that. He really just stayed to himself … he was extremely private." She said he often kept his drapes drawn at the home.
Carlberg said he liked to talk about cars with King.
"He was a pretty nice guy. Seemed like a real nice guy, I had no problems," Carlberg said.
Carlberg described the neighborhood "real quiet, peaceful, friendly. Everybody gets along. Everybody talks to everybody."
Two decades ago, King uttered five words that captured the sentiment of millions of Americans horrified by the scenes of death and destruction in the Los Angeles riots.
"I just want to say, you know, 'Can we all get along?'," King said in a quavering voice after rioters ravaged Southern California neighborhoods.
King was pulled over by LAPD officers in 1991 for speeding. He was drunk but unarmed. Officers responded to King's lack of cooperation by beating him with batons and kicking him repeatedly.
The beating was video-taped by a bystander, which elevated the case to international headlines.
Four of the officers, all white, went to trial. Their acquittal sparked the infamous Southern California riots on April 29, 1992. At least 53 people were killed, more than 2,000 were injured and more than $1 billion in property was damaged or destroyed.
King reflected in an interview with The Press-Enterprise in early April on how his lawyers handed him a four-page statement to read at a news conference. It was 1992, two days after the beginning of the disturbances that began when four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating him.
But instead of reading the statement, King improvised.
"I spoke from my heart, you know," King said. "I felt there was a need to say something from the heart."
King moved to Inland Southern California from Los Angeles County in 1999 to escape some of the continued attention.
"At the time, I felt a little too much heat," he said. "The smoke hadn't cleared in Los Angeles for me. I thought it would be more comfortable for me to be in the IE."
Recently, King said he supported himself in part by doing handyman and construction work. He's also made money on reality-TV appearances, including "Celebrity Rehab."
The headlines that followed King during his 13 years in the Inland area generally had not been complimentary. He wasn arrested several times, including for driving under the influence and domestic violence.
In the latest case, he pleaded guilty in February to reckless driving after he was pulled over in Moreno Valley.
King acknowledged his mistakes. He wrote about them in his book, "The Riot Within," which was released in April.
He said his days of drinking heavily were over — although he said he hadn't quit alcohol entirely.
"I sip now," said King, whose father was an alcoholic. "I'm not guzzling drinks anymore. No one knows the future, but I sure feel comfortable where I am today with myself."
Staff writer David Olson, dolson@pe.com, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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AIRPORT: Closing Rialto Municipal has gotten more complex
STAN LIM/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A runway not in use at the Rialto Municipal Airport on March 27. In 2005, Congress authorized the airport to close to make way for homes and shops. The airport has remained open, though, while the city of Rialto and developers wait out the economic downturn and face questions about what the end of redevelopment agencies may mean for the property.
It should have been simple, or as simple as it can be to shut down an airport after securing the first difficult-to-get go-ahead to make way for homes, shopping and industry.
But closing Rialto Municipal Airport has been anything but easy.
Seven years after a rare act of Congress authorized the airport to close — a workaround that avoided a showdown with the Federal Aviation Administration that had funded the airport's development — it's still open and none of the tenants have been moved to nearby San Bernardino International Airport as planned.
The economy's swift and enduring downfall put plans to develop homes, shops and a business park on hold and made land prices of 2005 unrealistic. By the time land entitlements were complete and a specific plan approved in 2010, "the economy was long gone," said Robb Steel, assistant to the city of Rialto's administrator.
The airport's fate has only been made more complicated with the dissolution of California's redevelopment agencies.
The city's redevelopment agency owned the airport property and had the agreements with a private developer and San Bernardino airport. That agency no longer exists.
"The economy kicked us in the gut and then the state kicked us in the gut," Steel said.
The plan has already cost the city of Rialto and the developer millions of dollars, and the delay kept San Bernardino airport officials waiting for a windfall that hasn't arrived.
In addition to transferring the land to the city of Rialto — which later transferred it to the city's redevelopment agency — Congress required that nearby San Bernardino International Airport would have a 45 percent claim on the appraised value of the land. Those funds, paid by Rialto, would be used for relocating tenants and building hangars to house planes and businesses that had been at the closed airport.
The tenants that remain at Rialto today pay rent month-to-month, knowing the airport will close, just not when.
New tenants have arrived knowing there's still time, including Fontana Police Department's air support and an owner who has ketchup bottles sitting on tables in a soon-to-open restaurant at the airport.
To kick start development, Rialto's City Council approved raising $30 million through a complex financing deal for management of the city's water system that would raise residential rates between 97 percent and 115 percent.
But first, the city has to regain ownership of the airport property and sign new agreements with the developer and San Bernardino airport.
POTENTIAL PROFITS
In 2005, the city had visions of grandeur — development that would include 4,000 homes, shops, restaurants, a corporate park, a school, even a new City Hall — with the project dubbed "Renaissance Rialto."
Lewis-Hillwood Rialto LLC, a combination of the Upland-based Lewis Group of Companies that developed Victoria Gardens and Hillwood, which developed all of the non-aviation space at San Bernardino International Airport, agreed to eventually buy more than 500 acres of what would be the 1,400-acre Renaissance Rialto development.
Early on, the developer agreed to take on all the costs.
Rialto would get paid for the land and share in the profits of development. But the economy inspired a shift in responsibilities as well as a scaled back plan. The two sides were in the midst of negotiating a new agreement when redevelopment went away.
The standstill and uncertainty now is in stark contrast to the speed at which plans and agreements were falling into place between 2005 and 2007, including moving Westpac Restorations, one of the largest tenants at the airport, to Colorado Springs, Colo., at a cost of close to $10 million.
"In 2008, the door shut," Steel said, referring to the economic downturn.
Lewis-Hillwood has spent more than $30 million relocating tenants and securing land entitlements among other costs, "and we are still excited about moving forward," said Executive Vice President Randall Lewis in an email. The city's redevelopment agency has spent about $8.4 million paying back Lewis-Hillwood for some of the costs.
The pay-off was expected to more than make up for the spending. Rialto was poised to make at least $26 million from land sales, not counting a share of profits from the development, as a result of the airport's closure.
The amount the city's redevelopment agency ultimately agreed to pay the San Bernardino International Airport Authority to take on its tenants before the development stalled: $49.5 million.
Recently, negotiations have been revived to move the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department to San Bernardino airport. The agency brought its helicopters and planes to Rialto airport in 1978 and has since outgrown its 20,000 square feet of space. Capt. Jeff Rose said the department could use 65,000 square feet.
The hangar at San Bernardino airport could cost an estimated $8.7 million. A large part — $4.2 million — would come from the city of Rialto when it sells airport property to pay for relocation costs. In prior plans, the Sheriff's Department agreed to pay $1 million, and San Bernardino airport's related Inland Valley Development Agency which oversees redevelopment of former Norton Air Force Base property would cover the rest of the cost and recoup what was spent by leasing the building back to the county for at least 25 years. More than a year ago, the San Bernardino airport authority approved — in concept — to build the space.
Under a new proposed plan, the city of Rialto would pay a $375,000 cash down payment — an advance on the $4.2 million — toward the design of the new hangar. The remainder would still be paid from land sales, if and when that happens. It's a risk because Rialto would only pay the rest if the land is sold, Steel said.
"Now, we've got a few more potholes in front of us," he said.
