Eastern District of California Blog

Homeless Mail Hoaxer Charged

"A federal grand jury in Sacramento returned a 10-count indictment Thursday charging a transient with hoax mailings, threatening communications and failing to register as a sex offender after crossing state lines."  Sac Bee, 4/30/10

More Defendants To Be Charged In Salyer's Alleged "Big Tomato" Conspiracy?

That's what's speculated in today's LA Times article: "Though the indictment doesn't name Salyer's co-conspirators, it could signal a push by the U.S. Justice Department to broaden its ongoing investigation into California's tomato processing industry."  And here's Denny's story of yesterday's indictment in today's Sacramento Bee.

SK Foods Salyer Faces 5 More Price-Fixing Charges

A federal grand jury has added five more felony charges to the price-fixing case against the former owner of a California food company.The new counts allege that Frederick Scott Salyer violated antitrust laws by fixing prices or rigging bids for the sale of tomato products to McCain Foods USA Inc., Conagra Foods Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. 

Sac Bee, 4/29/10.  Here's the Superseding Indictment against Salyer.

 

Salyer Superseding Indictment Expected Thursday

The Sacramento Bee reports that a Superseding Indictment with criminal anti-trust and unfair competition charges is expected to be filed when the grand jury meets Thursday, and that two attorneys from the Department of Justice's Anti-Trust Division are expected to join AUSAs Sean Flynn and Matt Segal on the prosecution team in time for the status conference on Tuesday.  Sacramento Bee, 4/28/10.  Given the DOJ's track record in past prosecutions in this district, the defense may welcome the addition of the new Washington D.C. prosecutors. 

Fresno To Pay $1.7 Million To Settle Police Brutality Suit

The city of Fresno has agreed to another million-dollar-plus payout to settle claims that police used excessive force to break up a 2005 homecoming celebration for a soldier returning from Iraq.

The city will pay $1.7 million to 10 family members who sued the city in U.S. District Court in Fresno for police brutality, the plaintiffs' attorneys said Monday.

Coupled with an earlier payout of $1.6 million to a Clovis couple, the city has paid $3.3 million to settle the lawsuits stemming from the March 6, 2005, party in southeast Fresno.

Fresno Bee, 4/27/10

More Charges For SK Foods Salyer?

At this morning's status conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Flynn advised Judge Karlton that attorneys from the Department of Justice's Anti-Trust section would be coming to Sacramento next week and suggested that a superseding indictment would be filed with additional charges against SK Foods owner Frederick Salyer.  I don't remember ever seeing criminal antitrust charges in this district.   Otherwise, the status conference was uneventful with Judge Karlton largely granting the defense's proposed motion schedule.  Sacramento Bee, 4/27/10

Anthrax Hoax Defendant Keyser Sentenced To 51 Months

Marc McMain Keyser, the Sacramento man who perpetrated a nationwide anthrax hoax in 2008, was sentenced today to four years and three months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said Keyser "may be dangerous to himself and others," and ordered him taken into custody immediately.

Basing his remarks on the content of Keyser's Internet blog since his conviction last year, the judge said, "He thinks he's a martyr and a messenger of God and a person above the law."

Sacramento Bee,4/26/10

[Updated Sac Bee, 4/27/10; News10.net, 4/26/10]

Two Men Found Guilty By Sac Jury of Lassen County Marijuana Grow and Gun Possession

Two men have been convicted in a marijuana growing case that involved a gun battle last year between suspects and law enforcement officers in which one suspect was killed and two Lassen County sheriff's officers were wounded.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced Friday that a federal jury convicted Jose Alfredo Zepeda, 20, of East Palo Alto, and Clemente Ferrias Arroyo, 63, of Morgan Hill, of conspiring to manufacture at least 1,000 marijuana plants, manufacturing at least 1,000 marijuana plants and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.

The charges stem from an investigation of a large outdoor marijuana garden on federal land in northern Lassen County by two Bureau of Land Management rangers, two Lassen County sheriff's officers and a Susanville police officer.

On June 16, 2009, the officers encountered three suspected marijuana growers. Suspect Juan Carlos Herrera-Chavez engaged the officers in a gun battle using an AK-47 rifle, a Department of Justice news release states. The two sheriff's deputies were wounded, and Herrera-Chavez was killed when officers returned fire, officials said. Both Lassen County sheriff's officers survived.

Sacramento Bee, 4/26/2010

Feds Seize Pot Plants At Six Residences In Two-Day Sting

Seven Sacramento-area residents were arrested this week as a result of two indoor marijuana growing investigations by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Elk Grove Police Department.

The two-day enforcement operation resulted in seizure of six indoor operations, more than 4,300 plants, approximately $82,600 in U.S. Currency and one vehicle, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration news release.

In November 2009, the Elk Grove Police Department and the DEA's Sacramento District Office identified a suspected marijuana cultivator, Tac Che, 50, of Sacramento. According to the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint, law enforcement officers learned of several residences with suspected indoor marijuana grows that were linked to Che. Based on the investigation, officers believed power theft was occurring at many of the grow sites.

Sac Bee, 4/22/2010; News10, 4/22/10 

Sac Court Sentences Three For Conspiracy To Defraud IRS

Three people have been sentenced in U.S. District Court for their part in a conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton sentenced Wayne J. Majors, 56, of Phoenix to six months in a halfway house, and six months of home confinement as part of his five years of probation, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.

Also sentenced were Majors' two co-defendants. Leah Anderson, 37, of Phoenix, was sentenced to five years probation with 30 days intermittent confinement in jail and five months of home confinement. Sandra Villegas, 58, also of Phoenix, was sentenced to 30 days in jail followed by five months of home confinement.  The defendants pleaded guilty Aug. 28, 2009.

According to plea agreements, from 1999 through 2002, Majors and his wife, Leah Anderson, and his sister, Sandra Villegas, set up and managed a Sacramento law firm, the American Law Center, specializing in bankruptcy. The three operated the business side and hired lawyers for the legal work.

Sac Bee, 4/21/10