C I T Y L I G H T S NEWS TICKER


Dog did hunt Fleeing women try to evade police in Fallbrook A married couple trying to elude San Diego County Sheriff’’s deputies is suing the county and the deputies involved for excessive force used during their apprehension. The women say the deputies, who had ultimately appre- hended the women, mumbled derogatory statements about them being gay. They say one deputy sicced their police dog on one of the women while another deputy repeatedly struck the other with his flashlight. A California Highway Patrol unit pulled


over Michelle Christina Rivera and Suzanne Steinmeier for expired registration tags in April 2015. The officer discovered both women had outstanding warrants. Steinmeier, now 36, who was driving at the time, sped off. A high-speed pursuit ensued. Steinmeier pulled off on an exit in Fallbrook. They exited the car and ran into a ravine, eventually hiding under shrubs. The couple remained there, lying down in what the lawsuit describes as “passive resistance” when deputies approached. Despite the apparent surrender, Deputy Frank Leyva unleashed his police dog, but not before allegedly calling the women “god-damned lesbians.”


Dorian Hargrove


San Onofre closed, no great loss The truth about dirty natural gas A common argument used by those in favor of repairing the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and of renewing the license of Diablo Canyon, the state’s last operating nuclear power plant (Pacific Gas & Electric has since announced the plant will be shuttered in 2025), was that the absence of nuclear in the state’s energy portfolio would lead to an increased reliance on heavier-polluting natural gas. A new report from fossil fuels market


data firm Argus Media suggests this claim may be off base. Most new natural gas plants, including


the controversial Carlsbad Energy Center, Argus finds, are being built to replace aging facilities, not supplement them. Even then, gas plants are going offline faster than they’re being rebuilt. “An Argus analysis found that 4,264MW


of new gas-fired generation could come on line by 2020, but 5,752MW are being shut down,” the group reports. “New facilities will be built at a number of the same locations as those being torn down.”


Dave Rice


C I T Y L I G H T S By Reader staff writers


Mayor’s aide whisked to Phoenix on private jet Can Padres clean up their homeless problem? The mayor’s senior advisor for housing solu- tions, Stacie Spector, a former staffer in Bill Clinton’s White House and ex-UCSD public relations maven, now represents Faulconer’s campaign to rid the city’s streets of unsightly homeless-camp blight.


Off-duty sheriff’s detective chokes driver who cut


him off DA’s office charges motorist By Dorian Hargrove


T Stacie Spector — $2000 to visit Phoenix On February 16, the $175,000-a-year


mayoral aide was whisked from San Diego to visit the Phoenix Human Services Campus for the Homeless last month from Lindbergh Field’s Signature Flight Support private ter- minal on a Cessna Citation Jet 3. From there she was ferried about Phoenix


in a vehicle furnished by Zetian HRC car service, according to a March 17 disclosure report filed by the mayor’s office with the city clerk. The $2000 tab for Spector’s excursion


was furnished by Rancho Santa Fe denizen and restaurateur Dan Shea, a longtime pro- fessional sports advocate who of late has joined an effort by Padres megamillionaire managing partner Pete Seidler — whose tax- payer-subsidized ballpark often finds itself in a sea of homeless — on a rich man’s crusade to sweep the sidewalks clean, though Shea denies any ulterior motives. Seidler has also been to Phoenix, accord-


ing to a Union-Tribune feature. “The scene furnished a visual roadmap


to Seidler, along with proof of what’s pos- sible when a societal problem tests human decency and threatens to choke a system. All that warmth and life-altering will, sprin- kled among some discarded cigarette butts, within the distance of a healthy throw on a baseball field.” In addition to Shea, the U-T reports that


the group includes professional soccer’s Landon Donovan, who also happens to occupy a prominent role in another Faul- coner-endorsed Seidler effort, the Padres owner’s controversial multimillion-dollar petition drive to obtain the current site of Qualcomm Stadium for a private development complex known as SoccerCity. As the homeless problem has grown, continued on page 28


he near–traffic col- lision should have, at worst, resulted in


typical California road-rage bluster: an extended honk of a car horn, possibly an extended middle finger accompanied by expletives, maybe a quick jab to the dashboard. But then-25 year-old Robert Branch’s interstate adversary was no ordinary driver; off-duty sheriff ’s detective Paul Ward seemed intent on teaching Branch a lesson. After the near-miss


in traffic, Ward followed Branch for nine miles, leading to an altercation in which Branch was spun into a chokehold by Ward, then arrested by police. The lesson continues for


Neal Obermeyer


Branch, who now faces the possibility of years in prison for felony battery against a police officer, threatening to use pepper spray on an officer, resisting arrest, reck- less driving, failing to show identification, as well as additional counts. Local civil rights advo-


cates believe the case is much more than an off-duty detec- tive trying to teach a young, careless driver a lesson. They’re saying Branch’s alter- cation with Ward, coupled with district attorney Bon- nie Dumanis’s unyielding prosecution of him, serves as a warning of how the law-enforcement commu- nity and judicial system circle the wagons to protect one of their own, right or wrong.


Robert Branch and Paul Ward in a cell-phone video recorded by Branch


Freeway fracas On May 15, 2015, Branch merged onto westbound Interstate 8 from the 2nd Avenue on-ramp in El Cajon on his way to a girlfriend’s house, who had complained that kids had shot her car with a BB gun. Branch, who was a security guard at the time, brought his tacti- cal vest and pepper spray with him. Upon merging, Branch quickly changed lanes in order to pass a blue Ford Fusion in front of him. The driver of the Ford also switched lanes, cutting


C I T Y L I G H T S


2 San Diego Reader April 6, 2017


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