The San Bernardino County News of Note from Around the Largest County in the Lower 48 States Friday, FebruarySentinel 7, 2020 A Fortunado Publication in conjunction with Countywide News Service 10808 Foothill Blvd. Suite 160-446 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 (951) 567-1936 Top County Lawyers’ Falsification Ploy Failed To Block Tax Repeal Measure Chino Police In an apparent attempt number of signatures set no County’s 20,105 total a method to increase tax unincorporated county Department to derail a citizen activist by California’s Constitu- square miles, or roughly revenue. communities of Helen- group’s effort to repeal tion as the threshold re- 19,100 square miles. The The county’s action dale and Silverlakes, To Get Facial what its members main- quirement to force a vote overlaying of County had taken place after pre- onto the area within the tain are illegal assess- on the matter. Fire Protection Zone 5 vious efforts beginning city limits of the cities of Recognition ments on all properties In June of 2018, the on those properties en- in 2015 and conclud- San Bernardino, Twen- Technology within San Bernardino San Bernardino County tailed the levying of a ing in 2017 to overlay tynine Palms, Needles County’s unincorpo- Board of Supervisors special tax of $157.26 per County Fire Protection and Upland/adjoining The Chino Police De- rated areas, the county approved expanding the parcel on all unincorpo- Zone 5, which was origi- unincorporated San An- partment will be one of government’s legal rep- boundaries of County rated property owners nally formed in 2006 as tonio Heights. Those the first law enforcement resentatives last summer Fire Protection Zone 5 to in the county. The plan, a means of funding the four separate actions had agencies in San Ber- imposed on the repeal include all private prop- floated by senior leader- San Bernardino County been carried out through nardino County to add petitioners a requirement erty within the county’s ship within the county’s Fire Department’s provi- a process overseen by the facial recognition tech- that they obtain at least unincorporated areas, governmental structure, sion of fire prevention/ San Bernardino County nology to its crime fight- three times and what was amounting to some 95 was to use state law ap- suppression/protection Local Agency Formation ing arsenal. arguably seven times the percent of San Bernardi- plying to fire districts as service to the adjoining Com m ission. See P 5 Using biometric soft- ware to map individual Second Week Of Opmanis Prelim Hinges On Lingering In Market Parking Lot human facial features By Mark Gutgueck on July 11, 2019. claim. have criminal records, hospitalization, required abstracted from a video The preliminary hear- The case is playing Sheriff’s department had surrounded Op- facial reconstructive sur- or photo, facial recogni- ing for Alex Opmanis out against a backdrop investigators initially manis, who was stand- gery and permanently tion systems match or extended into its second of recurrent suggestions, reached the conclusion ing to the side of his damaged his vision in contrast that data with week on Monday and elements of which have that Opmanis had acted vehicle in the parking his left eye. After Davis, information digitally this morning, as pros- been confirmed during in self-defense after his lot of Goodwin’s Mar- 29, and Shuey, 29, initi- cataloged elsewhere in ecutor David Starr Rabb the preliminary hear- encounter with Davis ket in Crestline. Davis’s ated a physical attack on a data-processing mod- continued to seek trac- ing, that a central piece and two of Davis’s com- and Shuey’s criminal Opmanis, 27, Opmanis ule to verify identities. tion in his effort to con- of evidence in the case panions, Robert Shuey records were extensive, accessed a gun inside This allows police inves- vince Superior Court had been tampered with and Shane Codman, on and Shuey roughly six his vehicle and fired it, tigators to scan rapidly Judge Charles Umeda to as part of an effort to the evening of the sec- months previous to the striking Davis once. The through tens, hundreds, bind Opmanis over for prevent Opmanis’s legal ond Thursday of last shooting had assaulted shooting took place at thousands or even mil- trial for murder in the team from presenting July. Davis, Shuey and Opmanis in an incident 9:14 p.m. Opmanis used lions of photos to find killing of Sammy Davis a credible self-defense Codman, all of whom that required Opmanis’s a cellphone to See P 2 potential or actual crimi- nal suspects, those mere- After 15 Years. Walmart Gives Mulvihill Wants Four More Years In Fight ly wanted for question- Up On Redlands Supercenter Against SB’s Homelessness, Crime & Red Ink ing or witnesses. Facial recognition The Walmart Corpo- thus stands as the larg- cil on November 5, 2013 mon Alexander and Leti- tracking technology has ration has pulled the plug est and most successful as a consequence of the cia Garcia, and then out- evolved considerably on its nearly 15 year-long company in the world, recall of his predecessor distanced Beard in the over the last three de- effort to establish a su- to abandon the plan to Wendy McCammack, is February 2016 run-off cades, and has been used percenter in Redlands. establish a 256,000- now standing for reelec- with 874 votes or 52.86 in the public domain in- Legal challenges over square foot retail center tion in the municipal percent. creasingly over the last the years had delayed the anchored by a 210,000- contest corresponding Mulvihill said he is 15 years, in many cases undertaking, and now square foot megastore at to the March 3 Califor- running for a third term to enhance security, as other considerations and the southeast corner of nia Primary Election. “because the city is in a when it is used as a sec- a changing commercial San Bernardino Avenue Mulvihill was reelected state of turmoil caused ond key in entrances to environment convinced and Tennessee Street. in 2016, after he was the by the present admin- Jim Mulvihill homes and businesses. the retail giant, which The proposal to lo- top vote-getter with 501 istration. I have a back- In recent years, it has at the moment occupies cate a Walmart on the Seventh Ward San votes or 28.11 percent in ground in urban plan- been adapted as an ac- the number one spot on 33-acre patch of ground Bernardino Councilman November 2015 in a five- ning, so I have a good cess code for cell phones. the Fortune 500 list of at that location was first Jim Mulvihill, who was way race against Scott understanding of how a Within the last several world corporations and publicly floated See P 3 first elected to the coun- Beard, Kim Robel, Da- city is supposed See P 7 years, facial recognition Two Resigned Staffers Hit SB Mayor Valdivia With Sexual Harassment Claims has been used effectively in a multitude of law en- San Bernardino May- resigned as members of Claims delineating case and the exhaustion into the accusations. forcement contexts, to or John Valdivia, who his four-person staff last the allegations in specific of the claimants’ poten- The lawyer repre- identify suspects caught has been on the dodge week. detail will be filed with tial administrative rem- senting the two women, on photographic or video from allegations and Allegations that he the city next week, ac- edies, each of the women Tristan Pelayes, at a surveillance systems as suggestions of financial was behaving inappro- cording to the two wom- will have clearance to press conference held well as in long dormant improprieties and abuse priately toward one of en’s attorney. A claim is proceed with a civil suit. yesterday morning, Feb- cold cases where pho- of his governmental the women, Mirna Cis- a precursor to a lawsuit. Cisneros, 30, and Cer- ruary 6, in front of the tographic or video evi- authority since before neros, had been festering The city will have the vantes, 24, submitted city’s 48-year-old City dence may be available. he assumed the county for nearly a year. Ac- option of acknowledg- letters of resignation to Hall that is now shut- Photographic or video seat’s highest elected po- cusations pertaining to ing either or both of the Valdivia’s chief of staff, tered because of seismic analytics typically use a sition in December 2018, Karen Cervantes relate claims as valid and con- Matt Brown, on January instability, said, “My first layer of human op- was hit with public accu- to Valdivia’s interaction ferring a settlement on 29. clients were subjected to eration in which obvious sations of sexual harass- with her since shortly one or both of the wom- In a terse statement, repeated sexual harass- non-matches are elimi- ment this week by two after she was hired last en. Upon the city’s rejec- the city has said it has ment and mistreatment nated, whereaf- women who abruptly fall. tion of the claim in either begun an investigation by the current See P 6 See P 2 Friday, February 7, 2020 San Bernardino County Sentinel Page 2 ing, the shooting itself one of the investigators sic pathologist Brian Attorneys Spar and the events follow- on the Opmanis case, Hutchins had performed The San Bernardino County Over Whether Self- ing the shooting. It was Eric Dyberg. Dyberg’s the autopsy, and that he Defense Killing Fits a viewing and auditing credibility as a witness himself had taken notes Within The Rubric of the action and sounds could prove crucial, as as the examination pro- Sentinel captured on that video, he was involved at some ceeded.