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Folksinger returns Chef of the year He knows exactly after a very named — and the where to beg long absence food was good! — INSIDE THIS WEEK BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 93 No. 11 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com May 11-17, 2007 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 RLS TRACK COACH Gallery burglars caught in the act SUSPECTED IN By MARY BROWNFIELD But it was officer Rachelle Lightfoot, responding alone to an alarm at Simic New Renaissance Galleries just before THREE EASTERN Europeans from Sacramento took a midnight May 7, who captured two of the burglars at gun- SEASIDE SHOOTING $40,000 painting from a San Carlos Street gallery Monday point. and then returned late that night to break in and steal more “Officer Lightfoot found these individuals setting up to artwork, according to Carmel Police Sgt. John Nyunt. By MARY BROWNFIELD break into Simic gallery,” Nyunt said. After padding the glass in the gallery’s front door with newspaper to deaden the noise THE MAN suspected in Seaside’s first murder since as they broke it, the burglars struck the glass with an 2004 is a longtime Robert Louis Stevenson School employee unknown object. The door held, but the impact was strong who admitted shooting his daughter in the chest and her enough to trigger the gallery’s silent glass-break alarm, and boyfriend in the head outside the couple’s San Pablo Avenue the Carmel P.D. dispatcher apartment building May 5, according to police Capt. Steve asked officers on patrol to Cercone. Salinas resident Wilbert Suber, 62, was released check the business. from Monterey County Jail on $500,000 bail Wednesday. Parking just out of sight A police Four days earlier, officers responded to a reported shoot- after rushing to the scene ing and found 26-year-old Danny Flores with a gunshot from a drunk-driving arrest in officer responds wound to his head, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Selena another part of town, alone, pulls her Suber, down with a bullet hole in her chest. Lightfoot ran up the block to “There were several people standing around, and one of see 30-year-old Anatoliy gun and makes Melnik and 34-year-old the people standing there was an older male later identified two arrests as Wilbert Suber,” Cercone said. He was talking on a cell Vadim Shavlovsky standing phone but hung up after police ordered him to, and when the near the gallery, according to officer then asked Suber if he knew who had committed the Nyunt. When officer shooting, “He said, ‘I did it,’” Cercone said. Lightfoot approached, one ran away while the other confronted her. Domestic dispute “She grabbed him and forced him to the ground,” Nyunt Police immediately arrested Suber and also found a silver said. The other man, who had fled down a path that turned semiautomatic handgun he apparently possessed illegally. out to be a dead end, returned to the street and “just gave up The weapon was in the pocket when he saw his buddy was on the ground and at gunpoint.” of the door of his pickup truck. Officer Larry Escobar, who had finished the DUI arrest Investigation at the scene while Lightfoot responded to the alarm activation, arrived and statements from witnesses less than a minute later and helped take the two suspects into indicate the shooting occurred custody. The dispatcher also summoned Nyunt, detective during an argument between Jesse Juarez and a sheriff’s deputy to investigate and search Flores and Selena Suber. On the area for other suspects. past occasions, police had been They discovered the two alleged thieves had an accom- in contact with Flores, and plice, 37-year-old Victor Ivaschenko, waiting in a car a block away. Juarez questioned the man, whose story was inconsis- Cercone said the couple appar- PHOTOS/MCSO, PINE CONE FILE ently had a history of domestic tent with what the others had told police, according to Nyunt. disputes. Just before midnight Monday, Carmel police officer Rachelle There was no confirmed vio- Lightfoot (lower right) grabbed one of three alleged would-be See BURGLARS page 21A lence between them May 5, but art thieves, took him to the ground and held him at gunpoint, which convinced his accomplice to also give himself up. A third suspect was found in a car a block away from the gallery Wilbert Suber See SHOOTING page 27A they tried to burglarize. They were all taken to the county jail. C.V. town proponents sued over unpaid bills Building bridges in Carmel Valley . By CHRIS COUNTS THE COUNTY’S Local Agency Formation Commission is asking a judge to order the group behind the drive to incorporate Carmel Valley to pay nearly $150,000 in costs associated with creating a town. LAFCO sued the Carmel Valley Forum April 5 in Monterey County Superior Court. With the river receding The filing came four weeks after a March 6 press confer- for the summer, and with ence on the steps of the Monterey County courthouse, where new public access to members of the CVF announced the filing of their own law- some cherished Carmel suit against LAFCO for requiring proponents to pay for an Valley parkland avail- environmental impact report. They objected to the EIR able, (from left) Ernesto Leyva, Caine Camarillo, requirement, among other reasons, because it would be very Michael Ortiz, Joe expensive. Perez and Roy Reynolds According to the new lawsuit, the Forum also failed to pay install a boardwalk for its share of LAFCO’s expenses from July 2003 to across the Carmel River. February 2007, which totaled $268,801.99. LAFCO said it See story on page 9A. has received only $122,180 from the CVF. LAFCO’s expenses include the cost of preparing, process- ing and managing environmental, fiscal and service plan studies for the would-be town. Also included in the bill are legal expenses. In the lawsuit, the agency contends the CVF “induced LAFCO to incur expenses, for which LAFCO reasonably PHOTO/CHRIS COUNTS believed it would be reimbursed.” The agency also claims the CVF “never challenged the fact it would reimburse LAFCO.” Carmel Valley Forum attorney Michael Stamp was not available for comment. 2A The Carmel Pine Cone May 11, 2007 Commission wants Homecrafters Marketplace moved back to Sunset By MARY BROWNFIELD the Sunset Center parking lot for three decades but was Of the Monterey County artisans, 14 were from Carmel, nine moved to downtown’s main street seven years ago. from Monterey, three from Pebble Beach, six from Seaside, THE CRAFT fair held the Saturday before Thanksgiving Homecrafters features the wares of jury-selected crafts peo- 11 from Pacific Grove, five from Carmel Valley, one from in Carmel for the past 37 years might be on a Sunday this ple from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, and Big Sur and the remainder from neighboring cities and com- November and should return to Sunset Center next year, the some shopkeepers say it has negatively affected their sales. munities. city’s community activities and cultural commission decided Tuesday marked the commission’s third meeting on the “And you talk about the people who come to buy, but I Tuesday. topic. At hearings in March and April, jewelry store manag- want to make the point that Wilkes Bashford was at the event, The discussion arose in response to some Ocean Avenue er Carmen Ajan delivered a total of more than 30 fliers loved the event and bought merchandise at the event,” merchants who joined forces to try to convince the city to signed by merchants who oppose the fair. She did not attend Christie Miller continued. “You’re making the insinuation relocate the Homecrafters Marketplace, which took place in this week, but artist Jim Miller, who owns a downtown that the type of people who buy at the event are not Carmel- gallery, repeated the request to find another home for the type people.” sale. “Everybody loves Carmel, but its uniqueness and special- Compromise sought ness need to be preserved,” he said. The city economy relies She and several commissioners asked the gallery owner if on tourists who spend a lot of money, and allowing vendors the fair should take place during a different month or on a to set up tables and tents in front of high-rent storefronts is Sunday. He said those options would be improvements and bad for business as well as the town’s image, he argued. that January or February would work, as would summer, “I would be very embarrassed if my clients came in and though that might present difficulties for other retailers. saw the street fair,” Miller continued, considering the prices “Our bad months are winter months, but you can’t have it commanded by Carmel art and other upscale offerings. when its raining,” Jim Miller said. “The only other bad Despite his condemnation of the event, Miller said he was not months for galleries and high-end stores are the summer calling for its demise. months, because people are coming with their kids.” At the May 8 meeting, community services director And since he closes his gallery on Sundays to go to Christie Miller pointed out many of those vendors also sell church, he said he wouldn’t mind the fair being held that day their goods in Carmel businesses. Last year’s sale included instead of Saturday. 95 artists and crafts people — 67 from Monterey County, 26 When he asked about holding Homecrafters on Junipero from Santa Cruz County and two from San Benito County.