South Lake Tahoe Chiropractor Paul Whitcomb claimed to have a quick fix for a painful, incurable medical condition, fibromyalgia. In November of last year, we interviewed several former patients who say the treatment didn't work, and it left them thousands of dollars in debt. Today, the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners released this decision to adopt a ruling from an administrative law judge, revoking Whitcomb's license. The ruling finds that Whitcomb committed "excessive treatment", "mulitple acts of gross negligence" and made "false, fraudulent, misleading, and deceptive statements". It also orders him to pay a fine of more than $23,000 to cover the cost of the board's investigation.
The second day of the boat crash trial in Lake county dealt with the chain of custody on the blood samples and their results. The bottom line -- Perdock had no alcohol in his system; Dinius had .12% and was impaired as he was steering the sailboat; sailboat owner Weber had .18%.
Former LCSO sergeant Jim Beland testified that he a superior ordered him not to give Perdock a breath test on shore after the accident, and that he was terminated because of the case.
Here are my tweets from the afternoon session -- you can follow me on twitter.com by typing in dannoyes:
Here are the last tweets I filed from today. I'll be back in court at 9am Wednesday, and live on Twitter. Just type in dannoyes to find me. All in all, not a great day for the prosecution. The first four prosecution witnesses gave the defense some ammunition. Twitter lists the most recent postings first, so you have to read from the bottom to get the narrative:
• Done for the day. Judge tells jurors to avoid coverage or discussions about the case and "keep an open mind".
about 3 hours ago from web
Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins has formally dismissed the manslaughter charge against Bismarck Dinius. He still faces a felony boating under the influence and two misdemeanor BUI charges, associated with the crash that killed Lynn Thornton of Willows. Here's how I twittered it live from inside Lake County Superior Court:
• Heading to Clear Lake for Boat Crash Hearing -- DA to Dismiss Manslaughter Charge (about 3 hours ago from TwitPic)
In this motion filed today in Lake County Superior Court, defense attorney Victor Haltom accuses District Attorney Jon Hopkins of prosecutorial misconduct. It centers around a highly-unusual “open letter” Hopkins published on the Lake County government website, in which he calls defendant Bismarck Dinius a “drunken sailor” and claims to have found that “twelve people saw no running lights on the sailboat at the time of the collision”. Haltom refutes Hopkins’ claim in today’s motion taking the witnesses one by one, and he questions the timing of the D.A.’s letter with jury selection underway.
It is a stunning development out of Lake County tonight. District Attorney Jon Hopkins has announced he will dismiss the manslaughter charge against Bismarck Dinius in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday.
We've been hearing for years how officers on the street feel the San Francisco District Attorney's Office soft pedals some of the cases presented by the SFPD. Case in point: thirty-two-year-old Earl Davis.
Earl Davis on Starbucks' Surveillance
February 22, 2009
The city of San Francisco limits the number of cabs on the street by handing out just 1,500 permits or "taxi medallions". With almost 7,500 drivers, the medallions are precious -- there's a ten-year waiting list. In order to receive a medallion, you have to be a working, full-time driver. You can drive your own cab with it and lease it out to other drivers to work when you aren't driving. That leasing option is worth anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 a year -- a good addition to a cab driver's salary. It's meant as something of a reward for working years in the industry.
In July of 2007, the I-Teamshowed you how several people are apparently taking advantage of the system.
In tonight's story, we told you how Jim McConville convinced dozens of Bay Area investors to let him use their identities and credit scores to buy condos across the state, then left them on the hook for millions of dollars. But why did he do it?
