Wednesday Morning News Roundup

Jay Wilverding, who was appointed back in 2021, was placed on leave in what supervisors said was an action "not for cause."

The 4-1 decision was reached during a closed session review of Wilverding's position, with Board Chair Miguel Villapadua dissenting.

Assistant County Administrator Sandra Regalo has been named acting county administrator, effective immediately.

The Board of Supervisors will move to terminate Wilverding's contract at the March 26 meeting. His contract was most recently renewed in February 2022, with a salary of $365,801, the county said.

-0-

After a lengthy litigation and settlement process, Santa Cruz County made its first allocation of funds Tuesday from manufacturers and distributors of opioids that fueled a national addiction crisis.

Santa Cruz County greenlit its first round of opioid settlement money to fund the creation of a grant program that will invest in a range of treatment and prevention services for what is still a growing epidemic of overdoses in the county.

The county will receive $26 million over the next 18 years as part of a series of settlements with opioid manufacturers that were filed at the local and state level starting in 2018. Santa Cruz County was one of the litigating jurisdictions and joined in a class action suit with multiple others, including California. The county has so far received $3.2 million.

A vote from the County Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting on Tuesday directed $900,000 to the nonprofit Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County to begin soliciting organizations to distribute the money to.

The vote also established spending priorities for the next two years that will steer the money to approved uses to combat the effects of the crisis, which has seen steady rises since the late 1990s in addiction and fatal overdoses from opioids.

-0-

A man who shot an unarmed college student in San Jose in 2022 has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and other charges, the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

Mark Waters, 68, is a retired mechanical engineer who pulled a gun on a 21-year-old student in October 2022. The student was crossing the street from his Airbnb rental to go get some dinner when Waters came at him with a gun pointed at his chest. The victim ran, but Waters yelled, "So you think you can run?" and shot him In the leg, shattering his femur.

Police found video footage of the shooting from a neighbor and searched Waters' home, where they seized multiple firearms.

The victim spent a week in the hospital and a month in a physical rehabilitation center recovering from his injuries. To this day, the victim cannot walk well, prosecutors said. In his statement to the court, the victim said that as the child of two athletes, running was a big part of his life. Now, he told the court, he can no longer run.

Waters faces 22 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22.

-0-

Contra Costa County hazardous materials crews determined Tuesday that a mysterious substance found in a trailer left abandoned on a main road in Martinez was some sort of vegetable-based oil that did not pose a public threat, a county fire captain said.

Crews responded shortly before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to investigate an abandoned trailer on wheels along the 3300 block of Pacheco Boulevard and learned it had been tagged by the county Sheriff's Office as abandoned on March 4, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Capt. Chris Toler said.

A tow truck company had been called out to tow it Tuesday morning, but the tow truck driver saw there was some sort of substance inside and called the Sheriff's Office, prompting the hazmat response, Toler said.

There were no identifiable markings or a license plate to help investigators determine where the container came from, but the hazmat team was able to determine it did not pose a threat, according to Toler.

Two other box containers that had been tagged as abandoned on March 4 were towed out of the area, and Toler said the trailer that prompted Tuesday's response will be towed to the same location.

-0-

A San Rafael man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of interrupting a religious ceremony at an Islamic center and pepper-spraying a person who tried to restrain him, Novato police said.

Around 8:30 p.m. Monday, Novato police were alerted to an incident at the Islamic Center of North Marin. A man had allegedly entered the center on the first evening of Ramadan with a bag in his hand. The victim told police that the suspect exposed "what appeared to be a firearm" within the bag, prompting the member of the center to attempt to restrain him. The suspect allegedly pepper-sprayed the victim and then fled the center.

Police set up a perimeter around the area and a California Highway Patrol chopper made an aerial search for the suspect, but he was not found that evening.

Detectives examined surveillance footage of the altercation and did more investigating before they determined that 48-year-old San Rafael Resident David Margoliash had visited the Islamic Center and was the suspect in this case. He was arrested Tuesday morning.

A search warrant was carried out at Margoliash's residence, and investigators allege they found more evidence linking him to the crime. However, no firearm has been located, police said.

Margoliash was booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of unlawful possession of pepper spray and disrupting a religious ceremony.

-0-

A 26-year-old man has been arrested as the second suspect in a fatal shooting in San Jose last month, police said Tuesday.

San Jose resident Jerald Williams was arrested Friday following the earlier arrest of Dynzel Brown, a 30-year-old Sunnyvale resident, in the shooting death early on the morning of Feb. 29 in a parking lot in the 5100 block of Moorpark Avenue, according to San Jose police.

Officers had responded at 1:18 a.m. that day and found the victim, identified as 34-year-old Saratoga resident Jose Luis Rodriguez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators identified Brown as the primary suspect and arrested him later on Feb. 29 in Sunnyvale, then arrested Williams Friday at a home in San Jose.

The motive for the shooting and details about what led to it remain under investigation. Anyone with information about the case, San Jose's ninth homicide of 2024, is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Barragan or Detective Van Brande at 4106@sanjoseca.gov, 4542@sanjoseca.gov or (408) 277-5283.

-0-

The National Weather Service forecast for the greater San Francisco Bay Area for Wednesday calls for mostly sunny skies with breezy conditions.

Daytime highs will be mostly in the 60s. Overnight lows are expected to be in the 40s, with some areas dropping into the upper 30s.

Forecasters say gusty offshore winds will develop for Wednesday night into Friday morning with Wind Advisories in effect for portions of the Bay Area. Otherwise, dry and warmer conditions are expected to prevail for the late week through the weekend.

Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.