- From The Family Of Eva Holcomb
- Gotta Dance!
- My Case
- The Future Of Mental Health Care
- Gotta Get Out
- Honorable Crooks
- Ignore-Ance
FROM THE FAMILY OF EVA HOLCOMB
Editor,
From the bottom of our hearts, the Holcomb, Toohey and Pardini families want to extend the warmest and sincerest of thank yous and appreciation to our friends and our community, for seeing off our beloved Eva, to the next step of her journey in a way that was worthy of her and the impact she had on our valley in her 84 years with us.
To those who helped us make this ceremony so special: Steve Sparks, Father Anthony and Jorge, Bill Nobles, Stephanie Frost, Todd Capuzelo, John Schultz, and the lovely choir who sang at the burial, your contributions mean more to us then we can express in words or gifts.
To our extended family and our Anderson Valley community of friends, who she loved so dearly, thank you for your help setting up, cleaning up, your gifts of flowers and cards, your sweet stories and memories, your tears, your laughter, and your presence. In the midst of this loss, it has been our community that has helped to mend our hearts. Fitting, as it was this valley, and the people in it, that she loved so dearly - above all else.
John Toohey
Boonville
GOTTA DANCE!
To whom it may concern:
I am Hannah Woolfenden, a student with Anderson Valley High School. For my senior project, I am putting on a free dance day. I chose to do this project to expose more children to dance, as both an art form and a physical activity. Dance has done so much for me and it is incredibly important that other children get the opportunity to dance as well. I attached a PSA for my event which will take place on March 30 at Mendocino Ballet in Ukiah. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at this email. I hope you will help me get the word out about this. Thank you for your time.
Warmly,
Hannah Woolfenden
PS: Free Dance Day at Mendocino Ballet
Bring your kids to enjoy a blast of an afternoon with a series of free dance classes for ages six to thirteen. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve taken a dance class before, just be ready to move, groove, and have fun.
Saturday, March 30, 2019 from 1:00 to 4:15 pm
Mendocino Ballet, Ukiah
Information: Hannah Woolfenden,
hlwoolfenden@gmail.com
707/489-2290, Mendocino Ballet,
205 South State Street, Ukiah CA
(Mendocino Ballet is a non-profit 501c3 corporation. Tax ID: 68-0037489.)
MY CASE
Editor:
As my name is being heavily bandied about, it feels appropriate that my own voice should be included in the fracas.
As the editor has made known through the Off the Record column, I am in the process of petitioning for a sentence modification under the authority of Senate Bill (SB) 1437. I will avoid discussing specifics of the case, but Mr. Anderson is doing a more than adequate job of presenting the facts.
On issues of procedure the rules are cut and dried. SB 1437 allows a person who is not the actual killer who did not have the intent to kill or who was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life to petition for a sentence modification vacating the murder and upholding the underlying felony (robbery, in my case). Once this petition is filed the prosecution has 60 days to file a response attempting to show that I don't qualify. Finally, I have an additional 30 days to rebut, then a hearing is held.
We will see how it plays out.
I have spent the last 17 years incarcerated. Through a multitude of hurdles I have educated myself, obtaining a test of adult basic education (TABE) up 12.9, a certificate of accomplishment in business administration, I am 17 units from obtaining an AST in business administration (which was interrupted by my filing of the petition). I have picked up advanced computer literacy, developed a multitude of life skills, drafted numerous, viable business plans, and many other accomplishments.
Were this petition to succeed I will have nothing but positive prospects for myself and the community which I have loved.
I detest the stereotypical criminal culture and will not participate in it. I am not a druggie and I will be a productive member of society.
I can be contacted at the address below.
Sincerely,
Tai Abreu, A#92781
951 Low Gap Road
Ukiah, CA 95482
THE FUTURE OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Letter to the Editor
The Mental Health care of the future can be seen in Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel Amen, MD, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD, and at amenclinics.com, and chopra.com.
Redwood Community Services (RCS) upper management knows about this. I believe they will institute as much of it as possible for crisis care, with the resources they are given.
Many people can and want to learn lifestyle changes that support healthy living by taking classes in healthy eating, meditation, and stress reduction techniques. These classes can be taught as part of a CRT (Crisis Residential Treatment) Program to support people in their healing, preventing relapses, making healthy lifestyle choices that can lead to a better and more meaningful life.
A CRT is a voluntary program to help people in early stage crisis. A PHF (Psychiatric Health Facility) helps people in advanced stage crisis when they are a danger to self or others or gravely disabled. A CRT and PHF meet all our needs for crisis care.
Many of us know the mental health services failures of the past. The CSU failed here in 2000 because it was too expensive with 3 shifts of medical staff and not enough people who only needed 23 hours of care. Let’s stop looking at the old mental health system as something to do again.
RCS offers us the best chance of bringing the mental health care of the future here. Let’s support them in doing this. We need a ready-to-go modular unit for the Orchard Street property so people can be helped now.
Sonya Nesch
Comptche
GOTTA GET OUT
Editor,
California has become a dictatorship. One party rule for 14 years and now for more years coming up. Billions of dollars have been stolen from California citizens through traffic fines, license fees, permits, regulations, fishing licenses, and all sorts of other sources of revenue such as parks and beaches, etc. Billions were wasted on the bullet train to nowhere and the twin tunnels under Sacramento Valley. They could have fixed our entire infrastructure or covered our medical insurance.
The speech President Trump gave about Venezuela recently should have been about California. California is driving businesses out of the state. For years we have been mired down in air pollution rules and taxes and regulations so we cannot work. We are stifled, yet they want to tax us. It's absolutely insane!
Our colleges and universities are teaching spying and terrorism and how to become anti-American and how to bother President Trump. Sad.
Bernie Sanders is completely nuts and the other liberals are crazy as hell especially Cortez. The rotten liberal New York Times and Washington Post are the scumbags of the world. Nothing more than social fake news. They should be wiped out.
All you radical liberals out there saying bad things about President Trump are nothing but treasonous and you should be arrested and shipped out of the country. Maybe Iran.
God Bless Donald Trump
Jerry Philbrick
Comptche
HONORABLE CROOKS
Dear Editor and Mr. McEwen,
Respects and salutations to all of you at the AVA and your loyal readers.
I appreciate the solid coverage of my case. The trial was very short, ridiculous and lacking in any actual facts presented in the suppression motion which I would be glad to send a copy of to you. It has lying cops and blatant illegal searches. I don't see Charles David Eyster has anything on Don Corleone. Vito and Michael Corleone were men of principle (crooks, but crooks with honor) who lived by a code and stood by their word.
Eyster reminds me and other defendants of the cockroach man from "Men in Black." The Attorney General is unhappy with Eyster for clogging their courtrooms up with cases that should have been dismissed or handled better. The cockroach humanoid has zero regard for the Constitution or anybody's innocence. That's why he keeps withholding evidence in my case. He's just another prime example of the corruption and abuse of power within our system and lack of accountability.
Eyster sees himself as above the law. Remember when he instructed law enforcement to take "cash only" untraceable "donations" (bribes) to reduce felony cultivation to misdemeanors? He did that all illegally.
Anyway, the cops in my case (all fishy task force dropouts) did what's called an illegal pretext search. They possessed no warrant, nor reasonable nor probable cause. So they made one up. For example, the cops want into your house but know they can't get a search warrant and have no cause to enter. So they put it in the report that they "thought" a "John Doe" who was on probation “maybe" was there, so they kick in the door to not look for “John Doe” who they know isn’t there, doesn't live there, but to look for your friend “Tony” or his associates. It is severely illegal.
But it doesn't matter when you have a judge in suppression motions in collusion with the whole thing which is the only reasonable explanation and deduction in my case. I surely don't believe her reasoning in using an absolutely irrelevant case law for vehicles to deny my motion which all case law and statutes state my case should have been tossed as a matter of law. Nor does a “hidden memo" satisfy the Brady rule for the District Attorney withholding evidence.
When the dust settles federal lawsuits will prevail because I will hold you accountable.
“Power without accountability leads to corruption.” — Thomas Jefferson.
My respects to the AVA.
The one and only Michael Ray France
Mendocino County Jail, # 6601
951 Low Gap Road
Ukiah CA 95482
IGNORE-ANCE
Dear Mr. Philbrick,
I will agree with you that I do at times have my head up my ass. Alas, doing so seems to be another human proclivity closely associated with the Seven Deadly Sins. What’s interesting to me is that in knowing and accepting where I am sometimes, often brings to light others like yourself that join me in that state of confusion. Most of what you say puts you squarely in that dark yet warm and cozy round hole. Welcome Brother.
Your letter addressed to me does have a subtle edge, a degree softer — even ending with a postscripted and slackered apology to those of us offended by your stance. I will admit that I am. Not personally so much, but for my grandchildren who will be living and dealing with the detritus of ongoing ignorance and ignore-ance from our leaders, especially the current one.
Rather than die for my beliefs as you avow, I would choose to find a way to rally those of similar mind, into the streets if necessary. I will admit that I’m not exactly sure how to do that but I do have a couple dozen yellow bandanas to hand out that could be worn on the head or around the neck, arm or waist to show solidarity with the working class, Yellow Vest movement in France against the self-interest capitalist, elitist status quo.
That you “love and defend” Trump certainly is your right and definitely places you politically on the right, yet to most people of the world you are dead wrong in doing so — a sad but poetic counterpoint to your proclaimed willingness to “fight to my death to believe that.”
Climate change is real to the point of being an true emergency — our southern border is not. Most Americans perceive MAGA as a logo for white supremacy — even those that wear it — that’s why they do.
Democracy is about people not money — all people — and about equality for all people and respect and opportunity and fair treatment and especially for a hopeful future for the young. Democracy, if we’ve ever truly had it in this country, is eroding. Big time under Trump. And as the Democratic Party manipulates access to candidacy and morphs into what might be called neoliberalism by embracing a good portion of conservative economic values we’ve found ourselves twice now in recent years electing conservative presidents who did not win the popular vote. Even our beloved Barack Obama promoted “meritocracy” which marginalizes, even disenfranchises those without “merit” — a seemingly increasing demographic globally.
So it is with and for these classic ideals that I so vehemently beg to differ with The Donald and you and your ilk.
But hey Jere! Peace,
David Severn
Philo
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