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Posts published by “McEwen Bruce”

Chicken Ridge Penumbras

  The preliminary hearing into the shoot-out on Chicken Ridge, Covelo, was put off again last week. It's a confused event involving a large cast of characters that includes rap musicians from Los Angeles, rap…

Father Knows Best

You could call them the Courthouse Players. Their repertory changes every day and fresh talent? An annual cast of thousands! The Mendocino County Courthouse stages new dramas every working day, but some weeks the material…

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

Many longtime Ukiahans know the story of Johnny and Mina Kvasnicka. An ambitious, hard-working couple, the Kvasnickas built an enviably beautiful new house at the swanky address of Saratoga Court in developer Gilbert Ashoff’s upscale Vichy Springs Resort east of Ukiah. The Kvasnickas raised their daughters at Saratoga Court and accumulated lots of nice things, including a $50,000 BMW. Then love fled.

Seeds & Stems

Attorney E.D. Lerman got one guy off on two big felonies – cultivation in numbers beyond all medical reason and possession of marijuana for sale.

Twisted Tales of Torture

As of Monday morning, Jack S. Towers was looking at 14 felony counts related to the beating of his girlfriend, loving her nearly to death, you might say. As of Tuesday morning, Jack S. Towers…

The Shootout On Chicken Ridge

Six black rappers in Covelo? On Chicken Ridge? It's kind of complicated. You've got Darvel Blackwell, Clifton Jacobs, and Marquis Walker on one side of the beef, with Troy 'T' Sims, Jackie Slade, and Robert…

Bruce McEwen on Green Door v. V’Canto

Moving west to Fort Bragg, when I first learned that the renowned sculptor Dan Hemann had been savaged by the brutal spaghetti vendor Jim “Muttface” Muto, I abandoned my duties at the County Courthouse and…

Marie, Perry’s Garage & The Fairy Ranch

The Ukiah Valley Medical Center is being sued for malpractice. The plaintiff is a woman named Marie. We will spare Marie further agony by fully identifying her. UVMC, unkindly referred to at my home office…

Murder One

Gerold Jerry Knight was beaten and his throat cut on the old railroad tracks in Ukiah. It was the warm, late afternoon of Friday the 13th of June, 2008 on the tracks near Perkins Street that run north-south through Ukiah, railroad tracks left over from a more optimistic time, railroad tracks unlikely to ever see another train, railroad tracks that are now home to the permanently untracked.

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