The incident, which occurred on the night of Thursday, May 19, at a residence on 19^th Avenue in Clearlake, resulted in several officers pointing their sidearms – and, in one officer's case, an assault rifle – at one of several sheriff's deputies who were in the house of a suspect who had been taken into custody.

Lake County News obtained police reports as well as audio recordings of the 911 calls that triggered the police response through a Public Records Act request submitted to interim Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen.

Sheriff Frank Rivero said last week that the Lake County Sheriff's Office did not notify Clearlake Police of the undercover operation because the situation was developing quickly and he wanted to maintain the element of surprise.

It did prove to be a surprise – at least for the officers who arrived at the scene, according to their accounts.

“It should be noted, had any of the deputies inside the home noticed the four of us approaching the home (not knowing we were police officers) and had pointed their weapons at us, we would have likely began firing our weapons at the deputies as they were not clearly identifiable and we had no notice from LCSO that they were conducting an operation in the City of Clearlake,” wrote Clearlake Sgt. Rodd Joseph in a report completed on May 20, the day after the incident.

The encounter has raised concerns about officer safety among both Clearlake Police officials and among Lake County Sheriff's deputies.

Late Monday the Lake County Deputy Sheriff's Association released a strongly worded statement that accused Rivero of “deliberately” ignoring “established state and county protocols intended to protect the safety of officers and citizens.”

The association noted, “The sheriff chose not to notify the Clearlake Police Department that Narcotics Task Force officers were conducting an undercover operation in the city limits; as a result, police officers responded to the location of the operation and held the officers at gunpoint for several minutes. The sheriff’s decision placed the lives of these officers in imminent danger of 'friendly fire,' not to mention endangering surrounding neighbors and innocent bystanders had a shooting occurred.”

Rivero responded to the statement late Monday, saying that the safety of the public and the county's officers “is and always has been my top priority.”

He had said late last week that his office would be releasing a statement on the results of the undercover operation on Monday, but Lake County News did not receive such a statement from the sheriff's department.

Rivero has denied Lake County News' previous accounts of the incident, saying that he was misquoted and that the facts were misrepresented.

Rivero also stated that no “confrontation” took place between deputies and Clearlake Police officers, although that's exactly the word that Joseph used to describe it in his report.

Joseph's report noted, “Common practice is for any agency conducting an operation in the jurisdiction of another agency to, at minimum, notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction, of the operation. The agency conducting the operation does not need to give any specifics on the operation other than just to notify the agency having jurisdiction.”

The Lake County Deputy Sheriff's Association also disputed Rivero's account of a less serious encounter.

“The sheriff’s decision placed the lives of these officers in imminent danger of 'friendly fire,' not to mention endangering surrounding neighbors and innocent bystanders had a shooting occurred,” the association said.

According to Joseph's report, at least one sheriff's official indicated he had tried to convince the sheriff to make the police notification.

Joseph's report said administrative Sgt. Tim Celli spoke with sheriff's Sgt. Jim Samples, the Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force supervisor, about the operation.

Samples was reportedly “apologetic about his office's failure to notify CPD about their operation,” Joseph's report explained.

Samples also reportedly told Celli that he “pleaded” with Rivero to allow him to notify Clearlake Police about the operation but that Rivero “refused to allow him to notify our department and also would not allow him to even notify his own LCSO dispatch.”

Joseph added that Celli recounted Samples telling him “that he had regrets for ever conducting the operation and made statements to him that they never should have done it without notifying us.”

After Joseph spoke with Celli, he met with his patrol team to tell them about the conversation. He said that all of the officers were upset that “Rivero had placed them and his own deputies in a very dangerous and potentially deadly situation.”

Officers believed hostage situation was taking place

Reports by Joseph, Officer Michael Ray, 911 calls, and phone calls between Clearlake Police dispatch and Joseph reveal that officers believed they were headed into a hostage situation at a home in the 16000 block of 19^th Avenue.

At 8:46 p.m. the girlfriend of 25-year-old Michael Tremell Mitchell was transferred to Clearlake Police dispatch on the 911 line.

She reported that three large males were at the 19^th Avenue home and had Mitchell in handcuffs. They had with them a dog and one man carried a walkie talkie.

Mitchell – who court records show has 11 pending criminal cases and who has been named in a wrongful death civil suit for the 2005 shooting in Clearlake of Eric Moss – had been arrested by Clearlake Police on May 12 on drug charges, as Lake County News has reported.

He had been given an enhanced bail of $250,000, which police discovered after the incident had been reduced. Why it was reduced and who reduced it to make it possible for him to be released on May 18 still isn't clear.

The girlfriend said she was told to leave, and she took her baby and left the house, going out to stand along the street and call 911.

Over the next 20 minutes police would receive several additional emergency calls reporting an incident at the house. One of the panicked calls came from Mitchell's older sister, who feared – like his girlfriend– that he was going to be hurt.

At 8:48 p.m., Joseph received a call about the situation from dispatcher Sherri Vannest. Subsequently, Joseph met with several fellow officers at St. Helena Hospital Clearlake. The other officers in the detail were Alan Collier, Michael Ray and Michael Carpenter.

The officers decided to drive to Boyles and 19^th avenues, where they would park their cars and walk to the location. Ray brought his assault rifle and Carpenter brought his K-9 partner, “Dex,” while Collier was designated as the person who would give the commands at the location, according to Joseph's report.

Both Joseph and Ray noted in their reports that they saw two empty sheriff's patrol cars sitting in an odd location near the hospital as they were leaving for Mitchell's house.

Joseph called Vannest to ask that she check with sheriff's dispatch to find if they had any deputies in the area. She told him at that point about the additional 911 calls. Within a few minutes she would be told by a sheriff's dispatcher than an operation was under way, but by that point the officers already had gone to the location.

Once they arrived at the scene and parked their cars, Joseph said the officers “formed a four person 'stack formation,'” with Collier at the head with his handgun, followed by Carpenter, armed with a handgun and accompanied by the K-9, Joseph with his handgun and Ray, at the rear, with his assault rifle.

Ray's supplemental report noted that because the officers didn't know if the men in the house were armed, the decision was made to approach the house with their weapons in the ready position.

“We slowly and quietly approached Mitchell's residence in the dark on foot,” Joseph wrote. “We did not want to give away our position or be detected in the event the hostage takers were armed.”

When they got to the house – where Joseph saw a small white car parked in the driveway – Joseph noticed that the mini blinds in the front room were partially opened, and the inside of the home was dimly lit.

“I could see the silhouette of a person standing at this window, on the west side,” Joseph wrote. “This person appeared to be a lookout. We took a position behind a small wooden fence at the front of the home. We remained still in the darkness assessing the situation.”

He continued, “We watched this person in the window for a short period of time. Our weapons were pointed at this person. The person continued looking out the window towards the front of the home and towards the street. It appeared this person had not detected us.”

Carpenter and the K-9 went toward the back of the house in case someone tried to flee, while Collier, Ray and Joseph approached from the front, Joseph said.

“While in the front of the house, I turned on my flashlight and pointed it at the person in the front window,” Joseph wrote. “Off. M. Ray and I both had our respective weapons (rifle and handgun) pointed directly at this person. As soon as the light from my flashlight illuminated this person, it appeared this person (I could now tell was a white male) moved backwards and towards the center of the home, out of view.”

He said Collier banged on the front door, calling out, “Clearlake Police Department!”

The front door then swung open and a male wearing a red shirt, identified as Deputy Steve Herdt, said, “It's the f***in' sheriff's department” and closed the door on them, after which Joseph said the officers stood down, and holstered and secured their weapons.

Joseph said in his report that a courtesy notification would have prevented such a scenario from playing out.

He said the failure or decision not to notify Clearlake Police of the operation not only put the lives of the deputies into unnecessary danger, but also placed the four police officers in grave danger as well.

While Rivero had claimed that Clearlake Police weren't notified because of the quickly developing nature of the operation, he and his staff didn't notify the police department again later on the night of May 19 as their operations in the city's jurisdiction continued.

At approximately 11:21 p.m., Collier saw two marked sheriff's patrol vehicles driving east on 18^th Avenue in the city limits, according to his supplemental report. The two cars turned south on Boyles Avenue and began illuminating houses with their spotlights.

“It appeared the deputies were conducting some sort of police investigation,” he said.

At 11:52 p.m. Collier saw two more marked sheriff's vehicles and what appeared to be two unmarked patrol vehicles parked in front of a residence on Vista Street, facing south, parked on the west side of the roadway blocking the southbound traffic lane.

At no time did the Clearlake Police Department receive a notification from the sheriff's office that it was conducting an investigation inside the Clearlake city limits, Collier stated.

Rivero had told Lake County News on Friday, “You can put protocol in front of action, but that’s just not my style.”

That's an attitude, according to the deputies' association, “that will get officers killed.”

They added, “We stand prepared to give our lives to protect the citizens of Lake County but we will not stand to lose our lives, our families and our livelihoods because our sheriff chooses to violate the rights and protocols that protect us all.”

A statement was posted on a Sunday Lake County News article from a user account registered under an e-mail address Rivero has used to communicate with this publication before.

It said: “As our investigation continues, I take great pride in the accomplishments of my narcotics task force. This is dangerous work no doubt, and I strive to minimize them, but these are dangers we choose to accept. As the chief law enforcement officer of Lake County, I take full responsibility for the events of Thursday night and stand by my decisions.”

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During the incident, Clearlake Police – responding to a 911 call – arrived at the location and approached the house with guns drawn, meeting with undercover narcotics agents, as Lake County News has reported.

Interim Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen had told Lake County News in a Friday interview that he and his staff were not notified of the operation, and he said a “confrontation” resulted when four of his officers and a sergeant arrived at the home.

Sheriff Frank Rivero said the situation was overblown.

“There was no armed confrontation. That was bullshit,” he said.

Rivero said that an undercover Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force operation had led his deputies into the city of Clearlake.

He had told Lake County News on Friday that they had made a “buy” of about one ounce of crank. However, on Saturday he denied making that statement.

Instead, he said his deputies had interrupted a meth sale and intercepted the drugs from a low-level dealer.

Sgt. Jim Samples, who oversees the sheriff's narcotics unit, said Saturday that the task force got an ounce of drugs from the dealer in the Yuba College parking lot after performing a probation search on him.

From that encounter, they developed information that a large amount of methamphetamine was supposed to be delivered in about 20 minutes to a home on 19^th Avenue, Samples said.

They took the suspect with them to the home, where they encountered the man's girlfriend. Samples said that resulted in a 911 call to Clearlake Police.

Clausen said the woman called 911 shortly before 9 p.m. to report that her boyfriend had been handcuffed by three large male subjects and she was told to get out of the house “because bad things were going to happen.”

Samples said he was not at the scene but was staged down the road at St. Helena Hospital Clearlake.

He said Clearlake Police responded down 18^th Avenue, passing the sheriff's marked units before turning down 19^th Avenue.

Samples said his deputies saw the police officers approaching the house, their guns drawn, and started shouting that they were with the sheriff's office.

The officers got up to the house and started knocking but when they saw the sheriff's badges, the police holstered their guns, said Samples.

“This whole thing is blown up into a big standoff that didn’t happen. None of my guys drew their gun,” Samples said, adding that they wouldn't draw weapons on uniformed police officers.

He said there was no search warrant for the 19^th Avenue house and one wasn't needed due to the suspect's probation status.

Two men supposed to deliver the methamphetamine showed up, were detained and their homes were subsequently locked down by law enforcement. Samples said search warrants were signed by a local judge at about 3:30 a.m. Friday for those two homes.

Samples acknowledged that the Clearlake Police Department was not notified of the operation.

“The decision was made above me not to call because it was happening so fast,” Samples said.

“There was no order that you will not tell them, he just made a decision,” said Samples. “I stick by his decision.”

Samples said both Clearlake Police and the narcotics unit acted appropriately, but noted there is a certain danger to such operations, which take place all the time.

“We were in there last week working doing basically the same thing,” Samples said.

Samples called the unit's encounter with the armed officers a “one in a million thing” that he'd not experienced before.

Operations often develop quickly, said Samples, and not everyone is notified. “It's not a great way of doing it but sometimes it happens.”

He said he hopes to avoid future conflicts with any agency, adding that agencies conduct operations in other jurisdictions all the time. Asked if there is a protocol or requirement for notification, he said there wasn't one.

Samples said in such drug operations law enforcement has to move quickly and sometimes mistakes are made.

Clausen had said Friday that he was concerned about safety on all sides because of how the operation was carried out without notification to his department.

“We're going to get officers and deputies hurt by doing this and that concerns me,” he said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Brad Rasmussen accepted the position of Lakeport Police chief after it was offered to him on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. He has been with the Lakeport Police Department since 1989. Photo courtesy of Lakeport Police Department.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A 21-year veteran of the Lakeport Police Department who has served as interim chief for the past seven months has been offered the post on a permanent basis.

Brad Rasmussen, 41, accepted the position this week.

He said City Manager Margaret Silveira asked to meet with him on Wednesday and offered him the job.

The Lakeport City Council had approved Silveira's decision to offer him the job, Rasmussen said.

“She's the appointing authority for this position,” said Rasmussen.

He explained that in Lakeport the council appoints three positions – city clerk, city attorney and city manager. The city manager then is in charge of appointing the department heads.

Rasmussen has held the chief's job on an interim basis since Oct. 15, 2010, after Chief Kevin Burke left to take the chief's post in Healdsburg.

He began his career with the department in December 1989, when he was hired as a reserve officer.

The following year, he was hired as a part-time officer and then was hired on in a full-time, permanent position in April of 1991. His assignments over the years included working in task force operations and patrol, and holding the patrol sergeant position.

Burke appointed Rasmussen – then a sergeant – to the lieutenant's spot in October 2006.

Rasmussen, who was an integral part of Burke's management team, now will head a department that, including himself, has nine full-time sworn officers, three part-time officers and two civilian employees.

In the budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which Rasmussen plans to present to the council next month, he said he'll ask for a 10^th officer position – last Tuesday the council approved his grant application to help cover the position – and also will ask to fill the lieutenant's spot that he previously held.

At one point the department had 14 full-time officer positions, according to Rasmussen. Several of those positions have been cut over the last few years due to budget constraints.

In response, Rasmussen is building up his volunteer force, which now includes 10 members. “And we've got more coming, too,” he said.

The goal is to have volunteers be responsible for support duties in an effort to provide the same level of services as the department did when it had more staff.

Rasmussen said he'll be sworn in officially during a Lakeport City Council meeting in June. The specific meeting date hasn't yet been determined.

Rasmussen is the 24^th police chief in the department's history, according to a Lakeport Police history on the agency's Web site, www.lakeportpolice.org.

The city, which incorporated in 1888, had 15 town marshals through 1927, at which time chiefs of police were appointed, the history – compiled for retired Police Chief Tom Engstrom, now a Lakeport City Council member – explained.

Engstrom, who served 11 years from 1994 to 2005, was the second-longest serving police chief, after his predecessor, James L. Campbell, who served for 15, from 1979 to 1994. The average time of service of the 23 police chiefs proceeding Rasmussen was three and a half years.

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The statement, in its entirety, follows.

“Sheriff Rivero’s recent decisions to disregard department protocols and compromise officer safety put the lives of Lake County’s peace officers and citizens at risk. As the representative of Lake County’s 65 deputies and sergeants, the Lake County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association urges the sheriff to take steps to protect officer safety and follow our agency’s protocols.

“On April 18, 2011, an unidentified person called in a bomb threat to the Lake County courthouse. The sheriff failed to notify the Lakeport Police Department and on-duty sheriff’s patrol deputies of what was occurring.

“As the evacuation was happening, Lakeport Police Department learned of the incident from officers who were patrolling the area. The sheriff also failed to have emergency medical personnel respond to the scene for potential injuries. The sheriff ignored countywide protocols for notifying local law enforcement agencies and disregarded the policies for mutual aid and the evacuation of the courthouse.

“On May 14, 2011, the sheriff ordered the Lake County Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to deploy 'Code 3' to the Napa County line to stop a Hells Angels motorcycle club from entering the county.

“'Code 3' responses – lights and sirens – are prohibited by the California Vehicle Code except for in-progress emergencies and life-threatening situations. The sheriff’s order to deploy armed officers to prevent free citizens from entering the county could violate those citizens’ rights and place the citizens, the officers and the county at personal and financial risk.

“Finally, on May 19, 2011, an armed confrontation occurred between members of the Lake County Narcotic Task Force and Clearlake police officers because Sheriff Rivero deliberately ignored established state and county protocols intended to protect the safety of officers and citizens.

“The sheriff chose not to notify the Clearlake Police Department that Narcotic Task Force officers were conducting an undercover operation in the city limits; as a result, police officers responded to the location of the operation and held the officers at gunpoint for several minutes. The sheriff’s decision placed the lives of these officers in imminent danger of 'friendly fire,' not to mention endangering surrounding neighbors and innocent bystanders had a shooting occurred.

“The sheriff’s public statement, 'You can put protocol in front of action, but that’s just not my style,' is an attitude that will get officers killed. We stand prepared to give our lives to protect the citizens of Lake County but we will not stand to lose our lives, our families and our livelihoods because our sheriff chooses to violate the rights and protocols that protect us all.”

A copy of the statement, released Monday evening, was forwarded to Rivero for comment.

In an e-mail response to the association's statement, Rivero offered the following statement.

“The safety of the public and the officers in Lake County is and always has been my top priority,” Rivero said. “The statement issued by the DSA leadership contains many inaccuracies and misquotes and appears misguided. It is disappointing they have issued this statement without the benefit of talking to me despite my having an open door policy.

“It is no secret that the reforms I am implementing, which I promised during the campaign, have been met with resistance from some of the deputies,” he continued. “Accountability, the cornerstone or my reforms, is an absolute necessity in creating a highly respected professional law enforcement agency.

That said, I understand that change can be difficult and at my first opportunity I will ask to meet with the members to discuss their concerns,” Rivero concluded.

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Clearlake's interim police chief believes the dangerous situation developed because his agency wasn't informed that the operation was taking place.

“We were not notified of any other law enforcement activity within our jurisdiction,” said Chief Craig Clausen said.

Sheriff Frank Rivero, however, said the reports about the situation were exaggerated, and that his agency didn't notify the Clearlake Police Department because of the need for secrecy in carrying out the operation.

“I can't afford to lose the element of surprise,” he said.

Clausen said his agency responded to a 911 call Thursday at approximately 8:47 p.m. at a location in the city's Avenues area.

“A female victim told us that her boyfriend was handcuffed by three large male subjects,” Clausen said.

He said the woman was told to get out of the house “because bad things were going to happen.”

Four Clearlake Police officers and a sergeant responded, said Clausen.

When they got to the location, “There was a confrontation,” Clausen said.

Sources close to the incident told Lake County News that the sheriff specifically ordered the narcotics unit not to notify Clearlake Police about the activities in the city.

The confrontation that resulted, according to the sources, consisted of the police officers arriving at the scene with guns drawn, where they found armed subjects – undercover narcotics agents – who also had guns drawn for a home entry as part of a search warrant service.

A police officer reportedly recognized one of the undercover deputies before the situation escalated, according to the sources.

Clausen said the situation quickly diffused after the police officers learned that they had come upon undercover Lake County Sheriff's personnel.

He said Friday that he had received information that the undercover operation resulted in arrests, but he didn't have information on it.

Clausen said he had had no communication with Rivero, and was concerned about what had occurred.

Never in his entire career had he been involved in anything like the Thursday incident, Clausen said.

He said he notified interim City Administrator Steve Albright and Mayor Joyce Overton of the situation.

Clausen said the lines of communication have to open up between the Clearlake Police Department and the sheriff's office.

“We're going to get officers and deputies hurt by doing this and that concerns me,” he said.

Rivero said Friday that the Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force was undertaking an operation that had begun in Nice and led to a search warrant service in Clearlake, where he said arrests resulted.

Undercover deputies also were able to purchase about an ounce of crank, Rivero said.

He said the operation was “still in progress” on Friday and that more specifics about the arrests and the outcome would be available early next week.

“It's a pretty big operation,” he said.

Due to the secret nature of such activities, and the need to keep deputies safe, Rivero said he considered it standard operating procedure not to disclose information on planned operations, even when in another jurisdiction. He said that included sharing information with another agency like Clearlake Police.

The operation also was “rapidly unfolding,” making it necessary to act first, Rivero said.

“You can put protocol in front of action, but that's just not my style,” said Rivero.

Rivero said one of his staffers said two Clearlake Police officers saw the task force members staging at St. Helena Hospital Clearlake a short time before the confrontation occurred, so he questioned how they couldn't have known the task force was in the city.

The sheriff also faulted Clausen for not calling him if he had concerns, noting that he was very accessible. “It's his issue, not mine.”

The narcotics squad – which doesn't include a Clearlake Police member – is the sheriff's office's highest priority unit, said Rivero.

He said the task force has conducted operations in the city and will continue to do so, noting a lot of methamphetamine is coming out of Clearlake.

Rivero suggested that Clausen was upset because of a case the sheriff's department sent to the district attorney earlier this year alleging that Clausen had assaulted an elderly female neighbor in April 2010, as Lake County News has reported.

District Attorney Don Anderson asked Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster to review the case, which Eyster did, settling it by having Clausen apologize to the woman, who reportedly hadn't wanted to press charges.

Rivero said that, looking back, he would handle the case the same way.

Regarding the Thursday incident, both Rivero and Clausen said they didn't want to see a turf war, but Rivero said that he would conduct the operation in the same way again.

Clausen emphasized the need to keep officers and deputies safe.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Two Sacramento boaters cited minutes apart on April 16 will be in court on Monday, May 23, where each will face charges of launching a vessel without a nonresident mussel sticker, according to Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said the two cases are the first such prosecutions to take place under the Lake County Water Vessel Inspection Ordinance.

He said the District Attorney's Office has several other similar cases that it's reviewing for prosecution.

Over the last several years, county leaders have put in place several measures to protect Clear Lake and the county's other water bodies against invasive mussels, particularly the Dreissenid mussels such as the quagga and zebra.

Quagga and zebra mussels have been found in Southern California waters and other parts of the country, with their appearance resulting in destructive consequences for the surrounding communities and ecosystems.

On Jan. 25, the Lake County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Lake County Water Vessel Inspection Ordinance 2936, which covers water vessels that launch on local water bodies.

It specifically excludes kayaks, rafts, car-top boats, canoes, wind surfboards and boogie boards, float tubes, nonmotorized paddle boats and nonmotorized sailboats 8 feet in length and less.

The ordinance, which took effect Feb. 24, requires a mandatory screening before a vessel launches on local lakes and also requires stickers to designate inspected vessels.

The inspection ordinance also increases any violation of the ordinance from an infraction to a misdemeanor, with a minimum fine of $1,000, up to six months in jail, or a combination of the fine and jail time.

On April 20, the Board of Supervisors approved amendments to the ordinance to give law enforcement additional power, including citing boat owners who are in the process of launching boats without having gone through an inspection or having a sticker. Previously, officials would have had to wait until the boat was launched into the water before acting.

That latest amendment goes into effect May 26, according to the document.

In the two cases set to appear in court on May 23, Andre Holtzclaw and Richard Martinez were cited late on the morning of April 16 – one at 11:53 a.m., one at 11:57 a.m. – by a Department of Fish and Game warden, Abelson said.

Holtzclaw, in a 2000 Harborcraft, and Martinez, in a 22-foot 1982 Beachcraft, were allegedly found with expired nonresident inspection stickers, Abelson said.

In addition, Abelson said Martinez is facing an infraction for not having a Department of Motor Vehicles identification number on his boat.

California Fish and Game Lt. Loren Freeman told Lake County News that one of the area's newest wardens, Tim Little, based in Lucerne, has patrolling Clear Lake as one of his main assignments.

Pointing out that Lake County has the state's first ever-invasive species ordinance, Freeman said Fish and Game is fully backing the program and will conduct inspections to complement it.

Likewise, the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that it's taking a “zero tolerance” policy toward enforcing the water vessel inspection ordinance.

The Sheriff's Marine Patrol Unit is deploying additional deputies this month to have a stronger enforcement presence on Clear Lake in preparation for the summer boating season, the agency said.

Prosecutor points out concerns over ordinance

Before the ordinance was changed to make violations a misdemeanor, the citations were treated as infractions, and violators were sent to traffic or infraction court, said Hinchcliff. “So they weren't coming through our office.”

Hinchcliff, who in addition to being a longtime county prosecutor is a 22-year member of the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee, said he thinks the effort to protect the lake through the inspection program is very important.

“If the mussels get into this lake, it will be a natural disaster,” he said, pointing out the millions of dollars in damage to tourism, private property – both land and vessels – and local water companies.

Nonetheless, Hinchcliff – based on his experience prosecuting cases and working in the local court system – said he does have some concerns about the stepped up legal aspects of the ordinance, which the District Attorney's Office wasn't asked to comment on when it was drafted.

For one, he pointed out that the minimum fine, while set at $1,000 in the ordinance, actually will be much more – approximately 170 percent more, based on court-imposed penalties and fees.

That would put the minimum fine at $2,700, Hinchcliff said.

As a result, Hinchcliff speculated that many alleged violators will opt for jury trials – they're entitled to trials because of misdemeanor charging – and some may qualify for services provided by the public defender's office.

“We're going to have these cases competing with burglary cases and robbery cases and rape cases for extremely limited trial space,” he said.

In addition, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor will have a criminal record, while those with infractions don't, Hinchcliff explained.

He said he's hoping that the ordinance will have the impact in protecting the lake that county leaders intended.

“We'll see what happens,” he said.

For more information about the county's invasive mussel prevention program visit www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Water_Resources/Mussel_Prevention.htm .

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042011 Lake County Amended Quagga Ordinance