Dubious distinctions

JANUARY

Thirsty couch potatoes suffered a blow when the Newport Beach City

Council said no to a request from Hotties Pizza to deliver beer and

wine to customers with their food. The police department had attached

conditions, and the Planning Commission approved Hotties’ request,

but it wasn’t enough to convince council members such as Gary

Proctor, who said the city shouldn’t permit delivery of alcoholic

beverages.

In a case in which biting the hand that feeds would have been

appropriate, the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol detained two

South County men who were suspected of luring sea lions to their boat

with bait and then shooting at them with pellet guns. An animal

control officer and city lifeguard lieutenant said they called the

harbor patrol after they saw the men through binoculars pointing what

looked like a handgun at the animals near the Newport Pier.

Authorities detained Timothy Heightkemper, 56, of San Clemente, and

Hal Williams, 67, of Dana Point.

FEBRUARY

God said, “Let there be light,” and the Costa Mesa Planning

Commission added, “If you have the proper permits.” After residents

complained about noise and lighting from Trinity Christian Center’s

outdoor taping of religious TV programs, the commission temporarily

shut down the outdoor taping while reviewing the center’s outdoor

activity permit. Neighbors’ complaints led the city to decide that

the center might need something other than the special events permit

it received in 1996. The city said it began asking the center to

apply for a new permit in 2000, but the center waited about two years

to do so, claiming that as a religious organization, it didn’t need

to.

Newport Beach City Council members were liberal in their criticism

of Councilman Dick Nichols, who surprised them with a suggestion that

the speakers in the library’s lecture series were slanted to the left

and should include people more reflective of the community’s

conservative views. Nichols aired his feelings about the

“left-wing-leaning” speakers during a meeting at which council

members were voting whether to release $65,000 for the lecture

series, which is paid for by a private foundation. Speakers included

author Jeremy Rifkin, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David

Halberstam, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David

Kessler and TV and radio news correspondent Ray Suarez.

MARCH

Sequins and tartan plaid don’t sound like a winning combination,

which could be why drummer and singer Chris Pierce’s “Elvis kilt”

didn’t win the sexiest kilt contest held by Muldoon’s Dublin Pub and

Celtic Bar in Newport Beach. The competition was stiff, as 16 men

sang Irish songs, danced jigs and even told jokes to take home a gold

trophy, but the tie-breaker seemed to be when Mark Patrick Hennessy

flashed judges his green St. Patrick’s Day underwear. After winning

the trophy and a gift certificate for Tommy Bahama’s clothing store,

Hennessy joked, “My one regret is that I have to come back next

year.”

APRIL

Perhaps anger management classes would have been in order for some

unidentified vandals who Costa Mesa police said were responsible for

nine incidents in which windows of cars and homes were broken. In

some cases, the vandals threw objects at windows, and in others, they

used a baseball bat or a pellet or BB gun, police said. The incidents

occurred at different times of day in various parts of town.

A runaway boat was the catch of the day for a Fullerton

schoolteacher who was fishing while floating in a rubber tube near

the Balboa Peninsula. Larry Allen, the fisherman, was floating

peacefully when he heard cries for help coming from Cole Lane, who

was trying to pull a dinghy up next to his sailboat when he lost his

balance and fell in the water. The sailboat’s motor was running,

propelling it into the eastern jetty, where it crashed on the rocks.

Allen paddled his tube over to the dinghy and rescued Lane from the

water.

MAY

Instead of the party they advertised, members of the Sigma Pi

fraternity at UCI found themselves the subject of a protest over

fliers some considered racist. About 40 students protested the

fraternity, whose fliers for a Cinco de Mayo party read “Drinko for

Cinco” and showed a caricature of a Mexican man holding two pistols

and wearing a sombrero bearing the Sigma Pi logo. One Chicano student

organization said the fliers and T-shirts the fraternity was offering

perpetuated negative stereotypes. The fraternity responded that it

had employed “bad judgment” and would try to rectify the situation.

The Newport Beach City Council wasn’t stooping to new lows in TV

viewing when it voted to buy a van equipped with cameras to monitor

sewer lines. The $127,000 camera van replaced the city’s existing

10-year-old system of cameras that watch for sewage leaks. City staff

said the new computer-based system would save the city money by

eliminating several contracts attached to the old camera network.

JUNE

Erstwhile basketball star and professional black sheep Dennis

Rodman was reportedly pitching a reality show starring himself

running for a local elected office. According to New York Magazine

columnist Marc Malkin, Rodman’s idea was to move out of his West

Newport home into a “more conservative” area of Orange County and try

to win friends and influence voters there.

If they weren’t busy holding their noses, Balboa Village residents

likely applauded a Newport Beach City Council plan to trap methane

gas underground and vent it onto the sky through a flagpole at the

end of Washington Street by the boardwalk. The intersection of

Washington Street and Bay Avenue has apparently smelled bad for years

because of what officials think is organic matter rotting

underground. Councilman Tod Ridgeway hoped to speed installation of

the $200,000 venting system, which already has been used with success

on Balboa Island.

JULY

It was an unfortunate double whammy two days after the Orange

County Fair opened last summer. Two women were injured on two

separate rides -- the Adrenaline Drop and the Booster -- within hours

on the first Sunday after the fair opened. Aidyl Sofia-Gonzalez, a La

Canada-Flintridge resident, left the hospital on crutches one day

after the Adrenaline Drop’s nets failed to break her freefall. On

that attraction, riders fall from a trapdoor 110 feet in the air,

untethered by bungee cords or harnesses. The second incident happened

on the Booster ride about seven hours after the one on the Adrenaline

Drop when a 5-inch metal pin came loose and struck 23-year-old Stacy

Tomack on the face. Tomack underwent surgery, her mother said. Fair

officials decided to close down and ship out the Adrenaline Drop, but

the Booster continued to operate and is expected to return next year.

The son of a top-ranking British official had to pay a steep price

for stalking a woman who spurned his advances and then threatening

her boyfriend and dousing the boyfriend’s car with acid. Alastair

Irvine, the 26-year-old son of Great Britain’s former Lord Chancellor

Alexander Derry Irvine, was not only deported after he pleaded guilty

to committing the crimes, but was also ordered by a judge to pay $1.2

million to the woman’s boyfriend, Karel Taska. Taska and his attorney

will have to meander their way through the British legal system to

actually get their hands on the money. But one way or the other,

Irvine’s attorney, James Riddet, said, he didn’t think his client

would want to come back to the United States ever again.

Twins usually do stick together. But who knew they’d stick

together in jail too? Costa Mesa women Stephanie and Stacie Brown

were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment after one of their

children was found wandering the street and another’s child was found

sipping alcohol from a child’s cup. One of the sisters was passed out

drunk on the sidewalk and another was walking toward her when police

arrested the twins.

It’s hard to say if someone will ever let go of a grudge. Newport

Beach resident James “Buzz” Person found out the scary way. More than

10 years after Person had helped police arrest Francis Delaney,

then-owner of Delaney’s Seafood Restaurant in Cannery Village, on

bribery charges, Person received a menacing letter threatening to

leave him stranded in the Pacific Ocean between Catalina and Laguna

Beach. The letter said it was from the “old boys” who “got together

recently at the Bluewater Grill.” It also stated that they were going

to do this for their “old friend Fran Delaney.” Delaney said he had

no idea who wrote the letter. Police are investigating the threat.

AUGUST

How many beagles are lucky enough to celebrate their birthday with

a doggy luau? Not many. But Beasley the beagle, who lives in Newport

Beach with his owners Nancy and Dick Hoagland, had that luau at the

Bayside Village clubhouse. Beasley was celebrating his seventh

birthday with 13 of his friends and their owners. It was a fun time

for the pooches because the occasion offered a rare opportunity to

run around and play on the beach. The community management makes that

exception only for dogs’ birthdays.

It started out as a shoplifting incident at the Kmart on Harbor

Boulevard. But then it turned into something far more serious -- a

robbery. And apparently, it was all over four pairs of jeans. The

shoplifter allegedly ran out the door with the clothing with the

store manager behind him. The manager grabbed the man, but the

fleeing thief didn’t give up. The two wrestled over the jeans, and

the shoplifter ended up winning that tug of war. He reportedly got

away and was not found.

SEPTEMBER

They may have been renowned philanthropists in the Newport-Mesa

area, but according to prosecutors who filed the biggest tax evasion

case ever in county and state history against Richard and Jolene

Engel, the couple did not report more than $190 million in income and

failed to pay the state about $11 million in income taxes between

1998 and 2001. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said the couple was living

lavishly in Newport Beach, flying on a Lear jet, driving beautiful

cars and charging personal luxury items, such as jewelry, to Engel’s

Costa Mesa company Powerplant Maintenance Specialist Inc. If

convicted, they could each get up to 16 years and eight months in

state prison.

The Orange County district attorney was forced to drop child

molestation charges against 42-year-old Cary Smith, an admitted

pedophile who has been locked up for four years in a state

psychiatric hospital, officials said. Smith was put in the hospital

after writing a letter fantasizing about a Costa Mesa boy. Earlier

this year, the district attorney had charged Smith with performing

lewd acts on another Costa Mesa child between September 1996 and

March 1997. But an Orange County Superior Court judge on Tuesday

dismissed all 30 counts against Smith because the victim was 14, not

13, when the alleged crimes happened, which caused the statute of

limitations to run out. He was placed in a hospital for more than two

weeks for psychiatric evaluation and was then sent back to the state

psychiatric hospital in Patton.

OCTOBER

People might complain about the proliferation of tip jars, but

some folks are taking their protest too far. Oh Those Doughnuts on

Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa reported that thieves were stealing

gratuities from a large glass jar on their counter, leaving owner

Steve Metro to wonder how to stop the spree. One worker chased after

a thief who had grabbed the whole jar. The suspect gave it back, but

not after giving her a piece of his mind. Metro got new, digital

surveillance cameras and posted a picture of the culprit caught in

the act in his store.

A shopping-cart sweep netted 740 rogue trolleys on the streets of

Costa Mesa. The cart corral followed a law passed by the City Council

in June designed to cut down on shopping cart theft and abandonment.

The law calls for $150 fines for each cart the city collects from a

store, after the fifth in any 12-month period. Costa Mesa hired

Hernandez Cart Retrieval Services -- at $48,000 a year -- to search

the streets eight hours a day, seven days a week and wrangle runaway

carts.

A 41-year-old Newport Beach resident went to jail accused of

conspiracy to defraud and grand theft and went back to jail charged

with three bonus felonies after a botched escape attempt. Mark Thomas

Georgantas broke out of Musick Jail in Irvine with another inmate

while he awaited trial on the original charges. Georgantas called a

female friend to come pick him up nearby, but neglected to inform her

he’d just escaped from jail. When she showed up, he pushed her out of

the car and drove off. Police arrested him in Los Angeles after a

pursuit through three cities.

Governor-to-be Arnold Schwarzenegger went all terminator on a

Buick, dropping a wrecking ball on it to display his feelings about

the hiked vehicle license fees. In case there was any question, the

car had “Davis Car Tax” spray-painted on it. “Gray Davis has

terminated jobs, terminated business, terminated hope and terminated

opportunity,” Schwarzenegger said. “Now it’s time to terminate Gray

Davis.” The smashing display took place at a political rally at the

Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa shortly before he won the

election.

NOVEMBER

Where’s the Pied Piper when you need him? Students at Corona del

Mar High School smelled a rat -- actually, a lot of rats -- after a

Daily Pilot story about parents’ protest of conditions in a special

education classroom at the school. The parents expressed concern

about rat droppings found in the room, but had more of a problem with

the shortage of teacher’s aides for their children. But the rats,

which have reportedly been a problem at the Back Bay-adjacent school

for years, became the stars, what with visits from the TV crews and

all. Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials stepped up their

extermination efforts, but admitted that they’d probably never be

able to entirely rid ritzy Corona del Mar from the pesky pests.

Believe it or not, that Gucci purse you bought for 20 bucks at the

swap meet might not be real. A Westminster couple pleaded not guilty

to charges of selling counterfeit designer handbags at Costa Mesa’s

Orange County Marketplace. Investigators reportedly found more than

2,000 faux Louis Vuitton, fake Kate Spade and nada Prada bags at the

couple’s home. If the purses were real, they would have been worth a

cool million. Ironically, that was exactly the amount of their bail.

Two homeless men got into a drunken brawl over a copy of Maxim

magazine, landing one in jail and the other in the hospital. The men,

both in their thirties, got into an argument over the “lad” magazine,

which features photos of scantily clad women and articles like “How

to: Cure a Feminist” and “The Bachelor Party Bible.” The fight

escalated, and one of the men beat and kicked the other, then left

the scene. Paramedics took the injured man to the hospital with

“major facial and head trauma,” and police arrested the alleged

instigator, who faced an attempted murder charge.

A 36-year-old massage therapist from Laguna Niguel allegedly stole

a $140 cashmere scarf from Bloomingdale’s in Fashion Island and got a

free pair of bracelets to match. Actually, the bracelets were

handcuffs slapped on her after a store security officer tried to stop

her as she left the store. The officer got one cuff on the woman

before she fought him off and fled. Local newspapers and TV stations

showed surveillance video of the woman stuffing the pink scarf in a

bag. Newport Beach police arrested her at her home when people

recognized her from the tape. Officers found the handcuffs and a

newspaper article about her escapade.

DECEMBER

Newport Beach resident Dennis Rodman, a seven-time NBA rebounding

champion, announced that he had signed with the American Basketball

Assn.’s Long Beach Jam. This was after he had checked into alcohol

rehab in November to get ready for his big comeback. And after a DUI

for crashing a borrowed motorcycle outside a Las Vegas strip club in

October. And after falling down drunk on a dock outside the Cannery

restaurant when he got off his speedboat, Sexual Chocolate, in

September. And after various and sundry encounters with the law, many

for throwing loud parties at his home, since he moved to West Newport

about eight years ago.

Members of the Back Bay Equestrians hoped to “work with the city

and educate them on the benefits to horse manure” after signs went up

in Santa Ana Heights warning horse enthusiasts to clean up after

their animals. The signs, warning of $100 fines for failure to pick

up waste, came after Newport Beach annexed the area, making its

water-quality rules the law there, too. Back Bay Equestrians member

Jayne Jones argued that horse manure does not carry the same health

risks as other animal waste, but city officials said it still

contains potentially harmful bacteria. The city supplied trash cans

and shovels for the riders so they won’t have to bring along their

own plastic bags.

Newport Beach officials extended the deadline for Dover Drive

resident Elmer Thomassen to clean up his Dover Drive property after

he notified them he was in Nevada for medical treatment. The city

ordered the cleanup after a slew of complaints from neighbors, some

dating back to 1961. The house has tires on the roof, chairs

littering the lawn, and doors forming a makeshift fence. At a

November meeting with city officials and residents, Thomassen

practically took control, demanding to know the occupations and

qualifications of those with complaints. Thomassen said health

problems have kept him from cleaning up his property for the past 42

years.