SAN JOSE
Evergreen homes deserve
refund of water charges,
vice mayor tells council
Throwing a last-minute wrench into the city’s budget talks, Vice Mayor Dave Cortese is calling for residents in San Jose’s Evergreen district to receive $30 million in reimbursements for past water charges.
Cortese believes residents connected to the city’s Municipal Water System have been overcharged since 1996 because an extra 9 percent in fees go into the city’s general fund, which pays for services throughout the city.
Cortese said Evergreen residents are essentially paying a tax that doesn’t benefit them.
“It is kind of like a tax but only on 10 percent of the population,” Cortese said. “They say life is unfair, but this is a little too unfair.”
The council is set to approve a 12 percent increase in water rates for Municipal Water System users, and Cortese said the council should hold off on voting until an outside consultant can determine how much Evergreen residents have been paying in extra fees.
– Joshua Molina, Mercury News
Four children found in school
facing vandalism charges
San Jose police cited four children with burglary and vandalism after the group allegedly broke into an elementary school near Highway 101 and Capitol Expressway on Sunday.
Officers found the four in a classroom at Windmill Springs Elementary after police were dispatched to the school to investigate a silent alarm about 5 p.m., according to police records.
Police found vandalism and signs of burglary in six classrooms as they investigated the cause of the alarm.
Inside another room, officers found the four children and took them into custody.
Officers cited them and later released them to their parents.
– Leslie Griffy, Mercury News
SANTA CLARA
Evidence links felon, 21,
to woman’s sexual assault
The convicted felon who Mountain View police say sexually assaulted a woman early one morning in March was charged Friday with rape.
The Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory reviewed evidence from the March 26 rape and matched DNA to 21-year-old Oscar Mayorga of Milpitas, according to police.
Armed with that evidence, detectives alerted Mayorga, already serving time in Jamestown State Prison for an unrelated crime, that he faces charges of forcible rape and two counts of penetration with a foreign object.
Police believe Mayorga walked up behind a woman near the intersection of Pamela Drive and Phyllis Avenue about 5:15 a.m. on March 26 and put his arm around her.
Then, officers allege, Mayorga pulled a gun on the woman and forced her into an area of a front yard with shrubbery and sexually assaulted her.
– Leslie Griffy, Mercury News
GILROY
Drive-by shooting Friday
is gang-related, police say
Gilroy police are investigating an alleged gang-related drive-by shooting near Highway 101 on Friday, officers said Monday.
About 3 p.m. Friday, a resident told police that someone drove past his home and shot at it and at his car on the 400 block of Hadley Court. The shooter then drove away, witnesses told police.
There is no description of the car or the shooter, police said.
But officers believe the incident is gang-related.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Gilroy police at (408) 846-0357. Tipsters wishing to remain anonymous can call (408) 846-0330.
– Leslie Griffy, Mercury News
MILPITAS
Small 2.6 quake shakes
7 miles from city center
A 2.6 temblor shook near Milpitas about 9:13 a.m. Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake’s epicenter was about seven miles east of the city’s center and about seven miles from Alum Rock Park in San Jose, according the USGS.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the quake.
– Leslie Griffy, Mercury News
SAN JOSE
Man arrested after kicking
officer breaking up fight
A late-night reveler kicked an officer in the face as the officer attempted to arrest two other men for fighting outside a bar in downtown San Jose early Sunday morning, police reported.
An officer assigned to work at Tres Gringos, near the intersection of Second and San Fernando streets, attempted to stop a fight between two people around closing time, about 1:30 a.m., police said.
The two were going to be arrested on suspicion of fighting and being drunk in public. As the officer began arresting the pair, a third man jumped out of the crowd gathered in front of the bar.
The third man allegedly kicked the officer in the face.
All three suspects – Mathew Rosales, 26, of San Jose, Victor Valenzuela, 27, of San Jose and Stephen Roger Rosales, 27, of Washington state – were taken into custody, officer Jermaine Thomas said.
The officer was treated at a hospital and released. A second officer was also treated for a bruised hand following the incident.
– Leslie Griffy, Mercury News
PORTOLA VALLEY
Man, 64, killed when car
he was working on rolled
A Portola Valley man who died Sunday afternoon when the Pontiac GTO he was restoring in his garage became dislodged, rolled over him and dragged him down his steep driveway into the street has been identified as Rudolph Sefcik, 64.
Sefcik was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m. when emergency personnel arrived on the 1000 block of Los Trancos Road to find him trapped under the car in the middle of the street.
A San Mateo County Coroner’s Office spokeswoman said Sefcik died from multiple blunt trauma injuries.
California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Grace Castillo said investigators have yet to determine how the car became dislodged from where it was secured.
– Banks Albach, MediaNews
