Murder Charge Dropped Against Mother
Accused Of Drowning Child
40 Years Ago

GRASS VALLEY (CBS13) — A Grass Valley mother won’t spend a day in prison in the drowning of her daughter more than 40 years ago after the murder charge against her was tossed.

Patricia Thomas would not come to the door of her Grass Valley home. Instead, CBS13 was greeted by her husband who said she was sick.

Wednesday was part of the first week of her five-year probation sentence in the drowning death of her 4-year-old daughter more than four decades ago.

She once faced a count of murder, but a judge dismissed it due to a lack of evidence.

It was Thomas’ older daughter who helped investigators reopen the case. She said she walked into the bathroom and saw her mother drowning her sister. But at the time, the death was reported as a bathtub drowning.

CBS13: Why, 40 years later, is this coming out?

Thomas’ Husband: Well, I don’t know. She’s got a daughter that’s not there.

CBS13: I saw those comments that her daughter made. Is she pretty hurt by those comments?

Husband: Who wouldn’t be? Wouldn’t you?

Some who live near Thomas says she’s the only one who knows the truth.

“I think that she should be watched, maybe,” said neighbor Dennis Hurley. “It’s been a long time, but the evidence I guess was circumstantial. But people could be nervous.”



July 14, 2013 7:21 PM

ROCKLIN (CBS13) – Rocklin police are investigating the city’s first homicide in six years.

“All our neighborhood here are good people, and we are always happy, I’m just shocked,” said neighbor Said Kazimi.

Just after 10 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to the 6200 block of Swan Court to reports of a stabbing.

A 51-year-old man was found inside the home bleeding from his chest. He transported by ambulance to Sutter Roseville Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.

“He’s a really nice guy, really nice. His girlfriend is a preschool teacher at my daughter’s school,” said neighbor Erica Burriss.

So never would she and her husband imagine soon after moving to the suburbs their neighbor would be killed.

“There was some kind of physical altercation that occurred between the victim and the suspect,” said Rocklin police Lt. James Knox.

Detectives say an argument during a party at the home between the victim and 20-year-old Zachary Raymond Kachmar lead to a physical altercation in which the man was stabbed in the chest with a pocketknife. Police say Kachmar is friends with the victim’s son.

According to his Facebook page, Kachmar grew up in Rocklin and attended Whitney High School.

Kachmar was arrested for murder and booked into Placer County Jail. He is being held without bail.

This is Rocklin’s first homicide since 2007.

The victim’s name has not been released at this time.



July 29, 2013 9:34 AM

ROCKLIN (CBS13) – A 20-year-old Rocklin man who stabbed another man to death at a house party in July will not face criminal charges. The stabbing was done in self-defense, according to Placer County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Wilson.

Zachary Kachmar, 20, was at the Rocklin home of 51-year-old Robert Earl Vickney, Jr. on July 13 when he accidentally broke a shot glass. Vickney, who was reportedly heavily intoxicated, got angry and attacked Kachmar, who was seated. Vickney began to choke Kachmar, and as Kachmar was beginning to lose consciousness, reached for a knife that was lying nearby and stabbed Vickney in the chest.

Kachmar is 5-feet-9 inches tall and Vickney was 6 feet tall and 220 pounds.

Kachmar’s mother, Natalie, found out something was wrong when police arrested Zachary at their home on a murder charge.

“It’s been terrifying hearing the news that somebody in the community has been killed, and my son being involved,” she said.
On July 16, the murder charge was dropped and Kachmar was released.

In a statement issued Monday, Wilson said: The death of Robert Vickney was truly an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy. His death was a result of the irresponsible consumption of alcohol combined with a volatile temper and the complete absence of a sober or mature influence to control an escalating situation.”

Vickney’s death is the first homicide in Rocklin since 2007.



By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer 

The Placer County District Attorney’s Office is now seeking the death penalty against triple-murder suspect Jeremy Baker.

Baker, 33, has been jailed since May 2011 on a no-bail hold after being charged with the Loomis slayings of a woman and two men.

On Wednesday, representatives of both the prosecution and defense teams indicated that because of the complexity of the death-penalty case it would likely be a lengthy period before it could be ready to go to preliminary hearing.

At a hearing before Placer County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Penney on several motions by court-appointed defense attorney Barry Zimmerman, both sides agreed to come up with a timeline reflective of a target date for the preliminary hearing to take place.

The next court appearance for Baker is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. May 22 in Penney’s Department 44 at the Bill Santucci Justice Center in Roseville. The District Attorney’s Office filed a notice in late January that it would be seeking the death penalty in the case because of the special circumstance of multiple deaths.

While documents in the case have been sealed by a court order by now-retired Judge Larry Gaddis, information from law enforcement after Baker’s arrest pieces together some of the details of the killings that are to come out during a future trial.

Baker, a Roseville resident, was arrested shortly after the shooting deaths of Nanette Florance, John Camara and Lawrence Fay.

A Placer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said at the time that the victims were known by Baker and all died of gunshot wounds. There was not sign of a struggle and nothing was taken. Neighbors reporting hearing three gunshots the night of the killings.

Florance and Fay’s bodies were discovered at a Rachel Lane address in Loomis. Florance, 47, was inside the home. Fay, 49, was discovered just outside a back door. Clinging to life after being spotted in the backyard, Camara would die after being taken to Sutter Roseville Medical Center. All had been shot in the head.

Fay and Camara had lived in the home for a number of years. Florance was a long-time Loomis resident who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

Zimmerman told the court that he recently received 800 pages of information on the case and was expecting about 200 more.

“A lot is involved in this case,” Zimmerman said. “Since January, we’ve started litigating the issues in earnest.”

Penney told both sides that a time frame was necessary - nearly two years after charges were laid.

“We have to start moving this case along - I’m concerned about it,” Penney said.



Nine alleged gang members accused of a dozen murders, racketeering and armed bank robberies face a 73-count indictment Friday following a federal investigation called “Operation Daybreak.”

The men are allegedly members of the Salinas-based Norteno gang.

The indictment accused the defendants of 12 murders, seven attempted murders and seven bank robberies over a two year period.

The men are accused of hunting down and shooting rival gang members and others suspected of being gang rivals.  One of the killings occurred on the campus of Alisal High School in Salinas.

Those accused include Dandiel Chavez, 33, Victor Skates, 26, Eduardo Lebrong, 36, Eder Torres, 29, Julian Ruiz, 26, Antonio Cruz, 28, Terrell Golden, 24, Anthony Lek, 28 and Robert Loera, 35.

U.S. v. Chavez, No. 15-cr-285



Placer County DA reevaluating case against Bryon Mason

By: Jon Schultz, Journal Staff Writer



Bryon Mason had a spring in his step as he walked out of the courtroom Tuesday.

The next step for the Placer County District Attorney’s office appears headed back to the drawing board in the prosecution of the man it alleged started the 2,650-acre Robbers Fire between Foresthill and Colfax in July 2012.

The DA did not file any new charges against Mason on Tuesday, his first court appearance since Judge Colleen Nichols ordered his release March 5 upon ruling there had been insufficient evidence to hold him over for trial on felony arson charges.

Nichols said in her ruling that Cal Fire investigating officer Cpt. Michael Gallagher lacked full credibility as a witness in the preliminary hearing as he gave “less than accurate” testimony and at times was “untruthful and unwilling to acknowledge his mistakes.”

Nichols did say in her ruling that Mason “is clearly held to answer on a lesser included offense of unlawfully causing a fire,” but when she asked if the prosecution would be filing that charge Tuesday, the DA declined to pursue it at that time.

Mason left Placer County Superior Court Dept. 13 in North Auburn with a smile on his face, free to head back home to his wife and two children who he spent more than seven months away from while in jail.

He had been released on March 5, but Tuesday marked the first time he walked away without another court date looming, without having to report to a probation officer, as Nichols removed his supervised release.

“It’s obviously a horrific shock to anybody who has little-to-no experience with the criminal justice system to be in custody for seven months and be away from a couple young sons and his wife,” Auburn-based attorney Thomas Leupp said of Mason, who declined comment. “That’s an obvious hardship on anyone and he’s delighted to be out of custody and be back with his family. We’re waiting to see what happens and what the next steps are.”

As to the original felony charges, Gallagher’s testimony had been key, Nichols said, to determining whether Mason met the condition of “maliciousness” that is required for someone to be guilty of arson.

Mason asked people to leave the Shirttail Creek swimming hole before he threw a firework into it on July 11, 2012, and it exploded in water, but a spark from it may have been what started the Robbers Fire, according to Leupp’s preliminary hearing brief.

The fire raged for 12 days, forcing evacuations of Foresthill and Iowa Hill residents for nearly a week. It burned one remote cabin that had been inhabited one week out of the year, four outbuildings and threatened 170 more homes.

A pair of firefighters had been allegedly injured in the fire, but Nichols also cleared Mason of the great bodily injury enhancement to his charges in March.

Nichols pointed out several problems with Gallagher’s account of the area where the fire started. He testified that the rock wall on the right side of the waterfall had been 15 feet, but Nichols said photos showed that it had been between 25 and 35 feet high.

When the inconsistency had been pointed out, he stuck to his estimate, Nichols said in her ruling.

Asked to circle the 5-foot area where the fire started, Gallagher circled an area with at least a 20-foot radius, which Nichols said “did not help his credibility” and gave her “further pause.”

“It gives me concern we are just trying to prove something regardless of the facts of the case,” she said.

Gallagher also testified the fire started in a “flat, horizontal area,” which Nichols said “was a bit shocking considering the photos … show the area of the fire was anything but flat.”

She said she found it “troubling” that the court had been under the impression after the DA’s questioning of Gallagher that he was “on top of the ledge and doing the investigation himself,” when, in fact, cross examination made it clear Gallagher used a telephoto lens and binoculars to observe the area from roughly 50 feet away.

“He testified that he was able to get a clear view and determine micro and macro indicators at the point of origin, but yet he later clarified that neither he nor the other investigators were able to get to the point of ignition,” Nichols said. “In another breath, he said it was flat.”

Instead of arson, she said all the evidence points to the fire being started recklessly.

“There is no evidence to support the conclusion that a reasonable person would find it highly probable that the firework would explode in the water and then send sparks up and out of the water 25 to 35 feet up a nearly vertical rock ledge,” Nichols said, “and that would be accomplished with somewhere between 10 and 15 witnesses and his wife and children standing next to him.”

Gallagher has been employed by Cal Fire since 1980 and has investigated about 1,000 fires – 200 of those in his current capacity as a fire origin investigator. He has testified in about six different cases as a fire origin expert, with four of them being arson and the other two caused by negligence.

When contacted for a comment on Gallagher, Cal Fire public information officer Daniel Berlant said, “We still don’t want to comment on the ongoing litigation while the District Attorney makes their decision of what the next step is.”

“Our investigation is complete and is with them,” Berlant said, “so we don’t want to say or do anything to impact their ability to prosecute this case.”

The DA’s office did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.

“They are reevaluating their case at this time, I think,” Leupp said.

He said Mason is looking forward to getting back to work – he had been employed by a “major retailer” for the past six years – and that he is remorseful for what happened.

“Certainly the place where the fire occurred is a place where he went with his family and friends many, many times. It was an area that he enjoyed,” Leupp said when asked whether Mason was sorry about what happened. “He was very sorry about the fire and he was incredibly remorseful, and the officer testified at the preliminary hearing that the young man was very, very remorseful for what had happened.”



By The Associated Press

VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) " Police in Northern California are investigating the kidnapping for ransom of a woman who remains missing even though four suspects have been arrested in the case.

Elvira Babb, 57, was last seen June 29 by a co-worker who dropped her off at a market in Vallejo, Lt. Jeff Bassett said.

Her son, John Babb of San Francisco, received a text message the next day demanding money, described under six figures, and threatening his mother's life if he did not comply or contacted to police. Babb replied, but he didn't get a response, Bassett said.

Babb went to his mother's home after receiving the text and found her Chihuahua dog dead. On July 1, Babb reported his mother's kidnapping to Vallejo police.

A weeklong investigation, which includes the FBI, the Sacramento and Fairfield police departments, Solano County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Marshals Service, led authorities to Emmanuel Espinoza, 26, of Stockton, who was arrested in the Sacramento area and is considered the primary suspect, Bassett said.

Espinoza was an acquaintance of Elvira, though the extent of their relationship was unknown, police said.

Authorities also arrested Jalon Brown, 32, and Larry Young, 23, of Sacramento and Lovely Rauzol, 27, of Vallejo.

The suspects are not cooperating with police and have not divulged the location of the missing victim. Investigators have no leads as to where Babb may be or whether she is alive, Bassett said.

"We definitely have the primary suspects," he said. "If there are others, the suspects aren't cooperating with us."

The department waited until Saturday to release the information "for the safety of the victim," he said.

The Vallejo Police Department came under fire last year after describing the kidnapping of Denise Huskins from her Vallejo home as a hoax. Federal prosecutors later charged disbarred Harvard-educated lawyer Matthew Muller with Huskins' kidnapping.

In a lawsuit filed against the city in March, Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, accused Vallejo police of defamation and infliction of emotional distress.



In an unprecedented trial, four people charged with mortgage fraud were acquitted Friday by a jury in Sacramento federal court after defense attorneys argued the real culprits are the so-called “victim lenders.”

According to experts, it is the first time in such a trial that a court has allowed the defense to present evidence that lenders ignored gaping holes and blatant lies in loan applications during the years leading up to the economic meltdown.

“The big banks and other lenders made as many loans based on patently false information as they could, packaged them as securities and passed them up the chain to Wall Street’s investment and management bankers, who peddled them to an unsuspecting public,” said defense lawyer Tim Pori after the verdict.

“No bank executives have been prosecuted,” Pori said. “Sure, there have been multibillion-dollar settlements with some big banks, but none of their officers – the ones who really pulled the strings – will ever see the inside of a cell.”

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, in a statement issued at The Sacramento Bee’s request, said:

“Criminal trials are inherently uncertain endeavors. We have had tremendous success in convicting scores of persons in mortgage fraud cases over the last several years, but it is unrealistic to expect that we will get the outcome we are seeking in every single case.

“We respect the criminal trial process, and accept the jury’s verdict in this case. It will not dissuade us from pressing forward in the many other mortgage fraud cases currently pending in this courthouse.”

An acquittal in Sacramento federal court is rare, regardless of the charges. But with respect to mortgage fraud, it is virtually unheard of.

There was little or no difference between the mail fraud charges against Yevgenity Charikov, Vitaliy Tuzman, Nadia Talybov and Juliet Romanishin and charges brought against hundreds of other defendants prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Sacramento-based Eastern District of California.

The office has often described the Central Valley as “ground zero” for mortgage fraud, and noted it has been a national pacesetter in pursuing the perpetrators.

In this trial, U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton, over the government’s strenuous objection, allowed testimony meant to show that the lenders in the two transactions at issue – Aegis Wholesale Corp. and Greenpoint Mortgage Funding – didn’t care whether information on the applications was true or false.

Under those circumstances, the defense argued, the information was not material because, either way, the loan would have been approved.

“In the week when details of the United States government’s $16.5 billion civil settlement with Bank of America was disclosed, I hope the jury’s verdict causes the U.S. attorney’s office to readjust its priorities and investigate criminally the true culprits of our country’s financial collapse, the mortgage lenders’ officers who committed the real fraud – not those who allegedly lied on the industry’s ‘liar’s loans,’ ” said defense lawyer John Balazs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Heiko Coppola argued in court papers filed before the trial that the defense’s contentions are not a defense to mail fraud. He said the defense lawyers “cannot argue that the victim, in this case the lender, is to blame. Argument or evidence concerning lender fault is irrelevant ... This case is about what the defendants did. It is not about what the lenders could have done or should have done.”

According to prosecutors’ filings, Charikov, a 42-year-old real estate agent who lives in West Sacramento, used straw buyers to purchase properties in a declining real estate market and then immediately resold them to another straw buyer at fraudulently inflated prices. To qualify for the mortgage loans, prosecutors contended, the defendants submitted fraudulent loan applications to lenders, falsely stating the straw buyer’s income, liabilities, and intent to occupy the home as a primary residence.

The indictment alleges that Charikov recruited his loan officer wife, Romanishin, 32, of West Sacramento; Tuzman, 42, of Citrus Heights; and Talybov, 32, of Antelope, as straw buyers in transactions involving the sale and purchase of two West Sacramento properties in 2006 and 2007.

After the first set of straw buyers obtained the proceeds from Talybov’s fraudulent purchases, they allegedly split the take with Charikov. Subsequently, Talybov defaulted on loans for both properties.

All four were charged with fraud that resulted in alleged losses to the lenders of at least $710,000. Charikov and Tuzman were also charged with laundering their ill-gotten gains.

William Black, who boasts long academic and regulatory careers, was a key expert witness for the defense, again over Coppola’s objection. Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and the “distinguished scholar in residence for financial regulation” at the University of Minnesota’s School of Law.

His testimony purportedly connected the fraud in the Sacramento case directly to the lenders, and he explained to the jury why the false information on the applications had no bearing on lending decisions.

“This is the first time that the overwhelming fraud at the banks has been discussed in a criminal courtroom by the person with the greatest expertise on the issue, William Black,” said defense lawyer Toni White after the verdict.

“Prosecutors have refused to criminally prosecute the elite bankers responsible for the mortgage crisis that decimated our economy. The jurors heard shocking testimony from ‘control fraud’ expert William Black that regular people who got loans they were unable to pay back did not (defraud) the banks. The elite bankers commit the fraud while prosecutors look the other way and prosecute the wrong people.”



AUG 25, 2014 7:35 AM EDT





Aug 25 2014 Stuart Gittleman, Compliance Complete


It took just one day for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement Thursday that Bank of America would pay $16.65 billion over charges of fraudulent mortgage origination, securitization and servicing to have an impact.

But the impact was probably one of the last things Holder wanted to see as a result of the deal.

On Friday, a Sacramento federal jury acquitted four defendants on charges of mortgage fraud, after hearing legal expert William K. Black testify that the defendants could not have defrauded their lenders because lenders during the buildup of the credit bubble did not rely on the veracity of loan applications. An attorney for the defendants said their position is supported by statements in the Bank of America settlement.

Sacramento is in the federal court system's Eastern District of California. The district includes the state's Central Valley, which has been called "Ground Zero" for fraud during the credit and housing bubble.

Black, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, was a federal housing official during the savings-and-loan meltdown in the late 1980s. His referrals for federal fraud prosecution resulted in the conviction of hundreds of bankers, many of whom went to federal prison.

Before, during and since the credit buildup, Black has been warning that control-person accounting fraud lets bankers drain assets for their own benefit before the bank collapses and needs a bail-out, and that the fraud can be forensically detected before it destroys a banking or an operating business.

Federal judge Lawrence K. Karlton let the defense argue, reportedly for the first time in a federal criminal trial, that lenders didn't care whether a loan application was truthful and that the falsity of an application was not material because the loan would have been approved whether it was true or false.

"Bill Black testified that the two mortgage lenders in our cases ? were involved with what he calls 'control fraud'[and] actively encouraged stated income 'liar loans' without caring at all whether the stated income (and other info) was true or false because they knew they were going to package and sell the loans to others," John Balazs, one of the defense lawyers, told Compliance Complete.

"[A]s a result, any misrepresentation was not 'material' to the lender's decision whether to approve the loan. ? [a]nd materiality is a necessary element to convict for mail fraud," he added.

Balazs noted "statements in the BofA and [JPMorgan Chase] settlements to support this ? the Clayton Holdings reports that showed most loans did not even meet the lender/investors own guidelines."

He also said a study by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, Inc. estimated that 90 percent of stated income loan applications during this period had overstated incomes by 5 percent or more and that almost 60 percent of such applicants exaggerated their incomes by more than 50 percent.

"As far as I know," the jury was the first to hear the criminal defense that lenders ignored lies and missing documentation during the lending and securitization stampede, but it should be a precedent, Balazs sadi. " I'd hope this type of materiality defense would be allowed in future cases," he said.

Black and the defense attorneys told the Sacramento jury that if Holder and the U.S. Attorneys and state attorneys general who touted the settlement could not find even one banker to charge civilly, not to mention criminally, for Bank of America's admitted misconduct, it's wrong, not just unfair, to prosecute borrowers.

Jailing borrowers will not reform an industry if a borrower's ability to repay is unimportant to lenders because they quickly pass potential problems to other participants in the system, said Black and the defendants' lawyers.

"The big banks and other lenders made as many loans based on patently false information as they could, packaged them as securities and passed them up the chain to Wall Street's investment and management bankers, who peddled them to an unsuspecting public," Tim Pori, another defense lawyer involved in the case, told The Sacramento Bee after the verdict.

"No bank executives have been prosecuted. Sure, there have been multibillion-dollar settlements with some big banks, but none of their officers, the ones who really pulled the strings, will ever see the inside of a cell," Pori added.

In addition to the materiality defense, Balazs said he hopes "the verdict causes [U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner]to readjust [his] priorities and investigate criminally the true culprits of our country's financial collapse, the mortgage lenders' officers who committed the real fraud, not those who allegedly lied on the industry's 'liar's loans'."

"Criminal trials are inherently uncertain endeavors. [The verdict] not dissuade us from pressing forward in the many other mortgage fraud cases currently pending in this courthouse," Wagner told The Bee.

Wagner's office has convicted many mortgage fraudsters at the strip-mall level, but he may also be a less-sung hero behind another large mortgage settlement, the $13 billion one last November with Chase. The bank reportedly settled with Holder, Wagner's boss, after Wagner threatened to file a highly detailed complaint against the bank unless it accepted Holder's more innocuous version. 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

By Hadley Robinson Daily Journal Staff Writer 

Defense attorneys tried a novel theory in a mortgage fraud case in Sacramento, and got a novel outcome: complete acquittal.

In a trial charging four defendants with defrauding mortgage lenders by lying on loan applications, attorneys used a "materiality" argument to convince a federal jury that their clients were part of a much grander financial scheme that led to the housing collapse.

The four solo attorneys argued, through evidence and testimony from a law and economics professor, that even if the loan applications contained false or misleading statements, it did not matter. Lending agencies, they said, were often not required to verify the veracity of such declarations.

"Whatever was said on these applications was immaterial because the banks were so eager to bundle these loans into securities that they would take anybody's false credit score," said Vallejo-based defense attorney Tim A. Pori.

The attorneys argued that the lenders in the case, Aegis Wholesale Corp. and Greenpoint Mortgage Funding, did not care whether information was true or false. U.S. v. Charikov et al., CR12-0003 (E.D. Cal., filed Jan. 5, 2012).

"We aggressively put the lenders on trial and argued there was no scheme to defraud the lenders," said John P. Balazs, a Sacramento-based attorney who represented one of the defendants. "They were the ones in fact committing the fraud."

Legal observers say the materiality argument has not worked in such cases in the past, partially because other judges have not allowed the evidence, but that more defense attorneys are likely to try.

"The difficulty has been in getting judges to allow its admission," said Matthew R. Jacobs, general counsel at the California Public Employees' Retirement System who represented clients in several mortgage fraud cases as a litigator at DLA Piper. "That's the first time that I'm aware of in this district that [the evidence] has been permitted."

It is a rare loss for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, who has aggressively pursued cases involving mortgage schemes since he took office in 2009. Wagner co-chairs the Department of Justice's Mortgage Fraud Working Group and has often called the district "ground zero" of the housing crisis .

The office has charged 295 defendants with some sort of mortgage fraud since 2008, according to its own statistics. In 2014 so far, 16 press releases have been published boasting guilty pleas and sentences in this area.

The government fought against the defense's materiality arguments in pretrial motions protesting the admissibility of such evidence, and calling it irrelevant to the charges, but U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton allowed them.

"The United States anticipates that defendants will make this case into a referendum on the lending and mortgage industry," prosecutors wrote in the motion. "This case is about what the defendants did. It is not about what the lenders could have done or should have done."

In a prepared statement, Wagner said the loss would not slow the office in prosecuting mortgage fraud. Eastern District prosecutors are currently trying a mortgage fraud case, and have three more such trials scheduled to begin by early October.

"Criminal trials are inherently uncertain endeavors," Wagner wrote in the statement. "We have had tremendous success in convicting scores of persons in mortgage fraud cases over the last several years, but it is unrealistic to expect that we will get the outcome we are seeking in every single case." 

Balazs said he hopes the government refocuses its efforts on prosecuting individuals involved in mortgage fraud at the corporate level, such as bank executives.

"They just go after this low hanging fruit," he said. "They go after the real estate agents or the small people and that doesn't really have any impact."

hadley_robinson@dailyjournal.com



Judge orders release of Robbers Fire arson suspect

Blaze charred 2,600 acres in Placer County

UPDATED 7:24 PM PST Mar 08, 2013

By David Bienick

FORESTHILL, Calif. (KCRA) —A judge has ordered the man accused of causing a wildfire in Placer County -- which cost more than $13 million to fight -- to be released from custody.

• Sacramento man charged with arson in Robbers Fire
  

A man accused of starting a wildfire that burned nearly 3,000 acres in Placer County was charged with arson Monday.

• Sacramento man arrested in connection with Robbers Fire
  

A 28-year-old man was arrested in Sacramento County on suspicion of recklessly starting the Robbers Fire in Placer County with a pyrotechnic device, Cal Fire officials said Friday.

The Placer County judge found there was not enough evidence to hold Bryon Mason of Sacramento, 28, over for trial. 

"It's sad that they didn't have enough evidence to convict him.  But we've talked about it for a long time, and it sounded like they really didn't have enough to pin him to begin with," said Foresthill resident Kevin Reid.

"I'm kind of disappointed.  I just want -- if he's the right guy -- I want him to be able to be accountable for it," said Joann Ortiz whose family was forced from their home during the fire.

Mason pleaded not guilty to charges of arson and recklessly starting the so-called Robbers Fire that broke out July 11, 2012.

The Placer County District Attorney’s Office said Mason started the fire with an illegal firework.

If tried and convicted, Mason could have faced up to 14 years in prison.

In a statement, the district attorney's office said it disagrees with the judge's ruling and said it "remains committed to seeking justice for all the victims of the Robbers Fire including those firefighters who placed themselves at risk in order to mitigate the damage caused by the defendant's action."

A court date of April 2 has been set for further proceedings in the case.

The fire charred more than 2,600 acres near the communities of Foresthill and Iowa Hill.

It burned one vacation home and injured a firefighter.

While waiting to see if prosecutors file lesser charges against Mason, some Foresthill residents suggested he steer clear of their community.

"He probably should stay away from up here because there are some (people) up here that would take out their frustrations on him," said Reid.

July 16, 2013, by Cecilio Padilla

ROCKLIN—

20-year-old Zachary Kachmar is a free man – at least for now.

“He was so mellow. When somebody said, Zach, I said how could that possibly be?” said John Bittman.

Kachmar was supposed to face murder charges today in the death of 59-year-old Robery Vickney Jr., who died Saturday after police say he was stabbed in the chest by Kachmar.

But the District Attorney continued court proceedings to July 29, as investigators determine if charges will still be filed. Prosecutors now say Kachmar may have acted in self-defense.

“He’s a good kid. For me that was hard to believe he would do anything like that,” said Bittman, a long-time neighbor of Kachmar.

Investigators said while Kachmar was at Vickney’s home for a birthday party, a confrontation happened that led to the stabbing.

Kachmar was in the Placer County Jail since Sunday morning.

In a Facebook post, Kachmar’s mother, Natalie writes:

“I’m overwhelmed with joy that they have released my beautiful loving kind son!!! Thank you so much for all the love and support. My heart goes out to the the Vickney family for this tragic accident.”



Jury stuck on one witness’s testimony

By: Jon Brines Gold Country News Service

With a Roseville jury deadlocked on guilt or innocence, Judge Colleen Nichols used her authority to dismiss the case against Placer County Lt. John Savage Tuesday with no possibility of a new trial. “I’m smiling today,” Savage said after the ruling. “I think today we are in a position now where we can move on with our lives.” Savage was accused of gross negligence in firing a gun into the air outside his then-Rocklin home in October 2009. After two-and-a-half days of deliberations jury foreman and Rocklin resident Chris Randolph said the final vote was 9-2 in favor of not guilty and one juror who remained undecided. Prosecutor Matt Block was disappointed with the result but said he accepted it. “The jury took the responsibility seriously and deliberated for a while,” Block said. “Speaking with them it seems they really wrestled with their decision and I don’t take that lightly.” Without a gun or bullet casings found in the case, Randolph said the verdict hinged on one witness: Danielle Wunder. Wunder, an 18-year-old neighbor, was the only witness who said she saw Savage with an object outside his Lakebreeze Drive home when the shots were fired. During the weeklong trial, two dozen other neighbors testified they heard three to seven shots but didn’t see the shooter. Savage denied accusations by the prosecution that the gun he allegeldy fired was in his car. Savage did not allow Rocklin Police officers to search his or his wife’s vehicles the night shots were reported fired. He also refused to submit to a residue test to determine if he had fired a gun, saying in his testimony on the stand that he thought the test is “inaccurate.” Savage faced a fine and up to one year in jail. Randolph further revealed what the jury discussed during deliberations. “It’s not necessarily that the rest of the group didn’t believe her testimony but we didn’t necessarily know whether she saw what she thought she did,” Randolph explained. Randolph said there were contradictions with what she said on scene that night, later when she was interviewed a second time by police and then when she took the stand last Tuesday. “I think a young person in a tense situation is more likely to confine certain memories together,” Randolph said. “I don’t think she had any ill intent but she even seemed confused about what it was she was seeing. I can’t hinge one person’s fate on that.” Wunder could not be reached for comment Tuesday. One of the juror’s who voted guilty during the deliberations, who didn’t want to be identified, said Wunder’s age helped her credibility. “I thought he was guilty. Based on the eye witness,” the Auburn resident said. “She was a young girl who was nervous. I believe her first statement was true and she was influenced by her mother (Linda Wunder).” Linda Wunder was also called as a witness in the case. The defense tried to undermine her credibility by pointing out she had a bad relationship with the defendant, got him evicted and her own brother was a detective for the agency that investigated the crime, Rocklin Police. Randolph said the defense’s accusation of a conspiracy by the District Attorney to put Savage on trial to show their office is tough on law enforcement was not a factor. “Conspiracy wasn’t anything we put a lot of weight into,” Randolph said. “It was considered but pretty quickly set aside.” Savage’s own testimony wasn’t compelling to the jury either, according to Randolph. “The general sentiment was not to pay attention to the defendant’s own testimony because he has the most to gain by it,” Randolph said. Savage’s brother Steven said he had a heart-to-heart conversation with John Savage before the trial and he believes he is innocent. “I know from the bottom of my heart that he is not guilty,” Steven Savage said. “He cares about his job and will do as good of a job for the community as anyone.” Lt. John Savage continues to work as a watch commander for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office based out of Auburn. That’s something Savage said he is looking forward to continuing. “I can’t be more happy with the place I work,” Savage said. “They looked at the entire case and kept me in my position. They believed in me. That says a lot about my department.”