BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Man suspected...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

Man suspected

of abuse arrested

Costa Mesa police arrested a 30-year-old man Tuesday evening on

multiple counts of sexual abuse.

Julio Gomez-Alday was arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct with a

child younger than 14, sex abuse of a child and attempted sexual

intercourse with a minor younger than 14 and a minor younger than 3,

Lt. Dale Birney said.

The alleged incidents took place in the 600 block of Surf Street.

Man escapes falling tree in Costa Mesa

A tree-trimming employee averted major injuries when a eucalyptus

tree his company was removing crashed to the ground Wednesday

afternoon.

The tree, in the backyard of a house at the corner of Bay Street

and Orange Avenue in Costa Mesa, uprooted about noon and hit some

branches of another tree before falling.

The employee, who was under the tree, was hit but not trapped by

it and suffered a fractured ankle, said Capt. Lenny Goodsir of Fire

Station No. 3. He was taken to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

Goodsir said it’s rare for a tree to uproot in such a dry season.

“Especially since it hasn’t rained much recently, it’s unusual for

that to happen,” Goodsir said. “That was kind of bizarre.”

Golf cart found

in Lido Channel

A wayward golf cart was found submerged in the Lido Channel on

Wednesday afternoon.

The cart, discovered about 2:30 p.m., belonged to the Lido

Peninsula Resort and was discovered 50 feet from the shore near the

area of the Lido Island Community Assn., said Newport Beach Police

Lt. Tom Gazsi.

It was apparently stolen and abandoned, Gazsi said.

-- Deirdre Newman