PUBLIC SAFETY Activists arrested after protest ends...

PUBLIC SAFETY

Activists arrested after protest ends in vandalism

Newport Beach police arrested 16 activists -- seven adults and

nine minors -- on suspicion of felony conspiracy to commit vandalism

during a protest earlier this month that police said resulted in

damage to the home of a local developer.

Some of the protesters were members of environmental activist

group Orange County Earth First, who are against a proposed housing

development in Trabuco Canyon. Police said the protesters smashed

windows on the Ocean Front West home of David Eadie, president of

Rutter Development, which is handling the project. The district

attorney’s office has yet to decide if they will press charges and

all have been released.

* The state Assembly on Tuesday voted to make the names and

addresses of the most serious sex offenders available to the public.

Until those changes are signed into law, residents can only get

general information -- like a name, offenses and a photograph but no

address -- on offenders at the Costa Mesa and Newport Beach police

departments. On its website, Newport Beach Police Department has a

map with a general area of where offenders live, but no personal

information about them.

* Three local police officers brought home medals from law

enforcement’s version of the Olympic Games this summer.

Newport Beach Police Station Officer Brad Aubuchon won two gold

medals for mountain biking earlier this month at the International

Police and Fire Games in Las Vegas. Costa Mesa Officer Dan Miles and

Det. Bakkila won medals for swimming at the California Police and

Fire Games in Stockton this June.

* The family of an underage girl who allegedly had sex with Greg

Haidl, a defendant in a gang-rape trial who is out on bail, filed a

lawsuit on Thursday against the Orange County District Attorney’s

office, alleging it illegally obtained a search warrant for the

girl’s DNA.

The 16-year-old girl and her family want her DNA excluded from a

misdemeanor statutory rape case against 19-year-old Haidl -- son of

prominent Orange County Asst. Sheriff Don Haidl -- and un unspecified

amount of money, said Adam Stull, the attorney for the family, during

a press conference at his Irvine office. The district attorney’s

office violated the girl’s civil rights in obtaining the DNA when the

girl and her family want no part of the case against Haidl, he

argued.

COSTA MESA

Leaders agree to study of proposed Gisler bridge

City officials gave their blessing to a study of a proposed bridge

to connect Gisler Avenue in Costa Mesa to Garfield Avenue in Fountain

Valley, after long-standing opposition. The Orange County

Transportation Authority voted Monday to fund an environmental study

and preliminary design of the bridge.

The city agreed to drop its opposition to the study because they

will retain veto power if plans for the bridge move forward. City

officials have opposed the bridge, which they believe will dump

Fountain Valley traffic in their city without providing any traffic

relief.

* The fair board voted to tell state officials the Orange County

Fairgrounds are not underused, contrary to how the property is

described in a state report on how to increase the efficiency of

state government. The report suggested the 150-acre fairgrounds as an

example of state property that could be sold off to help the state

budget deficit.

Costa Mesa officials and residents have adamantly opposed the idea

of relocating the fair and selling the property.

NEWPORT BEACH

Seceding churches feel backlash from diocese

Attorneys for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Friday sent

out a letter to three churches, including St. James Church in Newport

Beach, which seceded from the diocese, ordering them to surrender

parish properties to the bishop by 10 a.m. on Monday.

The letter states that Bishop J. Jon Bruno still has authority

over church property and that any attempt to supersede that authority

is against state and canonical law.

Attorneys also demand on behalf of the bishop that the churches

submit current financial statements along with copies of all bank

account and investment statements from Aug. 1, 2003 to present.

The three churches, St. James, All Saints’ in Long Beach and most

recently St. David’s in North Hollywood, announced their secession

from the Episcopal Church of the United States on grounds that the

church’s liberal ideologies don’t match their own conservative

beliefs relating to the divinity of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of

the Bible.

All three churches placed themselves under the Diocese of Luwero

in the Anglican Province of Uganda, Africa.

The three churches are also opposed to the Episcopal Church’s

appointment of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as the Bishop of New

Hampshire.

St. James administrators have maintained that the church property

does not belong to the diocese any more. The bishop however received

strong backing last week from the presiding bishop of the Episcopal

Church of the United States, Frank T. Griswold.

St. James and the other churches in turn got the support of the

Archbishop Henry Orombi in Africa who said that the churches are now

part of the Anglican Communion and that Bruno has no authority over

them.