Rapist gets multiple life sentences Mark Wayne...

Rapist gets multiple life sentences

Mark Wayne Rathbun, 34, known as the “Belmont Shore Rapist,” was

sentenced to serve 1,030 years in state prison on Sept. 15.

Rathbun was earlier convicted of several charges of rape and

burglary stemming from attacks on 14 women, including two in

Huntington Beach. Most of the attacks were in Belmont Shore, in Long

Beach.

Rathbun was found guilty for a six-year string of attacks that

started with a rape in Seattle in 1996. He was arrested in November

2002 by Long Beach police. His victims included women from Long

Beach, Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos. He was tried and sentenced

in Los Angeles Superior Court in Long Beach.

Rathbun’s Huntington Beach crimes included an attack on a woman

whom he raped repeatedly in June 2000 and an attempted rape in August

2002, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Goul said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani added 10

life sentences to the 1,030 years.

“He’ll never be getting out,” prosecutor Richard Goul said.

The arrest and trial depended on DNA evidence, Goul said. He

credited the “incredible courage” of the victims, who reported the

crimes in time for police to obtain usable evidence.

Licenses revoked after poaching

Two men lost their commercial fishing licenses last week after

they pleaded guilty to illegally using gill nets off Huntington Beach

just days before a seasonal ban on the nets’ use was set to expire.

Howard Edward Dennis, 83, and Bruce Howard Dennis, 56, both of San

Pedro, were fishing seven miles off the Huntington Beach coast on

April 26, 2003, when their boat was boarded, Department of Fish and

Game spokesman Steve Martarano said. Both men admitted in Orange

County Superior Court on Sept. 14 to using the nets to catch thresher

shark and white sea bass.

Gill nets are large nets used to catch several fish at once,

Martarano said. The nets cannot be used in California waters between

Feb. 1 and April 30.

Fish and Game warden Eric Kord found 52 poached thresher sharks

on the Mega, the men’s 45-foot vessel, he said. More fish were

discovered hidden on the boat.

It was the Department of Fish and Game’s largest thresher shark

seizure ever, Martarano said.

“The white sea bass was buried under thousands of pounds of

thresher shark and ice that they had in the fish hold,” Kord said.

Thresher shark hunting is prohibited between February and April to

protect them during their mating season. White sea bass are also

protected at that time.

The loss of the men’s licenses spelled the end of their fishing

business.

“It basically bans them from plying their trade again,” Martarano

said.

Both men were ordered to pay $1,000 fines and to forfeit the value

of the fish, $4,000, to the Department of Fish and Game, Martarano

said. Both could lose another $2,000 in additional penalties.

Fish and Game officials found 2,788 pounds of thresher shark and

290 pounds of white sea bass on the Dennises boat, Martarano said.

Man robs Huntington bank using note

A man reportedly used a note to rob a Surf City bank last

Thursday.

At about 4 p.m. on Sept. 16, a man entered the Citibank on Edinger

Avenue and showed a note to the teller demanding cash, Huntington

Beach Police Sgt. Chris Tatar said. The teller obeyed, and the man

left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money. Witnesses did not

see a weapon, and no one was hurt.

The thief is described as being about 30 years old and 5 feet 4.

He reportedly wore a red and white, plaid, long-sleeved shirt, white

pants and a white or gray baseball cap.

Man arrested after truck-ramming

An Anaheim man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly

weapon after a Huntington Beach police officer saw him use his truck

to ram another car.

Steven Richard Rodriguez, 40, was also booked on suspicion of

driving under the influence, police said. He was arrested after a

26-year-old Newport Beach woman driving a Honda Civic on Pacific

Coast Highway called police for help shortly after midnight Sunday to

report that Rodriguez had been intentionally rear-ending her car.

Police in a helicopter found the car near Pacific Coast Highway

and Main Street, and an officer allegedly saw Rodriguez drive his

truck into the car three times.

Police pulled Rodriguez over near Pacific Coast Highway and Main

Street to arrest him, but they do not know why he attacked the woman

in the Honda, Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Dave Bunetta said.

Rodriguez did not know the woman or the 26-year-old Seal Beach man

who was also in the Honda and did not give a statement to police.

No one was injured in the rammings, which caused minor damage to

both vehicles, police said.

Police urge leeriness of phone scam

Police are reminding Huntington Beach residents not to give money

to people claiming to solicit donations on behalf of police after a

local woman on Friday reported that a man called her to ask for

money.

“Do not send money or give credit card information over the

phone,” Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Dave Bunetta said.

Police do not make phone calls to ask for contributions, he said.

The woman told police that the man claimed to be collecting money

to buy bulletproof vests for Huntington Beach police and to benefit a

police officers’ memorial, police said. She did not give him any

money.

Police are investigating the call.