Police

‘Operation Hotel Tango’ — San Marcos human trafficking ring trio faces trial

A San Marcos man, San Marcos woman and Carlsbad woman are set to begin facing the music 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 27, charged with suspicion of human trafficking, pimping and pandering following a  yearlong investigation by the multi-agency Human Trafficking Task Force. The three suspects will be subject to a status conference at that time pertaining to their cases at Department 12 of San Diego…


Police return to scene of apparent homicide

 “It’s a complex  case. We’re still working on it.” — Escondido police Lt. Ed Varso on death of woman found murdered in car on freeway ramp Monday. Escondido police Thursday morning closed the Interstate 15 on-ramp at El Norte Parkway for a second time in four days continuing to comb for clues in the murder of a 38-year-old woman driver just now identified as Elizabeth…


Geezer Bandit or Geezer Bandit copycat?

Five years after his last reputed heist, could the Geezer Bandit have surfaced at a San Marcos Chase Bank around 5 p.m. Friday, June 3 armed with a money-demand note, black box he said was a bomb and a handgun? No telling, at least for now as Michael Lehman, 81, was arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery and terroristic threats, among other charges, on Palomar…


Friday DUI checkpoint nets no DUI drivers

Escondido police held yet another DUI checkpoint outside Police Headquarters Friday detaining zero DUI drivers among 1,579 vehicles passing through barricades. This followed similar checkpoints in March that caught two DUI drivers out of 1,120 vehicles and February that caught one DUI driver out of 1,393 vehicles. A November 2015 checkpoint also caught zero DUI drivers out of 2,514 vehicles inspected. Ten previous 2015 checkpoints…



Cinco de Mayo real blast at San Pasqual

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, aren’t only for Iraq anymore. One of the highly improvised kind went off around 9 a.m. Thursday after being discovered by a teacher at a San Pasqual Academy bathroom and tossed into a nearby bush. San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies and CAL Fire officials responded to San Pasqual Academy around 9:15 a.m. after getting word of a reported threat to…


People (and bodies of water) behaving badly — Valley of Discovery edition

Night time was not the right time to party early Thursday at the normally quiescent San Marcos cul-de-sac in the 600 block of Helmsdale Road, off Kirkwall Drive near Palomar College. An intimate gathering of about 10 people erupted in an argument that led to gun shots, injuring a 20-tear-old female bystander as two men grappled over a loaded pistol. One man pulled out the…


Escondido Police arrest registered sex offender allegedly targeting minors

Escondido Police issued a lengthy news release addressing the arrest of Rennard Cawkwell, 46, of Oceanside on suspicion of felony charges related to communicating online with a 16-year-old girl. The girl initially believed she was speaking to a 17-year-old boy, police said. Cawkwell was a registered sex offender previously on active GPS monitored parole, Escondido police Lt. Ed Varso said in the news release. After…



Hard losing your best friend when you’re 21

(Editor’s Note: Hayfork is about as far as one can go from Escondido and remain in California, a distance of approximately 700 miles. Yet, two Escondido men were caught up in a recent incident resulting in the death of one. Jason Paul Brady, 40, who attended Orange Glen High School, immediately confessed to police to the April 4 murder of Amanda Patton, 21, and James…