Crime: Big stories affect AV

Soliah caught; molestation arrests net teacher, deputies

By BART WEITZEL
Valley Press Staff Writer

These are a few of the events that made crime headlines memorable in 1999.

Perhaps the biggest headline grabber in 1999 was the arrest of 1960s and 1970s radical Kathleen Ann Soliah, who spent 23 years as a fugitive, establishing a new identity as Sara Jane Olsen, a housewife and mother of three in Minnesota.

Soliah grew up in Palmdale and graduated from Palmdale High School in 1965. She studied for two years at Antelope Valley College before transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Soliah, 52, is charged with planting bombs under two police cars in retaliation for the 1974 shootout with police that left six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army dead. Among those slain was her close friend, Angela Atwood.

Another national crime story that had a profound effect Valley residents was dubbed the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

On April 20, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Another 23 were wounded.

Public concern - some would say hysteria - over the event sparked arrests and copycat crimes nationwide, including in the Antelope Valley.

Three Quartz Hill students were arrested after authorities discovered they had allegedly plotted a similar action.

One of the students was charged with possession of an inert grenade - illegal even though it was not an explosive. The other two teens, ages 14 and 15, admitted to threatening to kill fellow students and possessing maps of the school showing a plan of attack.

The 14-year-old boy, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, will remain on felony probation until he is 21 years old or until officials deem he has completed his sentence.

Hate crimes brought attention to the Valley as white supremacists Shaun Broderick, 19, of Newhall and Christopher Crawford, 25, of Lancaster, allegedly attacked Nathaniel Harris, 20, on March 23 in the parking lot of the Lancaster Wal-Mart.

Harris told authorities he approached Broderick's girlfriend, apparently believing she might be a former high school classmate. According to the sheriff's report, Broderick became angry seeing Harris chat with his fiancee, and attacked Harris with a hammer while allegedly shouting racial slurs.

And during 1999, the public's perception of authority figures was challenged when first local teachers and then law enforcement personnel were arrested on charges of child molestation.

Highland High School art teacher Craig Fulladosa, 41, was arrested on March 29 by deputies and officers from the multi-jurisdictional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement team, who were waiting for him at his Palmdale home.

Fulladosa was fired May 13, 1998, from his job as an art teacher at Highland High for violating the high school district's policy on use of school computers after child pornography was discovered on his computers hard drive by a district technician.

Fulladosa is facing 17 misdemeanor and felony charges related to the use of a school computer to store sexually explicit, erotic and pornographic material and for allegedly committing a lewd and lascivious act upon a 15-year-old female.

The same multi-jurisdictional Internet task-force (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement team) arrested Palmdale Deputy Steven Brown, 41, for allegedly using the Internet to solicit sex from teenage girls.

Brown, a 14-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and a past recipient of the sheriff's Medal of Valor, was arrested at 10 a.m. Oct. 8 at a West Los Angeles mall where he allegedly went to meet who he believed was his 13-year-old date. When Brown logged in to an Internet chat room called "younggirls4oldermen" allegedly to seek his teenybopper victim, he really was chatting with Tim Alon, an FBI special agent attached to the SAFE team.

But Fulladosa and Brown were not alone in their alleged indiscretions.

Former Palmdale School District Music teacher Wayne Martin, 50, turned himself in to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies the morning of Aug. 17, after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Martin, who resigned from the Palmdale district last year, allegedly raped a girl in his office at Mesa Intermediate School during his last year of employment, according to investigators.

Martin entered a no contest plea Dec 6. to a lesser charge of lewd conduct with a child as part of a deal struck with the prosecution.

A second Sheriff's Department employee who was also a candidate for the Palmdale City Council in the November election was arrested on allegations of sexual misconduct.

Kevin Wright Carney was arrested Oct. 29 for a lewd act with a 14-year-old girl.

Carney, who was released from jail on $100,000 bond, called his arrest on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl "... the epitome of dirty politics."

Carney also had been accused of inappropriately touching two young girls, in March 1997, four days after announcing his intent to run for Palmdale City Council. Those allegations against Carney never became criminal charges. Deputy District Attorney Susan Steinfeld of the Special Investigations Division rejected the case in May 1997 after reviewing it since late March.

Carney later announced his candidacy for mayor and was defeated in that election by Ledford.

After his arrest this year, Carney maintained his innocence and vowed to win the election and uncover the people who smeared his good name with what he says are false accusations.

So far he has kept the first part of that promise. Carney succeeded in gaining his City Council seat in a close election.

The District Attorney's Office still has not filed criminal charges against Carney. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Rob Dver, the prosecutor assigned to the case, said the Sheriff's Department is still working on its investigation of the allegations.

This year was also one of crackdowns, stings and parole sweeps as law enforcement in Lancaster and Palmdale put federal law enforcement grant money to good use.

The largest of this year's sweeps was the younger sibling of 1998's Men In Black sting operation.

They called it Men in Black II - Operation Roundup.

This year's effort triggered the arrest of 86 suspects accused of selling stolen goods to a team of seven undercover deputies working out of cars on city streets during the nearly six-month operation.

Sheriff's officers were seeking another 18 suspects missed in the arrest sweeps that began April 19 and peaked nine days later with the apprehension of 43 people between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.

In all, about 200 officers from several stations participated in the undercover operation and subsequent arrests, Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca said.

This year was also Baca's first year in office. During the year, Baca kept a promise to pay attention to law enforcement needs in the Antelope Valley, visiting the area on at least a monthly basis.

At the beginning of the year, Baca visited all of the sheriff's stations under his command and collected a list of needs for the personnel. As a result, the sheriff has initiated an expansion program in the department, reopening closed stations, hiring new deputies and building new stations.

Whether due to the Sheriff's Department's efforts, or to improvements in economy, the crime rate showed a drastic improvement this year.

At the end of the first three quarters of 1999, Lancaster experienced a 24.8% drop in the number of part one crimes and Palmdale a 21% drop over the same period last year.

Part one crimes include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson. Those numbers are down from already reduced crime rates in 1998.

In 1998, Palmdale crime dropped 15% overall and Lancaster was down 20%, according to end of the year crime statistics.

The Valleywide trend includes the areas outside of the city limits. The unincorporated areas surrounding Lancaster experienced a 14.3% drop in part one crimes and Palmdale's surrounding area had a 26% drop in the number of crimes.

Pigott said he was even more encouraged by the fact that crime was dropping even though the Valley population continues to grow rapidly.

Uploaded December 20, 1999