STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Charges were filed by El Centro and Imperial police this morning against Dr. Milton A. Streuter, a Brawley surgeon as a result of an alleged high-speed chase through the streets of El Centro and then up Highway 86 through Imperial shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday.
Imperial police said they clocked the car being chased at speeds up to 130 mph before the engine of the automobile “blew” near the entrance to Pioneers Memorial Hospital.
A passenger in the car was identified by police as Doris Viner, the wife of a former Brawley and El Centro policeman sentenced to state prison last month after having been found guilty of possessing a stolen boat. Mrs. Viner is due to be sentenced March 17 to her guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge of having driven the boat trailer without the owner’s consent.
According to El Centro police, Dr. Streuter’s car was spotted by an officer Saturday morning going through the stop signs at Sixth and Broadway. The car allegedly kept going north on Sixth, where, police said, it left 111 feet of the marks in slowing to turn on to Adams, reportedly without stopping for the sign. The pursuing officer then turned on his red lights and siren, but the driver allegedly ignored them and speeded west on Adams at more than 70 mph, ignoring two stoplights before turning north on Imperial Avenue. The El Centro officer said he chased the car up Imperial and on to Highway 86 but gave up when it became apparent that the car was outrunning him.
The officer said he radioed ahead and cars were dispatched by Imperial and Brawley police to intercept the driver.
When the car came through Imperial, an officer took up chase in one of the city’s high-speed patrol cars. It was this officer who reported he clocked the car at 130 mph before it came to a smoking halt near the turnoff to the hospital.
Dr. Streuter was then seen running away from his auto and into the hospital, officer’s report.
El Centro police telephoned the hospital and were told that there was no emergency situation there. However, two nurses later told the Imperial police that one of Dr. Streuter’s patients was critically ill.
The physician is being charged with ignoring the lights and signs in El Centro and reckless driving in Imperial.
40 years ago
The Calexico Community Action Council may find itself in court soon if it does not come up with a fast explanation of what it did with $37,300 in CETA funds or return the money to the county.
The Boards of Supervisors Tuesday decided to take that hard line with the agency when it failed to respond by the Friday deadline to a scathing audit of its use of $131,000 in CETA funds during 1977-78.
But the county’s demand for action is not the only problem plaguing the controversial agency trying to develop an industrial park in Calexico.
The very future of the park may be in jeopardy now that legal notices have gone out announcing a March 24 sheriff’s sale of the industrial park property to collect back wages owed a former employee.
CCAC’s problems with the county have been festering since December when an audit done by Arthur Anderson & Co. for the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act administration, uncovered thousands of dollars of irregularities.
The audit questioned $24,000 of the spending for lack of adequate documentation and recommended CCAC be required to pay back $13,000 that appeared to have been spent in violation of federal guidelines.
CCAC, and the other 23 agencies audited, had 45 days to respond to the criticism.
And CCAC, like many of the others, was given an extension when it could not respond during that time.