STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
INDIO (UPI) — A Blythe farmer who discovered a small boy shackled inside a packing crate on a desert commune testified Monday he saw a huge chain and padlock around the youth’s leg.
Larry Creech was the first witness in the trial of 11 persons charged with felony child abuse for the alleged imprisonment of a 6-year-old boy.
Creech said he had gone to the commune on business matters last July 26 when he saw the boy chained inside the crate.
Deputy District Attorney Gary Scherotter said the boy had been shackled for 56 days and had been beaten for starting a fire on the commune at Blythe.
The boy’s mother is among the 11 defendants being tried by a five-man, seven-woman jury.
40 years ago
The Central Spartans came 2 yards late and a game short Friday night in Ward Field as the Calexico Bulldogs nipped El Centro in a battle of evenly matched teams.
The game lived up to the expectations of a fiercely fought, hard-hitting football game, reminiscent of the traditional rivalry matches Central and Calexico played in 1940s and ’50s.
Calexico had gone winless against El Centro since 1975, and they only won Friday’s game after Central marched 63 yards in the game’s final 3 1/2 minutes, only to run out of time on the 2-yard line.
“I just had about two heart attacks,” said jubilant Calexico coach Al Gutierrez after the game. “I thought they had us beat.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Calexico took a 6-0 lead on the first play in the second quarter, when Bulldog quarterback Ricky Herrera unloaded a 21yard pass to Michael Salgado.
That play was set up by the impressive fieldwork of Herrera, who scrambled for runs of 15 and 11 yards and completed two passes worth 30 yards.
Pascual Gonzalez, usually the sure-footed Bulldog kicker, missed the point-after attempt.
His subsequent kick-off to Prospero Lutes was good and deep, but Lutes found the left side of the football field wide open as he raced 86 yards for a Central touchdown that tied the game up at six.
The kick for the bonus point was wide. No more than 18 seconds had elapsed in the second quarter and 12 points were scored between the two teams.
30 years ago
El Centro Police Officer Mike Goodspeed recently learned to pluck a tennis ball off the ground while riding a 500-pound motorcycle at 5 miles an hour. For the six-year police veteran it was part of the training he needed to become the city’s first motorcycle cop.
“Everything is done at five miles per hour; it makes it harder because the slower you go, the harder it is to keep the bike up,” he said of the lessons, which the San Diego Sheriff’s Department held in the parking lot of Jack Murphy Stadium, “A lot of it is rider confidence. It may sound funny, but they teach you to ride over curbs, up stairs and pick up tennis balls.”
All the maneuvers were taught in the interest of safety. And it is hoped when Goodspeed and another officer, who has yet to be chosen, begin cruising on their black and white Kawasaki Police 1000s they will make the streets of El Centro safer.
“The main reason for having the bikes is that with more traffic patrol there will be fewer accidents,” Assistant Chief Harold Carter said.
There were 1,185 traffic accidents in El Centro in the one-year period that ended June 30, and 11 percent increase over the previous year and the most since at least 1979. Meanwhile, El Centro officers issued fewer citations than they had in six years, likely because they spent more time investigating crime, Carter said. Speeding citations dropped from 1,725 in 1985 to 377 last year.