Outstanding discovery in child sexual assault case

LAKEPORT >> David Anthony Calvin Johnson was present remotely via Zoom and not in custody for a recent Settlement Conference/Trial Readiness Conference in regards to a sexual assault case involving a child.

Both Deputy District Attorney Edward Borg and Defense Attorney Mitchell Hauptman were also present remotely via Zoom due to the pandemic.

Mr. Borg informed the Court that he is waiting for some discovery back from the Department of Justice and requests a continuance.

Mr. Hauptman did not object to the request for a continuance and requested that at the next hearing date a custody review hearing be held.

The Court noted that the defendant is out of custody.

Mr. Hauptman stated that the defendant is out of custody on home detention and he will be asking to modify the home detention order.

The matter has been continued to Feb. 17, 2021 at 9 a.m. for a Disposition/Setting of Jury Trial Hearing in Department 2 and to also address the defendant’s custody status.

The defendant is ordered to be present remotely via Zoom.

All currently set trial dates are vacated.

Last year during the resetting of Jury Trial Hearing, where the status of discovery was to be reviewed, Mr. Hauptman (present by remote appearance) stated he received a variety of DNA material.

Mr. Borg indicated that the lab notes had not been provided to their office, and Attorney Hauptman was not sure if he had the phone extraction records.

During a motion hearing in July of 2020, where discovery sanctions were reviewed, Deputy District Attorney Edward Borg provided an update regarding the outstanding discovery and he indicated that all discovery issues should be resolved by the end of that week.

Hauptman also addresses the O/R (Own Recognizance) orders and the fact that probation is not allowing Johnson to do “anything,” such as grocery shop or visit his attorney.

A Supervised Conditional OR Release means the defendant is under the supervision of a probation officer and he must follow the rules set by the probation officer and the Court.

In July of last year the defendant’s custody status changed to Supervised Conditional OR Release, due to Defense Attorney Hauptman’s persistent request and argument that the defendant be released from custody.

There was discussion regarding the orders and Attorney Hauptman is to submit a proposed form of order for the next hearing. This order should be sent to the Lake County Probation Department so that Probation can provide input as to the probation order.

The Court authorized that the defendant may go and see his attorney after that court hearing.

Being the defendant has been released from custody, the People submitted a Criminal Protective Order to the Court for signature, the defendant did not oppose and the Court granted the People’s request for a Criminal Protective Order (CPO).

The defendant was served with a copy of the CPO in open court, intended to protect the victim.

A Re-setting of the Jury Trial, Status of Discovery and Review of Terms of Home Detention Hearing was set for Aug. 18, 2020.

The Court directed the supervising probation officer to appear remotely on Aug. 18, 2020.

In October of 2019 Johnson was in custody and appeared at the Lake County Superior Court in Lakeport for a settlement hearing, where he had been charged with two counts of oral copulation (with a victim under 10 years old), harmful material sent to minor, four counts of lewd acts (with victim under 14 years), annoy/molest child under 18 years and indecent exposure.

The charges stem from an incident in January of 2019 when Clearlake Police Department officers, assisted by the Newark Police, arrested the 31-yearold man suspected of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 10. An investigation into the crime was conducted by officer Perreault of the CPD at the beginning of this year.

According to the CPD, David Johnson, now 32, from Newark, was identified by law enforcement as the suspect. The case was turned over to Detective Ryan Peterson who conducted the additional investigation.

The case was then sent to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office which requested a warrant for Johnson’s arrest through the Lake County Superior Court. Clearlake Police officers requested the assistance of the Newark Police Department with locating and arresting Johnson.

In January of 2019, Johnson was placed under arrest for the warrant at his home and booked into the Santa Rita Jail. Peterson took Johnson to the Lake County Jail where he was booked the next day.

The jury trial that had been set for Sept. 25, 2019 — along with a settlement conference scheduled for Sept. 10, 2019 and a master calendar call set for Sept. 20, 2019 were all continued.

Defense Attorney Mitchell Hauptman requested another continuance in this matter and the Court found good cause to continue the jury trial.

Johnson waived his right to a preliminary hearing and it was ordered by the court that the defendant be held to answer to the charges. Johnson has entered a not guilty plea to all counts, denying the special allegations.

The jury trial, which had been set for Jan. 15, 2020, had also been continued.

“We found a baby girl for your adoption, but there are some things you will need to know. She’s in Siberia, and she was born with a rare condition. Her legs will need to be amputated. I know this is difficult to hear. Her life, it won’t be easy.”

This was part of one of the Super Bowl commercials this year, from Toyota. It was the story of Jessica Long, an adoptee who went on to become a champion Paralympian swimmer. I don’t know if the people behind the ad knew what they were doing — I assume they set out to merely tell an inspiring story while selling a product. But what they created was a challenge to our current culture.

The message was pro-adoption and pro-life in the best of ways. This wasn’t a Focus on the Family or a March for Life Foundation — i.e., activist — production. This was a car company presenting an obviously uplifting story. It turned out to be one that points to healing possibilities. Let’s look at human faces. Let’s see what love can do.

In “A Long Way Home: The Jessica Long Story,” a NBC Sports short documentary, viewers journey with the swimmer back to the Russian orphanage where her father picked her up as a newborn. Next stop: Her parents. Her birth mother was an unmarried 16-year-old when she found out she was pregnant. Upon meeting her birth parents, Long felt a wholeness, as if two separate parts of her life were merging. There is so much hope in her story, for all involved — even acknowledging the pain of separation and loss. High on the list of reasons for hope is: There is a way for a child who has disabilities to live and succeed. Success has many flavors and, of course, won’t always be of the kind Long has managed. But human life has value. It is a gift. This is about basic human rights.

But the gift of faith doesn’t hurt — Long has said God is her strength and clearly had a plan from the beginning.

Love is an act of the will. And a woman who fears having a child and yet makes a plan for her child to live is heroic. Birth mothers are heroines, plain and simple. We should help them every step of the way. And we should let them know that they have done something heroic in this culture.

In the NBC Sports short film, Long explains that she wants her birth parents to know that she’s not angry she wound up in an orphanage. Like other children who were adopted I’ve talked to over the years, she is grateful. “I’m not upset,” she says. “I think that was really brave. … I have so much love for her, my mom, because she gave me life.”

In an interview for Celebrate Life magazine, Long said: “If my mom had not given me up, I wouldn’t be where I am now. … And so, I really hope that people see my story and realize that adoption can be a wonderful thing.”

She acknowledges, too, that her story isn’t typical. “I got a lot of sweet messages about healing. … Not every situation is going to be as happy as mine ended up being. It was pretty rare that my (birth) parents still ended up being together and then having three more children. … I hope that for some people, it helped them to forgive and to learn from it.”

And, oddly enough, because of a Super Bowl commercial, we ought to learn too: that life is possible even in the most arduous circumstances. And it can be beautiful if we care enough to love.

Love is an ast of the will. And a woman who fears having a child and yet makes a plan for her child to live is hero is. Kirth mothers are heroines, plain and simple. oe should help them every step of the way. And we should let them know that they have done something hero is in this culture.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book “A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living.”

She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan’s pro-life commission in New York. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.

“Pfizer and Moderna could share their design with dozens of other pharma companies who stand ready to produce their vaccines and end the pandemic.” — Feb. 3 in a Facebook post

Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna earned praise for creating highly effective covid-19 vaccines in record time. But are they inadvertently hurting the public by not sharing their technology with other pharmaceutical companies to help speed up vaccine manufacturing and distribution?

That’s what one post circulating on social media claims.

“The vaccine shortage doesn’t need to exist,” reads an image of a tweet shared thousands of times on Facebook. “Pfizer and Moderna could share their design with dozens of other pharma companies who stand ready to produce their vaccines and end the pandemic.”

In short, the situation is not that simple. The post was flagged as part of

Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

The tweet doesn’t mention that the two drugmakers are already partnering with other companies to produce the vaccine. It also makes it appear as if dozens of companies are regulated to make vaccines and have a ready supply of the raw materials, equipment and storage needed to efficiently and effectively produce them. Experts say that’s not the case.

When PolitiFact reached out to the tweet’s author, Dr. James Hamblin, a public health policy lecturer at Yale University and writer at The Atlantic, he acknowledged that using the words “stand ready” in the tweet inaccurately implied the process could begin immediately.

“It takes time and investment to begin making mRNA vaccines,” Hamblin told PolitiFact. “The companies would need the assurance that they not lose money by getting into that space, possibly in some way similar to the assurances given during the research phase of warp speed.”