Criminal pasts similar in slain teen, suspect

When Taiepisi Gutu was arrested and charged in a violent strong-arm robbery that left a Chinese bakery owner badly beaten this year in San Francisco, he pledged to stay out of trouble if released from custody.

Last month, a Superior Court judge granted his pretrial release on strict conditions, including that he wear an ankle monitor and leave home only to go to school or work. But as the Downtown High School student apparently attempted to avoid violence, it found him. On Monday afternoon, which happened to be Gutu’s 19th birthday, another young man with a similar criminal past shot him inside a city building in broad daylight, police said.

Gutu was hospitalized at San Francisco General for several days before succumbing to his in

juries last week. Officials with San Francisco Unified School District said the school has been in contact with Gutu’s family and it is providing support services to students and faculty.

His suspected killer was shot Tuesday by California Highway Patrol officers in Southern California, where he fled after the shooting, police said.

Police have not disclosed the suspect’s name, but sources identified him as 20-year-old Hakim Oden, and jail records confirmed that he was in custody in Southern California.

Police officials would not elaborate on a motive or circumstances around Monday’s attack in San Francisco. Officers found Gutu suffering from a gunshot wound shortly before 4 p.m. in the lobby of the CitiCenter building on the 200 block of 13th Street.

Police initially identified the building where he was shot as a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facility, but state prison officials said neither the victim nor the suspect was a parolee.

While state parole officials have an office on the first floor, the rest of the building is home to various city service providers. When the gunfire erupted, parole agents heard the shots and ran to give the victim first aid, said Luis Patino, a spokesman for the corrections department.

The shooter fled the scene, but was soon identified and an alert was sent out to law enforcement agencies around the state. A license plate reader picked up Oden’s silver Ford Focus in Southern California on Monday night, and the CHP closed in on him around 3:10 a.m. near the Riverside County town of Blythe near the Arizona border, officials said.

CHP officers opened fire during the encounter, wounding Oden, police said. No officers were injured. Oden was taken into custody and, after being treated at a hospital, was being held on suspicion of attempted murder at Indio Jail in Riverside County, records show.

Court records show Oden was arrested in December 2016 for a strong-arm robbery in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. He was booked in jail and later released as his case moved toward trial. His attorney, Charles Dresow, said he couldn’t comment until he had more information about the latest incident.

Gutu’s trouble began in early February when he was arrested for an attack that grabbed headlines in San Francisco at the beginning of the year. He and a juvenile accomplice had allegedly stolen $3,000 and beaten up the owner of Good Orchid Bakery at 4675 Mission St. on Jan. 19.

The owner, Jingwen Zhen, suffered a fractured hand, along with blows to the head and body, police said. The case drew scrutiny after police took four hours to respond to the bakery after Zhen’s calls to dispatchers in his native Cantonese.

Prosecutors asked that Gutu be held without bail, but he was granted conditional release after arguments from his attorney. His counselor at San Francisco’s Occupational Therapy Training Program wrote a letter to the judge saying Gutu had post-traumatic stress disorder and was set to finish high school this month.

“If Taiepisi is released from custody, he will have continued access to services from myself/OTTP as well as his extended support system at his school and home,” she wrote.

Phony prescriptions: A Saratoga doctor pleaded guilty Tuesday to multiple charges of illegally distributing hydrocodone and insurance fraud, according to federal prosecutors.

Venkat Aachi, 52, allegedly gave patients phony prescriptions for painkillers at least six times from November 2017 to March 2018 at a pain clinic in San Jose.

One of those patients was prescribed 90 hydrocodone-acetaminophen pills during a visit, which the doctor later admitted were not for a legitimate medical purpose.

“Aachi did not conduct a physical examination of the patient nor discuss the patient’s pain or response to prior medication,” prosecutors said.

He also filed a false claim with Anthem Blue Cross with the intention of defrauding the insurance giant, according to the criminal complaint.

Aachi was indicted on seven counts of distributing drugs outside the scope of professional practice as well as health care fraud in a San Jose courtroom in October. Prosecutors dropped five of the drug charges as part of a plea agreement.

State records still list Aachi as a licensed physician specializing in pain medicine.

A 2017 survey from the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services Administration found that 22 percent of county residents had used painkillers prescribed to them in an unapproved way at least once.

If convicted, Aachi could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the drug charges, as well as an additional 10 years and $250,000 fine for the insurance fraud charge.

Aachi’s attorney did not return a request for comment.

Sex crime charges: A former Fremont Fire Department captain was charged Tuesday in Contra Costa County court Tuesday with 10 counts of sexually assaulting a child.

Gerald Norman Fogel, 58, committed multiple

lewd acts on a girl under 14 years old from August 2000 to August 2003, according to the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office.

The ex-captain was arrested Wednesday at his home in Foresthill (Placer County), the county Sheriff ’s Office said. “We do know he was a firefighter at the time of the alleged sexual assaults,” said Scott Alonso, a Contra Costa County district attorney’s office spokesman.

Prosecutors said Fogel lived in Contra Costa County at the time of the alleged assaults. He was employed with the Foresthill Fire Protection District from August 2014 to November 2016, when he was released from duty, the agency said.

Fogel worked at the Fremont Fire Department from 1985 to 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was booked into Contra Costa County Jail on $1 million bail, but was

later released, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.

Fogel, the Fremont Fire Department and the Foresthill Fire Protection District did not immediately respond to requests for more information.