With some states adding restrictions or prohibiting abortion, California is moving in a different direction. Nevertheless, local medical experts say they remain concerned about access, misconceptions and the future, even in solid blue California.  

 

A statewide constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion and contraception is set to go before voters in November.

  

But at a roundtable meeting convened on a recent Friday by North Bay congressman Mike Thompson Friday, it was obvious concerns remain.

  

Cheryl Johnson, executive director of the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, says patients seeking care are whipsawed by sudden shifts.

  

"This toppling of Roe V Wade is just a real cornerstone for other rights to be taken away. And, so what we are seeing right now is people who are coming in are anxious because of the fact that they don't know what is the next right that is going to be toppled."

 

Johnson was joined by officials from clinics in Santa Rosa and Petaluma. They say prohibitions will mean fewer medical students being trained, causing a long term brain drain that will stymie access.

 

Johnson said a class divide is developing.

  

"People who have money, who have means they will find a way to get their contraception, their abortions, but people who do not have those opportunities will be the ones who have to take advantage of social programs, of other types of governmental support."

  

And such programs are seemingly on the perpetual chopping block. Others told Thompson the 'public charge rule' results in many who qualify, avoiding medical help, concerned that receiving taxpayer help will upset their immigration status.

  

Nevertheless, attendees, including Margaret Martinez Franks, feel there is strong support here.

  

"Thankfully, the governor has been incredible in allowing a huge amount of state funds to go toward abortion care and reproductive health care. That money is going to go a long way to assuring that not only Californians, but those coming in from out of state are able to get the health care that they need and that they deserve.

 

The attorney representing the family of a man killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy in July says that the officer who shot him did not follow proper protocol and does not have the proper temperament to be in law enforcement.

Izaak Schwaiger, who has represented many parties in suits against law enforcement, is launching a federal wrongful death lawsuit against both the county and the deputy for the death of David Pelaez Chavez, 36, of Lower Lake.

Pelaez Chavez was shot by Deputy Michael Dietrick on July 29 in rough, hilly terrain near Geyserville after officers said they repeatedly asked him to drop a hammer and a tiller he held in one hand and a rock in the other.

Pelaez Chavez does not speak English and the deputies used rudimentary Spanish to communicate with him, using words like "alta" (stop), "no mas, no mas" (no more) and "amigo" (friend). They never asked him to drop his items in Spanish, according to footage released by the Sheriff's Office.

An investigation into the shooting has been undertaken using the Sonoma County Critical Incident Protocol and the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office is also leading an independent investigation. Schwaiger questions whether the shooting may also fall under Assembly Bill 1506, passed in 2020, which dictates that any law enforcement officer-involved shootings against a suspect who is not wielding an object that is a "deadly weapon" will be investigated by the state attorney general.

"Deadly weapons" in the law are outlined as "any loaded weapon from which a shot, readily capable of producing death or other serious physical injury, may be discharged, or a switchblade knife, pilum ballistic knife, metal knuckle knife, dagger, billy, blackjack, plastic knuckles, or metal knuckles," though are not limited to only those things.

Sheriff's Sgt. Juan Valencia said the Sheriff's Office can't comment on the shooting since it is under independent investigation, but that Bonta's office said that a rock is indeed a deadly weapon.

A spokesperson for Bonta's office said that they are aware of the Pelaez Chavez case, but that their office is "currently not involved" in the case. They also further defined what constitutes a deadly weapon:

"Objects that have a legitimate non-weapon purposes are considered deadly weapons only when, based on all the circumstances, they are actually being used in a manner likely to produce death or great bodily injury. The following are examples of objects that have been considered a deadly weapon when used in that manner: knives, box cutters, screwdrivers, bottles, chains, automobiles, rocks, razor blades, and iron bars."

Schwaiger, the attorney representing the Pelaez Chavez family, said parsing the text of AB 1506 might come into play in this case, as to whether a rock in one hand and a hammer and a gardening tool in the other constitutes deadly weaponry. Schwaiger said that Bonta should investigate the shooting but probably won't.

Schwaiger questions not only if the deputy needed to take Pelaez Chavez's life, but if more could have been done to take him into custody alive.

The shooting was a culmination of several events that led to a barefoot Pelaez Chavez wandering deep in the hills of Geyserville as deputies closed in and a helicopter circled overhead.

The sheriff's communication center first received a phone call at 7:30 a.m. about a suspicious vehicle in Geyserville. At 8:20 a.m., the call center again received a report of a suspicious situation at a residence in Healdsburg. The resident said that someone had just tried to use a rock to break a window at his home.

A follow-up interview revealed that the homeowner said Pelaez Chavez walked onto his property carrying large rocks. He was not wearing any shoes. The resident said he armed himself for his own safety. Pelaez Chavez allegedly walked over to the exterior door of a bedroom and used a rock to smash the windowpane of the door, deputies said.

The armed homeowner told Pelaez Chavez to leave, firing off two warning shots to get the point across. Pelaez Chavez then encountered an employee of the homeowner, forced him away from his truck and started to drive it away, dragging the truck's owner 20 feet. The truck's owner did not suffer significant injuries. Pelaez Chavez then drove through several vineyard gates and property fences. Ultimately, he crashed the truck into a ditch near the 5600 block of Tre Monte Lane.

From there he went on foot to another residence in the same area, the Sheriff's Office said. He was carrying several more large rocks and went to the back of the residence. This homeowner also armed himself and told Pelaez Chavez to leave his property. Pelaez Chavez allegedly told the homeowner to shoot him.

Pelaez Chavez then fled southeast, where he found a Gator-style utility vehicle near a ranch storage area. He stole the vehicle and drove east on Thomas Road and then south on rural roads. Pelaez Chavez drove through two more ranch gates and then crashed the utility vehicle on a rural road. After that he fled on foot over dense hillsides, heavy brush, up steep terrain and through creeks with no shoes, deputies said. Before deputies could stop him, he had traveled about a mile in 45 minutes, they said.

Once deputies met up with Pelaez Chavez, they allege that he repeatedly made "nonsensical" statements and refused to drop the hammer, tiller and rock. On the body-worn camera footage, Pelaez Chavez can be seen and heard yelling. Deputies can also be heard discussing his mental health, mentioning whether he should be "5150'd," which means being detained in a psychiatric setting.

Dietrick then engaged with Pelaez Chavez, and allegedly told him to drop his weapons again. The Sheriff's Office said that Pelaez Chavez refused and continued to yell nonsensical statements. He dropped one river rock, bent over to get another and allegedly indicated that he was threatening to throw it at the deputy. On the body-worn camera footage, Pelaez Chavez drops his hand with a rock in it down to the ground and hunches down at the knees.

Dietrick then fired three rounds, striking Pelaez Chavez at 10:03 a.m. The Sheriff's Office alleges that the suspect had picked up another "cantaloupe-sized" rock and was poised to throw it, prompting the shots.

The deputies involved in the event are Dietrick and Deputy Anthony Powers. Both men are on administrative leave, the Sheriff's Office said.

Schwaiger says that people should watch the body-worn camera footage to see the stark difference between how Powers handled the situation versus Dietrick, the shooter.

"The approach that the two take, even leading up to David's death, is so remarkably different," he said.

Powers engages Pelaez Chavez in an attempt to calm him down, gives him space, "because there's nobody else around to get hurt," said Schwaiger.

"Powers is handling the situation by just creating more space, talking his time and trying to talk. He's asking him about his family, 'So do you want to call them?' and all this stuff. Then, as the situation progresses, Dietrick appears on the scene, he's yelling, 'Drop it drop it drop it' to a guy who doesn't speak English, is barefoot, standing on stones, yelling at the helicopter which is circling the air."

As can be seen on the body-worn footage, Pelaez Chavez then crouches over and is shot three times by Dietrick-- in the arm, chest and head.

"Frankly, the difference in approach between the two deputies is all you need to know," said Schwaiger. "It didn't have to go that way. One deputy didn't consider using deadly force. .. the other one pressed the situation unnecessarily and ended up killing a man."

Pelaez Chavez's mental state may also come into play, Schwaiger said.

Though the suspect's family says he has no history of mental illness, "he's obviously in some type of crisis," said Schwaiger. "That's undeniable."

Schwaiger said that federal law dictates that if a person is experiencing a mental health emergency or an emotional crisis, "that's a factor that weighs against the use of deadly force."

Schwaiger anticipates suing for wrongful death, excessive force, loss of familial association on behalf of Pelaez Chavez's children, and loss of consortium on behalf of his wife.

The Sonoma Sheriff's Office has released body-worn camera footage of the pursuit and shooting of Pelaez Chavez.

The first footage was released on Aug. 14 and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFKzfpC10ys.

More footage was released Thursday and can be viewed at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ffbj2we5pqi07l5/AADVd_PCDpKEqOzv_kYXVNzqa?dl=0.

Some video must be downloaded to view it in its entirety.

A 2021-22 Sonoma County Civil Grand Jury report has called for greater police protocols and oversight in Rohnert Park after the U.S. Department of Justice accused two officers there of "shaking down" motorists for drugs and cash.

Officers Brendan "Jacy" Tatum and Joseph Huffaker were patrol officers that conducted department-sanctioned traffic stops between 2015 and 2017 along U.S. Highway 101 between Cloverdale and Rohnert Park in attempt to stem the flow of illegal cannabis between Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

When cannabis became legal in California, the focused program wound down and was eventually stopped in 2017, but federal prosecutors allege that Tatum and Huffaker continued to stop people suspected of having cannabis and cash in their vehicles and used their "color of official right" to lean on motorist victims to hand over their drugs and cash or face arrest.

The DOJ alleges that the pair would even falsely portray themselves as federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to further leverage their power over alleged victims and use unmarked cars.

Last December, Tatum pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right as well as falsifying records and tax evasion. The DOJ says Tatum extorted at least $3,700 in cash and significant amounts of cannabis from drivers they stopped on Highway 101 by threatening to arrest them if the drivers did not consent to the seizures.

Tatum would make no report of the seizures, did not put the marijuana into evidence, and sought no destruction orders for the pot.

"These seizures were completely undocumented by the officers," the DOJ said.

However, the acts were captured on body-worn cameras.

Tatum allegedly made "hundreds of thousands" of cash deposits into his own private bank account as well as his wife's; each deposit was under $10,00o in an attempt to circumvent banking laws requiring disclosure of the deposits. Tatum also used $46,000 in cash to buy a fishing boat. The DOJ said there were $443,059 in cash deposits and purchases, all unreported on his taxes.

The other officer, Huffaker, has pleaded not guilty and is still facing trial. A status conference regarding his case is set for September 7 in San Francisco.

Enter the county Civil Grand Jury, which opted to examine police oversight -- or lack thereof -- in Rohnert Park, not only out of ethical reasons but because the city has been socked with $2 million in settlements for three racketeering lawsuits stemming from the alleged actions of Tatum and Huffaker.

The grand jury found that "significant progress" toward eliminating misconduct has been made in the city's Department of Public Safety in the wake of the scandal, but that further improvements are needed to enhance oversight and adherence to department regulations, primarily through better oversight by the city manager and City Council.

"It is alleged that the two rogue officers were able to extort drugs and cash from motorists for at least two years without anyone in the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety or the city manager's office being aware of their illicit activities," the jury's report reads. "Numerous factors were identified as having contributed to the ability of these officers to behave with impunity over the course of several years."

One section of the report specifically calls out the public safety department for promoting Tatum from officer to sergeant in 2015 and giving him the "Officer of the Year" award for his drug interdiction activities. The year before, Tatum led a probation search that was deemed a violation of civil rights of the homeowners and cost the city of Rohnert Park a settlement of $145,000.

The reason the officers received kudos for their drug interdiction efforts was because their seizures regularly exceeded the seizures taken in by larger police forces in bigger cities, the jury said.

"The grand jury found no evidence that red flags or other concerns were raised either in the department or the city manager's office," the report reads. "In fact, it appears they were regarded as model officers by both the rank and file and many supervisors within the department."

The jury offered an example of poor oversight by describing a 750-pound haul of cannabis taken in by the officers, which they publicly claimed to the department, yet only logged a 10-pound sample of it into evidence and no destruction orders for the remaining pot were ever located.

"There is no documentation that the department undertook any type of spot-checking to verify that the cannabis had, in fact, been destroyed."

The jury's report, entitled "Better Procedures to Avoid Future Misconduct," outlines seven findings and seven recommendations.

The jury found that the previous city manager wrote one formal evaluation of the previous director of public safety in five years and recommends that this be done annually. Similarly, the present director of public safety has only received one written evaluation in three years, and it was done six months after he was hired.

 

The jury suggests that this annual review include input from a "representative sample" of Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety personnel.

The jury also found that there is no procedural requirement dictating regular meetings between the director of public safety and the city manager and that the director of public safety is not required to provide presentations or department updates to the city council in a public setting, which would provide more transparency.

It recommends creating a presentation calendar for the council and greater communication between the Public Safety Officers Association and the city manager. It also recommended that the Department of Public Safety establish a Chief's Community Round Table.

Finally, police vehicle tracking "has been and remains inadequate," said the jury, recommending that the city council provide funding to install GPS tracking on all police vehicles.

The Civil Grand Jury's report requires a response from the city of Rohnert Park, which has yet to answer, and invites responses from Rohnert Park City Manager Darrin Jenkins and Director of Public Safety Tim Mattos.

Before European contact, linguists say there were over 300 Native American languages spoken in North America. Fewer than half remain. 

This summer, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs announced it was awarding $7 million to American Indian and Alaska native tribes under the Living Languages Grant Program. The program is geared towards helping the tribes revitalize languages once thought to be lost. 

The Wiyot Tribe of Humboldt are planning on using the funding to reclaim their language: Soulatluk. 

[historical audio of Della Prince plays here]

The woman you’re hearing is Della Prince, the last fluent speaker of Soulatluk. She died in 1962, but her voice lives on through recordings.

She’s telling a Wiyot story that explains why eels have no ribs. In the story, eel starts to lose a gambling game, and eventually puts up everything he owns…including his ribs. 

[historical audio of Della Prince plays here]

Because there are no living, fluent speakers of Soulatluk, the language must be reconstructed through old field notes, as well as recordings like the one you just heard.

Dr. Lynnika Butler is a linguist who works with the Wiyot Tribe. She’s devoted years to understanding Soulatluk. 

“Trying to learn from…for the most part, very unorganized documents, not having a native speaker to just acquire it from in a natural way — makes it really hard,” Butler told KRCB News. 

It doesn’t help that Soulatluk is an incredibly complex language, with linguistic features unfamiliar to English speakers. 

“When I came on the scene I was just like ‘let me find a word!’...I tried to work with the young kids early on like ‘oh, let’s just do colors.’ Ok, sounds easy…except, in Soulatluk, your color has to have an ending…is it a black fuzzy thing, is it a black smooth thing, is it a black long skinny thing, is it a black, you know, spotted thing?” Bulter explained. “So, there is no just black…so what about numbers? Well, same thing, numbers have classifiers…so is it [Soulatluk word], one person, two people, or is it [Soulatluk word] one long skinny thing, two long skinny things, so a snake might be [Soulatluk word] but also a pencil…”

Marnie Atkins is a member of the Wiyot Tribe, and runs the tribe’s cultural center. She works with Butler in trying to piece together Soulatluk, and says she’s had her own difficulties learning the language. 

“As a learner, an adult learner, it’s hard,” Atkins said. “As a first language English speaker, what was hard for me was the sounds, we have some very different sounds in our language that you don’t in English, so making your mouth do those interesting sounds and not being afraid to spit a little bit [laughs] because the sounds are down here in your throat, making it sound like you’re clearing your throat or something…so making yourself humble, knowing that you’re going to mess up and you’re going to make these sounds that you’re not normally used to, and just going ahead and doing it.”

Many people try to learn their ancestral languages as a way to connect with their culture. For some, starting that process may be as easy as creating a Duolingo account. But Native American languages were nearly wiped out by European colonizers. Butler said Wiyot people were able to adapt Soulatluk to incorporate new objects brought by European settlers, like harmonicas.

“Some people might have this idea that oh, well, once the more modern language came along there was no place for this old, pre-contact language anymore,” Butler said. “ No, in fact, Soulatluk is really interesting among languages because it almost never borrowed an English word…Soulatluk speakers would just build a new word, on the fly. And so [Soulatluk word] is “what is bitten,” and it’s the word for harmonica.”

But ultimately, says Butler, their language was taken from them. Here’s Justin Spence, a professor in the Native American Studies Department at UC Davis.   

“Moving into what in the late nineteenth century became, rather than outright attempts to exterminate Native American people, to instead get rid of their cultural practices, and essentially what is sometimes referred to as cultural genocide,” Spence said. “So there was a system of educational institutions that were set up to take children away from their families, put them in institutions where they would only learn English and not their traditional cultural practices, including language…there are lots of stories of people who were punished for speaking their ancestral language in those settings, and so I think a lot of people who had that experience made what I imagine was a very difficult decision to not transmit the language to younger generations.” 

Atkins said nobody taught her how to speak Soulatluk as a child

“I did not grow up learning Soulatluk,” Atkins said. “I came to it as an adult. And it wasn’t spoken in my home and it probably hasn’t been spoken since my…great grandmother, maybe grandmother…In my own family, I didn’t experience fear of speaking the language. It was more ‘I didn’t know it existed.’ When something is so, almost totally wiped out, that you don’t even know that there’s still something left, you don’t think it’s a possibility. So it takes adults like me to go ‘no, there still is remembrances, there still are recordings and documents, and look what we can do…’”

Here’s Butler remembering Irene, a Wiyot elder. 

“She told me more than once, ‘I remember the adults speaking it around us when we were kids,’...she said something like ‘you know, we were just dummies for not trying to learn it’...it sounded like she felt like she had made a choice not to learn it, and I don’t think that was true at all,” Butler said. “I think that the adults were specifically talking amongst themselves and choosing — for their protection — to not pass it on to the kids.”

This year, three grants went to the Wiyot tribe to help them revitalize their language. Tribal members say they plan on using the Living Languages grant to create a series of videos aimed at making the language more accessible, like recording themselves using Soulatluk in their everyday lives; cooking a meal, or giving a tour of their home.

According to Atkins, finding grant funding hasn’t always been easy. 

“It’s very competitive, and add to that we don’t have fluent living speakers,” Atkins said. “That has been in the past a very strong ‘you’ve got to check that box.’ We laid out our thesis, and we backed it up with evidence that, sure, Marnie doesn’t speak fluently, or Sam or whoever. But we do have speakers. And we do have all of this material…when you have the resources, human and materials, it is not moribund, the language is not dead. It has the ability to be reclaimed…Look at what we’ve done with hardly anything, all of these years. Look at what we’ve done. Imagine what we could do with proper funding. I mean, bring it on.” 

For Atkins, revitalizing Soulatluk is connected to her culture…

“A lot of folks will kind of say well what’s the point, English is everywhere,” Atkins said. “You’re right, it’s everywhere…but, it’s relevant because…our language holds traditional knowledge that English doesn’t…as stewards and reciprocal partners with animals and land and water, indigenous people’s languages and sciences were built on the landscape…And you have to have the language to understand how that cultural and traditional land management practice happens.”

Atkins says identity comes from language and ceremonial, cultural practices.

“So it’s this all-encompassing knowledge….that as you know who you are in the world, and how you carry yourself, and wherever you go in the world, you’re a Wiyot person,” Atkins said. “Because you know these things about yourself and your history and your family and your relations and your land.”

The Living Languages grant program is providing funding to 45 Native American tribes across the United States, all with varying levels of preserved language materials, as well as varying levels of experience. 

Atkins, who has worked to reclaim Soulatluk for over twenty years, has advice for other tribes undergoing the same process. 

“Be easy on yourself, be patient with yourself, this is going to be hard work and you’re not going to do it overnight. And it’s ok. ,” Atkins said. “I’m old. I’m probably not going to be a fluent speaker by the time I leave this earth. But — I’m holding the line for others. To come after me. And that is just as important. If that’s your purpose then take it and run with it and do your best. Because you’re going to be holding it for someone else to come after you, to then take it even farther.”

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