DA files second degree murder charge against man in Montecito road death
By JOSHUA MOLINA
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney?s Office announced on Tuesday that it had filed a second degree murder charge against the man accused of running over two women, killing one of them, in Montecito last Wednesday.
Lanie Tyrone Richardson also faces charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving while his privilege to drive was suspected for a DUI conviction.
The District Attorney?s Office said that Richardson had three prior DUI convictions.
?This murder charge is based upon an allegation that the actions of the defendant showed a conscious disregard for human life.
Richardson is in County Jail with a $500,000 bail. His is schedule to be arrained on June 20.
Authorities arrested L. Tyrone Richardson on Friday in connection with the death of the woman, Allison Meadows. Richardson was booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with bail set at $500,000.
The California Highway Patrol said the driver fled the scene after hitting two pedestrians near East Valley Road in Montecito.
A second woman hit, identified by the CHP as Lindsay Keebler, 25, suffered major injuries and is in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
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HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Community celebrates restored tower clock and the renovated Spirit of the Ocean fountain.
By Kelley Drechsler
The sound of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse bells rang throughout downtown Santa Barbara on Tuesday in celebration of the newly restored tower clock and the renovated Spirit of the Ocean fountain.
The commemoration, organized by the nonprofit Courthouse Legacy Foundation, attracted about 100 people.
As the clock approached 11 a.m., Bill Mahan, President of the Courthouse Legacy Foundation, led the crowd in counting down until the minute hand reached the hour.
A round of applause erupted at the sound of the bells and, shortly afterward, water began gushing in the fountain for the first time in decades.
?This is not just a typical courthouse used by lawyers?it makes me feel like I?m in London,? said Mahan, in his speech honoring the renovated fountain and tower clock.
Also present were Doreen Farr, Third District Supervisor, Salud Carbajal, First District County Supervisor, and Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.
Farr described the unveiling of the restored tower clock and fountain as ?important milestones in the history of Santa Barbara.?
?The people who live here care so much about this place and donate so much,? Farr said.
Farr described the event as a ?legacy? because the community has been so willing to restore and preserve the beauty and rich history of Santa Barbara.
?This legacy will be enjoyed not just by people who live here but also by people from the state and the country,? Farr said.
Officials then revealed a plaque observing the fountain.
?Isn?t that beautiful?? asked Mr. Mahan, as the spectators clapped in appreciation.
The fountain, finished in 2011, was originally designed in a Spanish-Moorish style and completed in 1929 after the 1925 earthquake had destroyed most of the city, including the old Greek revival Courthouse.
In 2010, the local architectural conservators identified that the fountain was one of the many features of the Courthouse that needed to be renovated.
?This fountain is the spirit of the ocean,? Salud Carbajal said, speaking both literally and figuratively.
Carbajal made an honorary speech for Naomi Schwartz, a founding member and former president of the Courthouse Legacy Foundation, who died last week.
?Every day for years she would look here and appreciate it so much,? he said. ?She was just an extraordinary person?and I would like to say that we (restored the foundation) in her honor.?
After the speeches, a guitarist began playing music and the guests enjoyed refreshments as they conversed about the beauty of the Courthouse.
One of the guests, a local artist, was fascinated by the manual labor that was required to restore the fountain.
?They had a stone yard [in front of the fountain] while two men carved the fountain by hand. They used very few tools to minimize the sound,? he explained in admiration.
The design of the sculptures originated from England, but the materials that were used are local. The stones came from Slippery Rock Ranch in Goleta and the tiles for the pond are from NS Ceramics.
?This is the most important element when you walk into the courthouse,? said Mahan. ?I think it?s the most beautiful monument in the country!?
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Mayor backs off controversial ballot measures
By JOSHUA MOLINA
Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider on Tuesday announced that she will tweak two of her ballot proposals ? and push them all back to the Nov. 2013 ballot.
Schneider has dropped one of the most controversial measures ? a plan to charge higher business license fees to downtown bars and restaurants that serve alcohol past 11 p.m.
She also now wants to include the Hope School District and Santa Barbara City College along with the Santa Barbara Unified School District, in her proposal to use sales tax money to fund schools.
Schneider said delaying the ballot measures to next year would allow people more time to help shape the proposals. Her goal is to create a community consensus and she said more time would allow her to do that.
?There was definitely a shock factor of surprising people, however I think people appreciated something to talk about,? Schneider said of her proposals. ?People were appreciative that I was willing to work with them. From that came a conversation that I don?t think would have happened had I not put these ideas forward.?
Schneider surprised many community leaders in February when she announced a package of reforms from a private suite above Starbucks in downtown Santa Barbara. She stood alone and announced her ?Invest in Santa Barbara 2012? ideas, which also included requiring public safety unions to pay 100 percent of their employee contributions to their public employee retirement plans. She also proposed a half-cent increase in the local sales tax.
The announcement appeared to be an unusual political misstep for Schneider, who is typically politically smart, savvy and careful.
But it was a different story on Tuesday. Schneider announced her new measures at Casablanca on lower State Street to widespread support and fanfare.
This time she was surrounded by dozens of people, including Santa Barbara School Unified School District board members Kate Parker, Susan Deacon and Ed Heron, former Mayor and Santa Barbara City College Trustee Marty Blum, Santa Barbara Police Detective Greg Hons and Tony Pighetti, president of the Santa Barbara Firefighters Association.
Several downtown bar and restaurant owners also now support her proposal. Schneider no longer wants to raise business license fees for downtown retail establishments that serve alcohol past 11?p.m. at least six nights a week. Instead she wants all businesses that sell alcohol throughout the city, regardless of location, to pay business license fee proportionate to their alcohol sales.
Right now, convenience stores and mini-marts, on Milpas Street, for example, pay a business license fee proportionate to their sales ??excluding alcohol. Schneider wants to change that so that the business license fees would include alcohol, leveling the playing field with nightclubs and restaurants.
Her pension reform and sales tax proposals remain the same.
Schneider also said she didn?t want her ballot measures to compete with the several tax increases scheduled for the state ballot.
The change in timing, however, means that the ballot reforms would go on the ballot at the same time that Schneider is up for re-election, a fact that Schneider said she wanted to avoid.
?My original proposal was that I thought it would be a benefit to keep it out of the mayor?s race,? Schneider said. ?But Invest in Santa Barbara will be part of what I did as mayor whether I did it this year or next year.?
She is grateful for of all of the support and excited about the relaunch of her reforms.
?I really do appreciate the thousands of voters who signed petitions,? Schneider said. ?They wanted to see it on the ballot, and they will, just in 2013.?
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