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Dear Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, As Chair and Vice Chair of the Sonoma County Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force (CALLE), ... The California Supreme (Court Copley Press v. Superior Court 2006) effectively changed California Penal Code, so that all independent oversight agencies, such as civilian review boards, oversight panels, and civil service commissions, must now cloak all officer records and findings of misconduct in strict confidentiality..., any independent investigation that would yield specific information about officer misconduct and patterns is stifled, and must come through an internal law enforcement investigation, or motions approved by a judge. Even...

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors make a mockery of the attempts of the Task Force and its Subcommittees to initiate change in response to the killing of Andy Lopez by Deputy Erick Gelhaus... Now they make plans to move forward with a park for Moorland, on the site where Andy was killed, with no mention of Andy Lopez.

Jill Ravitch is Sonoma County’s District Attorney and Gloria Eurotas is the director of Victim Services. You’re late for work, and don’t take the time to kiss your 13-year-old son goodbye as he leaves for school. It’s just another day, and you think nothing of it, you will connect with him in the evening. Then the nightmare begins. The phone rings and you find that a deranged Deputy Sharif unloaded his service weapon down the sidewalk and hit a child as he walked home. You race to the hospital and find officials present with police. The Depuity is not in...

Sonoma County prosecutors spent $63,000 on outside consultants, and other expenses during an investigation into the shooting death of a child, who was shot and killed by a County Deputy Sheriff. The expense, included $10,000 payment to a William Lewinski, director of Minnesota-based, Force Science Institute who bills himself as an authority and is known in legal circles as someone who can be relied upon. The report concluding Gelhaus had to shoot 13-year-old Lopez to stop a perceived threat to the deputy and his partner.

Every year since 2001, the Sonoma County grand jury has reviewed what police call “critical incidents” – officer-involved shootings and the deaths of suspects or criminal defendants in custody. Until this year. The 2013-14 grand jury, whose term ended June 30, declined to examine such cases. That includes the October fatal shooting of teenager Andy Lopez by Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy Erick Gelhaus, among other deaths involving law enforcement in the past year. Citing a lack of expertise, financial support and public misconceptions about their role, Sonoma County grand jurors decided to diverge from the longstanding custom.

Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy Erick Gelhaus shouted then shot (dead 13-year-old Andy Lopez on October 22, 2013), Eric fired eight rounds. The hit / miss order can never be known. What is known is that Andy had failed to orange tip the bb-gun and that he never returned fire. Forensic indicate the 73 lb. perp took three 44 hollow points in the back and right side (falling?) plus four horizontals, head , neck lower...

The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that it will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez. District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement that investigators concluded Deputy Erick Gelhaus “fired his weapon in response to what he honestly and reasonably believed was an imminent threat of death to himself or others. “As such, he was lawfully acting in defense of himself or others, and no basis for seeking criminal charges exists,” Ravitch said in the statement. The finding was revealed in an email announcing a 2 p.m. press conference...

A rumor that a decision on the fate of Sheriff's deputy who shot down 13 year old Andy Lopez, is imminent is false, says media coordinator of the Sonoma County District Attorney's office. A press conference (had been) scheduled for today to forgo murder charges against the killer, who challenged, then shot and killed Andy, October 22 last year. "A little mex, walking with a un-tipped look-alike AK-47, BB gun". //Snipp// Santa Rosa City Manager Kathy Millison sent an email Thursday to Santa Rosa City Council members and staff directing talking points to (prop). The assigned roles of the internal...

Activists protesting the shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez will have a “free speech” platform near the food court of the Santa Rosa Plaza, where just three weeks ago security guards ordered them to leave.

On Oct. 22, Deputy Sheriff Erick Gelhaus, a marksman with 24 years in the (police) department, exited the car, took aim, shouted "drop the gun", (an AK-47 like, toy). As the boy turned (forensics document), seven penetrations in the center and right upper center & central lower quad. Three shots enter standing and falling, exiting the chest and face, Four enter prostrate with two exiting the top of the skull, one remaining in the lower abdomen and one exiting thru the left knee cap. Erick still feeling threatened hand cuffed riddled the 13-year-old, advised him of his 5th, then (cpr)...

The parents of a 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy killed by a sheriff's deputy who thought the airsoft rifle he was carrying was real, plan to file a federal lawsuit in San Francisco on Monday, claiming the deputy who shot their son violated the boy's Fourth Amendment rights as they pertain to limits on police authority..... The Fourth Amendment states that citizens have the right to be secure against unreasonalbe searches and seizures. In an interview with NBC Bay Area on Monday morning, he said he will also allege that Gelhaus has been involved in prior instances of "excessive force" and...

Andy Lopez Cruz, age 13. On Oct. 22, Lopez was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy on Moorland Avenue in southwest Santa Rosa. The boy was carrying an airsoft BB gun designed to look like an AK-47 assault rifle, and police investigating the shooting said the deputy mistook the gun for a real weapon. Lopez's parents stood before the altar, next to their son's closed coffin, which was covered in white fabric. For the duration of the service, the boy's mother, Sujey Lopez, lay her arms over the coffin with her head against it. The boy's father, Rodrigo Lopez,...