News

ATWATER - The Atwater Police Department has initiated a hate crime investigation after a report of an African American Teacher at Buhach Colony High School being subjected to racial epitaphs and slurs during a Zoom online classroom event on Thursday, August 27.

Officers are investigating the circumstances around the event and are collecting digital evidence to determine the persons responsible. Due to this incident occurring across a computer network, responsible parties may be charged not only with a hate crime but with using a computer network to commit a crime.

SACRAMENTO  -   A former PG&E employee pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and admitted to receiving kickback payments from a Stockton transportation company owned by his cousin, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to the plea agreement, Ronald S. Schoenfeld, 65, of Goodyear, Arizona, formerly of Dublin, California, while employed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, conspired to obtain contracts from PG&E for his cousin’s transportation business in exchange for kickbacks from that business worth approximately 2.5% of the value of the contracts.

FRESNO -  Orlando Gillam, 46, of Fresno, pleaded guilty Thursday to mail fraud in connection with false claims he submitted to public and private health insurers, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, Gillam is the founder and CEO of Dunamis Inc. Group Home, a nonprofit that provided services that included alcohol and drug treatment and counseling.

Between January 2016 and January 2018, Gillam falsely billed insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars for alcohol and drug treatment and counseling, mental health treatment, and group and individual psychotherapy purportedly rendered to multiple individuals. Those individuals did not receive the services billed, and several of them were not Dunamis clients at all.

SACRAMENTO -  Jeffery Parsons, 44, of Dillon, Montana, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to one year in prison for conspiring to accept illegal gratuities on account of official actions and conspiring to sell government property without authority. Judge Mueller also ordered Parsons to forfeit to the United States over $230,000.

According to court documents, Parsons was a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense. In November 2009, Parsons began working as an Environmental Protection Specialist at Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, California (SIAD). He later held the same position at Naval Air Station Lemoore in Lemoore, California (NASL). In his official positions at SIAD and NASL, Parsons’ responsibilities included the disposition of hazardous materials such as batteries, fuel, and oil.

FRESNO -  As part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California’s strategy to reduce violent crime by focusing on firearms prosecutions, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced that a federal grand jury returned indictments in the following cases involving illegal firearms offenses.

These cases are part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

MADERA - With the pending retirement of Madera County Chief Clerk Rhonda Cargill on the horizon, the Madera County Board of Supervisors met last week in closed session to select the new Chief Clerk. While there has been no official announcement from the county, Big Valley News has learned from two members of the board that an offer of employment has been sent to Karen Rodriguez-Pogue, daughter of current Madera County Supervisor Max Rodriguez.

Pogue is the 55-year-old daughter of Max and Sarah Rodriguez and currently works in deposit services management at United Security Bank where she has been employed for the last twelve years. She also operates MEPCO,  a vending machine business she started with her former husband Mark Pogue in 1989. She is a 1989 graduate from California State University, Fresno with a degree in marketing and a 1983 graduate of Madera High School.