Tag: Mercury News Weird.

A court battle over the use of a judge’s middle name on the ballot is heating up a normally sedate Orange County judicial race, with one candidate accusing his opponent of “hiding behind a misleading name” and an attorney for an incumbent judge questioning whether she is being targeted for a “foreign-sounding name.”

Charles Pell, in a lawsuit filed against the Orange County Registrar of Voters, is challenging his opponent’s effort to appear on the ballot as “Ami S. Sagel” rather than her full name of Amy Sheth Sagel. Pell is challenging Sagel for the Orange County Superior Court judge position that Sagel currently holds.

Pell, a veteran federal prosecutor, alleges that Sagel is “attempting to appear on the June 2, 2026, primary ballot under a previously unused name that is not the one voters know,” contending that she has “for years been known professionally, publicly and judicially” as ‘Ami Sheth Sagel.”

Sagel, in her own court filings, counters that the “use of one’s proper middle initial is not misleading.” Sagel also alleged in court records that a decade ago, Pell advised a colleague “that the way to win a judicial election was to target judges with ‘f—-d up names,’ ” adding that “Ten years later, he is trying to take his own advice.”

County Registrar Bob Page’s office has not taken a side in the lawsuit but has asked for a prompt court decision in order for the office to get the county’s voter information guide printed and released on time.

The lawsuit was assigned to a San Bernardino judge to avoid any conflict of interest in the Orange County courts.

During a hearing Friday afternoon, Sagel’s attorney, Mark Rosen, told Superior Court Judge Wilfred J. Schneider Jr., “We think it’s an open-and-shut case” because there is no violation of election law …

“The candidate gets to choose which name is on the ballot, not the opponent,” as long as there is no intent to mislead, Rosen said.

“This is such a trivial lawsuit,” Rosen continued. “She is being picked on because she used a foreign-sounding name, and we can only wonder what the motivation is.”

Rosen later said outside court that he believes Orange County voters, who have elected lawmakers such as Rep. Young Kim and Rep. Dave Min, would not likely reject Sagel for her national origin.

Sheth is of Indian origin, Sagel said after the hearing. Her parents were born in the Asian country, she said.

Pell’s attorney, Bradley W. Hertz, told Judge Schneider that there was no racist intent behind their challenge to Sagel’s ballot designation.

“The name could be Jones or Smith or any other name,” Hertz said. “We believe the use of the name should be consistent.”

Pell, in an interview after the hearing, said he believes Sagel should use the name by which she is known as a judge: Amy Sheth Sagel. that’s how it is listed in the Orange County Superior Court judicial assignments.

Pell said he initially planned to stay retired.

“I still looked out there and I saw the opportunity,” Pell said. “She was one of the only ones that was recently appointed (2023). She had bad ratings (from people who appeared before her in Family Law Court). So that’s why I focused on her. Our whole argument is this: If you choose to invoke the position you have, judge of the Superior Court, then you should have to use that (name).”

There was also discussion about Pell’s ballot designation, which has been approved as Federal Criminal Prosecutor. Pell retired in September 2025

Hertz suggested a compromise: Pell would change his designation to retired federal prosecutor if Sagel would use her full name on the ballot.

“It’s not really splitting the baby,” Hertz told the judge. “It’s giving everybody a baby.”

Rosen rejected the offer.

Deputy Orange County Counsel Suzanne Shoai told Schneider that they needed the ruling by March 27. Schneider said he hoped to post his ruling online by Monday.

Pell and Sagel are both long-time members of the local legal community, who have crossed professional paths during tenures at the local U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sagel was a federal prosecutor for five years before starting her own private legal practice and then being appointed as a judge in the Orange County Superior Court by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023.

Pell spent 20 years as a federal prosecutor, in recent years leading public corruption cases against former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do and former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu.

In response to Pell’s lawsuit, Sagel wrote in her own court filings that her maiden name is Ami Harshad Sheth, but that she took her husband’s last name when they were married in 2013. Her husband, Brett Sagel, is also a veteran federal prosecutor known for high-profile white-collar-crime cases who previously worked in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office as Pell.

Sagel wrote that she sometimes uses her full name — such as on legal documents — and sometimes uses Ami Sagel or Ami S. Sagel, “consistent with how all of us exercise control over how our names are rendered in different contexts.”

Pell — in contending that Sagel is using a “never-before-used variant” of her name “created solely for this election” — contends in his court filing that he wasn’t challenging a “minor formatting issue,” but instead arguing that “voters in a judicial race are entitled to accurate identifying information.” Pell accused Sagel of “running away from her record,” which he alleged “paints a picture of someone who doesn’t have a good temperament.”

Another former colleague of Pell’s in a written statement to the court submitted by Sagel recalls that in February 2016, Pell gave her the unsolicited advice that she should consider running for election against a sitting judge with “a f—-d up name.”

Sagel wrote that she was “deeply troubled” by Pell’s argument since she was “generally aware of the historic practice of highlighting a candidate’s foreign-sounding name as a disadvantage in elections and of placing at issue how a woman’s name should appear on a ballot.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered a woman being smuggled inside an SUV’s gas tank last week at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to court records.

While CBP officers regularly find drugs hidden inside the gas tanks of vehicles, it’s much less common — if not unprecedented — to find a person concealed inside one.

The woman, a Mexican citizen, was discovered when a CBP officer inspecting the SUV “observed a human foot sticking out” of the gas tank, according to a criminal complaint against the driver filed in San Diego federal court. Officers then began taking apart the tank, which was not factory standard, and discovered the woman lying in a puddle of gasoline, appearing disoriented and suffering from apparent chemical burns to her legs and feet; she was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation, treated and quickly released.

The incident occurred around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, and involved a U.S. citizen driving a GMC Yukon that an officer at the port of entry noticed was emitting a strong odor of gasoline, according to the criminal complaint. The driver allegedly acknowledged the smell and said that it had “been like that for a couple days.”

The officer then knocked on the SUV’s gas tank, and believing that it sounded “solid” rather than hollow, requested a dog trained to sniff out drugs and humans, according to the court records. After the dog zeroed in on the underside of the SUV, the driver was detained, and the vehicle was taken to a secondary screening area.

An officer monitoring a vehicle X-ray machine did not detect anything wrong with the vehicle, but another officer doing a physical inspection spotted the woman’s foot, according to the complaint. Officers then removed the SUV’s back seats and carpeting to reveal an access panel that appeared to have been newly welded.

The officers pried open the panel to free the woman, who was unable to get out of the tank on her own, according to the court records. Officers, including a medic, helped her out of the tank and out of her gasoline-soaked clothes, then gave her a “decontamination shower” before an ambulance arrived and took her to a hospital.

In an interview later that night, the woman told officers that she was going to pay $10,000 to be smuggled into the U.S., according to the complaint. She said she’d been instructed where to go and what vehicle to get into.

She told officers that once she’d made her way into the gas tank, she heard someone outside screwing the compartment closed above her and realized that she was trapped inside with no way to get out on her own, according to the court records. She said she used a rag soaked in water and placed over her face to help her breathe because she felt like she would asphyxiate inside the tank.

She also told the officers that as the SUV moved, gasoline was splashing on her and “she felt like she was burning alive,” the court records said. She said the burning feeling on her left leg was so intense that she thought she was going to lose her leg, and she estimated that she was in the tank for about 90 minutes.

The SUV’s driver was arrested on suspicion of human smuggling for financial gain, and according to the complaint, he allegedly admitted to investigators that he knew he was smuggling a person inside the tank and had expected to be paid $5,000.

The driver allegedly told investigators that he’d driven the SUV into Mexico about six days prior, given the vehicle to people he believed were human smugglers and then stayed at a Tijuana-area hotel waiting for the vehicle to be ready, according to the court records. He told investigators that he didn’t know where he was taking the woman but had been instructed to call for instructions after he crossed the border.

The woman from the tank is not facing charges for trying to enter the U.S. but instead is a material witness in the case against the driver, which is typical for human smuggling cases.

The use of compost from human bodies on public parkland has a Central California conservation group facing criticism.

The soil has been used at Sumner Peck Ranch, a 76-acre site north of Fresno overseen by the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust. Its calendar lists events including school field trips and u-pick citrus and blueberry seasons.

The human compost has put the trust at odds with the San Joaquin River Conservancy, a group with which it has partnered in the past.

The conservancy’s chairperson, Kasey Austin-Tibbets, and Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld, who’s on the group’s board, were among officials who held a news conference Thursday, March 5, in Fresno to decry the use of the compost, the Fresno Bee reported.

Bredefeld called the action illegal, without specifying what regulation he believes it violates, and implied it is environmentally harmful.

Sharon Weaver, executive director of the trust that oversees Sumner Peck, told the Bee her group believes the practice and the partnership with Earth Funerals is environmentally beneficial. “It’s very disappointing that they are trying to suggest that we’re doing something harmful to the river,” she said.

Weaver said the compost has been used since last year in a field that is away from the river and from agricultural areas.

The soil material is obtained from Earth Funerals, a company that, as an alternative to burial or cremation, converts human remains into what it calls “a nutrient-rich soil that is ready to be returned to nature.”

Families of clients whose bodies are composted can claim some or all of the resulting soil; what is left is used in the company’s two conservation projects, at the San Joaquin River site and on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

At Thursday’s press conference, Bredefeld implied the practice runs afoul of Assembly Bill 351, under which “natural organic reduction” will become legal and regulated in California in 2027. Earth Funeral’s website states that clients in states where natural organic reduction is not yet a sanctioned option can still legally use the company’s facilities, in Washington and Nevada.

Sumner Peck Ranch was acquired by the River Parkway Trust in 2020. The winemaker Solitary Cellars leases the buildings on the land, which are used for wine-tasting, live music and wedding facilities.

A Eureka motel has been closed after two women were found dead a week apart in the same room, the city’s police said.

The deaths happened Feb. 21 and Feb. 26, said a police news release issued Thursday, March 5. It did not name the motel, but the Eureka Times-Standard identified it as the Lamplighter Inn, on Broadway (Highway 101) at Eureka’s south end, and published a photo of the motel’s rooms cordoned off by red hazard tape.

In each of the two incidents, emergency workers responded to a report of two unconscious people in the room. And in each case, a woman was found dead and her companion was taken to a hospital, the police said.

During the second incident, Humboldt Bay Fire personnel on the scene displayed unspecified signs of carbon monoxide exposure, the police said, and a monitoring device registered elevated levels of that toxic gas. The room did not have a carbon monoxide detector.

The motel was ordered by Eureka’s code enforcement division on Tuesday, March 3, to remain closed until the heating and ventilation systems of all rooms have been inspected and carbon monoxide detectors installed.

The women who died have not been publicly identified; one was 36 and the other 37, the police said. The surviving person in the Feb. 26 incident was reported to be in critical condition when admitted to the hospital.

The emergency calls were initially described as being for suspected drug overdoses, but a police spokesperson told the news site Lost Coast Outpost that there was no evidence in the room supporting that conclusion.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that can be emitted by malfunctioning fuel-burning heaters. Early symptoms of poisoning include headaches, dizziness and nausea.

OAKLAND — A man accused of breaking into Oakland police headquarters Sunday night roamed several floors and stole a police radio before officers found him inside the building and arrested him, authorities said.

The 57-year-old was charged Tuesday with second degree commercial burglary and vandalism, according to court records. Prosecutors say the vandalism charge stems from him allegedly throwing a brick through a glass security door to get inside the building.

Authorities said the man broke the glass door about 7:15 p.m. Sunday at the six-story building in the 600 block of Washington Street, part of the police administration complex that spans Washington Street, Broadway, and Sixth and Seventh streets.

The portion of the building he entered once housed municipal courts and county offices but is now used by several police department units, including the training section.

An officer returning from a homicide scene discovered the break-in, prompting an extensive search of the building.

Before officers found the man on the third floor about 8:20 p.m., he had searched offices on several floors and taken a police radio from one of them, authorities said. Police said he did not know how to use the radio and still had it in his possession when officers arrested him.

Nothing else was reported stolen.

The man declined to give a statement to police, authorities said.

Court records show the man has three prior felony convictions: a 1989 Alameda County case involving transportation of a controlled substance and two Illinois convictions — one in 1991 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and another in 1995 for aggravated battery causing great bodily injury. He served a prison sentence for the firearm conviction and was placed on probation in the other cases.

The burglary was the second break-in at a prominent Oakland government building in two weeks.

Over Presidents Day weekend, a man entered City Hall, took keys to an SUV assigned to Mayor Barbara Lee and drove off with the vehicle from a city garage. The SUV was later recovered in Vallejo and the suspect was arrested and charged.

OAKLAND — A city resident has been arrested and charged with being one half of a local bandit crew that targeted doughnut shops almost exclusively, court records show.

The 20-year-old Oakland man has been charged with four counts of second-degree robbery in connection with store hold-ups that occurred between Dec. 30, 2025, and Jan. 16, court records show. But police say he’s a suspect in six such incidents, including four that occurred on Jan. 16. All but one targeted doughnut shops in San Leandro and Oakland.

He was identified from cellphone records, surveillance footage and victim statements, authorities said. When police came to arrest him last month, he was wearing shoes that looked like those worn by one robber.

Police allege that the man and an uncharged accomplice would typically jump over the shops’ counters and raid the cash registers, or simply grab the cash registers and run. In one robbery of a shop on Market Street in Oakland, the employee “armed herself with a knife and confronted them, prompting both suspects to flee,” but they threw a coffee pot at her and caused $810 in damage during the incident, police said. Later that day, they showed up at a doughnut shop on Broadway, armed themselves with a coffee pot inside the store, and used it to commit a $100 robbery, authorities said.

The 20-year-old man has pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, court records show.

OAKLAND — A city resident has been arrested and charged with being one half of a local bandit crew that targeted donut shops almost exclusively, court records show.

The 20-year-old Oakland man has been charged with four counts of second degree robbery in connection with store hold-ups that occurred between Dec. 30, 2025 and last Jan. 16, court records show. But police say he’s a suspect in six such incidents, including four that occurred on Jan. 16. All but one targeted donut shops in San Leandro and Oakland.

He was identified from cellphone records, surveillance footage, and victim statements, authorities said. When police came to arrest him last month, he was wearing shoes that looked similar to one of the robbers’ outfits.

Police allege that the man and an uncharged accomplice would typically jump over the shops’ counters and raid the cash registers, or simply grab the cash registers and run. In one robbery of a shop on Market Street in Oakland, the employee “employee armed herself with a knife and confronted them, prompting both suspects to flee,” but they threw a coffee pot at her and caused $810 in damage during the incident, police said. Later that day, they showed up at a donut shop on Broadway, armed themselves with a coffee pot inside the store, and used it to commit a $100 robbery, authorities said.

The 20-year-old man has pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, court records show.