MORGAN HILL (CBS SF) — A man was arrested Wednesday evening in connection with the kidnapping and assault of a handyman in unincorporated Santa Clara County from more than two weeks ago, a Santa Clara County sheriff’s sergeant said.

Richard Rodriguez Jr., 49, whose last known address was in Alameda, turned himself in to Alameda police around 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.

Alameda police will bring Rodriguez to the Santa Clara County sheriff’s office within the next week, Cardoza said.

Rodriguez had an outstanding warrant on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment for his suspected involvement in a Dec. 3 incident where a handyman was forced to do repair work to homes against his will, Cardoza said.

Cardoza said Rodriguez aided two Morgan Hill residents, Jason DeJesus, 36, and Chanelle Troedson, 33, in forcing the 50-year-old repair man to work on the Morgan Hill suspects’ home in the 200 block of Caldwell Way.

On Dec. 3, San Jose police received a report of a kidnapping and assault at about 7 p.m. from the victim, who had managed to escape his captors at a San Jose gas station.

Police handed the investigation over to the sheriff’s office since the kidnapping occurred outside police jurisdiction, Cardoza said.

The victim told deputies he had initially performed handyman services for a relative of one of the suspects about two months ago, but was not paid in full for his work, resulting in a dispute for services rendered, Cardoza said.

The victim said the suspects lured him to their residence to do repair work just before 11 a.m., the sergeant said.

Upon arrival at the residence, the victim was assaulted, held against his will and threatened with his life for several hours, Cardoza said.

The victim was still at the residence on Caldwell Way at 5:30 p.m. when the suspects forced the victim into a truck.

The victim was told he would be made to finish the repair work that he began two months ago at the suspect’s relative’s house in Santa Clara.

On the way to the home, the suspects stopped at the Chevron gas station at the intersection of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Cottle Road in San Jose to purchase gas.

When the suspects exited the vehicle to purchase gas and food, the victim escaped on foot, disregarding a warning by the suspects to stay put, Cardoza said.

The victim ran to a nearby residence to report the incident, he said.

San Jose police responded to the area, located the DeJesus and Troedson near the gas station and arrested them on suspicion of false imprisonment, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and conspiracy.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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A San Francisco man camped across the street from a school displaying signs offering “free fentanyl for new users,” and a previous pedophile conviction has been arrested after attempting to dodge city efforts to move him on.

San Francisco police officers told Joseph Adam Moore to leave Ninth Avenue and Geary Boulevard by 12:15 p.m. Friday. Moore, 46, had already taken down his free fentanyl sign but refused to move. He has lived opposite the Stella Maris Academy K-8 Catholic school for the best part of two years.

“Go f*ck yourself,” Moore told police after 11 a.m. “You’re a corrupt piece of shit.”

Officers on the scene said they have been responding to Moore’s encampment two to three times daily since Moore erected signs soliciting drugs outside his encampment.

If Moore refused to remove his belongings by 12:15 p.m., police would cite him as a nuisance under PC 370, a misdemeanor, and release him at the scene, according to Lt. Wayman Young.

RELATED: San Francisco Homeless Man Camped Outside a School With ‘Free Fentanyl’ Sign Is Convicted Pedophile

Joseph Adam Moore moves his belongings from the sidewalk to an outdoor planter on the other side of the sidewalk to evade city efforts to move him on. | Source: Garrett Leahy/ The Standard

Minutes before the Department of Public Works was set to swoop in and remove Moore’s belongings, he moved them a few feet away and evaded city efforts to get him away from the school.

But police then arrested Moore in relation to a pending probation violation, Young said.

Richmond police station’s Captain Chris Canning said Moore is on probation for violating a stay-away order. The order was issued last year after Moore created a nuisance by camping behind a San Francisco firehouse, Capt. Canning said.

Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the area, thanked Capt. Canning for his help removing Moore from the area.

“Captain Canning and his team organized an undercover operation to investigate the individual posting the signs,” said Chan in a statement. “Officers engaged with the individual and encouraged the removal of the signs and the structure.”

The area has since been power washed and cleaned of any obstructions, Chan said.

READ MORE: San Francisco Homeless Encampments: Tensions Boil Over on One of City’s Busiest Streets

Signs reading “Meth for stolen items” and “free fentanyl 4 new users” sit atop Joseph Adam Moore’s encampment on Ninth Avenue north of Geary Boulevard in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood. | Source: George Kelly/The Standard

Moore previously told The Standard he was serious about giving free drugs away as his signs said, but said he was not a user himself.

After his arrest, Moore’s belongings were bagged up and removed by DPW workers.

A DPW worker puts Joseph Adam Moore’s belongings into a black plastic bag to be stored by the city—including the “meth for stolen items” sign. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The StandardPolice tell Joseph Adam Moore he has until 12:15 p.m. to remove his belongings from Ninth Avenue near Geary Boulevard. | Garrett Leahy/The Standard | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“Our goal was to get the signs down and to maintain the safety of the children and the neighborhood, and that seems to have been accomplished,” Peter Marlow, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said. “We’re working with the police to see that any laws affecting that are carried out.”

Moore and police officers told The Standard Friday morning that Moore had been punched by a concerned parent of a student at the academy. No further details were released by police when contacted for comment.

Convicted Pedophile

Joseph Adam Moore stands beside his encampment on Ninth Avenue north of Geary Boulevard in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood. | Source: George Kelly/The Standard

California’s Megan’s Law website lists Moore as a San Francisco transient convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age in 1997 and released in 2002. San Francisco Superior Court documents show Moore has been arrested five times in the city since 2007 for allegedly failing to re-register his address as a sex offender every 30 days. 

A Santa Cruz Sentinel article from 1997 reports Moore was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl in Santa Clara County before being released from custody and then having sex with a 15-year-old in Santa Cruz behind a set of bathrooms on Seabright Beach.

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I was eating tandoori chicken at Shalimar Restaurant in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco on a school night when I received a call from my aunt, Yasmeen, who said my parents had been arrested.

Earlier in the morning, a dozen armed FBI agents had raided our home in Fremont, California; dragged my parents out of bed; handcuffed them while they were in their pajamas; and drove them to the county jail in Oakland. There was even a helicopter circling our house. My father later described it as being treated like a captured drug kingpin.

This piece is excerpted from Ali’s recent book.

My grandmothers were there, and begged the FBI agents in their broken English to at least explain why they were being taken. They didn’t receive an answer. My aunt deemed it best if I, the only child, drove down and figured out what the hell was happening.

It was April 2002 and I was about to graduate from UC Berkeley and head to law school. My biggest decision was choosing between UC Davis and UC Hastings. My “model minority” narrative and sheltered life, disrupted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks a few months prior, had been permanently reconfigured.

My parents had been caught up in Operation Cyberstorm, which at the time was the largest anti-​piracy sweep in the FBI’s history. Robert Mueller, then the director of the FBI, even came out to San Jose for a press conference. It was a two-​year undercover operation with more than two dozen arrests. The majority of the people arrested were alleged to be part of a highly organized criminal conspiracy involving the sale and distribution of counterfeit and infringing software.

My parents, who had owned a software-resale business, had nothing to do with the piracy ring itself. Instead, they were charged with 30 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in what authorities described as a scheme to defraud Microsoft of millions of dollars by obtaining discounted academic software under false pretenses.

Read: When crime is a family affair

Microsoft initially alleged that it lost as much as $100 million, and the local newspaper ran with that number. Overnight, everyone heard that my parents had been scooped up in a massive anti-​piracy raid. Their faces were plastered on the FBI website for days, and people assumed I was somehow sitting on $100 million stashed away in domestic and foreign accounts.

Oh, how I wish it were true. I really could have used that money in the weeks and months that followed.

I have no desire to relitigate my parents’ case or clear their name. That’s their story, if they choose to tell it. My take on it after all these years is that my parents made dumb and questionable business decisions, but I sincerely don’t think they were Walter White from Breaking Bad, deliberately orchestrating a criminal plot. My parents, two Pakistani American immigrants who had a beef with Microsoft, spent nearly five years in jail, but the Wall Street architects of the 2008 financial crisis that ruined so many Americans mostly got wealthier and failed upward in life.

The day after their arrest, my father was able to call me from jail. “Did you do anything shady or criminal?” I asked him. “If you did, just let me know. I have to know what I’m dealing with.” Just because they were my parents didn’t mean I was going to bury my head in the sand and make excuses for alleged criminal acts.

He assured me that he had consulted with attorneys and believed everything they had done was legit. My mother eventually called, and I asked her the same. She was just as shocked as my dad to see their names on the indictment. In hindsight, my parents should have settled the case and taken a deal. But my parents believed they were being unfairly targeted by Microsoft, and didn’t want to plead guilty to something they felt was legal.

My father told me to call and retain Chris Cannon, a lawyer whom my father had hired before and, it turned out, had read about the arrests in the newspaper. I asked Cannon if he thought my parents were innocent. He said my father was a good man but reminded him of many of his other clients, who were “aggressive businessmen,” and “that gets them into trouble sometimes.” He also asked me to send him $5,000 so he could get started on the defense.

Where would I get $5,000? How long would this last? When would my parents be released? Who was going to take care of the house, the bills, the office? By then, my parents had used the proceeds of their software-resale business to launch a dietary-supplement company. Who would pay the salaries of its employees? How was I going to study and take my upcoming finals? What about law school in the fall?

I was a 21-​year-​old who was supposed to focus on my education. Instead I was in Fremont, taking care of my grandmothers and trying to pay all the bills, retain and maintain legal counsel for my parents, and raise money for their bail.

The Monday morning after my parents’ arrest, I went to their office, called the six employees of the dietary-supplement business, and told them to return to work if they were comfortable doing so. I spent the next two weeks trying to learn how to run every aspect of the business.

Read: What incarceration costs American families

Behind the office was a warehouse that received all the goods, which were mostly vitamins and health supplements, and we packed and shipped them to our customers. After my co-workers left, I would stay behind and pack some boxes as a stress-​relieving activity. I called all the existing vendors and told them I was temporarily filling in for my parents and would be their new contact. I had to find a way to maintain the payroll for everyone, including the employees in Karachi, Pakistan, who were doing all the technical work on the back end. Every employee knew that my parents had been arrested but the business was still running, so most decided to stay on.

Thankfully, my parents had previously added me to their bank account. I could access the money, except we only had enough to last us about three months. While at the office, I had to field multiple panicked phone calls throughout the day. My father would call, and I’d have to calm him down, get information and instructions from him about finances, the business, and his lawyer, and relay information to him, and as soon as I had spent 30 minutes doing that, my mother would call and I’d have to repeat the process. I also had to calm my mother’s family in Pakistan, who were, naturally, terrified about their daughter being stuck in prison. I also had to take care of my two elderly grandmothers at home.

It was the only time in my life I wished I had siblings, so I could outsource some of the work and be more efficient.

As we lost everything, I felt a sense of comfort in realizing that I didn’t miss any of it. What punctured me instead was how so many lifelong friends and community members simply abandoned us overnight, and how some were outright gleeful at our misery. Someone brought several copies of the newspaper article announcing my parents’ arrest and placed them at every mosque in Fremont and Milpitas. An old family friend at the local mosque on Fremont Boulevard came early to Friday prayers and saw them outside. He was kind enough to throw them away before the congregation came.

The collateral damage of the 9/11 attacks loomed large, reaching all the way to the Bay Area. There was a chilling effect on Muslims, especially those from Black and brown communities. Rumors spread that the FBI had parked cars outside our home and were taking down license-plate numbers and following anyone who visited us. At a pretrial hearing, the government’s attorney seized on the anti-​Muslim hysteria of the moment and tried to get bail denied by mentioning that the FBI had found “documents in Arabic” in our home. Thankfully, the judge cut him off. Some of those documents were Islamic prayers from the Quran; others were religious texts in Urdu, a language entirely separate from Arabic.

Because the government had claimed our properties, I was unable to post bail for my parents. Initially, only two close family friends—whom I knew as Shaheen Aunty and Syed Uncle—were willing to step up and risk their property as collateral for my parents’ bond. They were the exception. I heard that others were whispering about my parents: “They’re just going to flee to Pakistan. Don’t help.” I tried telling people that my parents had gone to Pakistan and come back several times. They had a home, a family, and a community here, and they were willing to fight this case for years if necessary. Still, perceptions make truth, and those were heavily skewed against my parents.

Many times, I thought I’d persuaded a family member or friend to offer property as bond collateral, and then they’d balk the day before the hearing. I had to tell my parents the horrible news and listen to them deflate over the phone.

Read: Why children with parents in prison are especially burdened

One of my grandmothers and my aunt Yasmeen spent their time going through every single contact they had, calling and asking for help. They were like stockbrokers or sports agents trying to represent a hopeless investment. Working the phones was ​an utterly humiliating exercise; I sensed that some people who took my calls were simply trying to acquire gossip or indulge their appetite for drama. But desperate times called for masochistic measures.

We were running dry, and even though some family and friends loaned and gave us money, it wasn’t enough to cover the mounting expenses and debt. I extended my line of credit and assumed that the business would somehow survive and I’d be able to pay it off, but I went from having no debt to owing $50,000.

To have some cash on hand, I sold as many of our goods as I could in weekly garage sales. I also had an impressive collection of laser discs and CDs that I was able to sell on Craigslist and eBay. (My childhood wasted on movies came in handy for once!) For our first garage sale, everything we had to offer we showcased outside on the driveway, in the garage, and even inside the house. Almost everything was for sale. If someone had offered me money for a used bar of soap in the kitchen, I would have said, “Thank you! Here’s your soap, and come again!” I made posters and put them on street signs, telephone poles, and trees.

A crisis also invites people, especially strangers, to be kind and forgiving. A few weeks after my parents were arrested, an acquaintance who attended our family’s religious events got up in the middle of the night and blurted out, “We have to help them.” She woke up her husband, and told him she’d had a dream that inspired her to help our family. Coincidentally, he told her he had just had a similar dream. Over the years, they offered comfort, food, prayers, and a kind shoulder. They weren’t the only ones. After overcoming their initial hesitation and fear, some family and friends stepped up. A few community members, Muslims we had never met, offered to help just out of sympathy, or perhaps pity.

Every little piece of support helped me find a way to get my parents out of jail. My mother’s eldest brother, Masood Mamoo, asked a wealthy friend from college to put up a property as collateral for bond. Based on my uncle’s word, a random man whom I’d never met came through. My uncle Shahed—who is actually my father’s first cousin—was successful in real estate at the time, and he put up a property as well. We were able to eventually rally family members and a couple of family friends as signatories who vouched for my parents, and all of that was finally enough for the judge to grant them bail. I posted the bond nearly a year after my parents’ arrest.

My parents were able to leave prison and breathe freely. For several weeks, they lived in a halfway house in Oakland. I drove there every day to pick them up and then dropped them off before curfew in the evening. They had to reenter a life that had been completely shattered.

Throughout my 20s, the sword of Damocles hung over our heads. At any moment my parents could lose their appeal and immediately be whisked to jail for several years, and I would be stuck, again, taking care of their mess. My mom says she still tells everyone, “Wajahat is our Rock of Gibraltar.” At some moments over the years, my parents have been apologetic. It’s clear they have understood that our family’s experience harmed me. Yet, to my eyes, they remained incapable of recognizing the immense, oppressive weight of it all—the heavy burden of carrying the Ali baggage. Often, the most important words we need to hear remain unspoken.

This piece is excerpted from Wajahat Ali’s recent book, Go Back to Where You Came from: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American.

​​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

Go Back To Where You Came From – And Other Helpful Recommendations On How To Become American

By Wajahat Ali

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man has been arrested for allegedly knocking a parishioner unconscious inside a San Francisco Catholic church and throwing pipe bombs at a patrol car during a car chase, authorities said Monday.

The 42-year-old Concord man was arrested Sunday by California Highway Patrol officers in Martinez, east of San Francisco, following a 30-minute pursuit, San Francisco Assistant Police Chief David Lazar said.

The suspect was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, unlawful possession of an explosive device and other crimes.

Police were called after the man punched a parishioner in the head during mass at the Saints Peter and Paul Church in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, temporarily knocking him out, Lazar said.

Peter Marlow, spokesperson for the San Francisco Archdiocese, told KTVU-TV, that the man assaulted the parishioner Sunday evening after being reprimanded for failing to eat the consecrated host at Communion.

The man pulled a knife as he left the church and led officers who had responded to 911 calls on a car chase through city streets, Lazar alleged.

A few blocks from the church, the fleeing driver threw a pipe bomb at officers who “saw the flames and could feel when the bomb detonated,” and he threw a second, larger bomb before crossing the Bay Bridge, Lazar alleged.

The officers weren’t injured.

CHP officers who took over the pursuit from San Francisco police arrested the man after he crashed his car, authorities said.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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After 15 Years, Settlement Arrested at San Francisco’s Millennium Tower | Engineering News-Record

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Photos: San Carlos Sting Operation

About CSLB: CSLB operates under the umbrella of the Department of Consumer Affairs and licenses and regulates about 285,000 contractors in California.
Source: CSLB

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Police arrested a man in South San Francisco on suspicion of murder, after an early morning domestic violence incident on Monday.

At 3:05 a.m. officers responded to a call about an unresponsive female at a residence on the 3000 block of Brunswick Court.

The 28-year-old female victim was found deceased from what police said was an isolated domestic violence related incident.

The suspect, 35-year-old Eduar Pajoy-Delgado, was arrested booked into the San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of murder.

Police said, although an arrest was made, anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the South San Francisco Police Department at (650) 877-8900 or via email at tips@ssf.net.

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A man accused of three felonies while robbing a liquor store in South San Francisco was arrested Wednesday, June 7, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Gerardo Alvarez, 18, allegedly walked into Sunshine Liquors and took several packs of hard lemonade and White Claws and walked out of the store without paying. He was confronted outside the store and Alvarez allegedly threw two cans at the victims, hitting one of them.

Two other clerks chased after Alvarez who allegedly punched one of the clerks twice before fleeing. An hour later, Alvarez allegedly returned to the liquor store and asked the clerk why he didn’t just let him leave with the liquor. Alvarez allegedly threatened to kill the victim and pulled out what appeared to be a black handgun. When police located Alvarez, he had a black BB gun and a 10-inch knife with a 5-inch blade, according to the DA’s Office.

Alvarez appeared in court Friday, June 9, and pleaded not guilty to robbery, felony threats and felony possession of a dagger. He remains in custody and his bail is set at $50,000. His next court appearance is set for June 23 for preliminary hearing.

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Daphne Longsword

A South San Francisco woman who was employed as a baking teacher at the county’s Maple Street Jail was arrested Tuesday, June 6, for bringing drugs with her.

The woman, Dafne Araceli Largaespada, 41, was hired to teach nonviolent inmates to hone their cooking skills to improve their chances of getting a job after release, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

The drugs were discovered by an alerted correctional officer, but her actions and how she brought them into the country are part of an investigation and cannot be released, according to the sheriff’s office.

Anyone who may have information regarding this case is asked to contact the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. If you wish to remain anonymous, use the anonymous tipping hotline at (800) 547-2700.

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RANDOLPH, Arizona. – MPs say it was a suspect arrested in connection with a hit-and-run accident that killed one man near Coolidge.

The Pinal County According to the sheriff’s office, on March 29, officers were responding to reports of an injured man lying by the side of the road in Randolph, near Bateman Street and Hudson Road.

At the scene, officers found the victim, 85-year-old Melvin Moore. He was taken to a hospital where he later died.

Investigators said they learned that Moore had recently hired 20-year-old Ricky Gibson to do odd jobs for him. When Moore found out that a motorized bicycle had been stolen from him, he suspected that Gibson had stolen it. Moore’s pickup truck was also missing from his property. It was later found abandoned near the scene of the accident.

Ricky Gibson (Pinal County Sheriff’s Office)

Detectives followed Gibson to a nearby house. While investigators conducted surveillance, Gibson and several others attempted to escape.

Gibson and one other person were arrested. During questioning, the other person reportedly told officers that Gibson admitted to him that he ran over Moore in his truck after Moore confronted him about the stolen bike.

“Gibson grabbed Moore, got into Moore’s truck and ran him over,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post.

Gibson was arrested and put in jail. He is charged with first-degree murder and is being held on $1,000,000 bail.

Area where the hit-and-run occurred:

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