April 12, 2010 (Santee) – The City of Santee has amended its social host ordinance after working in partnership with the City Attorney, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and local community groups. Under the new law, party hosts are required to take all reasonable steps to prevent consumption of alcohol by minor and drugs by anyone.

April 7, 2010 (La Mesa) Around 4:40  this morning, two suspects used a vehicle to break into the La Mesa Mailboxes business in the 8200 block of La Mesa Boulevard. Suspects backed up into the business several times with their vehicle and caused major damage. There was no loss,  but the potential target was the automatic teller machine (ATM) inside.

A witness described the suspect vehicle as a white Dodge Ram truck with a gray tailgate and a partial plate of “6U8.” The driver was not identified, but the passenger was described as a white male in his 50s, 5 foot, nine inches tall with a heavy build and wearing a flannel shirt.

$1,000 Reward offered for information leading to arrest

April 1, 2010 (Santee) – San Diego County Crime Stoppers and detectives from the County Sheriff’s Santee Station seek public help to locate Ramon Marruffo. Marruffo has a $50,000 warrant for his arrest for failing to register as a sex offender. Marruffo, who has also used the last name Tercero and a variant last name spelling (Marrufo), has been previously convicted of lewd or lascivious with a child under 14 years old, according to the Megan’s law registry.

“Ramon Marruffo is a potential third striker and could face a 25 years to life sentence in prison if convicted of this offense,” the Sheriff’s release states.

March 28, 2010 – Sokin Roberts, 19, of La Mes has been arrested and charged with burglary and possession of stolen property. Roberts reportedly used a large rock to break a window of a vehicle at 8464 Echo Drive and steal property.

March 25, 2010 (Jamul) – Detectives at the Lemon Grove Sheriff’s substation have determined that the
Alleged kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy in Jamul was a hoax. After detectives noted inconsistencies in his story, the youth ultimately confessed to detectives that he had made up the story after he was caught away from his home after dark.

March 24, 2010 (Jamul) –Sheriff’s detectives are looking for a muscular, tall (6’3-6’5) white man with dragon tattoos on both arms, shaggy brown hair and a beard reaching to mid-chest. He reportedly forced a 12-year-old boy into a pickup truck with screws in tires (racing-type tires) in Jamul around 8 p.m. last night, then later released the victim.

By Miriam Raftery

March 22, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – “Cold case” homicide investigators from the San Diego Sheriff’s homicide detail and the District Attorney’s office today arrested Russell Upton, 36, for the August 1995 murder of his wife, Marilane Abueg.

Upton was arrested in Reno, Nevada. At the time of the crime, the couple lived in Mission Valley. Abueg’s body was discovered August 24, 1995 about eight miles north of Interstate 8 on Kitchen Creek Road in the Pine Valley area. She had been reported as a missing person by her parents on August 20th. A post mortem examination determined the manner of death to be homicide. She was survived by a three-month old son, Christopher Michael.

March 17, 2010 (El Cajon) 5:30 p.m. -- A S.W.A.T. team and K-9 team was dispatched to a Doubletree Hotel  in San Diego this afternoon after a parolee escaped from El Cajon Police. The man broke into a hotel room  and fled from balcony to balcony, armed with a gun. 

The suspect is now in custody, Monica Zech, spokeperson for the City of El Cajon, has informed East County Magazine.

Note: An earlier alert based on a scanner report incorrectly stated that the hotel was in El Cajon. We regret this error.

March 15, 2010 (La Mesa) – A man sitting on the curb outside Wachovia Bank at 5610 Lake Murray Boulevard Friday afternoon waited as a customer withdrew money from the ATM machine, then displayed a handgun and demanded the money. The victim handed over the cash and the suspect fled northbound in traffic lanes of Baltimore Drive.

March 14, 2010 (La Mesa) – Two brothers who robbed a car rental business, then dropped their own car keys as they fled, have been arrested by La Mesa Police.  Officials are now invetigating to determine whether the pair may have been responsible for other commercial break-ins.

March 12, 2010 (Spring Valley) – San Diego Sheriff has issued a warning to the public about a man who has been following a 10-year-old girl to and from Kempton Elementary School in Spring Valley. The most recent incident occurred March 10 in the area of Piedmont Street and Grand Avenue. The first incident occurred on February 22, however the victim delayed reporting it because of fear.

March 10, 2010 (La Mesa) – La Mesa Police has arrested Anthony Long, 19, of El Cajon and two juvenile males from El Cajon and Santee for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The assault occurred on March 6 at Northmont Park in LA Mesa.

The suspects were arrested after search warrants were obtained and searches conducted on three homes in East County. According to the police investigation, two groups of young men got into a phone argument over a girl following a party in El Cajon, then agreed to meet at Northmont Park for a fight.

March 7, 2010 (Escondido) – The county medical examiner’s office has used dental records to positively identify remains found Saturday as those of Amber Dubois, the 14-year-old teenage girl who went missing while walking to Escondido High School on February 13, 2009.   Her disappearance resulted in a massive search over more than a year and made headlines nationally.

Self-defense tactics helped first victim escape; learn how you can fight back if assaulted

March 2, 2010 (Rancho Bernardo) – The search for Chelsea King continues, despite the arrest of John Gardner, a registered sex offender booked on suspicion of rape and murder. Sheriff Bill Gore has said he holds out hope that Chelsea may yet be found alive – and volunteers are needed for daily searches starting at 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the day.