Inland Valley

A 27-year-old Pomona woman pleaded guilty Friday and was immediately sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison for a drunken driving, hit-and-run crash in Anaheim that killed three men.

Cynthia Lizbeth Ayala accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian. She could have faced up to 21 years and eight months in prison if convicted at trial.

Ayala killed 32-year-old Jacob Rolon of La Mirada, 36-year-old Richard Zuniga of Anaheim and 63-year-old Alexander Smiller of Los Angeles in a May 4, 2021 crash at Brookhurst Street and Orange Avenue.

Officers responded to the crash at about 2:50 a.m. and found a white Mercedes-Benz sedan abandoned and a black Kia with the three victims inside, all of whom were pronounced dead at the scene, Anaheim Police Department Sgt. Shane Carringer said in May.

Witnesses saw two women in their 20s get out of the Mercedes-Benz and into another vehicle, Carringer said. The women later went to an area hospital, where one was treated for minor injuries and the other was more seriously hurt and required surgery, Carringer said.

The criminal complaint said Ayala’s blood-alcohol level was at .218.

The Mercedes-Benz was moving northbound on Brookhurst Street when it slammed into the Kia, which was exiting the parking lot of a hookah lounge, Carringer said. The Mercedes-Benz caught fire, but it was a small blaze that an officer on scene extinguished.

Ayala pleaded guilty to three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and single counts each of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08% causing injury and hit and run with permanent and serious injury, all felonies.

Ayala also admitted sentencing enhancements for fleeing the scene after committing vehicular manslaughter.

 

The suspect of a stolen vehicle pursuit died after the driver sped in opposing traffic lanes, swerved around traffic and eventually crashed into another vehicle in Moreno Valley on Friday, April 8, authorities said.

Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies from the Moreno Valley sheriff’s station said they picked up the pursuit of a stolen Nissan Sentra that began in Menifee in the early afternoon.

As the Nissan neared the intersection of Perris Boulevard and John F. Kennedy Avenue, it sideswiped another vehicle while “recklessly swerving in and out of traffic and passing in between vehicles,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

A spike strip was deployed but the driver was able to continue northbound on Perris Boulevard.

 

Moreno Valley resident Brad Harvell said he was driving south on Perris Boulevard at Iris Avenue when he saw sheriff’s deputies in patrol cars and a helicopter following a car headed north in the southbound lane.

The car was being driven “at a high rate of speed” and the deputies were following slower than that, Harvell said.

The Nissan entered the intersection with Cactus Avenue against a red signal light and struck the passenger side of a gray Toyota Tundra that was traveling eastbound on Cactus Avenue. Both vehicles careened into a cinderblock wall located at the northeast corner of the intersection, the news release said.

The truck’s driver and passenger suffered injuries and were taken to a hospital.

The suspect driver, the sole occupant of the Nissan, had major injuries and was declared dead at the scene, authorities said. His identity was not available and was pending notification of his family.

A Rialto driver who killed three people during a high-speed crash in Irvine has been sentenced to 30-years-to-life in prison after admitting to causing the DUI-fueled, two-car collision not far from the UC Irvine campus.

Jeremy Wayne Greenwood pleaded guilty last week to three second-degree murder counts, as well as a pair of DUI charges, and admitted to a sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily injury in connection with the July 1, 2017 crash on Harvard Avenue at Michelson Drive.

Greenwood, now 35, was accused of driving his 2015 Infiniti Q50 while intoxicated around 3 a.m. on Harvard at approximately 85 miles per hour. He ran a red light, prosecutors alleged, and struck a 2014 Hyundai Elantra that was traveling westbound on Michelson through the intersection on a green light.

The force of the collision caused the Elantra to spin out and go over a sidewalk. Kasean Herrera, the 23-year-old driver of the Elantra, and his passenger, 24-year-old Jeremy Shankling, died at the scene. A second passenger, 20-year-old London Thibodeaux, died at a hospital several days later, while another passenger, a 20-year-old woman, suffered a traumatic brain injury and underwent multiple surgeries.

Witnesses pulled Greenwood from his car and he was taken to a hospital in critical condition. After a five-month investigation, Irvine detectives arrested Greenwood.

Greenwood’s past DUI conviction in Los Angeles – when he was explicitly warned of the dangers of driving drunk and the possible penalty should he be involved in a fatal DUI crash – allowed Orange County prosecutors to file second-degree murder charges against him rather than lesser charges of vehicular manslaughter. Had he been convicted at trial, Greenwood could have faced up to 51-years-to-life behind bars.

Orange County District Attorney Spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said the plea deal Greenwood accepted was negotiated between the prosecution and defense. Family members of the victims supported the deal, Edds said, since it brought finality to the case without going through a court trial or potential appeals process.

Herrera and Shankling were close friends and UC Irvine graduates who were working as software engineers at the time of the crash. Thibodeaux and the woman who survived the crash were UCI students at the time.

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Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, April 6 edition of the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter from reporter Kyle Goon. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

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PHOENIX — No more marathons. No more turnarounds. No more proving the doubters wrong.

LeBron James came after critics of the Lakers’ offseason moves last August in a since-deleted tweet: “Keep talking about my squad, our personnel ages, the way he plays, he stays injured, we’re past our time in this league, etc etc etc. Do me one favor PLEASE!!!! And I mean PLEASE!!! Keep that same narrative ENERGY when it begins!”

It turns out the critics were right. The Lakers were too old. They were too injured. Some of them were past their time. Some playing styles didn’t fit together. And throughout a season that was miserable to watch, they maintained the same energy – promising an improvement that never came.

The season officially ended on Tuesday night when the Lakers were knocked out of postseason contention by the Phoenix Suns, but it’s been trending this way for a while. Here are four big issues that the Lakers need to contend with for a brighter 2022-23 campaign.

1. Frank Vogel’s future

A year-and-a-half ago, Frank Vogel was sitting atop the NBA coaching world, celebrating a championship with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss. Wearing a title cap and a T-shirt soaked in champagne, Vogel gushed over his roster, their performance throughout a regular-season push to the top seed and a playoff run in which they never lost consecutive games. Their commitment to defense, he said, was paramount.

“You can have a talented team, even a defensive talented team, but if everybody’s not working together, if everybody’s not bought in and seeing the value of being able to suffocate an opponent and taking away their strength, you’re not gonna reach that level,” he said. “But our guys saw the value very early on.”

Vogel had no way of knowing that comment, delivered in the throes of victory, would also be an axiom that predicted his downturn. Whereas the championship group was a mixture of defensive-minded veterans who were attentive to game plans, the 2021-22 roster never found that rhythm – whether due to inattention or inability. Vogel wound up toggling through his scheme, zone schemes and switching schemes in an effort to find defensive answers that never materialized.

So from a 52-19 season to this year’s disappointing campaign, Vogel finds himself at the helm of a roster that will almost certainly be remixed again for next season and going into the final year of his contract. He has known since last summer that he was going to be on the hot seat when he only received a one-year extension, and nothing that has happened this season has bolstered his tenuous standing within the organization.

Between the lukewarm extension and the underwhelming roster, there’s a strong case that the front office undercut Vogel by sapping both his authority and giving him a roster that didn’t fit his coaching strengths. But Vogel and his staff also struggled to find buy-in, especially from Russell Westbrook, and the fact that he never settled on a set rotation or even starting lineup mostly falls on him. Injuries and not enough talent played a significant role, but it’s hard to argue that coaching coaxed the best out of the group, either, especially considering the poor performances in close games (18-22 in “clutch” situations).

Davis perhaps unintentionally burned his head coach by referencing the 39 different starting lineups the Lakers fielded this season: “This year, we had more starting lineups than wins.”

It’s fascinating that though Vogel has hinted that the roster was not enough to get the job done over the course of the season, he’s largely declined to call anyone out by name. When the Lakers were eliminated, he said he was disappointed for the fanbase and the Buss family, which seems generous if you believe the franchise dealt him a bad hand.

“We’ll meet with the front office, our players and the coaching staff and just kind of see what’s best for our group,” Vogel said of the final three games. “But finish out the season with pride, and like I said, bring an integrity to our process.”

It’s hard to see anything but a parting of ways between Vogel and the Lakers, and maybe that will be necessary given the strife of this campaign. Two names have circulated in media reports for the last few weeks, including Utah’s Quin Snyder and Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers – and given that both have jobs on playoff-bound teams, it’s hard to know whether they could be real candidates or are merely being kicked around by the NBA’s inner sanctum as possibilities.

It’s worth remembering that Vogel came to the organization when they struck out on other candidates, put on a brave face during his introductory press conference amid Magic Johnson-led drama, and helped right the LeBron James era into a season that the Lakers will treasure forever.

In the long view, it was hard to ask anything more of Vogel, who will still finish his three seasons with a winning record, a championship ring and more professionalism than you might expect.

2. Unsavory options with Russell Westbrook

The Lakers have an inherent roster problem: They have a player for whom they gave up good talent and draft compensation, who is likely to opt in to a $47 million contract next season. But his fit among his star teammates is highly questionable at best and downright awful at worst. Moreover, every team in the league knows this, and most aren’t interested in taking him off the Lakers’ hands.

What can be done about Russell Westbrook? Is it better to trade him for parts, to give it another run and hope for better health, or to simply tell him to collect his checks at home?

Surely, many fans have strong inclinations for which strategy they prefer, but the answer is not obvious. There are bound to be lots of behind-the-scenes discussions between Westbrook, his family, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rob Pelinka and other power brokers as to what the acceptable outcome is. It’s easy to see Westbrook needing to move on from L.A., especially after a season in which he bristled at being booed and jeered in his hometown. The Lakers are Westbrook’s fourth franchise in as many years, and the disappointment of the season was compounded in part because Westbrook and the Lakers anticipated such a joyous homecoming for a native son.

But where does he go?

There are only a few possible deals that have been widely reported. John Wall has a nearly identical contract to Westbrook’s, and he did not play at all for the Houston Rockets this season. Multiple outlets have reported that the Lakers and Rockets disagreed on draft compensation in a potential deal, and Wall has played only 72 games over the last four seasons – does he raise the Lakers’ bar? For a while, a New York Knicks trade involving Westbrook, Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier and other filler was floating around; Marc Stein reported last month that New York isn’t very interested in a Westbrook deal. While one should never say “never” in the NBA trade machine, the trade prospects for a player of Westbrook’s contract and unsatisfying production are slim at the moment.

Let’s also kill the idea of a waive-and-stretch: This very season, the Lakers finally paid Luol Deng the last of his $5 million installments, and he hasn’t played for the team since 2018. Do you think they want to use nearly $15 million of their salary cap for the next three years when they’re already paying James and Davis max-level contracts? It would kill their ability to build competitive rosters for years to come in Davis’ prime. If the Lakers do eat Westbrook’s contract, it’s best to do it all in one bite.

Which leads us back into a circle: If the Lakers are destined to pay Westbrook $47 million next season, is he better on their team or off of it? Is there some kind of value still to be extracted from his play on the court, especially if he has a new coach and another year to figure out how he might play with James and Davis in a more supporting role than a starring one?

It might sound crazy given that the Lakers’ nosedive corresponds with their deal for Westbrook and how toxic his relationship with his own home fans seems to be at the moment. The human element will be the guiding force for how the Lakers wind up handling a very unpleasant situation – and perhaps even hope that there’s still a chance to pull something positive out of it. Westbrook said Tuesday, somewhat surprisingly, that’s what he wants.

“Yes, we want to be able to see what that looks like, what that entails over the course of an 82-game season,” he said. “But we’re not sure if that’s guaranteed, neither. So I just hope that we have a chance to be able to do something.”

But the one thing Westbrook will have to do if he wants a future in Los Angeles is something he hasn’t done in the last four years: evolve his game. He cannot be a ball-dominant player on an actual contender anymore – it’s been done, and it’s failed. He needs to find ways to shoot and defend consistently enough to stay on the court with the other stars.

It’s unclear if Westbrook has learned that lesson, though. When asked what he learned about himself, he replied, “No matter what’s happened and thrown my way, I can always prevail and get through it.” That might mean something to Westbrook personally, but that doesn’t ring of accountability for this season’s failures.

3. Beyond 2023 for LeBron James

It’s strange that we’re already here, but LeBron James is entering the last year of his deal with the Lakers, cashing in for $44.4 million next season. While the Lakers didn’t win the way James’ teams have in the past, from an individual perspective he was still an All-NBA-caliber player as one of the league’s top scorers.

On the other hand, James’ health has been an issue in three of the last four seasons. He hasn’t played more than 67 games in any of his Lakers’ seasons, and he’s played only two-thirds of the possible games in the two seasons since the 2020 championship. Beyond the decline of age (which despite James’ superhuman efforts, he will eventually succumb to), it’s reasonable to start weighing the production and prestige of a player like James against his ability to be on the court at critical moments.

An important note here: It’s nearly impossible to overstate the importance of James, even now. He gave the Lakers their biggest free agent splash in years, helped engineer the Davis trade that vaulted them to a championship, and to this day remains the most popular and notable NBA player – and it’s not close. There are going to be milestones ahead that will have national relevance, such as surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the league’s all-time leading scorer, and having him in purple and gold for that moment would be extremely meaningful for the franchise. Even though James and the Lakers had their dust-ups around the trade deadline, he still maintains a great deal of influence within the organization that might be tough to replicate elsewhere even if he wanted to leave (which he probably doesn’t).

Trading him is technically an option, but it’s not realistic. The current management of the Lakers would never be able to live down the reputation of being the Front Office That Traded LeBron. Let’s stop talking about it.

The discussion really is whether LeBron will retire as a Laker? And if so, how much will that cost? James isn’t typically one to take a discount, and his production (when healthy) certainly justifies him being a max contract player. But is he a max contract player at 39? 40? 41? How can the Lakers continue to have James on their payroll, but also build a competent contender?

It’s probably best for the Lakers and James (and Klutch Sports) to figure out a happy medium that secures a future for James through 2024 or 2025, but keeps the franchise’s cap sheet flexible enough for those seasons. It would be better for the Lakers to get it done later this summer to avoid the rumor mill in spring 2023 that James could find a greener pasture. It’s worth remembering James has often allowed his own front office to sweat without contract extensions as leverage, too, and maybe he views going into 2022-23 as a potential free agent as giving him some sway back in big-picture decisions.

James said in February: “I see myself being with the purple and gold as long as I can play.” Let’s see if both sides can prove him right.

4. The role players to get (and not to get)

Last offseason, the Lakers embraced experience and personality fit over basketball alignment in an effort to recreate the chemistry of their title team. It didn’t work. Too many of those parts were already busted (DeAndre Jordan, Trevor Ariza, Rajon Rondo) or simply not as good as advertised (Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore). There were a fair number of former Lakers who came back, but the only one who actually played was Dwight Howard, and there were plenty of nights when even he didn’t have his fastball.

The role players who did work out, at least a little: Malik Monk, who might be moving on; Austin Reaves, who hit a rookie wall but is under contract for one more year; Carmelo Anthony, who defied Father Time. To an extent, Stanley Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel and Avery Bradley helped out, but they had their own uneven stretches.

The overall weaknesses of the supporting cast helped the Lakers finish in the bottom 10 in the league in offensive rating, defensive rating, turnover percentage and rebounding rate. The team underperformed in just about any meaningful metric, and over and over again, the coaching staff hinted that what it lacked was players willing to do “dirty work.”

The formula these Lakers hit on (when they did compete) was moving fast, playing with energy and verve even if they lacked shooting and bulk. They scrapped, they switched, they had an underdog edge. While James lamented after a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans that the less-experienced Lakers couldn’t understand high-leverage situations, he had to acknowledge in the same breath that the veterans weren’t able to play their way on to the court.

First, the Lakers need to make a critical identity shift: Anthony Davis is a center. He might be a center who can occasionally stretch the floor (though his 18.6% shooting from 3-point range this season challenges that assertion), but he is a five. Two-big lineups don’t shoot enough to create space for him and James to operate at their best. Hedging by piling up backup centers is a failing proposition.

Around James and Davis, the Lakers need aggressive, energetic role players who are willing to defend, cut and space the floor. The sad part is they’ve already traded a bunch of these players away: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso. Talen Horton-Tucker might one day be helpful, but he wasn’t helpful enough this season. He needs to become a better shooter and defender to justify the organization’s investment in him.

Critically, the Lakers need to start living in the present: They can’t look for tightly woven storylines, like old Lakers returning to roost. They have to look for competent players who still have something to give. Patty Mills, for example, is the kind of miss the Lakers had this summer that they could have used.

Not every signing needs to be a home run; the Lakers need to start hitting singles and doubles in the free-agent market. They simply can’t afford to strike out, especially on a team that will likely be populated with minimum contracts and hard sells. They need more Malik Monks. But after the season they’ve had, it might be even harder to find affordable players who make a difference willing to entertain L.A.’s dysfunction.

*****

Not many of these calls are easy ones. It will require dexterity and diligence from a front office that has been lacking the last two offseasons.

But the hole has been dug. The only way to get out of it is to climb, one foot in front of the other.

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Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter from reporter Kyle Goon. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

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Scott McLaughlin won the NTT IndyCar Rookie of the Year award in 2021, a year after having won his third consecutive Australian Supercars series title.

Big deal, one might say. After all, the runner-up – former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean – did 13 of the 16 races while McLaughlin did them all.

Still, it is, in a way, a cool accolade because McLaughlin went from driving touring cars to open-wheel cars. He is also the first from Team Penske to win the award.

“I guess the Supercar really doesn’t rely too much on the aerodynamics, where the Indy car does,” McLaughlin said, when asked about the adjustments he had to make. “So it took me a good year or so to really trust the aerodynamic forces of the car and the power that it actually has on car set-up, and your confidence level and what it can help with.”

One year, indeed. McLaughlin finished 14th in IndyCar points in 2021, with one podium – he was second at the EXPEL 375 in Texas – and five top 10 finishes highlighting his rookie campaign.

Don’t look now, but the second-year man is off to a hot start this season. He won at St. Pete in the season opener and was second at the XPEL 375, giving him a series-leading 97 points heading into this Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach main event.

Official practices are Friday and qualifying is Saturday on the streets of Long Beach.

One could say McLaughlin is pleased with the start to 2022.

“Not winning Texas was probably the biggest blip on the radar, and it’s awesome,” he said. “If we were upset about a second place, it’s a good thing. But it’s a great start. We need to keep the consistency.”

He said that’s what it takes to contend for the series championship.

“And I feel we can continue that at Long Beach,” McLaughlin said. “I enjoy the race there and enjoy the track. Hopefully, we can make it happen.”

The New Zealander intimated that about halfway through the 2021 season, he began to get a good feel for the differences in the two types of cars.

“I think it clicked with me in the last sort of three months of the season last year and then, obviously, having the whole offseason to work on that, fine-tuning a few things of what I want,” he said. “That certainly helped and allowed us to come out with this fast start.”

How it started

Like so many racers, McLaughlin got his start in a go-kart.

“Six years old, you try anything,” he said. “It was a hobby, and stuff that I did with my dad. We sort of got a couple of years in on the track and was winning a few titles and, obviously, at 8, 9 years old you have pretty big dreams and I wanted to be a race-car driver from that age.

“When I learned I could earn money doing this, it was going to be pretty cool, you know? Yeah, I’m just one of the lucky few who’s turned a hobby into a profession, and (I’m) really privileged.”

McLaughlin and his family moved from New Zealand to Australia when he was 9. That presented a challenge of a different type – changing schools in a different country. But he said that actually helped him in his career as he got older.

“Moving around and having to meet new people and speak to new people and stuff sort of got me almost groomed to speak to sponsors, to speak to people in corporate boxes and suites and, yeah, to just groom me for what was going to happen later on in life,” he said.

Already a contender

Penske teammate Will Power is impressed, to be sure, but it sounds like he’s not surprised at what McLaughlin is doing.

“He definitely can be a contender,” said Power, who is currently second in series points with 69. “He has a lot of experience at a high level. He raced in Australia in a very competitive series in Supercars.”

To get an idea of just how well McLaughlin did during his nine years in Supercars – the last four of which were for DJR Team Penske – he won 56 races and had 76 poles and 106 podiums.

Power said one thing is certain: McLaughlin is not your typical sophomore racer.

“Yeah, he’s more than a step above someone who’d be in their second year, you know, like a young 20-year-old,” Power said. “He’s certainly capable. As you’ve seen, he can win races, he’s good on ovals. Yup, he’ll be a contender, no question.”

Jim Michaelian, CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, likes the professionalism with which McLaughlin goes about his business.

“First year around, I thought he did reasonably well for a rookie,” Michaelian said. “Every track you go to is a brand-new experience and no matter how much (simulation) training you have, why there’s nothing like being on the track itself and actually experiencing what it requires to get around quick.

“And I think that’s helped him out in terms of his approach over the winter time and now that the new season is here and he’s returning to a lot of the tracks where he raced at before, he’s run really well and he seems like a very reasoned, focused kind of a driver.”

Michaelian suggested that the way McLaughlin operates, he’s strong enough to stay in the race for a series title.

“And I would suspect that he’ll be in that group along with (Scott) Dixon and (Alex) Palou, who are constantly looking to accumulate points as they go along,” Michaelian said. “And not necessarily always even podium finishes, but most important of all, steady compilation of points so that at the end of the season, I suspect he’s going to be in that top group when it comes down to the final race at Laguna Seca (on Sept. 11).”

Dixon has won six series championships. Palou won the 2021 title in his second year in IndyCar. Both drive for Chip Ganassi Racing.

McLaughlin, 28, believes he is already a challenger to the series title.

“I have no doubt,” he said. “And I’ve never probably had one little bit of doubt in my talent. You’ve gotta have that belief, you’ve gotta have almost that selfishness that you’re better than everyone else.

“But at the same time, I knew I had a lot to learn and still do. I think I believe I’m good enough right now to win the title. But I know that I need to focus on certain areas to make sure my consistency stays the same.”

McLaughlin said he and his crew are always prepared for a race, so they know exactly what they need from the car.

“I fully believe that I’m good enough and, hopefully, I’ll be there in the fight at the end,” he said.

A good showing at Long Beach will help in that regard. McLaughlin was 11th there in September, when the race ran almost six months later than normal because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a very historic race course,” McLaughlin said. “You understand the history of the place and how dear it is to IndyCar’s heart. So it makes it very cool as a driver to get on there and compete in it there. For me, love the track. I think the track’s a cool layout. It’s tough, it’s difficult.”

 

The Moreno Valley Unified School District is inching toward a trial that will determine if it failed to protect an autistic teen who was sexually assaulted on a school bus by another student with a history of deviant and violent behavior.

Although a lawyer for the district was optimistic that a lawsuit filed by the victim’s grandparents can still be settled, for now a trial has been scheduled for July 8 in Riverside County Superior Court.

The grandparents, who also are legal guardians of the victim, sued Moreno Valley in June 2020, alleging the district breached its mandatory duty to protect their grandson. His assailant had 37 documented incidents of discipline from kindergarten through high school, including exposing himself to another student and kicking a student in the groin, said attorney Brian Kabateck, who represents the plaintiffs.

The boy, who like the victim was a special-needs student, was expelled following the October 2019 incident aboard the school bus, according to attorneys for the victim and his grandparents. Since then, he has pleaded no contest in Juvenile Court to one felony count of oral copulation with someone under the age of 18.

Inexplicably, despite the boy’s history of abuse and the felony conviction for a sex crime, the school board voted unanimously in 2020 to allow him to return to the district as a student, Kabateck said. Whether he was enrolled at a particular school was unknown.

Kabateck says his efforts to settle the case have thus far been unsuccessful.

“I think there has to be a change in their attitude and a willingness to have a real conversation, not just about money, but about their practices and to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody in the future,” Kabateck said. “And if they don’t want to have this conversation, we’ll go to trial.”

Molested on bus

The victim was a 17-year-old student at Vista del Lago High School when the bus incident occurred on Oct. 21, 2019. He was sitting next to a girl when the perpetrator, then 15 years old, stood up and walked toward them. He told the girl to move, then took her place next to the boy, Kabateck said.

“He grabbed our client’s cellphone and started to pull up pornography,” Kabateck said. At that point, the assailant unzipped his pants and forced the boy to orally copulate him. Kabateck said one student on the bus reported hearing the victim say “stop!” multiple times.

It was unclear why the bus driver, who is not identified in the lawsuit, did not do anything, or whether he even was aware what was even going on. Marina Pacheco, another attorney representing the plaintiffs, does not believe the bus driver was ever disciplined, and said he was criticized in a prior performance evaluation for being deficient in “pupil management.”

“The bus driver had been previously cited in his performance evaluation for not watching the students,” Kabateck said. “They need to understand this is not OK and they need to put more safeguards in place.”

Michael Marlatt, the attorney representing the school district, said he could not comment on the bus driver or the incident, citing the ongoing litigation and employee and student confidentiality.

Principal unaware

Eric Swanson, who was principal of Vista Del Lago High School in 2019, was unaware of the perpetrator’s troubled history of attacking and bullying other students, according to an excerpt from a deposition he gave in the case.

Questioned by Pacheco during the deposition, Swanson confirmed several incidents from the student’s file that occurred from 2012 to 2016 at Chaparral Hills Elementary School and Landmark Middle School. Included was inappropriately touching a student and exposing himself to another student.

Much of the problematic behavior occurred on school buses, yet the district did not see to it that the student was monitored appropriately, according to the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

Marlatt said he could not comment on whether the student was disciplined because that information would be confidential.

Policies and procedures

Marlatt also would not say whether the district took any preventative action or adopted new safeguards to protect students following the assault in October 2019. “Because of the litigation right now, we would not want to address that specifically,” he said.

But he did say, “Any time information and allegations come forward such as in this litigation, the district always revisits policies and procedures, and when appropriate makes a decision whether or not something needs to be changed.”

Kabateck said he’s hopeful the district will take the appropriate action and propose an agreement that would not only include monetary compensation, but preventative measures to ensure other students are not harmed.

“But if they think this is a no-harm, no-foul situation,” he said, “then let’s have a jury decide.”

Marlatt said he is hopeful a trial can be avoided. “We are willing to sit down with them and discuss a resolution that will be mutually acceptable to all the parties,” he said.

A couple killed when a driver who was fleeing police struck their car on the border of Rialto and Bloomington on Saturday, April 2 were planning their wedding this summer, but will instead be buried next to each other in a joint funeral.

Irene Jaramillo, 30, and her fiancée, Aaron McDonald, 31, both of Rialto, were killed when the driver of a Nissan Maxima ran a red light and slammed into their Nissan Sentra, police said. Paramedics rushed them to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, but they later died.

McDonald grew up in the neighborhood where the crash happened, his father Paul McDonald said Sunday. A longtime friend of the family was among nearby residents abruptly awakened by it.

Loved ones said Aaron McDonald was shy, and a hard worker. He was a truck driver whose duties included hauling fuel to power CalFire vehicles battling recent wildfires, Paul McDonald said.

Jaramillo was a supervisor at a nearby Amazon fulfillment center in Rialto, Paul McDonald said. Friends and relatives called her a kind and caring person who made friends easily. She met Aaron McDonald through mutual friends, and they’d been together for about five years.

“They both loved each other so much,” the couple’s friend Hilda Lorena Aguilera wrote as part of a GoFundme campaign to support their families. “…as they planned their upcoming wedding this summer, their families will honor their love by laying them to rest together.”

The driver of the Maxima, Alejandro Canchola, 24, was hospitalized in police custody. He will be arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.

Colton police began chasing Canchola after his vehicle blew past a red light at Rancho Avenue and Valley Boulevard, Colton Police Lt. Ray Mendez said. They lost track of him, but he was spotted a short time later by officers in Rialto, at about 12:57 a.m., Rialto police said. The officers tried to pull him over near Linden and Randall Avenues, but he sped away.

After striking the Sentra, Canchola’s car crashed into a house. A portion of the structure’s roof collapsed, and a white metal fence surrounding it was knocked over, as seen in footage recorded Saturday morning by OnScene.TV. A totaled 4-door sedan with deployed airbags sat on a flatbed truck nearby as workers cleared debris from the area later that day.

No one inside the damaged house was hurt, police said.

Paul McDonald said his wife was in too much pain for them to visit the scene of the crash with relatives who paid respects to their son and his fiancée on Sunday.

The driver of the car that barreled into the intersection on Saturday “took the best part of my life,” Paul McDonald said through tears. “We were supposed to be planning a wedding, but instead we’re setting up a funeral.”

A driver was killed and another injured in a head-on crash in Riverside on Friday, April 1.

Around 3 p.m., a black 2018 Audi driven by an 18-year-old Jurupa Valley man was heading west on Mission Inn Avenue, near Indian Hill Road, authorities said. For an unknown reason, the Audi crossed into opposing traffic lanes, where it collided with a red 2003 Chevy Trailblazer driven by a 58-year-old Jurupa Valley woman.

The driver of the Chevy was taken to a hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries. Her identity has not been released pending notification of family.

The Audi driver was transported to a hospital with moderate injuries.

The crash shut down the stretch of Mission Inn Avenue from Mount Rubidoux Drive in Riverside to Crestmore Road in Rubidoux for several hours on Friday while detectives investigated.

Police said it was not immediately known if drugs or alcohol may have been a contributing factor in the crash.

At least one person was killed today in a crash involving a semi in Corona.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol responded at 12:56 a.m. to the eastbound Riverside (91) Freeway and Green River Road where they found a semi with a white trailer on the side of the freeway engulfed in flames, according to a CHP incident report.

The report stated a person was seen in the number two lane of the freeway but it was unclear if the person was the driver of the semi or a pedestrian.

At least one person was pronounced dead at the scene.

The collision closed multiple lanes of the freeway.