FBN 20230011456
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
BONUS TAX PROS 7199 CITRUS AVENUE #316A FONTANA, CA 92336: VICTORINO P BONUS 7199 CITRUS AVENUE #316A FONTANA, CA 92336
The business is conducted by: AN INDIVIDUAL.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: N/A.
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ VICTORINO P BONUS, Proprietor
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 11/15/2023
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy J5842
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 17, 24 and December 1 & 8, 2023.

FBN 20230011071
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
FOR YOUR CAR DETAILING 13247 FOOTHILL BLVD APT 9203 RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739 GARRICK R VELAZQUEZ 13247 FOOTHILL BLVD APT 9203 RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739
The business is conducted by: AN INDIVIDUAL.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: November 1, 2023.
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130). I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
/s/ GARRICK R. VELAZQUEZ, Owner
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 11/01/2023
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy J7527
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 17, 24 and December 1 & 8, 2023.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER CIVSB 2328000
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner SNEHA ANAND filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
SNEHA ANAND to SNEHA ANAND RANI
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 12/27/2023
Time: 08:30 AM
Department: S14
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino San Bernardino District-Civil Division 247 West 3rd Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415-0210
To appear remotely, check in advance of the hearing for information about how to do so on the court’s website. To find your court’s website, go to www.courts.ca.gov/find-my-court.htm
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel in San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: November 17, 2023
Abrianna Rodriguez, Deputy Clerk of the Court
Gilbert Ochoa, Judge of the Superior Court
SNEHA ANAND
7585 CALISTOGA PL
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739
Telephone No: (909) 225-0808
snehaanand225@gmail.com
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on November 17, 24 and December 1 & 8, 2023.

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By Mark Gutglueck
Federal prosecutors are seeking to utilize former Fontana Assistant Police Chief Alan Hostetter’s own words both before and during the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection and his statements in defending himself at trial against charges that he played a major role in leading the thwarted effort to prevent Joseph Biden from assuming the presidency in 2021 to convince the judge who convicted him of four felonies relating to that massive show of unrest to sentence him to 12 years and seven months in prison.
Hostetter served in the Army, went to work for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in the mid-1980s, transferred to the Fontana Police Department in 1989, worked his way up the ranks to become the Fontana Unified School District’s police chief, then a captain with Fontana PD and then assistant Fontana Popolice chief before capping his law enforcment career as La Habra’s police chief. While in retirement, with the advent of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, Hostetter took an active role in protesting first California’s masking and social distancing mandates, then alleged a vast governmental conspiracy relating to the vaccine developed in response to the disease’s onset before becoming convinced that Donald Trump’s victory in 2020 represented the United States’ and mankind’s last hope to stave off a national and worldwide plunge into the domination of communism. When Trump was defeated at the polls in Novermber 2020, Hostetter grew into a key co-progenitor of the movement that alleged the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump by communists and traitors he insisted were aligned with the Democrats.
Having co-founded with wealthy Orange County businessman Russell Taylor the American Phoenix Project as a bulwark against what he characterized as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s fascistic efforts to arrest the spread of COVID-19, he formed an alliance with another wealthy Orange County figure, Morton Irvine Smith, and a support network consisting of Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, Derek Kinnison, and Ronald Mele to resist those state mandates throughout California but primarily in Orange County in early and mid-2020. Initially, Hostetter organized rallies at various locations throughout the Southland, often serving as a mouthpiece for the movement. On May 21, 2020, Hostetter was arrested along with seven others for leading a protest against the closure of the parking lot at the public beach in San Clemente when he chained himself to a barrier fence erected by government officials. As the 2020 election season progressed closer and closer to the November 3 Election, Hostetter became progressively more fixated on reelecting Trump, whom he described as “the greatest president this country ever had.” Hostetter participated as a speaker at multiple Trump rallies in the months and weeks before the election.
When Trump lost on November 3 and suggested through multiple media postings that the election had been stolen from him, Hostetter, in conjunction with Taylor, Smith,
Warner, Martinez, Kinnison, and Mele began an effort to effectively protest and then block the certification of the election, primarily by massive scale protests that were to take place and did take place in the nation’s capital on, first, November 14, 2020, and then in early January 2021 in the days leading up to and including the January 6, 2021 certification of the election.
On January 5, Hostetter gave an incendiary speech in the area near the Supreme Court, calling for the prevention of the election’s certification.
On January 6, Hostetter, Taylor, Warner, Martinez, Kinnison, and Mele were present on the Capitol grounds when the insurrection riot broke out. At one point, when elements of the crowd broke into the Capitol building, Warner joined those who went inside. Hostetter and Taylor remained outside the Capitol building, at one point going up onto the West Terrace, from which vantage he used a bullhorn to incite the crowd.
In June 2021, Hostetter, Taylor, Warner, Martinez, Kinnison, and Mele were indicted and arrested for taking part in a conspiracy to obstruct the election process. Morton Irvine Smith, who was credited with being a fellow director of Hostetter’s nonprofit American Phoenix Project, was not indicted.
Initially, Hostetter, Taylor, Warner, Martinez, Kinnison, and Mele appeared to be following the advice or a previous American revolutionary, Ben Franklin, who famously said, “We must all hang together, or, certainly, we will all hang separately.” All six maintained their innocence and seemed to be working through established and logical channels to use attorneys to represent them in their legal defenses.
In October 2021, however, Hostetter fired his attorneys and made a motion before the court to represent himself, one that was granted by the judge on the case, Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, sitting in Washington, D.C., where the case against Hostetter and his co-defendants was to be heard, only after Judge Lamberth made clear to Hostetter that such a move was ill-advised.
Shortly after Hostetter became his own attorney, he broke with his co-defendants, alleging in motions he authored himself that Taylor, Warner, Martinez, Kinnison, Mele and Smith were actually agents of the government working in conjunction with the FBI, Democrats, communists, liberals, the Illuminati, “secret societies” such as the Freemasons and the Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale University and religious “cults” such as Scientologists and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the “swamp” of “Deep State” actors in Washington, D.C. and the Joseph Biden-controlled Justice Department to discredit him. The motive for going after him, Hostetter claimed in the motion to the court, was his having taken a stand in opposition to “COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders” instituted during the coronavirus pandemic and his effectiveness in leading that movement. His motion sought the dismissal of all of the charges against him. Judge Lamberth denied the motion. Nevertheless, Hostetter’s tactics forced the court to separate his case from that of his fellow defendants.
Earlier this year, Taylor entered a guilty plea and agreed to turn state’s evidence and testify against the others, including Hostetter. Momentarily, this heartened Hostetter, who thought he might use Taylor’s capitulation to reapply and make more convincing his assertion that the federal government was plotting against him.
Hostetter, conscious that Judge Lamberth was a Ronald Reagan appointee, a Republican and sympathetic to a public and political orientation that held law-and-order in high regard, believed he could use his status as an Army veteran and career law enforcement professional who had acceded to the posts of assistant Fontana police chief and La Habra police chief to forge a rapport with Judge Lamberth. He agreed to forego a jury trial and instead be tried in a bench trial with Lamberth serving as both judge and jury.
Taylor’s defection proved less than helpful to Hostetter during his July trial, as he testified about the preparations the group in which they were a part engaged in prior to the actions in the nation’s capital, extending to arming themselves with weapons, including axes they both carried with them in their backpacks in their sojourn to the Capitol grounds on January 6.
After the trial, Judge Lamberth found Hostetter guilty on all four felony counts lodged against him – conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding, including aiding and abetting others engaged in that obstruction and interference; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
“Even if Mr. Hostetter sincerely believed – which it appears he did – that the election was fraudulent, that President Trump was the rightful winner, and that public officials committed treason, as a former police chief he still must have known it was unlawful to vindicate that perceived injustice by engaging in mob violence to obstruct Congress,” Judge Lamberth said in pronouncing his verdicts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office sought to have Hostetter immediately incarcerated upon conviction pending his sentencing, but Judge Lamberth denied that motion, holding off on sentencing until the remaining four defendants – Warner, Martinez, Kinnison and Mele – were to go to trial in October. In October, however, their trial was postponed until November. At a jury trial in November, again with Taylor testifying, all four were convicted on November 8, 2023 of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, among other offenses.
The way is now clear for Hostetter’s sentencing to take place.
In a sentencing memorandum filed November 29, 2023, submitted ahead of Hostetter’s anticipated December 7 sentencing, United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves and assistant U.S. attorneys Anthony Mariano and Jason Manning asserted that Hostetter’s criminal activity in furtherance of the January 6 insurrection merits him 151 months in federal prison.
According to Graves’, Mariano’s and Manning’s memo, “Alan Hostetter planned for the January 6, 2021 riot for weeks. He conspired with others, he collected weapons, and he traveled across the country for the riot, with the goal of using the threat of violence to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. On January 6, 2021, armed with a hatchet and other weapons, he joined his co-conspirators and a mob of other rioters in surrounding the U.S. Capitol building, where he remained for hours, in defiance of police commands and at risk to the safety of the government officials in the building. The United States requests that this court sentence Hostetter to 151 months of incarceration, 36 months of supervised release, $2,000 in restitution, and a special assessment of $400.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning acknowledged that the sentence they are seeking is more than the straight-across and standard basic punishment that would normally be meted out for the crimes Hostetter was convicted of, but they argued that the way he approached his action and the pernicious motivation behind his sedition placed him in a special category of offenders.
“The United States recommends this upward departure from the government’s calculated advisory guidelines range of 108–135 months, to reflect the gravity of Hostetter’s conspiratorial conduct, including his planning and preparations with Russell Taylor for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th – an attack that was clearly calculated to influence and affect the conduct of the United States government and to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” the prosecutors wrote.
“When Trump lost, Hostetter and Taylor turned to each other to figure out how to take action to help change the results,” according to Graves, Mariano and Manning, who reasoned that “Hostetter had a clear view of what was coming.” They quoted him as stating, “If this doesn’t turn around, we will eventually ‘occupy’ every state capitol and DC with millions of people!”
The prosecutors noted that “[E]ven before the election, Hostetter was promoting a violent and revolutionary ideology – just in case the election did not go his way. For example, at an October 2020 conference focused on the QAnon conspiracy theory in Scottsdale, Arizona, Hostetter was a featured speaker, on behalf of his organization, the American Phoenix Project. Hostetter told the crowd, ‘Nobody wants violence. Nobody wants violence.’ But Hostetter’s message that day was not a nonviolent one,”according to the prosecutors, who quoted him verbatim as saying, “We are taught from the time we are children in this country to always think that violence is a horrible, horrible thing. Until we go back and reflect on our revolutionary war. They picked up guns at some point and said, ‘Enough.’ Until we reflect on the Civil War, when we ended slavery by picking up guns and dealing with it that way. We don’t want that to have to happen, but it always has to be something in the back of your mind. We’ve never been as close to it as we are today since the Civil War. And you have to be thinking like that. I’m all about peace, until somebody comes after my kids and my grandkids and says, ‘No, they’re gonna live under communist rule. We’re gonna have Marxist school systems.’”
According to Graves, Mariano and Manning, “Hostetter made it clear that he did not view violence as necessary at that time, but only for one reason: he thought Trump would win. He explained, ‘There comes a time when people end
up picking up guns. I’m not advocating that. I think through the ballot box on November 3rd, it’s gonna be such a huge victory that we will avoid violence by a landslide election.’ Hostetter told the crowd that he would abstain from violence – if Trump won. Then Trump lost.”
The prosecutors’ brief continues, “In November 2020, Hostetter traveled to Washington, D.C., for the ‘Million MAGA [Make America Great Again] March’ – a rally to protest the 2020 election results. Hostetter drove to Washington, D.C. for that event, so that he could bring weapons for himself and for Taylor, who flew in for the event. As he drove across the country, Hostetter recorded a video, where he called for the execution of political officials he viewed of as traitors.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning quoted Hostetter as having recorded “Some people, at the highest levels, need to be made an example of, with an execution or two or three. Tyrants, and traitors, need to be executed as an example, so nobody pulls this shit again in our lifetime, and the lifetime of our children, and our grandchildren, and their children’s children.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning added that “Hostetter explained how he wanted this violence to send a message: ‘People should never forget who did this to us, what they did, and what the ultimate punishment ended up being. That’s how you stop this nonsense.’ Hostetter didn’t merely make these remarks in private. Instead, he intentionally put them on YouTube to promote his violent message.”
Moreover, Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote, “In the same video, Hostetter explained the purpose of his trip. He was not going just to protest. He wanted to send a message to members of Congress that if he did not get his way, he
would come back for those members of Congress.” They quote Hostetter as saying, “I’m going to D.C. I’m going to be there on Saturday for this march. I hope there are a million patriots there. Between that – that’s gonna be a shot across bow to the deep state when they see a million patriots surrounding that shithole of a city, the swamp. Because its gonna make all those swamp creatures know that at any time we want, we’ll come back with a million patriots, and we’ll surround that city, and we’ll starve those motherfuckers out until they come out of their hiding and we’ll replace them with actual patriots. I’m telling the swamp right now that we will be back if this doesn’t get resolved peacefully and soon.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning stated in the sentencing memorandum, “In other written, planned remarks from December 5, 2020, Hostetter repeated his calls for executions of political officials he disagreed with,” and then quoted him as saying “As long as people like the Clintons, Brennan, Clapper, the dirty cops of the FBI, the treacherous agents of the CIA remain free, as long as they remain free, we have no justice in this system until all the traitors and coup plotters – and, yes, that includes Barack Hussein Obama himself – until these criminals and traitors are behind bars or swinging from the gallows, there is no justice in this country. And as long as there is no justice in this country, there can be no renaissance. There can be no peace.”
Violence toward government officials Hostetter perceived as responsible for stealing the election from Donald Trump intensified as the certification of the election approached, according to Graves, Mariano and Manning, who included a reference to his willingness to obstruct the certification from occurring.
“On December 12, 2020, Hostetter gave another speech calling for the execution of his perceived political enemies,” the prosecutors wrote. “Speaking to a crowd of supporters, flanked by his co-conspirator Russell Taylor to his left and a former U.S. Representative to his right, Hostetter rallied the crowd: ‘There must – absolutely must – be a reckoning. There must be justice. President Trump must be inaugurated on January 20th, and he must be allowed to finish this historic job of cleaning out the corruption in the cesspool known as Washington, D.C. The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable. And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.”
The sentencing memo alleges Hostetter was himself a ringleader working the other side of the equation. It states that “On December 19, 2020, then-President Trump shared a Tweet, writing, ‘Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!’ For many January 6 rioters, this Tweet provided the impetus to get to Washington, D.C. and provided January 6 as the focal point. Not for Hostetter. Hostetter was already well aware of the congressional proceeding on January 6, and he knew why it was so important. On December 16, 2020, Hostetter directed an American Phoenix Project colleague to contact Ali Alexander, an organizer of the Stop the Steal campaign, to suggest a January 6 rally. ‘Can you try to raise him and see if they are planning any rallies in DC on 1/6/2020 (sic) during the joint session of Congress where the electoral results will either be accepted or objected to? If ever a million patriots needed to be in DC it be on this day to put the fear of God in those traitors and RINO bastards! “Death to Traitors” will be my preferred chant for that day!’”
According to the prosecutors, “That same day, December 16, Hostetter made an Instagram post – from the account of the American Phoenix Project – writing, ‘The time has come when good people may have to act badly…but not wrongly.’ The post featured Hostetter holding a hatchet, which Russell Taylor had given him. When then-President Trump sent out the ‘wild protest’ Tweet related to January 6, Hostetter knew what it meant.”
According to Graves, Mariano and Manning, communication between those in Washington, D.C. and Trump supporters on the West Coast, including Hostetter and Taylor, demonstrate the key role Hostetter played in helping the insurrection to manifest. They quoted Hostetter as reacting by stating, “We asked for it…we got it!”
Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote that “When that happened, Taylor testified, ‘[We] immediately started planning to come to DC ourselves and starting to kind of organize individuals to come with us.’ On December 19, 2020, shortly after then-President Trump sent out his call for a ‘wild protest,’ Hostetter began to amplify that call. He posted on Instagram about and explained why January 6 was so important.”
Within the body of the memo, Graves, Mariano and Manning reproduced photos of some of the exhibits produced at trial, including several of Hostetter’s more inflammatory tweets or postings, as well as a photo one of the accused took of the weapons that were brought to the January 6 rally, including the axes, laid out on a bed.
One of Hostetter’s reproduced Instagram posts states, “Fight For Trump! Late last night President Trump tweeted that all patriots should descend on Washington DC on Wednesday, 1/6/2021. This is the date of the Joint Session of Congress in which they will either accept or reject the fake/phony/stolen electoral college votes. I will be there, bullhorns on fire, to let the swamp dwellers know we will not let them steal our country from us. I hope you can join me!! #fightfortrump #stopthesteal #savetherepublic”
According to the memo, “The same day, December 19, Hostetter took to the stage at a rally to pass along the message: ‘The most important thing that we saw happen in the last 48 hours – did you see President Trump’s Tweet last night, where he asked all patriots to descend on Washington, D.C. on January 6th? Did you see that Tweet last night? January 6th is going to be one of the most important days in the history of this country. We’re gonna have an opportunity on January 6th for millions of patriots to show up in Washington, D.C., and have an impact on what happens in that joint session of Congress. That’s going to be the last opportunity that we solve this problem constitutionally before we move into the Insurrection Act. One way or another, this problem is going to be solved.’ Hostetter told the crowd what he wanted to accomplish on January 6, when Congress was in session: ‘Choke that city off, fill it with patriots, and then those people behind the walls of the Senate and the House are gonna be listening to us chanting outside those walls. . . And they’re gonna realize, we have one choice. We either fix this mess and keep America America, or we become traitors, and those five million people outside the walls are gonna drag us out by our hair and tie us to a fucking lamp post. That’s their option.’ He encouraged his supporters to take off work and find any way to get to Washington, D.C. for January 6. He compared the planned event to ‘the Boston Tea Party.’”
According to Graves, Mariano and Manning, “Hostetter drove to Washington, D.C. for January 6. He chose not to fly, so that he could load his car with weapons for himself and Russell Taylor. Hostetter brought tactical gear, a helmet, hatchets, knives, stun batons, pepper spray, and other gear for himself, Taylor, and others.”
The prosecutors maintain, “Indeed, it was Hostetter’s idea that they bring hatchets to Washington, D.C.”
They quoted him as posting, “I can take your hatchets again!”
The sentencing brief states, “On December 29, 2020, he wrote to Taylor, ‘I’ll be heading to DC on 12/31. Let’s hook up on 12/30 so you can give me your backpack.’”
It was possible, Graves, Mariano and Manning suggested in the memo, that Hostetter and his co-defendants were armed with guns, as well.
According to the memo, “Taylor asked, ‘Alan are you bringing firearms?’ Hostetter responded sarcastically, ‘NO NEVER (Instagram now monitors all text messages … this has been a public service announcement).’ He indicated that they should ‘stick to’ hatchets.”
Graves’, Mariano’s and Manning’s narrative continues, “On January 5, Hostetter gave a speech to a large crowd outside the U.S. Supreme Court. The crowd had assembled for a rally co-hosted by the Virginia Women for Trump and the American Phoenix Project and featured not only Alan Hostetter and Russell Taylor as speakers, but other well-known political figures as well. Hostetter bragged about his prior arrest for what he called ‘civil disobedience’ – and the fact that his arrest ‘went viral.’He then turned to promoting conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election results: ‘That’s who beat Donald Trump. Dominion and all the fakes and frauds, led by these vipers behind you in the people’s house. They’re gonna hear our voice tomorrow. They’re gonna hear us loud and clear. We are at war in this country! We are at war.’ He continued, ‘Our voices tomorrow are going to put the fear of God in the cowards and the traitors, the RINOs and the communists of the Democrat Party. They need to know we as a people, 100 million strong, are coming for them if they do the wrong thing!’ Hostetter concluded, “I will see all tomorrow at the front lines. We are taking our country back!’”
According to Graves, Mariano and Manning, “Hostetter and Taylor knew that they could not bring the weapons they had collected and were carrying to the Ellipse or to the U.S. Capitol. As they headed to the Ellipse, Hostetter recorded an Instagram video, stating, ‘Patriots are on the march now.’ He noted that he, Taylor, and others, ‘are not actually going to be going into the Ellipse, because we have some personal protective gear.’ Accordingly, rather than leaving their weapons behind, Hostetter and Taylor observed the speeches from outside of the secured area, to avoid going through a security screening. Hostetter and Taylor listened to the speeches from the Ellipse, including the speech by then-President Trump, in which he stated that then-Vice President Mike Pence would be at the U.S. Capitol building that day. As they entered Capitol grounds, Hostetter and Taylor approached the police line on the west plaza area of the Lower West Terrace. As they approached the building, they observed not just the police line, but also ‘chemical agents like tear gas’ being deployed. They heard flash bang grenades and saw rioters scaling the walls of the Capitol.’ But Hostetter and Taylor didn’t stop. From the west plaza, Hostetter and Taylor climbed into scaffolding covering a northwest set of stairs leading to the inaugural stage. As they climbed through the scaffolding, Hostetter and Taylor emerged from a hole in the scaffolding and continued climbing toward the inaugural stage. As he came out from the scaffolding, Hostetter carried a bullhorn and looked down over the west plaza, where rioters were battling with the police line they had passed earlier. From his highly visible perch, and with his bullhorn directed to the crowd and his American flag waving above the chaotic scene, Hostetter encouraged the rioters below, who were overrunning the police line,” Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote, which ultimately, they asserted, contributed to the collapse of the police line holding the crowd back from the inaugural stage.
Graves, Mariano and Manning maintain that thereafter, “Hostetter and Taylor descended from the bleachers overlooking the inaugural stage and walked up to the Upper West Terrace door, where they saw other rioters entering the building. They reached the steps leading up to the door, before stopping and turning away, as police began visibly converging on the door from south and north of the door. Hostetter and Taylor decided to stay outside of the building, to decrease their risk of being arrested, given the sheer number of rioters outside the building, compared to the number of police officers. Hostetter and Taylor remained on the Upper West Terrace for hours. While there, Hostetter carried his bullhorn and used it to encourage the crowd.”
In the immediate aftermath of the storming of the Capitol, Graves, Mariano and Manning stated that Hostetter posted, “Patriots broke into Capitol Hill! I was one of them! Don’t listen to the FAUX News. This was the shot heard round the world!”
This contradicted what Hostetter sought to assert after he was criminally charged. In the run-up to his trial and at his trial, Hostetter characterized the riot on January 6 as a “false flag” operation in which liberals, Democrats, communists and government agents masqueraded as pro-Donald Trump forces and acted illegally to discredit people such as himself who were present to peacefully demonstrate against the theft of the election.
In their sentencing memo, Graves, Mariano and Manning pointed out the contradiction between what Hostetter claimed while making his legal defense and what he had posted shortly after the clash on January 6.
The prosecutors’ memo states, “To another friend, Hostetter wrote, ‘I did not see what I believed to be ANTIFA.’ He added, ‘people I saw and spoke with were clearly pissed off patriots who felt there was no alternative after word went out that Pence was about to certify those electors and our country would be doomed.’”
On May 10, 2023, a federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment against Hostetter. In early July, his bench trial before Judge Lamberth began. On July 13, 2023, Hostetter was convicted on all counts. According to a pre-sentencing report issued by the U.S. Probation Office, Hostetter faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, 3 years’ supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for each of counts One and Two; and a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, 3 years’ supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for each of counts Three and Four.
Graves, Mariano and Manning acknowledged that “Hostetter did not personally engage in violence.” Nevertheless, they asserted, “Regardless of the use of immediate violence, Hostetter’s conduct—and the conspiracy he helped form and lead—displayed a clear intent, shared with Taylor and others, to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election, including through the threatened used of force. That conduct—calculated to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the first time in the nation’s history – is a quintessential example of an intent to influence government conduct through intimidation or coercion and warrants an upward departure” in the sentence he is to be given.
Graves, Mariano and Manning noted that Hostetter, as a former law enforcement officer steeped in the ways of the justice system, was disrespectful of the culture and the establishment he had functioned within throughout his professional life when he was himself being processed by the justice system, which they suggested reflected poorly on him and his temperament.
“Hostetter’s character was on full display as he belligerently cross-examined a U.S. Capitol police captain about why she had not proposed the erection of ‘unscalable’ fencing around the U.S. Capitol before January 6 – to help keep our rioters like him,” Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote. “His character was further on display in his self-indulgent court filings, where he ignored the issues relevant to the case and talked about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; the firing of Tucker Carlson; the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; occult symbols in the Wizard of Oz; the secret society Skull and Bones; and the censoring of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. The seriousness with which he took the proceedings was shown by his bragging that his filings were ‘as much for public consumption’ as they were ‘for the court.’ It was shown further in his opening statement, when he told the court his lengthy witness list of government officials, such as Nancy Pelosi and Lindsay Graham, was ‘submitted I guess more for shock value.’ Hostetter has never taken the proceeding seriously.”
Hostetter committed perjury at trial, according to Graves, Mariano and Manning.
“The court also saw that Hostetter, when backed into a corner, was willing to lie,” the prosecutors wrote. “For instance, when asked if he was ‘calling for executions in public speeches,’ Hostetter responded: ‘Calling for a lawful process to take place before they’re – I’m not calling for people to go out with a gallows and drag it somewhere, like the staged gallows that just happened to show up on January 6th for a photo op that everybody got shocked about in the Main Street media. No. There’s a lawful process. In fact, you, Mr. Prosecutor, if an act of treason were committed, and if you-all were really digging deep into what happened on January 6th, you might find that treason. You would go to the U.S. Code, find the definition of treason, use that to prosecute those traitors, and my guess is you might even recommend the penalty in that code, which is the death penalty.’”
Graves, Mariano and Manning then observed, “But, of course, Hostetter never, even obliquely, referred to the U.S. Code or pursuit of a formal legal process in his many public remarks calling for revolutionary violence. That story was cooked up for trial, for the benefit of the court. But Hostetter cannot walk away from his own words.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning noted Hostetter made assertions in motions and at trial, such as that he was not in possession of the ax while he was at the Ellipse and on the Capitol grounds, which Judge Lamberth concluded were not true. Accordingly, they maintained Hostetter engaged in “obstruction.” The obstruction, they maintained, was linked with other aggravating factors, including causing or threatening injury and damage, substantial interference with justice, extensive planning and preparation of the activity he and others engaged in, trespassing on governmental property, possessing a dangerous weapon and conspiring to commit a felony.
“On the basis of Hostetter’s false testimony at trial, the court should apply a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice,” Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote in the memo.
While Hostetter had a negligible criminal history prior to the acts for which he was convicted, which Graves, Mariano and Manning conceded should otherwise qualify him for punishment at the lower end of the sentencing scale, other aggravating factors, they said, should apply to the formula relating to determining his prison sentence, creating a need to increase the time he should be incarcerated.
“A two-level upward departure pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidlines § 3A1.4, application note 4, is appropriate here because Hostetter’s conduct was ‘calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government [by] intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.’ Such an enhancement would bring the advisory guidelines range to 135–168 months imprisonment. This guidelines range more appropriately reflects the defendants’ culpability, and a sentence at the midpoint of that guidelines range – 151 months – is appropriate.”
Graves, Mariano and Manning discounted Hostetter’s claim that when he spoke about holding governmental officials to account for stealing the election and having them executed for doing so that he meant those executions would come after a lengthy prosecution and trial process in which they would be found guilty.
“Hostetter was never talking about a judicial process,” Graves, Mariano and Manning wrote. “His intent was to make members of Congress afraid they might be murdered. Because his preferred candidate lost an election. Hostetter likes to wrap himself in the American flag and take on the role of freedom fighter, but there is nothing patriotic or American about calling for violence – or threatening violence, to achieve your political aims. That is not patriotism. That is terrorism. Hostetter has shown himself to be a man eager to stoke the fires of revolution, and to assume the role of a leader of the revolution he fantasizes is coming. Hostetter talked repeatedly in advance of January 6 in the language of ‘war’ and ‘revolution.’ He discussed the ‘tyrants and traitors’ and the need for ‘executions’ of his political enemies. His delusions of grandeur – to see himself as the main player in a grand conspiracy centered on January 6, 2021 – further demonstrate the danger Hostetter poses to the community in the future.
Hostetter’s felonious conduct on January 6, 2021 was part of a massive riot that almost succeeded in preventing the certification vote from being carried out, frustrating the peaceful transition of presidential power, and throwing the United States into a Constitutional crisis. Hostetter planned with others for weeks to obstruct the official proceeding, including through the threatened and actual use of force, as described above. The nature and circumstances of Hostetter’s offenses were of the utmost seriousness, and fully support the government’s recommended sentence of 151 months’ imprisonment. This defendant epitomizes disrespect for the law and disrespect for our constitutional order. [There is a] need for the sentence imposed to reflect the seriousness of the offense and promote respect for the law.”
Hostetter has not, as of press time, generated a sentencing brief of his own.

Former Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales will seek election as county assessor in the special election to be held in November 2024.
Gonzales vied unsuccessfully against four others in the summer and fall of 2022 for appointment as assessor/recorder/county clerk, shortly after the death of Assessor Bob Dutton.
Dutton, despite recognizing that he was deathbound as a consequence of the end-stage prostate cancer he was suffering from, had filed for reelection as assessor/clerk/recorder in the 2022 election cycle, warding off all competitors by virtue of his incumbency and sizable political war chest. He was thus reelected without opposition in the June 2022 Primary election, but died seven weeks later, more than five months before he was due to be sworn in for the term he was elected to serve running from January 2023 until January 2027.
The board of supervisors, despite having just enough time to solicit candidates to run for the post in the November 2022 election and hold another elective contest at that time to fill the position, elected not to do so and instead sought applications for appointment to the position, which summoned bids from Dutton’s widow, Andrea Dutton, former County Supervisor and County Treasurer/Tax Collector/Auditor/Controller Larry Walker, Assessor’s Appeals Division Supervisor Bradley Snowball, Assistant Assessor Chris Wilhite and Gonzales. Ultimately, the board settled on promoting Wilhite into the post, which currently pays $277,557.08 in salary, 17,000.10 in perquisites and add-ons and $101,211.42 in benefits for $395,768.60 in total annual compensation. Continue reading →

The Chino City Council on November 21 voted to place a one cent per dollar sales tax increase on the March 5, 2024 ballot.
The initiative will correspond with the 2024 California Primary.
According to City Manager Linda Reich, if passed, the tax will generate a projected $28 million per year.
According to Reich, the city is running a $5.7 million deficit this year and without any revenue enhancement will average a $15 million per year deficit over the next decade. With $73 million in reserves, the city will burn through that money at some point in the 2028-29 fiscal year.
According to the city’s finance director, Rob Burns, the city’s financial picture has deteriorated substantially in the last five months. It thus appears the deficit will escalate in a geometric progression rather than a simple mathematical one going forward. The current $5.7 million deficit will hit $7.1 million in fiscal year 2024-2025, Burns said. A numbers analysis shows the deficit reaching $11.7 million annually in 2026-27, then $17.4 million in 2027-28 and something close to $29 million by 2028-29. Burns concurred with Reich, predicting the general reserve fund will be empty at some point in fiscal year 2028-2029.
To stave off bankruptcy, Reich has formulated a plan, endorsed by the city council at the November 21 meeting, to ask the city’s voters to approve a one percent sales tax increase by means of a measure on the March 5, 2024 ballot. If approved, according to Reich, the tax would redress the city’s deficit circumstance and over the years would provide an additional quarter of a billion dollars or more of funding to create needed infrastructure in the 113-year-old city. Continue reading →

A year-and-a-half after Twentynine Palms instituted regulations on short-term rentals in the 59.1-square mile, 27,491 population city, an effort has been mounted to revamp those rules. Some in the city feel that the restrictions put in place in May 2022 did not go far enough. Others, particularly those who have invested in residential real estate and have converted homes and apartments into vacation rentals and are turning a profit by having done so, see the city’s meddling as overregulation that has already gone too far. In recent weeks, this clash in attitude has prevented the city council from reaching a consensus on how to proceed with regard to the contentious issue.
The Twentynine Palms City Council after some degree of back-and-forth in May 2022 settled on an 8.525 percent cap on how many of the city’s housing units can be utilized as vacation rentals.
In Twentynine Palms, as in a handful of other communities throughout San Bernardino County such as Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake, Needles and Yucca Valley – out-of-the way and what some might call exotic spots that can serve as a quick getaway for that portion of the Southern California populace seeking a respite from urban existence – large numbers of vacationers or those intent on a relaxing weekend have demonstrated themselves as willing to pay top dollar to lease a house, apartment, condominium, cabin or even a trailer for a month or two or a week or just two or three days.
On occasion, especially when alcohol or recreational drugs are involved, the civility of some vacationers leaves something to be desired, which can be onerous to their temporary neighbors. In some cases, quarters that are intended for a few people or a family or two is called upon to accommodate several dozen. That brings with it issues such as noise, overburdened parking space and compliance with rudimentary laws. On rare occasions, with no warning a rave-like event manifests in a place ill-suited for it, and things can quickly rage out of hand. Continue reading →

The City of Fontana is going to convert one of its struggling motels into a homeless shelter for local residents.
Using American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds it received from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and another $5 million allocated to it by the County of San Bernardino and another $4 million in funding from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city intends to purchase and renovate the Sure Stay Hotel, located at 17133 Valley Boulevard in Fontana. The hotel currently has 60 rooms.
Those rooms are to be outfitted with 120 beds, perhaps ones that are already in place, and the units are to provide what the city called “interim housing.”
There is to be 24-hour managed care for residents at the facility, including social rehabilitation, substance abuse services and job training, all of which is intended to return those housed and cared for to functionality and independence. Continue reading →

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – commonly referred to as PFAS, have turned up in the Lake Arrowhead water supply.
Also known as perfluorochemicals or PCFs, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are compounds with water-repellent and oil-repellent properties. They are used in the production of both industrial and everyday household products such as stain-resistant carpets and furniture, waterproof clothing, shoes and outdoor gear, cosmetics and personal care products, food packaging, firefighting foam, cleaning products, industrial surfactants and non-stick cookware. They are commonly used in the aerospace, construction and electronics and in military and firefighting contexts.
Referred to as “forever chemicals,” PFAS chemicals don’t break down easily over time and are water soluble. Scientists, environmentalists and health professionals have concerns these chemicals could build to levels that could result in environmental and human health harm. Continue reading →

A known gang member on a murderous rampage over the Thanksgiving weekend has been taken into custody after he allegedly shot and killed three people and injured another in two separate incidents.
Louis “Wicked” Peter Hernandez III, a known gang member, went into a two-story home in the 15500 block on Eastwind Avenue in northern Fontana around 5 a.m. on November 25, whereupon he shot and killed Romaldo De La Rosa, 54 of Colton, on the first floor. On the second floor he shot Angelina Urbano, 26, San Bernardino, before leaving the residence. Urbano was described as Hernandez’s girlfriend.
A 911 call summoning paramedics and Fontana police was made shortly thereafter. When officers with the Fontana Police Department arrived at around 5:30 a.m., they were met by two young, distraught and hysterical woman who came out of the house. Inside, the officers came across the deceased De La Rosa on the ground floor and the severely wounded Urbano upstairs. Urbano was transported to Kaiser Hospital, where she was placed into the intensive care unit.
The following morning, at 9:38 a.m. Sunday November 26, the California Highway Patrol received a report of a woman and a man in separate vehicles suffering from gunshot wounds at the Park and Ride lot near Etiwanda Avenue and Mission Boulevard off the 60 Freeway in Jurupa Valley. The woman, Dianna Couer, was found dead in a silver 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. Couer has since been identified as Hernandez’s former girlfriend. Continue reading →