By Mark Gutglueck
Over the objections of the father of one alleged victim, Judge Jon Ferguson late Thursday morning, May 30, accepted a plea settlement in the criminal case against 18-year-old Sebastian Bailey Villaseñor worked out by Deputy District Attorney Deborah Ploghaus and defense attorney Daniel DeLimon in which the five attempted murder charges filed against the youth were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea on a single count of intimidating a witness.
Villaseñor, of Eastvale, was a senior at Ontario Christian High School when he was arrested on February 10 on suspicion of having violated PC 422(A) – engaging in threats of violence.
The case materialized after Villaseñor’s sister, Isabella, 15, who also attended Ontario Christian High School, on Thursday, February 8, spoke with one of the school’s counselors, Mitch Stutz, about an exchange she had that morning with her brother in the school parking lot. When she spoke about another student who attended the school, Isabella said, Sebastian expressed irritation, characterizing the coed as being haughty and dismissive of his advances, clenching his fist as he did so, and then told his sister not to talk about the other girl. Continue reading →

Though it is too early to determine with certainty, it appears the effort to censure San Bernardino City Councilwoman Kimberly Calvin may be running out of steam.
On April 17, a sharply divided city council voted to initiate the process of issuing a public reprimand to Calvin, accentuating the displeasure some of its members had with the manner in which Calvin had conducted herself over the previous year.
A week earlier, at a specially called meeting of the city council on April 10 from which Councilman Ben Reynoso was absent, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho announced the council met in closed session and voted 4-to-2, with Calvin and Councilmember Damon Alexander opposed, to consider Calvin’s censure. The staff report relating to the censure proposal generated by then-City Manager Charles Montoya for the April 17 meeting was vague in identifying what grounds there were for Calvin’s censure. The closest that document came to doing so was a nonspecific assertion that doing so would “align with” what was identified as “Key Target No.1e” within the city’s “2021-2025 Strategic Targets and Goals,” which pertained to the city’s intent to “Minimize risk and litigation exposure.” Continue reading →

Free to the public, the musicians of the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band and the Bescoby Family will present Hot Summer Nights on Monday June 17, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will be held at Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium located on the campus of Chaffey High School at 1245 North Euclid Avenue in Ontario.
The Woodwind Celebration Ensemble will present a pre-concert recital in the auditorium lobby at 7:00 p.m.
Highlighting the June concert will be guest vocal soloists Jana “Gigi” Garner and Brian Detwiler, along with trumpet soloist Steve Collins and the student dance troupe from the Inland Pacific Ballet.
Garner, a former voice-over artist and radio announcer and co-founder of the T Street Band, she will sing 99 Red Balloons, Down Under, Pride, and Wind Beneath My Wings.
Detwiler will sing the Gershwin Brothers 1930 song Embraceable You and Goin’ Out of My Head, a hit song recorded by Little Anthony and the Imperials in 1964.
Collins will be featured on flugelhorn in a ballad composed by Show Band Director Gabe Petrocelli entitled Your Smile.
Dancers from the Inland Pacific Ballet, which under the leadership of executive and artistic director Zaylin Cano is committed to the nurturing of new talent and providing an essential training ground for serious young dancers, will be featured in Be Our Guest, Pure Imagination, and Arabian Nights.
The musicians of the Show Band will perform two concert selections entitled Candide Suite, Movement 2 and A Day In Branch Brook Park, to be narrated by Chaffey Adult School Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kern Oduro and Pastor Gary Keith.