A factional war has broken out between traditionalist conservatives and accommodationists within the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee that is threatening to destroy the spirit of coordination and purpose that has allowed San Bernardino County to remain as one of the last bastions of Republicanism in the Golden State.
The intraparty fighting is so intense that the ascendency of the GOP locally, which has remained intact against substantial odds throughout the decade-and-a-half since the sheer numbers of voters in California’s largest geographic county grew to favor the Democrats, could be shattered, such that more than a dozen Republican candidates who were previously considered shoo-ins in local races are in danger of being voted out of office.
In 2021, Phil Cothran, Sr. was selected chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Commitee. His advancement to that position seemed a solid choice. As the owner of the State Farm Cothran Insurance Agency in Fontana, his success in the business world had enabled him to become a major contributor to Republican candidates and causes beginning in the 1990s. His support of Acquanetta Warren, a Republican councilwoman in Fontana from 2002 until 2010, at which point she ran for mayor of the former steel city, was key to her victory that year and subsequently in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Consistently since her election as mayor, Warren was able to build and maintain a ruling coalition on the Fontana City Council composed of Republicans, a remarkable feat, given that for over a decade  registered Democrats have outnumbered Republicans in the city by a roughly 5-to-2 margin. Through active efforts at coordination among Republicans and drives to get out the Republican vote, Fontana long served as a model for the rest of San Bernardino County, where likewise, with only a few exceptions in the county’s desert areas, Republicans are at a numeric disadvantage to their Democratic counterparts. Continue reading →

More than seven weeks after Judge Arthur Benner II and more than three weeks after Judge Shannon Faherty “erred on the side of caution” and allowed five counts of attempted murder to stand against 18-year-old Sebastian Bailey Villaseñor relating to what was previously alleged to be extensive plans to shoot several students at the high school he attended, an effort is on to foreclose the matter by having the youth committed to a mental institution.
Such a resolution would allow a whole host of individuals – from officials with the school to members of the Ontario Police Department to the district attorney’s office to at least three members of the bench who have overseen the case against Villaseñor and its continuation – to save face following the revelation that elements of the case were exaggerated, misrepresented or outright fabricated.
Villaseñor, 18 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. Continue reading →

Chino municipal officials and community members are intensifying their protests lodged with Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over the relocation of dozens of prisoners on San Quentin’ Prisons Death Row to the California Institution for Men in Chino. Those protests include a demand from Mayor Eunice Ulloa that that the 39 inmates already transferred to Chino be removed and that any planned future importation of condemned men there be rescinded.
Governor Newsom, who was first elected governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022 after easily surviving a recall attempt in 2021, is opposed to the death penalty, having publicly opined that “The intentional killing of another person is wrong” and that “Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure,” having “discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation.” Newsom, upon coming into office, at once imposed a moratorium on executions and pursued the dismantling of the state’s two Death Rows – the inner high-security portion of San Quentin where 650 condemned men were housed and the housing unit within the Chowchilla Prison where the 21 women consigned to death have been kept. In January 2020, as Newsom was approaching his one-year anniversary as governor, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation initiated a pilot plan which involved transferring 104 inmates off of Death Row to other high-security prisons over a two-year period. Continue reading →

In what was at least the sixth fatal confrontation with a civilian in 2024 by a member or members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, a 32-year-old Hesperia man was shot by deputies in Victorville yesterday morning after he was twice hit by vehicles while walking on Mariposa Road.
“On Thursday, May 9, 2024, at 9:58 a.m., deputies from the Victorville Station responded to multiple calls of a vehicle vs. pedestrian traffic collision on Mariposa Road,” according to a statement put out by the sheriff’s department. “Callers reported the pedestrian, later identified as Nicholas Contreras, was hit by a second vehicle as he continued to walk around after the first collision.
“When deputies arrived at the scene, they attempted to contact Contreras and discovered he was armed with a knife,” the sheriff’s department statement continues. “Deputies gave Contreras multiple commands to drop the knife and get on the ground. Contreras refused to obey the commands, advanced toward the deputies, and a lethal force encounter occurred. Contreras was struck by gunfire and despite lifesaving measures, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
The shooting occurred in the vicinity of 12870 Mariposa Road, according to the department.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office will pursue capital convictions against two of the five foreign nationals involved in the killing of six other drug traffickers during what was apparently a botched marijuana-for-money transaction on January 23 near Shadow Mountain Ghost Town, touching off reports that a deal had been cut with one of the five accused murderers for his testimony against his co-defendants.
Based on cryptic and shrouded information that has been released as a consequence of the justice system process to which Jose Manuel Burgos Parra, 26; Jose Nicolas Hernandez-Sarabia, 33; Toniel Baez-Duarte, 34; Mateo Baez-Duarte, 24; and Jose Gregorio Hernandez-Sarabia, 34, are being subjected or which has otherwise been assembled in the aftermath of the killings of Narcisco Sandoval, 47; Kevin Dariel Bonilla, 25; Baldemar Mondragon-Albarran, 34; Jose Ruelas-Calderon, 45; Adrian Ochoa-Salgado, 34; and Franklin Noel Bonilla, 22, it appears the architect of the narrative the district attorney’s office will seek to utilize in prosecuting the case is being provided by Toniel Baez-Duarte. In return, the elder Baez-Duarte brother will not be subject to the prosecutorial and sentencing enhancements that will be visited on the other four defendants.
While members of the sheriff’s department and prosecutors have acknowledged in exchanges with one another that Toniel Baez-Duarte’s story may or may not be true in several of its aspects, based on what he has had to say there are relative stages and depths of evil in what occurred on January 23 and led up to it.
The worst actors, according to Toniel Baez-Duarte, were Parra and Jose Hernandez-Sarabia. Continue reading →

In what was at least the sixth fatal confrontation with a civilian in 2024 by a member or members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, a 32-year-old Hesperia man was shot by deputies in Victorville yesterday morning after he was twice hit by vehicles while walking on Mariposa Road.
“On Thursday, May 9, 2024, at 9:58 a.m., deputies from the Victorville Station responded to multiple calls of a vehicle vs. pedestrian traffic collision on Mariposa Road,” according to a statement put out by the sheriff’s department. “Callers reported the pedestrian, later identified as Nicholas Contreras, was hit by a second vehicle as he continued to walk around after the first collision.
“When deputies arrived at the scene, they attempted to contact Contreras and discovered he was armed with a knife,” the sheriff’s department statement continues. “Deputies gave Contreras multiple commands to drop the knife and get on the ground. Contreras refused to obey the commands, advanced toward the deputies, and a lethal force encounter occurred. Contreras was struck by gunfire and despite lifesaving measures, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
The shooting occurred in the vicinity of 12870 Mariposa Road, according to the department.

FBN 20240002629
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
THE BEAUTY VAULT 1357 KENDALL DR STE 16 SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92407: HARDIMAN HOLDINGS ENTERPRISE LLC 11109 AMARILLO STREET RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91701
Business Mailing Address: 11109 AMARILLO STREET RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91701
The business is conducted by: A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY registered with the State of California under the number 202461211225.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: March 11, 2024.
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/ DERRICK EUGENE THOMAS HARDIMAN, CEO
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 3/18/2024
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 J2526
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 April 19 & 26 and May 3 & 10, 2024.

FBN 20240002550
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
RM ACADEMY LLC 13673 SMOKESTONE ST. RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739: RM ACADEMY LLC 13673 SMOKESTONE ST. RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739
Business Mailing Address: 13673 SMOKESTONE ST. RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91739
The business is conducted by: A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY registered with the State of California under the number 202460718541.
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: January 1, 2024.
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/ RAISA TEIXEIRA ESPARZA, CEO
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 3/14/2024
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 J6748
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 April 19 & 26 and May 3 & 10, 2024.

FBN 20240003710
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
CHEXMATE INVESTIGATIONS 1525 VIGILANT ST UPLAND, CA 91784: KENNETH W COUNTS
Business Mailing Address: 8780 19TH STREET #154 ALTA LOMA, CA 91701
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/ KENNETH W COUNTS, Owner
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 4/17/2024
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 J3108
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 April 19 & 26 and May 3 & 10, 2024.

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