A most unusual letter, written by a police sergeant, arrived here in the PD newsroom.
It stated that crime reporter Julie Johnson omitted something important from her June 20 story on the arrest of a suspect in the attack on Austin Ridge. He is the disabled Sonoma Valley man who'd been riding his customized tricycle in April when someone beat and stabbed him.
What Julie left out of the story, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Mike Lazzarini wrote, was her own, key role in linking suspect Logan Dunning to the assault.
One of the basic facts Julie learned while interviewing Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies and reporting on the mystery of who attacked Austin Ridge the night of April 25 was that the assault occurred on Lucas Avenue in Boyes Hot Springs.
Six days later, Julie took on an entirely different story, in Santa Rosa. She reported May 1 that city police arrested 22-year-old Logan Dunning on suspicion of burglarizing vehicles and setting them afire near West Third Street.
Julie learned that Dunning has family in that neighborhood, but he was living then with a grandmother on Sonoma Valley's Lucas Avenue - the street on which Austin Ridge was attacked.
It surprised the SRPD's Lazzarini when Julie asked if the burglary-arson suspect "had anything in his history which might demonstrate a tendency toward violence."
Detectives who'd arrested Dunning had noticed injuries to his hands - he told them he'd fallen. Julie's question caused them to consider the possibility that Dunning had in fact hurt his hands attacking Austin Ridge.
The SRPD advised Sheriff's detectives that Dunning might be their man in the Boyes Hot Springs assault case.
They searched the Lucas Avenue house where Dunning lived prior to being jailed in connection with the Santa Rosa car fires. They said they found blood evidence that contains victim Ridge's DNA.
Julie's story that burglary-arson suspect Dunning was also arrested for the attempted murder of Ridge caused Sgt. Lazzarini to write to the PD.
He took Julie gently to task for reporting that police and sheriff's investigators had linked the Sonoma Valley attack and the Santa Rosa car fires.
"In actuality," the sergeant wrote, "Julie deserves the credit."
PLACARD CHEATERS: Did you happen to catch the TV news report about dozens of NASCAR fans being issued costly tickets for illegally using disabled placards to try get close-in parking at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma?
The piece by KRON's Stanley Roberts sent me to the PD's archives. In 2005 I reported that Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies wrote 89 tickets to NASCAR spectators who'd tried snag handicapped parking spaces at the raceway with placards that weren't theirs. Some of them used the placards of dead relatives.
Seven years later, people still don't know better than to show up at the former Infineon with a fraudulent placard. Deputies at the NASCAR race last month cited 40 fans and confiscated the placards they had no business hanging on their rear-view mirrors.
Check out the KGO report (youtube.com/watch?v=WZAwDAdyvpU) for the part where a cheater draws a citation despite slipping the deputy a peek at his U.S. Border Patrol badge.
PINER LIGHTS: A July 21 festival of music, food and frivolity will raise money for field lights at Piner High's Jim Underhill Stadium, and you needn't be a Piner grad to go.
The event at Snoopy's Ball Field, behind the Schulz Museum, will double as a 1970s reunion. So you don't want to miss it, especially if you were at Piner between 1969 and '80.
The fest seeks to raise at least $50,000 for stadium lights. Once that's in hand, an anonymous donor has promised to kick in another $50,000.
As a nod to '70s classes, the event (pinerhighschoolreunion2012.com) will include an attempt to form 600 or so people into the shape of a peace sign and take a picture of it from the sky.
If you've got an airplane and can take the photographer up, event volunteer Lynn Benoit would love a chat.
Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.
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