Valley Center

Richard Lee Bell received congratulations from Municipal Judge Michael Harris on Friday for progress he has made in his psychiatric treatment since he was placed on probation last January. Bell, 27, of Valley Center had pleaded “no contest” to charges that he had tried to run down a construction worker and then waved a flashlight in a threatening manner. Bell’s attorney, Richard Savitz, told the judge during the probation review hearing that the therapist, who had testified that Bell said he would make the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre look like “a walk through a rose garden,” now himself is under investigation by the state Board of Behavioral Science Examiners. Harris refused to go into the matter and scheduled a second probation review for Bell on Oct. 11.