The Region - News from July 10, 1985

A Washington state man was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the attempted murder of police officers during a freeway chase in Ventura County last year. Patrick Osborne, 23, was convicted by a jury in Ventura County Superior Court of having tried to murder California Highway Patrol Officers Troy Abney, Carla Bittner and Michael Shaw and Oxnard Police Officer Dennis McMaster during a high-speed chase last October. Osborn, a reputed member of the paramilitary Free Peoples Party, was on federal probation for conspiracy to possess unregistered firearms when he and a companion, Bradley Johnson, 26, were stopped in Oxnard by Abney and Bittner for driving without lights. Loot from an Oregon bank robbery was subsequently discovered in the car. Johnson was sentenced to 20 years in prison after his trial, and both men have been indicted on federal bank robbery charges.