Oxnard Graffiti Reports Drop ‘Off the Wall’

Oxnard is “off the wall.” And proud of it.

That’s the name Oxnard police have given to a program they credit for dramatically slashing the number of graffiti reports in the county’s most populous city during the last four years.

According to Det. Lee Barnard, nearly 24,000 reports of such vandalism in 1996 dropped to slightly more than 13,000 in 1997, about 10,000 in 1998 and roughly 3,000 last year.

Authorities attribute some of the decline to fewer of the crimes being reported, as more homeowners and businesses opt to clean up the damage themselves.

But Barnard said good policing is responsible for much of the decrease.

For example, under the Off the Wall program, police in 1996 for the first time dedicated a full-time detective to investigate graffiti cases. Barnard, the city’s current graffiti cop, said more vandals are being prosecuted and large fines have been levied against them.

Barnard has spoken to dozens of Neighborhood Watch leaders and encouraged them to report graffiti by using cellular telephones issued by authorities.

“They let me know what is going on and they are very active,” Barnard said. “Taggers and gang members know these people have flashlights and phones and other resources, so they are concerned about getting caught.”

There are about 60 graffiti crews in Oxnard, authorities said. In 1992, the city spent half a million dollars to paint over taggers’ signs and symbols. The cleanup bill last year was less than $200,000.

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Prosecutors say they will decide this week whether to file felony child endangerment charges against a Port Hueneme woman whose 2-year-old son drowned in December after falling off a jetty.

It’s a complicated case, said the lead detective, because there were no witnesses, and the boy’s mother, Diana Smith, 41, suffers from diagnosed mental health troubles.

“Nobody wants her to be painted as a bad mother, but something happened out there,” said Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Ken Dobbe.

The body of the victim, Auguste Forest Scott, was found Christmas Eve about 100 yards offshore near a lighthouse in Port Hueneme.

Mother and son were walking their dog, Bucky, on Dec. 23 when Auguste fell. It appears the dog wasn’t on a leash, and Smith may have been chasing it, Dobbe said.

At the time Auguste fell into the water, authorities believe his mother was more than 400 feet away from him, Dobbe said.

“Only she knows how long he was out of her sight,” he said.

Smith immediately reported her son missing, and authorities did an exhaustive search of the area that day but did not find Auguste. The following day, a Coast Guard boat found the body.

Smith has not been arrested.

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Oxnard officers went to a home on Pericles Place recently to arrest a woman on a felony drug warrant and stumbled onto an alleged mail-fraud ring.

The way Senior Officer Jason Benites tells it, officers were inside the house looking for the woman when they came across a bucket on the floor stuffed with stolen checks soaking in bleach.

The bleach apparently erases pen ink from a check, which can be filled in again with a new dollar amount and a new payee once it is dry.

Authorities said they also found mail and other checks that had been stolen a month earlier from dozens of mailboxes in Oxnard, Camarillo, Somis, Santa Barbara and Culver City.

The mail was seized, along with a computer, stolen driver’s licenses and two types of paper, authorities said. One was used to print checks from a computer and the other, stolen from the DMV, to print temporary driver’s licenses, authorities said.

“There could be other people involved,” Benites said, “but it seems like we caught it fairly soon.”

The woman who was wanted on suspicion of drug possession was not at the residence at the time. But two other suspects got arrested in the alleged stolen-check caper. Ronald Keith Miller, 41, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a fraudulent check, and Michael Andriese was arrested on suspicion of possessing a stolen check.

Additional charges are pending, and both men have since been released from jail on their promises to appear in court.

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It’s not a good season for cabbies in Ventura.

Since Dec. 6, three drivers for Yellow Cab of Ventura have been robbed at gunpoint by fares, said Ventura Police Det. Ralph Martinez.

In each case, the robber called for a taxi in or near downtown Ventura and then asked to be taken to a location in Ventura or Montalvo. Just before the cab reached the destination, the robber made his move.

“It’s just someone desperate for money and a ride,” Martinez said.

The same man could be responsible for all three holdups, because of a similarity in the suspect descriptions and method of operation, Martinez said.

Police have released a composite sketch of the suspect in the most recent heist, which occurred Jan. 5. The suspect, who told the taxi dispatcher his name was “Rick,” is Latino, about 5 feet 10, 165 pounds and has a buzz haircut and a neatly trimmed dark mustache.

Anyone with information is asked to call Martinez at 339-4472.

Holly Wolcott can be reached at 653-7581 or by e-mail at holly.wolcott@latimes.com.