Editor’s note: The following is the Avalon Sheriff’s Station significant incidents report for the week of Aug. 16 to Aug. 22.
All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Many people who are arrested do not get prosecuted in the first place and many who are prosecuted do not get convicted.
August 16
Editor’s note: The following is the Avalon Sheriff’s Station significant incidents report for the week of Aug. 16 to Aug. 22.
All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Many people who are arrested do not get prosecuted in the first place and many who are prosecuted do not get convicted.
August 16
• Deputies received a call of a lost hiker in the interior of the island. The Search and Rescue Team was activated. After hours of searching for the man, he was located safe on one of the small trails near Whites Landing.
August 17
• Rita Ashman, a 58-year-old from Oceano, California, was scuba diving off Santa Barbara Island when she experienced a diving accident. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s helicopter airlifted her from the boat she was diving from to the U.S.C. Hyperbaric Chamber on Catalina Island in an attempt to save her life. Despite all the effort to save her, Ashman died at the Hyperbaric Chamber.
August 18
• A 23-year-old man contacted a deputy and complained he had been kicked out of a club in the 100 block of Sumner Avenue for being intoxicated. The man wanted the deputy to make the bartenders serve him more alcohol. The deputy arrested Evan Whatley, of San Pedro, on suspicion of public intoxication.
August 19
• Nothing significant to report.
August 20
• Deputies received a call of a person causing a disturbance in the 128 block of Sumner Avenue. The man was yelling at others in the area. The deputies contacted the disturbing individual, who agreed to leave the area. There were no criminal laws violated.
August 21
• A victim was on his boat at Two Harbors when he learned that someone illegally used his credit card in the City of Walnut, California, to purchase several items. Deputies contact the victim and wrote a crime report. More than $1,000 was charged to the victim’s credit card.
August 22
• Deputies, Baywatch Avalon and other first responders received a call of a boat that had gone onto the rocks near Whites Landing. Baywatch Avalon, Baywatch Isthmus and the Coast Guard responded. No one was on the boat. Deputies contacted that boat’s owner and confirmed he was safe.
Safety Note: Please remember, 911 calls are only for emergencies. Do not call 911 unless you have an emergency. Someone’s life could depend upon it.
