Drug Arrests

Two men and one woman from Oxnard were in Ventura County Jail on Thursday awaiting arraignment on various drug charges. The three were arrested early Wednesday after detectives got a tip that drugs were being sold out of two homes near Kamala Elementary School, an Oxnard police spokesman said. Another Oxnard man at the scene was taken into custody on unrelated charges, the spokesman said.

In a case that could cast suspicion on lawn ornaments everywhere, authorities say they have busted a drug ring that used concrete donkey statues to smuggle $1.5 million worth of marijuana into the Los Angeles area. At least 15 people have been arrested in connection with the scheme to ship 1,800 pounds of pot in 200 concrete burros, which were discovered last month in a shipping container at the Port of Long Beach.

The credibility of the author who accused Texas Gov. George W. Bush of having once been arrested on cocaine charges came under fire Thursday, and his publisher halted sales and promotion of the book. The author, James H. Hatfield, is a felon who was convicted 11 years ago in an attempt to kill his ex-boss with a car bomb, according to an Arkansas parole officer. The news stunned his publisher, St. Martin's Press, which Thursday halted publication of the Bush biography "Fortunate Son."

A man died in the custody of Costa Mesa police Tuesday after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said. Richard Donald Kurtz, 45, was taken into custody about 2:45 p.m. Saturday after he was spotted driving erratically, said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bryan Glass. Shortly after being booked at 4:30 p.m. he was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach "due to concerns" for his well-being, a police statement said.

Brea Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher is proposing legislation that would require state officials to notify school districts when a teacher arrested on drug-related charges is diverted into a treatment program. Daucher, a former teacher and school board member for the Brea Olinda Unified School District, says the need to disclose such an arrest outweighs teachers' privacy rights because they work with children and serve as role models, said Chris Mowrer, the Republican lawmaker's chief of staff.

A Riverside County sheriff's deputy was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing steroids and other drugs without a prescription, authorities said. Sheriff's officials said an investigation revealed that Deputy Jack Williams had steroids, Valium and Ritalin in his car, home and on his person. He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. Williams, who had been a deputy for two years, resigned from the Sheriff's Department after the arrest.

For the third straight year, drug arrests rose in 1994 on American college campuses, according to a survey. Results being released by the Chronicle of Higher Education revealed 6,138 drug violations--23% more than in 1993. This follows increases of 34% in 1993 and 46% in 1992. Drug arrests are up partly because more private colleges are gaining arresting authority for their law enforcement officers, said Douglas F.

The city commission of Miami Beach approved an ordinance requiring police to report drug arrests to employers. University of Miami President Tad Foote, chairman of the Miami Coalition for a Drug-Free Community, said the ordinance will make Miami Beach a leader in drug control. The ordinance was believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the measure, and commissioners agreed to seek a court opinion on its constitutionality.

With Los Angeles County leading the way, the number of felony drug arrests in California increased 67% from 1980 to 1985, the state attorney general's office reported Monday. The report suggested that Los Angeles County has a proportionately larger and faster growing drug problem than the state as a whole, and that the county's drug dealers also peddle more dangerous substances. To some local law enforcement officials, the findings were further confirmation of an obvious trend.

Police swept a strip of four motels in the 5600 block of Lincoln Avenue on Tuesday, arresting 14 people on narcotics charges, Sgt. Gordon Re said. For the last two months, undercover members of the Police Department's special narcotics team had targeted street-level drug dealers along the strip, where methamphetamines and other drugs were sold from motel rooms, police said. Based on the investigation, warrants were issued for five men and five women, ranging in age from 22 to 42, Re said.