Police Blotter: April 1, 2022
Wednesday, March 23
Claremont Police Department officers on patrol at 2:17 a.m. noticed an expired registration tag on a 2002 Ford F150 pickup truck and pulled it over near the corner of Base Line Rd. and Monte Vista Ave. A subsequent record check on the driver, Ronald Hernandez, 58, from Montclair, turned up two San Bernardino County arrest warrants. Officers said they then did a “pat down” search of his passenger, 36-year-old Fontana resident Michael Rodarte, because he was wearing baggy clothing, which prevented them from determining whether or not he was armed. That search allegedly turned up a small clear plastic container of methamphetamine and a meth pipe. Both men were then arrested, Hernandez on the warrants, and Rodarte on two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. They were transported to the CPD jail, booked, and released with citations to appear in Pomona Superior Court.
A bleeding, bruised and battered 12-year-old boy was hospitalized and then taken into protective custody after walking into the lobby of Motel 6, 840 S. Indian Hill Blvd., at 4:51 p.m. and telling motel staff his mother had just beaten him with a belt in one of the rooms. Arriving officers found the boy with small lacerations and welts all over his upper body, a black eye, welts on his shoulders and upper back, and an abrasion on his forehead. They then went to the room where his mother, Deshaunda Hinton, 33, from Las Vegas, allegedly admitted to beating her son. She said he’d been playing with matches in the motel room bathroom, “so she needed to discipline him,” according to police. The boy admitted to playing with matches, adding that he hadn’t set anything on fire. Police found no damage to the bathroom. His mother first began hitting the boy with a spatula before moving on to the belt, police said. The wounded boy was transported to the emergency room at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center for treatment of his injuries. He was later released into the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services. Police said the boy has family in Oakland, and DCFS was attempting to contact them. Hinton, whom police say was in town with her son while working an unidentified job nearby, was arrested on a felony count of causing corporal injury upon a child and transported to Century Regional Detention Facility in Downey to await her arraignment in Pomona Superior Court.
Thursday, March 24
Police were called to Launderland, 1021 W. Foothill Blvd., at 4:10 p.m. by witnesses reporting an apparently intoxicated person drinking a 24 ounce can of Mickey’s Big Mouth beer and yelling obscenities at customers. Arriving officers say they found a 37-year-old unhoused man in “a high level of intoxication,” so much so that a field sobriety test was impossible. The man was arrested for misdemeanor drunk in public and transported to the CPD jail for booking and a few hours of detox. He was released late that evening with a citation to appear before a judge.
Friday, March 25
A 61-year-old woman at work in Arcadia received a 11:07 a.m. ping on her smart phone notifying her that her security cameras had picked up movement inside her Claremont home. She then opened the security app and says she saw a Black man with a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants standing in her bedroom in the 3600 block of Williams Ave. She immediately dialed CPD, who responded to the location within one minute. Despite that impossibly fast response time, whoever had entered the woman’s home through an open rear bathroom window was gone. Police then searched through security camera footage and say they saw a second person had also been in the home, a Black male with a white hooded sweater and grey pants. Both men were wearing surgical masks, and got away with an unknown amount of jewelry. Cops interviewed a neighbor who was in his back yard at the time, but he didn’t see or hear anything. Same with another neighbor who was in his garage. Anyone with any information that might help with this investigation is urged to call CPD at (909) 399-5411.
Saturday, March 26
A 34-year-old unhoused man was taken into custody at 9:51 p.m. after employees at Viva Madrid restaurant, 225 Yale Ave., allegedly recognized him as the man who had skipped out on a bill in December. Arriving officers found the man standing in front of nearby Rhino Records, and said they noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from him, he was swaying from side to side, was having difficulty standing, and was slurring his speech. Police say he admitted previously consuming two tall cans of beer “and a few shooters.” Viva Madrid management declined to pursue prosecution for the previous alleged dine and dash, but CPD took him into custody for misdemeanor drunk in public, and he spent the rest of his night sobering up in the Claremont jail before being released in the early morning with a ticket and a court date.
Monday, March 28
A 24-year-old West Covina man, Michael Lucero, wanted on a felony conspiracy charge stemming from a 2021 catalytic converter theft arrest in Claremont, was back behind bars after San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies detained him at 5 p.m. on an unrelated matter and found the Pomona Superior Court bench warrant for his arrest. Claremont police had their initial run-in with Lucero the morning of February 10, 2021 near Mountain and San Jose avenues, when they allegedly saw a man underneath a truck parked nearby attempting to remove its converter. They allege that man was 26-year-old Fontana resident Johnny Cervantes, and the man sitting behind the wheel of the getaway car was Lucero. Both were arrested without incident, charged with one count each of felony grand theft and vehicle tampering, a misdemeanor, and released with citations to appear in court. Later, a lawyer from the L.A. County District Attorney’s office modified those charges to include an additional felony, “two or more people conspiring to commit a crime.” But Lucero failed to appear in Pomona court to answer to those charges on November 9, 2021, and a judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. After San Bernardino County Sheriffs alerted them they had Lucero in custody, CPD officers traveled out there and took custody of him. Lucero was booked into the Claremont jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, and appeared in Pomona court March 29.
