Police Blotter: June 24, 2022
Tuesday, June 14
Claremont Police Department officers on 5 a.m. patrol at Larkin Park, 650 N. Mountain Ave., spotted a 2009 BMW car in the parking lot and approached it for a welfare check of its four occupants. A records check turned up a misdemeanor warrant for the driver, 31-year-old Claremont resident Michael Tenerelli, stemming from a California Highway Patrol ticket for allegedly driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph. A passenger, Ronnie Ruvalcaba, 31, from Van Nuys, was also arrested, for an outstanding no-bail parole violation warrant out of San Bernardino County. Both men were transported to CPD headquarters and booked. Tenerelli was released with a citation to appear for arraignment in Pomona Superior court; Ruvalcaba was transported to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he was jailed awaiting a date with a judge.
Wednesday, June 15
Officers responded to a 3:13 p.m. 911 call regarding someone sipping an unknown alcoholic beverage while running between cars in the roadway near the corner of Auto Center Dr. and Indian Hill Blvd. An arriving officer found the 36-year-old unhoused man at the nearby Chevron station. The suspect was reportedly holding a black stick in his hand and swinging it back and forth as if he was fighting someone. The officer approached the man, who was alone, and held him at “taser point” until backup arrived, at which time he cooperated and was arrested without further incident, charged with drunk in public, a misdemeanor. After booking he spent the rest of his afternoon and early evening detoxing in the Claremont jail before being released with a citation to appear in Pomona court.
Thursday, June 16
A 22-year-old Pomona man turned himself in at the Claremont Police Department station at 4:13 p.m. and was booked for misdemeanor battery. The charge stems from a March 27 incident in which he is alleged to have punched and pulled the hair of his then girlfriend, 20, and also from Pomona, during an argument they were having as she was driving near the Claremont Village. After the alleged assault the suspect is said to have jumped out of the car and fled on foot. The woman then pulled over in the Village and called 911 at 5:41 p.m. Arriving officers were unable to locate the suspect.
On April 5, CPD detectives contacted him by telephone and he reportedly denied the allegations. Claremont cops then filed a misdemeanor battery case with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which on April 19 issued a warrant for his arrest, assigning an arraignment date of July 18. Police then sent a letter to the man instructing him to surrender at CPD headquarters for booking. On June 16 he complied, and was booked and released pending the July 18 arraignment.
A 48-year-old Claremont man posted $20,000 bail and was freed shortly after noon following his arrest for domestic violence and child abuse. The incident began when his wife — 41 and also from Claremont — called police at 11:29 a.m. to report her husband had just struck her on her arm during a verbal argument, during which the couple’s 1-year-old daughter was present at their home in the 900 block of west Arrow Hwy. Arriving officers interviewed the couple separately. The victim said she had given her daughter a glass of water, which the baby had dropped on the floor, causing the glass to break.
This angered the suspect, she said, and the couple began arguing. The argument escalated to the point where the suspect struck his wife’s arm with an open hand, she added. The victim had no visible injuries and did not request medical attention. The suspect was arrested on two misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and child abuse, which is an add on charge in all cases where a minor child is a witness to domestic violence. The man was booked and jailed briefly before posting bail and being released with a citation to appear in Pomona Superior Court.
Friday, June 17
A 37-year-old unhoused man awaiting trial for felony resisting a police officer causing injury — a charge stemming from an incredibly violent and chaotic 2020 incident that sent four CPD officers to the hospital and two into retirement — was arrested again after allegedly exposing himself repeatedly to cars in the roadway near Mills Ave. and Scottsbluff Dr. A witness called CPD about 2:57 p.m. to report the incident. The arriving officer — who was unaware of the suspect’s allegedly violent past — found him at 3:14 p.m. on the 210 Freeway overpass at Mills Ave.
The officer asked the suspect to take a seat on the curb, to which he allegedly replied, “F—k you. I don’t have to do shit.” The officer repeated his command multiple times, and the man reportedly said, “F—k you, bitch. I don’t need to listen to you.” The officer then called for backup, and additional police arrived. The man was then put into handcuffs and arrested without further incident on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, as the witness did not desire prosecution on the indecent exposure charge.
Along the way, a records check revealed the man had previously been arrested after reportedly smoking a gram and-a-half of methamphetamine and eating an unknown quantity of “G,” a liquid form of the synthetic drug ecstasy, prior to a violent fight with six CPD and two Pomona PD officers. That May 19, 2020 incident began with a 2:09 p.m. call regarding two men fighting near the corner of Indian Hill Blvd. and San Jose Ave. Arriving officers attempted to break up the fight, but one of the men — the same 37-year-old unhoused man — then allegedly turned on police and began attacking them. This resulted in a call for emergency backup.
Three additional CPD units were quickly on the scene, bringing the total number of officers to six. The unhoused man then reportedly attempted to get control of one of the officers’ guns, and was then tasered, which police said had no effect on him. While attempting to taser him again, one of the CPD officers got tangled up in the taser wire and was inadvertently tasered. A third attempt at tasering the suspect unfortunately caught the same officer again, and he was shocked for a second time. Officers also tried multiple “pain compliance” moves on the suspect, wherein they administered control holds to his arms, wrists and fingers, but again, to no avail. Meanwhile two nearby Pomona officers got involved, bringing the total of police to eight.
That number proved to be enough to neutralize the man, and he was finally put into handcuffs and arrested. All told, four CPD officers suffered injuries in the incident. Those included bruises, injuries to the elbow and hand, lacerations, and bite wounds. All were treated at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and released.
Police later learned the two original combatants were in a romantic relationship, and the boyfriend told them about the suspect’s alleged prodigious drug consumption just prior to the melee. The violent ordeal was directly related to the subsequent retirement of two of the CPD officers injured in the clash. The other two Claremont police officers who were injured, including the one who was twice tasered during the fracas, are still on the force.
The suspect’s latest arrest, for misdemeanor resisting arrest, resulted in him being booked and released with a citation and a court date. His 2020 felony assault case has been postponed at least five times, mainly due to COVID-related court delays. The suspect is finally due to appear June 28 for a pre-trial hearing in Pomona Superior Court to face a judge on that case.
