On a roll
Longtime SB Zoo director retires
SBCC women’s soccer sets seaon-high with fourth straight win - A3
Nancy McToldridge leaving position after 40 years - B1
Our 167th Year
75¢
MON DAY, O C TOBE R 10 , 2 02 2
Ed Begley Jr. speaks in Goleta
Man pleads guilty in Lompoc arson case William Morales charged with setting Lompoc mental health clinic on fire with people inside
Actor speaks about his career and the environment at Congregation B’nai B’rith
By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
A Lompoc man has pleaded guilty to arson for setting fire Aug. 2 to a Lompoc mental health clinic with people still trapped inside. He agreed to a prison term of five years, prosecutors said. William Morales, who had been charged with arson and attempted murder, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors to plead guilty to arson in exchange for them dropping the other charge, Deputy Public Defender Madison Whitmore said Thursday. Mr. Morales, 36, appeared in court Wednesday for the start of his preliminary hearing when he and prosecutors made the deal. “Yesterday, the defendant William Morales pled guilty to a violation of 451(b), arson of an inhabited structure for a five-year prison sentence,” DDA Whitmore said last Thursday. “He is being sentenced on Oct. 19 in Lompoc court. “The other charges will be dismissed in exchange for the plea bargain. Once he is sentenced, he will go to prison for five years on the 451, which is a violent felony, and he will be required to register as an arsonist.” Lompoc police officers were dispatched to the mental health clinic in the 1000 block of East Ocean Avenue at about 12:43 p.m. Aug. 2 regarding a man who was allegedly attempting to assault staff, Lompoc police said. While officers were en route, dispatch advised them that the man was allegedly trying to set the building on fire. Officers responded with lights and sirens and located Mr. Morales in the 100 block of North Third Street. He was holding a large piece of wood, which police said he threw at officers when they exited their patrol cars. The stick did not hit an officer, but it did strike a patrol vehicle. Police said Mr. Morales refused
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Barbara Greenleaf and Ed Begley Jr., also shown at right, engage in a talk at the Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara on Sunday.
By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITERS
One of actor Ed Begley Jr.’s first efforts to help the environment occurred back in 1970, when he found it hard to compost while living in an apartment. So he filled a diaper pail with food leftovers he normally would toss, let it “ripen” for four or five days and dumped it in a hole on the side of some railroad tracks. “Tomatoes started growing!” he told a packed audience during a Sunday interview at a Goleta synagogue. “It was the most neglectful garden you’ve ever heard of.” He’s grown vegetable gardens ever since. The audience laughed and applauded, two reactions he received often while telling stories about his twin passions of acting and environmental work during the interview at Congregation B’nai B’rith with ECO Team founder and author Barbara Greenleaf. Bad news about the environment tends to dominate the headlines, focusing on such things as climate change, the loss of the polar regions, the growing frequency/strength of hurricanes and wildfires and seemingly never-ending drought. But it’s just as important to celebrate environmental gains over the years, he said, such as fewer major oil spills off the coast, a major reduction in “horrible,” choking smog despite
four times the number of vehicles on the road and millions more people living in Los Angeles, elimination of CFS use in air conditioners and refrigerators that increased the ozone hole, and increased use of solar panels and wind turbines. “We all did this together,” he said. “We’ve had great successes. It’s kind of amazing.” And more can be done, he said, promising “We can do this without going broke. But it must be a bipartisan effort.” He credited his father, actor Ed Begley Sr., with steering him not just into acting but also into protecting the environment. “He was an environmentalist without using the word,” turning off lights and water when they weren’t needed. “He inspired me. He was a good man in so many ways.” Mr. Begley said he knew as a child that he wanted to be an actor just like his father, but noted that he would have followed in his father’s footsteps no matter what he did. “If my dad was a plumber, I’d be fitting pipe right now.” Ms. Greenleaf went back and forth between asking Mr. Begley about his acting career and his passion to protect the environment. She asked him about his breakthrough role in the ‘80s on the hit show, “St. Elsewhere.” He said he and his wife were struggling to make the mortgage
FOLLOW US ON
66833 00050
3
email: nhartstein@newspress.com
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company awarded at Great American Beer Festival By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
when the phone rang. It was his agent urging him to audition for the show. He didn’t land the role, but accepted another that had just one or two lines in the pilot episode. That role blossomed into a six-year stint on the show,
which ignited his full-time acting career. Since then, he’s worked on many television shows, movies and stage productions. His movies included “Going South” with Jack Nicholson and “ShePlease see BEGLEY on A2
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company has continued a 12-year-long tradition, winning at the Great American Beer Festival, the nation’s largest beer competition and what Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease calls “the Academy Awards of the American craft brewing community.” The Buellton brewery took home two awards, winning bronze medals for their Hoppy Poppy IPA and Dreaming of Bamberg beers. Figueroa Mountain now has the distinction of being the only brewery that has medaled in
every competition since 2011, with a running total of 31 pieces of hardware. Perhaps more impressively though, is that this win brings the company’s medal count for all major beer competitions past the 200 mark, to a total of 201 … for now, at least. “We feel so fortunate to have been recognized with these awards,” said an ecstatic Kevin Ashford, brewmaster and creative director at Figueroa Mountain. “Keeping a streak of wins longer than any other American brewery shows that brewing great beer is more than just the work of one person; it’s about building a great Please see BEER on A2
LOTTERY
i nsi d e Classified.............. B4 Life..................... B1-2 Obituaries............. A4
6
their orders to get on the ground, instead throwing another piece of wood at them. He then retreated inside the building and slammed the door shut. Officers then heard people inside the building yelling that the clinic was on fire. They forced their way into the building and again ordered Mr. Morales to the ground. This time he complied and officers took him into custody. He became combative, however, and police took him to the emergency room for medical clearance. He remained combative in the ER, allegedly kicking an officer in the head. The building, meanwhile, was evacuated as the flames inside were growing. Officers knocked down the flames with their extinguishers. Responding Lompoc firefighters finished extinguishing the fire. Staff told officers that some victims had barricaded themselves to get away from Mr. Morales’ alleged violent behavior before he allegedly set the room on fire where the victims were located. The damage from the alleged arson was estimated to exceed $10,000. Once he was medically cleared, Mr. Morales was transported to the Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, arson of an inhabited dwelling, felony vandalism, felony resisting, criminal threats, resisting an arrest and a misdemeanor warrant. Mr. Morales, also known as William Ricardo Ibarra, was charged in an eight-count felony complaint, including “serious felonies” of arson and attempted murder of three specific women, criminal threats, assault with personal use of a deadly weapon (the piece of wood) and resisting arrest.
Sudoku................. B3 Sports ................A3-4 Weather................ A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 9-11-17-33-36 Mega: 7
Sunday’s DAILY 4: 5-6-4-3
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 6-11-29-36-55 Mega: 21
Sunday’s FANTASY 5: 1-18-33-35-37
Sunday’s DAILY DERBY: 06-09-12 Time: 1:41.19
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 13-43-53-60-68 Meganumber: 5
Sunday’s DAILY 3: 6-3-8 / Midday 0-0-4