Best restaurants results inside. pages 7-14 THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 15, Number 20
Parents explore LJ schools cluster BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS Parents from La Jolla’s schools want to ensure that their voices are heard loud and clear before school district officials. A group of 10 parents (two from each school) is working to organize La Jolla’s schools into an official cluster, similar to the Point Loma cluster, in the hope of building a strong platform to represent the schools before the Board of Education. The group presented its ideas before a favorable crowd of 130 parents, teachers and administrators at the inaugural La Jolla cluster meeting on Jan. 21 at La Jolla High
School auditorium. “We’ll have a much stronger voice if the district understands what we need,” said Lisa Bonebrake, a parent of a first- and a third-grader at Bird Rock Elementary. “If the district knows that we’re speaking for 5,000 families, we’ll have a much louder advocacy than one parent standing up there asking for the district to save a program.” Board of Education member John de Beck, who represents the coastal schools, said the cluster isn’t going to solve the budget crisis but it’s a start. SEE CLUSTER, Page 2
HOLY ROLLERS! Huge waves, as tall as buildings, explode off the coast of La Jolla Jan. 20, making for an awe-inspiring sight for eyewitnesses. DON BALCH | VILLAGE NEWS
Bandits get 3 years for violating parole BY NEAL PUTNAM | VILLAGE NEWS After a judge said bluntly “you guys blew it,” three members of the so-called Bird Rock Bandits were sentenced Jan. 22 to three years in state prison for violating terms of their probation that the judge described as “the break of a lifetime” for their roles in the 2007 beating death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. “What a sad ending to senseless conduct. I promised each of you if you violated probation, I would send you to prison,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn. “I am living up to my side of the sentencing … The overriding concern of mine is that I do consider them still a danger to the community.” Matthew Yanke, 23, Orlando Osuna, 24, and Eric House, 22, all of La Jolla, got prison after the judge revoked terms of their 2008 probation after they pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. A murder charge was dropped after they reached a plea agreement in 2008, and Seth Cravens, now 24, stood trial alone and was convicted of second-degree murder. Cravens is serving 20 years to life in prison.
“You guys blew it. I’m done being your cheerleader. At the time of sentencing, I clearly told you that you were getting the break of a lifetime.” JUDGE JOHN EINHORN SAN DIEGO SUPERIOR COURT
The Bird Rock Bandits were known as a group who sometimes crashed parties and punched people, mostly with Cravens as the lead attacker. It was Cravens’ lethal punch to Kauanui’s face that caused his death when his skull was fractured after his head hit the pavement in front of his La Jolla home on May 24, 2007. He died four days later in a hospital. “You guys blew it. I’m done being your cheerleader,” Einhorn said. “At the time of sentencing, I clearly told you that you were getting the break of a lifetime. I find it to be significant violations.” All three tested positive for marijuana use in 2009, with Osuna testing positive in nine separate tests. They were barred from associating with each other, drinking alcohol or visiting nightclubs or bars for three years. The
judge heard testimony from Kauanui’s girlfriend who said she saw Yanke and Osuna together in a nightclub Dec. 4. Deputy District Attorney Sophia Roach introduced evidence from the trio’s Facebook pages, including photos that suggested they were drinking alcohol and were fraternizing. House and Yanke were seen together at a chili cook off. Roach said a news photo of Cravens was posted in which they wrote they “wished Cravens well.” Roach urged four-year prison terms. She said the marijuana use was “really a slap in the face” to probation conditions. Roach said the trio had contacted people they were barred from associating with and had traveled outside San Diego County without permission. The prosecutor said House was in possession of a firearm during deer hunting season in another state. Felons are barred from contact with firearms. Attorneys for all three men urged that probation be reinstated, and each offered their client to waive all 246 days already served in jail in order to get up to a year in jail with probation. Osuna’s lawyer, Kerry Yianilos, said marijuana SEE PAROLE, Page 3
Ian Brininstool, 13, along with friend Quinn Mitruka, both Muirlands Middle School stuPAUL HANSEN | VILLAGE NEWS dents, at the Jan. 25 Craig Noel Awards.
Critics name LJ teen actor Outstanding Young Artist BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS Five years have passed since Bird Rock resident Ian Brininstool captured the limelight in his leading role as Oliver Twist at the Starlight Theater. If you didn’t see the play, you may remember his angelic voice and shock of blond hair from rounds of interviews with local TV stations. Now, 13-year-old Ian has inspired the San Diego Theater Critics Circle to create a new award to recognize his performance as Rudy in “Over the Tavern” at the North Coast
Repertory last summer. Ian received the “Outstanding Young Artist Award” at the Craig Noel Awards ceremony held Jan. 25 at Sherwood Auditorium. “His performance was so outstanding that we bent our rules and made a special category for him,” said Charlene Baldridge, one of the group’s nine members, and a freelance theater critic for the La Jolla Village News. Such recognition is just another feather in Ian’s adorned cap, SEE ACTOR, Page 5