For San Bernardino County Deputy Public Defender Christina Blazek — believed to be the last person to have seen Ng alive  — the nightmare began about a month later. That’s when Ng’s family and one of its representatives publicly disclosed Blazek’s name and accused her of being silent and uncooperative in the search for Ng’s body, as well as hindering a Guatemalan police investigation.

The whiff of mystery about Ng’s last moments alive and allegations that Blazek and the retreat organizer had refused to talk to Ng’s family or authorities — possibly rising to the level of a criminal investigation — triggered sometimes wild speculation from TikTok sleuths and YouTubers, as well as widespread media coverage.

In turn, that prompted an onslaught of online hate-mongering, harassment, cyberstalking and death threats against Blazek from as far away as Europe, according to Blazek’s attorney, G. Christopher Gardner.

“A killer you are. You are a killer!” one anonymous caller said in a message left on Blazek’s personal cellphone on Nov. 15.

Another caller left a more ominous voice message on Blazek’s cellphone the following day: “Hi Christina! Where’s Nancy? Huh? Stop hiding the truth. Tell us, tell us now, otherwise we’re gonna come for you.”

“There’s been hundreds of them,” Gardner said.

Not only are the allegations about Blazek untrue, Gardner said, they are potentially slanderous and libelous. And as a result, she is being traumatized all over again, he said.

“I’m appalled at how irresponsible they were by letting her name out, on purpose,” Gardner said in a telephone interview. “What happens if something were to happen to Christina? Are they responsible for that? Everybody knows where they can find her, and that is 100% their fault.”

Statements given

Not only did Blazek give a statement to police at a Guatemalan police station following Ng’s reported drowning, Gardner said, but she also reached out to the FBI and gave a detailed statement to two agents at his office in downtown San Bernardino on Nov. 7, about a week prior to the public release of Blazek’s name and the name of retreat organizer Eduardo “Eddy” Rimada.

“The entire purpose for her voluntarily reaching out to the FBI and giving a statement was to assist with the investigation and make certain that investigators had all the information that Ms. Blazek had to give,” Gardner said. “So when she was subsequently accused of withholding information a week later, it simply was not true and it created a firestorm of unfair online criticism and harassment of Ms. Blazek.”

The FBI maintains it is not aware of any evidence of foul play, that witnesses have been cooperative with authorities, and that the agency is offering resources to the Guatemalan authorities to help in the search. Agency spokesperson Laura Eimiller said in an email Friday that the Ng family has been advised that the State Department is their current point of contact.

Second retreat

Ng, who worked as a behavioral interventionst aide at Garfield Elementary School in Alhambra, had been a yoga enthusiast for about four years, said her sister, Nicky Ng. Her trip to Guatemala for the “Be the Change” yoga retreat was her second in two years, according to her family.

As part of the retreat, about 10 attendees made the kayak excursion to Lake Atitlan, which has a depth of more than 1,100 feet and is considered one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. They set out shortly after 10:30 a.m., and one video circulated online shows Ng waving as she paddled out from shore.

Blazek’s account

According to Gardner, Blazek gave the following account of what happened to both Guatemalan police and the FBI:

As the wind picked up on Lake Atitlan and the water started getting choppy, Blazek began paddling her kayak back to shore. She crossed paths with Ng in the middle of the lake, where the water goes from light to dark, signifying the deepest part of the lake. The two began chatting and Ng said she wanted to go for a swim. Blazek, however, cautioned against it.

“She said, ‘You shouldn’t get in the water. It’s too rough out here. I’m not getting in the water,’” Gardner said. “Ms. Ng got in the water anyway.”

As Ng swam in the lake, without a life jacket, her kayak started drifting off in the current. So Blazek retrieved it and paddled it back to Ng, saying, “Here’s your kayak,” Gardner said.

Ng, however, kept swimming, Gardner said. Blazek, he said, then lost grip of Ng’s kayak, which started drifting off again in the current. So Blazek turned and went after it a second time, retrieving it, Gardner said.

But when Blazek turned around to paddle Ng’s kayak back to her a second time, she didn’t see Ng, who apparently became submerged, Gardner said.

“She realizes very quickly she couldn’t help her,” said Gardner, adding that Blazek would not go in the water herself due to the danger.

“She rushed back to shore as quickly as she could to say what happened. There are witnesses who said they heard my client, as she’s paddling back, screaming for help. She was visibly shaken, visibly upset, and she was escorted by people from the yoga group to get calmed down. She was taken to the police station in Guatemala, where she gave her statement.”

Early suspicions

After Blazek returned to the U.S., Nicky Ng says she sent her two emails to try to persuade her to talk to her family or searchers in hopes of obtaining any additional information.

In an Oct. 31 email, she told Blazek she found it suspicious she wouldn’t talk to her family regarding her sister’s disappearance, leaving them feeling that Blazek was “hiding something.”

“It has been nearly two weeks since our sister has gone missing and we are desperate to get the answers we need in order to find her,” said the email, which was signed by Nicky Ng and her brother, Jonathan Ng. “If you fail to cooperate, we will pursue this matter further.”

In a telephone interview with the Southern California News Group, Nicky Ng said that while she understands Blazek’s reluctance to speak to her family, she doesn’t understand why she has been unwilling to speak to the professional searchers they hired to try to find her sister’s body.

Nicky Ng said she also found it suspicious that the statement Blazek reportedly gave to Guatemalan police is, according to her, not in the case file. She said her family obtained a complete copy of the file from Guatemalan authorities through an attorney her family retained in Guatemala.

“I do have all the files from the police station as well as the prosecutor’s, and there is no record of Christina’s statement in there,” Nicky Ng said, adding that a Guatemalan prosecutor assigned to the case sent a request to the U.S. embassy in December for international assistance to obtain Blazek’s and Rimada’s statements.

Gardner said he has “absolutely no idea about the professionalism of Guatemalan police officers.”

“If that’s true, I would really think that the Guatemalan authorities would be reaching out to us to talk to them,” Gardner said. “If the Guatemalan authorities or the FBI, on behalf of Guatemalan authorities, think there’s information missing, they should contact me. I think it’s untrue and a bunch of nonsense.”

He said he has remained in contact with the FBI, and the only thing agents have followed up with him on is the status of death threats made against Blazek.

Public pressure

Nicky Ng was remorseful upon hearing of the death threats made against Blazek.

“It makes me really sad to hear about death threats. I feel awful. That’s the last thing I want for Christina,” Nicky Ng said during her telephone interview. “But the only way we can get answers is through public pressure.

“We did give her chances. We emailed her twice without response. We had other students from the retreat reach out to her, but she said she didn’t owe the family anything,” Ng said.

Some of the early suspicion about Blazek came from Chris Sharpe, owner of Black Wolf Helicopters Special Operations Aviation & Training in Guatemala City.

Sharpe, hired by the family to search for Ng’s body, put out a news release Nov. 13 identifying Blazek and retreat coordinator Rimada. The news release said the two were “persons of interest” in a criminal case and, as of that date, had “not been forthcoming with Guatemalan authorities.”

The press release, posted on Black Wolf Helicopters’ Instagram page, generated several comments calling for Blazek’s disbarment.

Rimada could not be reached for comment.

In an interview conducted online Friday, Sharpe said he stands by the news release, saying it was part of an ongoing “appeal for witnesses.” He said that if Blazek had stayed in Guatemala longer and assisted in the search, it might have made a difference.

Asked if disclosing the names of Blazek and Rimada nearly a month after Ng’s drowning would have helped in the search for the body, Sharpe acknowledged it would not have. As for whether he thought publicly releasing their names was fair, Sharpe said: “Absolutely, without question. I’d do it again tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Gardner said Blazek continues to suffer for no reason.

“There’s a difference between suffering a loss and being a victim,” Gardner said. “The Ng family has suffered a tragic loss. But my client is a victim, and it needs to stop.”

Family members said they are not pursuing legal action against the city or seeking monetary compensation, but demanded that the dispatchers responsible for the communication failures be fired.

“We’re just here to bring awareness and to hold those accountable,” said Santana’s sister, Jessica Santana, during the protest.

Over the blare of honking horns from passing vehicles, Santana’s sister, Bianca Santana, played a recording over a bullhorn that said “El Monte PD dispatchers failed my brother, Joseph Santana!”

More than a dozen family members gathered outside the department after the Southern California News Group reported that veteran dispatcher Kristen Jauregui failed to inform Santana, 31, Cpl. Michael Paredes, 42, and Sgt. Eric Sanchez over the radio that suspect Justin Flores was reported to have a gun and be under the influence of PCP and methamphetamine when the officers responded to a domestic violence call at the Siesta Inn about 5 p.m. on June 14, 2022.

911 call

Maria Zepeda, the mother of Flores’ wife, made a frantic 911 at 4:58 p.m. that day informing dispatcher Ruth Bonneau that her daughter’s friend had called her and told her that her daughter, Diana Flores Cruz, had been stabbed by Flores at the motel. Zepeda also told Bonneau during the 7-minute, 20-second call that Flores had choked her daughter in Pico Rivera and had been hospitalized on a psychiatric hold the week prior.

Zepeda also told Bonneau that Flores showed up to her home three days prior to the shooting with a gun, prompting a police response to her home that included a helicopter, according to the 911 call.

When Bonneau asked Zepeda if she had seen Flores with a gun, Zepeda said: “No, but he has it with him, I’m telling you!” She also told Bonneau that Flores was on probation for a gun offense and began abusing PCP regularly following his cousin’s death about four months prior, in March 2022.

Officers ambushed

Flores, 35, ambushed the three officers as they made contact with him inside Room 103, brandishing a gun stolen out of a police car in North Carolina and opening fire. Paredes and Santana were killed and Sanchez was shot in the foot during a shootout with Flores. Flores seized Paredes’ gun during the melee and, mortally wounded by Sanchez in the gunfight, fatally shot himself as other officers began arriving, according to a recording obtained by the Southern California News Group.

The shooting remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s Justice System Integrity Division, said Detective Amber Montenegro, a lead investigator on the case.

During a Dec. 11 briefing Montenegro gave to Jessica Santana and three El Monte police officers at the sheriff’s homicide bureau in Monterey Park, Montenegro said Santana was shot three times — in the head, upper right arm and the left leg, which broke his femur. She said Paredes was shot nine times, including twice in the head, which were the only fatal wounds.

The recording of the briefing obtained by the Southern California News Group also revealed Montenegro told family members that  toxicology tests confirmed Flores had PCP, methamphetamine and marijuana in his system when he died.

In a telephone interview, Montenegro said she gave the briefing at the request of Santana’s family. During the meeting, she played recordings of both the 911 call and the dispatch call.

Department changes

El Monte Police Chief Jake Fisher, who has stood by the actions of his dispatchers, said in a statement that since the shooting his department has improved its communications protocols and invested heavily in new equipment.

Among the changes and enhancements include expanded use of computer-aided dispatch and data systems to improve communication and officer response, and ramped up training.

Additionally, bulletproof windshields are now in every newly purchased police vehicle and tactical shields are now available for use by officers responding to active shooter scenarios or any other unpredictable and potentially violent situations.

In a statement sent to all his officers on Thursday, Jan. 25, Fisher said: “Our department is committed to making sure all of our employees are treated with dignity and respect. As I have said before, there is only one person to blame for the death of Mike and Joseph, the criminal who killed them.”

Communication breakdown

But all the changes at the Police Department have been little consolation to Santana’s family, who felt they were kept in the dark about what happened, only to learn of the communication breakdown nearly a year-and-a-half later.

Bianca Santana said that had her brother and the other responding officers been told over the radio that Flores was reported to have a gun and be under the influence of PCP, the officers could taken a different tactical approach that possibly would have resulted in a different outcome.

“Having that information could have allowed them to be aware of the threat that they were facing, potentially even sparing them their lives,” Bianca Santana said. “How can the chief stand by the dispatchers who failed at their jobs? This isn’t just a mistake. Mistakes can be fixed. This cannot. We will never have my brother back.”

Detective Wyatt Reneer, president of the El Monte Police Officers Association, said he and his colleagues support the Santana family and understand that they are grieving.

“We also stand by and support the department, our officers, our dispatchers, our jailers, our department as a whole,” Reneer said. “They come in here every day and do the right thing, and everybody did the right thing that day as best as they could. But at the end of the day, we lost two of our partners, and it’s a tragedy, and it will last with us the rest of our lives, and we learn from it and move forward as best we can.”

He said many in the department did not become privy to the information about the dispatchers until the same time the Santana family did.

“I heard some insinuations of a cover-up, or ‘they hid it,’ and that is not the case,” Reneer said. “We are not doing the investigation. All the very intimate details and facts and circumstances, we didn’t ourselves receive until a year later.”

Montenegro said during her briefing that while the dispatchers did not verbally communicate the information about the gun and drugs over the radio, that information, and more, was typed into the computer-aided dispatch system and available to the responding officers on their vehicle computer terminals.

Holding one of her twin sons in her arms Monday outside the police department, Santana’s widow, Sasha Santana, said it seemed apparent that neither her husband nor the other responding officers saw the information on their terminals.

“My husband would not have been outside that motel door knocking for minutes if he was told about the gun,” she said. “He would have been more prepared. He would not have been out there knocking nonchalantly knowing what he was going to come across. None of them knew what they were going into because they were never told.”

The frantic 911 call to the El Monte Police Department was made shortly before 5 p.m. on June 14, 2022, by Maria Zepeda, who reported that her daughter had been stabbed by her husband, Justin Flores, at the Siesta Inn, where they had been staying.

During the 7-minute, 20-second call, Zepeda repeatedly told dispatcher Ruth Bonneau that Flores had a recent history of violence against her daughter, was under the influence of PCP and methamphetamine and was armed and dangerous.

“He’s on PCP. He has a gun!” Zepeda told Bonneau during the call.

Lost in translation

That information, however, was not communicated over the radio by Kristen Jauregui, a veteran dispatcher who deployed officers to the Siesta Inn.

“Mother is RP (reporting party). She is en route from La Puente in a black Hyundai, advising her daughter, Diana Flores Cruz, 44 years, called a second RP advising that she was stabbed by her boyfriend, Justin Flores, male, 33,” Jauregui said during her dispatch. She further stated that Flores and his wife were possibly in Room 103 and that it was unknown if the two were still at the location.

The call terminated, and there was no follow-up radio communication from Jauregui to Officer Joseph Santana, Cpl. Michael Paredes and Sgt. Eric Sanchez, the three who responded to the call.

Flores ambushed the officers when they confronted him inside the motel room, brandishing a gun and fatally shooting Paredes and Santana and wounding Sanchez in a shootout before killing himself with Paredes’ gun, which Flores had seized when the officer was down.

Family briefed

At the request of the family, Detective Amber Montenegro, a lead investigator in the case, met with Santana’s sister, Jessica Santana, and three unnamed El Monte police officers nearly a year-and-a-half later. During that session on Dec. 11, 2023, at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide bureau in Monterey Park, Montenegro played the recording of the 911 call.

While the detective confirmed Jauregui did not inform officers over the radio that Flores possibly had a gun and was on drugs, the information was typed into the computer-aided dispatch system and visible to the responding officers on the computer terminals in their patrol vehicles.

“They definitely had all the information in their boxes before they arrived, so they were able to look at the call and review it,” Montenegro said during the briefing, a recording of which was obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Nevertheless, Jessica Santana and the officers present questioned Jauregui’s actions.

“We rely a lot on dispatch, and I understand we’re busy, but they need to tell the cops everything,” one of the officers said during the meeting.

Related story: Relatives march to El Monte Police Department, demand firing of dispatcher

Jessica Santana was the most critical.

“I don’t understand. I understand how they protect the community and stuff, but how do you guys stay safe when there’s dispatchers here that could have potentially saved their lives?” she said. “That’s just what gets me, because my brother would still be here.”

Montenegro countered by noting that the responding officers had plenty of time to review their computer terminals after arriving at the motel.

“It’s not like they got there and things were happening dynamically, right? They weren’t running in there,” Montenegro said. Prior to the shooting, she explained, the officers stood outside for a few minutes discussing a similar domestic violence call to the same motel they received a week earlier involving Flores and his wife. The two, however, were not there when officers arrived.

“You can’t put any of this all on one person,” Montenegro said.

Santana responded, saying: “It’s just I feel if they would have voiced it, it would have been different.”

Expert weighs in

Tony Harrison, who trains police dispatchers and is president of the North Carolina-based The Public Safety Group, said the information about Flores having a gun and being on drugs should have been communicated to the responding officers immediately.

“It’s important to relay all pertinent officer safety information when possible. And a perpetrator being on drugs and having a gun is certainly at the top of the list. One-hundred percent undeniable,” Harrison said in a telephone interview.

He said dispatchers cannot always rely on officers seeing information relayed via their CAD terminals.

“If I’m driving 80 miles per hour to a stabbing scene, I’m not reading my computer. That’s not safe to do,” Harrison said. “I’m relying on the dispatcher to provide those updates in a timely fashion. The part of (Flores) being on PCP and carrying a gun needs to be verbally dispatched.”

Such information allows responding officers to plan accordingly and determine a tactical approach, he said.

“Do I exit my vehicle with a rifle? Do I wait for a second unit to arrive — a third or a fourth unit to arrive? Do we make a more tactical approach instead of being a little more nonchalant and walking in?” Harrison said.

How the shootout unfolded

During her briefing, Montenegro gave a play-by-play of how the shooting unfolded.

Santana, Sanchez and Paredes stood outside Room 103. Santana knocked for several minutes, telling Cruz to open the door. Flores kept telling Santana they were getting dressed and to “hold on.”

When the door was finally opened, Flores was in his underwear holding a pair of pants. What the officers did not know was that Flores was concealing a gun, stolen out of a police car in North Carolina, behind his pants, Montenegro said.

When Santana holstered his gun to detain Flores, Flores brandished the gun and a struggle ensued between the two. Sanchez ran out of the room and took cover. Paredes was standing at the door. Flores fired off two shots.

“He just fired two shots … and at least one of them hit Paredes dead center in the head, and he went down immediately,” Montenegro said.

Seven seconds later, Flores fired several more shots, hitting Santana in the head, arm and leg, Montenegro said.

For an undisclosed reason, Flores then seized Paredes gun, which was laying on the floor next to his body, and used it to shoot Paredes a second time in the head. Then he engaged in a shootout with Sanchez, who by that time had already called for backup on his radio, Montenegro said.

Flores and his wife “ran around the corner,” said Montenegro, but not before Sanchez shot Flores in the femoral artery and mortally wounded him.

“So the suspect was dead pretty quickly, he just didn’t realize it with all the drugs he was on,” Montenegro said.

Flores fell to the ground, rolled over and continued shooting at Sanchez as other officers started arriving. Sanchez suffered a through-and-through wound in his foot.

At 5:10 p.m., Flores killed himself with Paredes’ gun, Montenegro said.

Montenegro said toxicology tests later revealed Flores had PCP, methamphetamine and marijuana in his system. She also said they were pursuing criminal charges against Flores’ wife for her alleged culpability in the crime — for not being honest with officers and not telling them her husband had a gun.

“The DA is considering them (criminal charges), but it doesn’t look promising,” Montenegro said.

Systemic failures

Montenegro also noted during her briefing the multiple contacts Flores had with law enforcement in the months prior to the shooting. According to Flores’ wife, she said, Flores began using PCP — a hallucinogen known to cause violent behavior — in March 2022 after his cousin died and that the drug “changed his personality.”

“He started beating her and just started going a little bit more crazy than normal,” Montenegro said.

On March 14, 2022, Flores was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in the City of Industry for having a loaded gun in his glove department. At the time, he was on probation for another gun offense.

Flores subsequently was charged for being a felon in possession of a firearm not registered to him and being in possession of a controlled substance with a loaded firearm. He posted bail and was subsequently granted probation even though he was an admitted gang member, Montenegro said.

Two months later, Flores was arrested in West Covina in a fraud case, Montenegro said.

In May 2022, Flores’ parents called police to report their son was acting erratically, yelling at passing vehicles and talking to himself, and that family members were holding him down on their front lawn. Flores was taken to a hospital on a psychiatric hold and later released, Montenegro said.

During her 911 call, Zepeda told Bonneau that the week prior, Flores had choked her daughter and left her for dead in Pico Rivera and that police had a report of the incident. And only three days prior, Flores showed up at her home with a gun. She said police came to her home and a police helicopter was even deployed.

And though Zepeda reported on the 911 call that her daughter had been stabbed, police later learned her injuries were minor.

“It was very superficial,” Montenegro said. “But mom did not know that when she called.”

Criminal justice failures

Some of the justice system’s failures regarding Flores were detailed in a scathing report by the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General released in August 2023.

The OIG determined, among other things, that the county Probation Department failed to properly monitor Flores and act on pertinent information regarding allegations of domestic violence, gun possession and illegal drug use, and failed to alert local law enforcement that Flores may be armed with a gun and dangerous.

Flores had three outstanding warrants for his arrest, two from San Bernardino County and one from Los Angeles County, at the time of the shooting, and the Probation Department did not run a warrant check on Flores until just days before the shooting, when Flores missed his final appointment, according to the OIG report.

Police chief responds

El Monte Police Chief Jake Fisher said he stands by the actions of his dispatchers and officers.

“The El Monte Police Department continues to mourn the loss of our officers, Sergeant Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana,” Fisher said in a statement. “Together we are moving forward as we collectively continue to grieve and recover from the horrific event.”

Fisher said his department is actively working with the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office in completing the final steps in the investigation.

Sheriff’s and district attorney investigators have interviewed all relevant witnesses, reviewed all police camera footage, CAD reports, call logs and have “found no wrongdoing by our police officers or civilian personnel,” Fisher said.

“We fully anticipate this finding to hold and that our DA will officially clear all involved officers and close the investigation,” Fisher said.

Dispatcher still on leave

Jauregui, a police dispatcher of more than 20 years and the daughter of retired El Monte Police Chief Tom Armstrong, declined to comment for this story. She hosts a podcast called 911 Strong, has modeled for Recoil, a firearm lifestyle magazine, and has been profiled in other publications.

Although city officials would not provide information on Jauregui’s employment background and current job status, officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said she is still employed at the department but has been on paid leave for the past several months. Sanchez also was reported to be on leave.

On Monday, Jauregui’s website hinted she was no longer actively working as a dispatcher.

“As a dispatcher for over two decades, Kristen Jauregui has seen and heard a lot, which brought on unexpected compassion fatigue & burnout. She didn’t want to leave the force, but she knew something had to change, so she turned to physical fitness and personal development mindset work,” the website said.

By Friday, several days after a reporter reached out to her, the website had been taken down.

In the 321-page lawsuit filed Monday, Jan. 8, in Los Angeles Superior Court, the state Department of Housing and Community Development alleged Shangri-La Industries and other named defendants — including San Bernardino County and the cities of Redlands and Thousand Oaks — “breached their obligations” under terms of their agreements with California’s Homekey program.

Also named as a defendant is Step Up on Second, the Santa Monica-based nonprofit that partnered with Shangri-La to provide services to the homeless and to serve as the property manager at the seven converted motels. More than half a dozen third-party lenders Shangri-La tapped to secure loans for the motel projects also are named in the lawsuit.

“The state is taking legal action as Shangri-La has misrepresented multiple financial considerations and has yet to cure a number of breached contractual obligations to the state and the Homekey program. The difficulties they find themselves in are of their own making,” said Pablo Espinoza, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Community Development, in an email.

The state first alerted Shangri-La Chief Executive Officer Andy Meyers and Chief Financial Officer Cody Holmes of their alleged contract breach in a letter dated Dec. 4.

Neither Meyers nor Holmes responded to requests for comment.

Possible remedies

The state is requesting several possible remedies through the court, including one or all of the following:

• Shangri-La and its partner local agencies return all the Homekey funding granted by the state, plus attorney fees.
• A judicial order that the defendants ensure each of the motel properties, via recorded agreements with their respective counties, be designated as homeless housing for up to 55 years.
• A receiver be appointed for each property to ensure it is run in accordance with the Homekey program.

Loan defaults

Shangri-La, according to the lawsuit, received more than $114 million in Homekey funds from the state to convert the motels into permanent supportive housing in San Bernardino, Redlands, Thousand Oaks and two Northern California communities. The developer then granted and recorded deeds of trust to secure loans from the third-party lenders without first obtaining the state’s written authorization, as required under the Homekey agreements.

Shangri-La then defaulted on the loans, causing the lenders to begin the foreclosure process.

“All seven Homekey properties in which (Shangri-La Industries) was a private grantee are at risk of imminent foreclosure,” the lawsuit states.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that for six of the seven motel properties, Shangri-La and its partner agencies failed, in timely fashion, to record use restrictions on the motel properties to ensure they would be used solely for interim or permanent housing for the homeless for up to 55 years.

Homekey quagmire

The Southern California News Group first reported Shangri-La’s quagmire involving its Homekey projects in May 2023, when it learned that more than $2 million in mechanics liens had been filed at the San Bernardino County Recorder’s Office by subcontractors alleging the developer failed to pay them for rehabilitation work at the former Good Nite Inn in Redlands. Shangri-La subsequently defaulted on its loan for the project, twice.

The Southern California News Group also learned that similar problems were playing out with subcontractors who did work at Homekey-funded motel-conversion projects in other cities. Among them is Adolfo Gomringer, owner of Monrovia-based AG Flooring Inc.

Gomringer recently told the Southern California News Group that Shangri-La still owes him $93,000 for work his company did at the former All Star Lodge in San Bernardino, including demolition and installation of metal framing, drywall and flooring from March 2021 through December 2022.

Though Gomringer said he checks in almost daily with the developer, he said Holmes has not responded to him since October. He said he is now saddled with $100,000 in credit card debt, much of which was accrued to cover business expenses.

San Bernardino County was awarded $8.3 million by the state on Nov. 24, 2020, for the conversion of 76 units to permanent housing for homeless people at the former All Star Lodge. It opened in March 2023.

Shell game

Gov. Gavin Newsom launched Project Homekey in June 2020 to protect unhoused individuals from the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. The state has allocated more than $3 billion to cities and counties to purchase motels, hotels, vacant apartment buildings and other properties to provide permanent housing for the homeless.

The state alleges in the lawsuit that for each of the seven motel-conversion projects, Shangri-La created a shell company, in the form of limited partnerships, using the address of each motel as the name of the limited partnership. Those limited partnerships were named in the lawsuit as the “titleholder defendants.”

“The property titleholder defendants were and remain undercapitalized and were created as shells for the sole purpose of carrying out the misconduct of (Shangri-La Industries) and Step Up,” according to the lawsuit. “Defendant Shangri-La Industries LLC, its partners and the shell businesses it controls have sought to take advantage of this program, to the detriment of the State of California and its residents, for which immediate and permanent relief is sought.”

Step Up

Step Up President and CEO Tod Lipka did not return telephone calls seeking comment. In an interview with the Southern California News Group last month, Lipka said he was shaken by the news about the financial state of the seven Homekey projects, and stressed that Shangri-La, not Step Up, was responsible for all finances and property acquisitions involving the Homekey projects.

Lipka also said Step Up, like some of the subcontractors, had not been paid by Shangri-La for services it provided for motels in  Redlands, San Bernardino and Salinas over the past two years.

How and why

It remains unclear how and why Shangri-La got itself ensnared in the predicament.

In October, Redlands spokesman Carl Baker told the Southern California News Group that Shangri-La, after being served its second default notice by lender Arixa Institutional Lending Partners, had been working with Arixa to refinance the loan and address all outstanding issues. Shangri-La owed Arixa more than $332,000 at the time.

Shangri-La first defaulted on its Arixa loan in May 2023, owing the lender $277,000 at the time. The developer staved off foreclosure by paying the debt after receiving the default notice.

San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said in an email Tuesday that the county has not reviewed the complaint and therefore declined to comment. Baker, the Redlands spokesperson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alicia Upton, 21, was pronounced dead at 9:12 p.m. on April 28, 2022, at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, nearly an hour after she hanged herself with a bed sheet affixed to the bunk bed in her cell, according to the lawsuit.

Surveillance video recorded the entirety of the event, from the time Upton began crafting a noose from bed sheets at 8:14 p.m. until  the time she tied the noose around the top part of the bunk bed in her cell at 8:18 p.m. and then asphyxiated herself, according to the lawsuit filed Sunday, Dec. 31, in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

The suit alleges “county medical and custody staff had an opportunity to observe the clear signs of Ms. Upton’s acute suicidality.” Additionally, it alleges a “pattern and practice” of jail staff not conducting proper and timely welfare and safety checks on inmates.

Sheriff defends department

Bianco remained steadfast in his defense of his department and the actions of his jail deputies in a telephone interview on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

“This is nothing more than someone wanting money,” Bianco said. “We’re still in the same place where there’s no personal accountability for anything — just sue the person with the deepest pockets.”

Bianco said his department works hand in hand with Riverside University Health System to provide the best possible medical and mental health care to inmates in the county jail system.

“To say we’re responsible for a suicide is silly,” he said.

As to the surveillance video chronicling Upton’s suicide, Bianco declined to comment.

“That’s specifics about the lawsuit, and I haven’t seen the video, so I’m not going to comment on that,” he said.

‘I always kinda wanted to die’

Upton was arrested and booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on April 19, 2022, on suspicion of criminal threats for allegedly threatening to stab a woman and threatening to kill her horses, Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Wendy Brito-Gonzalez said in an email.

During the booking process, detainees are assessed by a deputy for any medical problems or mental health issues they have that would require special attention. It was then that Upton, according to the lawsuit, told the deputy screening her, “I always kinda wanted to die.”

Upton was placed in a “safety cell” at the Banning jail before she was transferred two days later to the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. There, she was also placed in a safety cell, and her mental health rating was classified as “severe,” according to the lawsuit.

Upton, according to the lawsuit, also displayed signs of self-injurious behavior, notably, 20 visible cut marks on her left arm. Yet on April 24, Upton was removed from her safety cell and placed in another cell that posed more of a risk because it had bed sheets and a bunk bed. She remained in that cell for four days even though she was “acutely suicidal” and in need of 24-hour monitoring as well as medical and psychological treatment, according to the lawsuit.

Bianco under fire

Riverside County came under fire for the number of inmate deaths at its jails in 2022. Upton was among 18 deaths, the highest number logged since 2005. More than a half-dozen lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2023 on behalf of inmates who died in Riverside County jails.

The ACLU and other activist and community groups rallied against the county and Bianco, demanding accountability and alleging excessive force by deputies and “inhuman conditions” at the jails.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in response to a letter by the ACLU demanding his office investigate, announced in February 2023 that his office was launching an investigation, which remains ongoing.

In October, Bianco blasted Bonta, the ACLU and other critics. He called their demands for an investigation a “political publicity stunt of the far left” and a “huge, disgusting political game.”

Pablo Espinoza, a spokesman for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, confirmed in an email that the agency is investigating Shangri-La Industries of Los Angeles and has asked the Attorney General’s Office for assistance.

“Shangri-La is in breach of contract,” Espinoza said.

In a letter dated Dec. 4, the housing department informed Shangri-La Chief Executive Officer Andy Meyers and Chief Financial Officer Cody Holmes that they had breached their contracts with the state and the developer’s partner agencies under California’s Project Homekey.

Gov. Gavin Newsom launched Project Homekey in June 2020 to protect the homeless from the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. To date, the state has allocated more than $3 billion to cities and counties to purchase motels, hotels, vacant apartment buildings and other properties to provide permanent housing to the homeless.

Using the Homekey funds, Shangri-La Industries purchased motels under agreements with San Bernardino County, Redlands and three other California cities — Thousand Oaks, Salinas and King City. In Southern California, Shangri-La’s homeless housing projects included the former All Star Lodge in San Bernardino, the former Good Nite Inn in Redlands and the former Quality Inn & Suites in Thousand Oaks.

Numerous failures

A letter from Cari Scott, the housing department’s assistant deputy director of financial assistance, warned Meyers and Holmes: “The Department’s review is ongoing but to date has revealed numerous failures to comply with contractual and regulatory obligations across (Shangri-La Industries’) portfolio.”

Among the violations Scott noted in her letter were Shangri-La’s lack of communication on the status of its projects, failure to meet performance milestones and failure to record affordability covenants to ensure properties remain as affordable housing.

Additionally, Scott noted other “serious violations” of standards agreements, including unilateral actions by Shangri-La such as refinancing its motel properties without written authorization from the housing department.

“Due to the serious breach of contract issues found, the Department has determined that (Shangri-La Industries) is not meeting the Department’s requirements in demonstrating its ability to own, operate, and develop affordable housing developments,” Scott said in her letter.

The Real Deal, a real estate news outlet, reported that Shangri-La secured at least $121 million from the state under Project Homekey from 2020 through 2022. The developer now owes about $41.3 million in delinquent loans — an amount that will keep accruing until the debt becomes current.

Holmes did not respond to repeated texts and phone calls seeking comment. Requests to speak to Meyers and repeated telephone calls to Shangri-La’s Los Angeles office went unanswered.

But in a recent interview with CalMatters, Meyers blamed the state, in part, for his company’s quagmire, accusing the housing department of taking months to approve affordability covenants, insisting that triggered other problems associated with the motel conversion projects. He also told CalMatters that the motel projects came in overbudget due to property taxes, and that the developer had to pay due to the state’s delay in approving the affordability agreements.

Espinoza denied Meyers’ allegations, and told CalMatters the state housing department couldn’t have approved the agreements after Shangri-La had already taken out the loans.

Troubles emerged in Redlands

The Southern California News Group first reported on Shangri-La’s problems involving its Homekey projects in May, when it learned the developer had failed to pay its contractors and subcontractors on the former Good Nite Inn project in Redlands, and that more than $2 million in mechanics liens had been filed with the San Bernardino County Recorder’s Office.

Shangri-La also was served its first default notice in May by its lender, Arixa Institutional Lending Partners, demanding $227,000 from the developer. Shangri-La paid up and staved off foreclosure, but not for long. In September, the developer was served its second default notice. This time, it owed Arixa $332,000.

On Thursday, Dec. 21, notices of a trustee’s sale were posted on the doors of every tenant at the former Good Nite Inn, now called Step Up in Redlands, informing them the property was in default and that the trustee, Chicago Title Co., was planning to sell it to the highest bidder at an auction scheduled for Jan. 11.

That set off a panic among tenants.

Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said in an email on Friday, Dec. 22, that the city does not own the property, has no control over the lender and was unaware the foreclosure sale notices would be posted. However, as soon as it learned of the situation, the city immediately asked the lender to postpone the sale.

On Friday, Baker reported that Arixa had agreed to “temporarily postpone” any foreclosure of the property.

Exploring solutions

“The lender and the City are exploring both short-term and long-term solutions, including a longer term postponement of any foreclosure sale, that would prevent or limit discomfort and hardship to tenants residing at the property,” he said.

Baker said the city also is working with all involved parties to address the issues raised in the Dec. 4 letter from the state housing department, and ensure that Step Up in Redlands remains fully operational and almost fully occupied.

The state awarded Redlands $30 million in Homekey funding in March 2022 to renovate the former motel to a 99-unit facility to serve the city’s homeless population. Redlands received the largest chunk of $105 million in Homekey funding that also went to San Bernardino County, Thousand Oaks, Salinas and King City.

The lion’s share of the Redlands money went to Shangri-La for the purchase of the motel, renovations and ongoing expenses to house the homeless.

Among the subcontractors left holding the bag on the Redlands project was Safeway Electric, which did electrical work at the former Good Nite Inn during renovations. Safeway is owed more than $457,000 for its work, according to a lawsuit filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in July against Ontario-based Northstar Development & Construction Inc., the lead contractor on the Redlands project.

“I think that Andy Meyers should probably be in jail,” said Melissa Miller, senior account specialist at Safeway Electric in Riverside. “I think this is awful that it’s been allowed to get this far.”

Step Up in San Bernardino

The San Bernardino County project received $8.3 million in Homekey funding for the purchase of the former All Star Lodge, at 450 N. G St. in San Bernardino, to help house some of the city’s homeless. The project launched in 2020 and opened in March 2023, county spokesman David Wert said.

Wert declined to comment on the state investigation and the letter sent to the county by the housing department.

Subcontractor Adolfo Gomringer said Shangri-La still owes him $93,000 for the work his company did at the former All Star Lodge. Gomringer, 34, of Los Angeles said he worked on the Step Up in San Bernardino project, off and on, from March 2021 through December 2022, doing demolition and installing metal framing, drywall and flooring.

Gomringer said he’s been trying for the past year to get Shangri-La to pay up. He said his last communication with Shangri-La came on Oct. 12 via email from CFO Cody Holmes, who informed Gomringer he would get back to him later that day with an update. He never did, and Gomringer said it was the last time he heard from Holmes.

“I have $100,000 in credit card debt because of this,” he said, noting that he was forced to use credit cards to cover expenses such as materials and employee pay.

Gomringer said the $93,000 owed him by Shangri-La would go a long way to clearing that debt.

“Hopefully, it comes in because we’ve really got to settle this. We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” Gomringer said. “I have never not paid my employees, and I want to keep that going.”

To date, only three of the seven Homekey projects under investigation by the state — Step Up in San Bernardino, Step Up in Redlands and Step Up in Salinas — are housing the homeless.

Step Up CEO shaken

Tod Lipka, president and CEO of Step Up on Second in Santa Monica, said in a telephone interview Friday that the nonprofit was shaken by the news about the financial state of the seven Homekey projects and the state review.

“We were really surprised and devastated to see it had gotten to that level of breach of contract,” Lipka said. He said Step Up has embarked on several successful homeless housing projects with Shangri-La in recent years, including four in Los Angeles.

He said responsibility for all finances and property acquisitions falls on Shangri-La, whereas Step Up handles the property management and homeless services side of the operations.

He said Step Up also has not been paid by Shangri-La for some of its services in Redlands, San Bernardino and Salinas in the past two years, and now is in discussion with officials in San Bernardino County, Redlands and Salinas to negotiate reimbursement.

“Step Up is very interested in being in dialogue with all the partners to find a solution for this housing to move forward,” Lipka said.

Salinas mayor concerned

Also expressing serious concerns about Shangri-La was Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig.

“Shangri-La’s many serious breaches of their contractual obligations have created challenges for us and many other cities across the state,” Craig said in an email.

The city, Craig said, has received more than $36 million in Homekey funds for three motel conversion projects, but only one — at the former Good Nite Inn — is actually providing housing to the homeless.

“Shangri-La’s failures have affected the cities, the state, the residents of those facilities, as well as the many contractors who have done work on these projects but have not been paid by Shangri-La,” Craig said.

Cody Woodson Klemp, 67, of Moreno Valley was granted parole earlier this month by the state parole board under California’s Elderly Parole Program, which makes prisoners 50 or older eligible for parole hearings if they have served 20 continuous years of their sentence. The parole board determines whether an inmate is suitable for release based on age, time served, and whether diminished physical condition has reduced their risk of violence.

Prior to 2021, the Elderly Parole Program, enacted in 2018, allowed for a parole review for inmates 60 years or older who had served a minimum of 25 years of continuous incarceration.

Klemp’s victim and Riverside County prosecutors were alarmed that Klemp was granted parole, and said they will appeal the decision and send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting a hearing to reconsider his release.

“This is a devastating blow to victims, and our office will continue to fight on their behalf,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement Friday. “Although this practice of early release is far from unusual these days, considering the inmate’s particularly violent criminal history, and admissions to the parole board itself, it is shocking that such a release would be considered.”

Klemp has served 29 years of his 170-year sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Permanent scars

Klemp repeatedly raped his 14-year-old niece in his Moreno Valley home throughout 1990, leaving his victim with permanent physical and psychological scars.

“It was because of him that I learned to cut. It was because of him that I hated me,” Klemp’s victim, now 48, said during his Nov. 8 parole hearing. “It was because of him that the only prayer I had was a prayer to not wake up. I always believed that somehow I did something to deserve it.”

The woman, who is not being identified because she is the victim of sexual assault, said Klemp ruined her sense of self and sense of safety for so long she felt unfixable.

“Unlike Cody, for me, for his victims, there is no parole board,” she said. “We don’t get to ask or request release from our mental prisons.”

Convicted in 1994

A jury convicted Klemp in June 1994 of 40 felony counts, including 20 counts of lewd acts on a child age 14, 10 counts oral copulation by force or violence on a child age 14, and 10 counts of unlawful intercourse/forcible rape, court records show.

At the time, Klemp already was a convicted rapist, having been found guilty of rape in 1976 and attempted rape in 1981. The latter assault landed Klemp in Patton State Hospital for three years as a mentally disordered sex offender. Klemp’s 1976 and 1981 crimes occurred in Long Beach, said Brooke Beare, a spokesperson for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gordon Burkhart took Klemp’s prior convictions into account when he sentenced Klemp to 170 years in prison in 1994. At the time of the sentencing, probation officer Kathy Diaz, who recommended the maximum sentence, noted that Klemp threatened to kill the victim for reporting the molestations.

Terrified about release

During the Nov. 8 parole suitability hearing, a commissioner, according to the victim and her husband, asked Klemp if he did, in fact, threaten to kill the victim prior to his 1994 conviction, and Klemp said he did.

Transcripts of the hearing were not yet available on Friday.

In a telephone interview with the Southern California News Group, the victim said: “I’m terrified he’s going to kill me. He’s a lifetime criminal. He’ll do it. He’s dangerous. I have been a mess. I’ve had nightmares all night long. It’s just this impending doom. It’s like being raped over and over again.”

She is hoping Klemp never gets that chance, and that the parole board will reconsider its decision.

It is why she decided to go public with her story.

“I want this in every newspaper,” she said. “If I die, I’m going to die fighting.”

Civil litigation

Following Klemp’s conviction, his victim sued child welfare agencies in Riverside and Los Angeles counties, alleging they either placed her in her uncle’s care without checking his criminal history, or were aware of it and placed the victim in Klemp’s care anyway.

An assistant director of Riverside County’s Department of Public Social Services told The Press Enterprise at the time that it was standard procedure to check a prospective guardian’s criminal background, conduct an interview and visit his or her residence prior to placement.

An administrator for the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services also said at the time that it followed similar procedures for background checks, but only since 1991. Prior to that time, prospective guardians were simply asked if they had criminal backgrounds.

Riverside County fought the lawsuit and the case went to trial, and Klemp’s victim said she lost on a technicality. Los Angeles County, however, settled the case for $50,000, she said.

Born into family dysfunction

Born to a developmentally disabled mother who bore at least a dozen other children, all of whom were adopted out to foster homes or families, Klemp’s victim tells a story of a life marked by family dysfunction and terror, and moving in and out of the child welfare system.

At age 3, she said, another uncle beat her mother’s toddler son to death in front of her. After that, she wound up in the foster care system for the next five years before she eventually was placed in the custody of her father and aunt in Long Beach, which wasn’t much of a step up.

She described her father as an inattentive philanderer who had neither the parenting skills nor the selflessness to raise her. “My dad said he didn’t want me anymore,” she said.

From age 8 to the time she was placed in Klemp’s care in 1990, the victim describes her life as whirlwind, living in an and out of the child welfare system. At one point, she said, she wound up in McLaren Hall, a children’s home in El Monte for wards of the court.

After moving from Perris to Moreno Valley, Klemp and his wife agreed to take her in, according to the victim. She was placed in their care by the social services system, and the sexual abuse began not long thereafter, she said.

Game of tickle

It started with a game of tickle and escalated to repeated rape as well as psychological abuse.

When the victim threatened to kill herself, Klemp gave her a gun and told her to do it.

“He would come in my room and kick my mattress to wake me and say, ‘Wake up whore — disgusting slut!’ ” she said.

Finally, she ran away at age 14 and was sent to a group home. She eventually reported the abuse to a counselor, who then reported it to police.

“The only reason the abuse stopped was because I had the guts to run away,” said the victim. “I had no money, I had nowhere to go, and yet anything that I faced in the streets would have been better than what I was facing at home.

Anxious and hopeful

On Friday, Nov. 17, she said she couldn’t help but feeling anxious.

“Every moment of our day is consumed with this fight. I am eating, sleeping, dreaming about what happened, what is happening, and what’s to come,” she said. “I am afraid. My life has quite literally been flipped upside down.”

And while she shudders at the threat of possible violence against her should Klemp be released from custody, the victim was more concerned about other women and children.

“I am very scared. But I can only die once. The victims that he goes on to perpetrate against will die many many more times,” she said.

Yet she remains hopeful.

“I believe in people. I believe people will stand up and fight against this,” she said.

The District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Friday that anyone opposed to Klemp’s release and/or the Elderly Parole Program’s minimum eligibility requirements may contact Gov. Gavin Newsom at 1021 O Street, Suite 9000, Sacramento, CA 95814 or by calling (916) 445-2841.

“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” said Kopp, 29, of San Bernardino, who in the third grade was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndome, a condition characterized by difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication. “I was constantly throwing up. I was dizzy. I had diarrhea. I had sweats. My stomach had great pain. It was terrible.”

On Sept. 21, 2020, after a night in Kaiser urgent care, Kopp showed up at work with a doctor’s note authorizing him to take the day off due to work-related stress, according to a lawsuit he filed against Amazon.com Services in February 2021. He was told by his manager, an onsite nurse and a human resources manager that Amazon didn’t accept doctor’s notes, the suit alleges. Kopp was not granted the day off and told he had to work.

Kopp walked out and never returned.

“He said he was sick, needed time off, couldn’t take it anymore and repeated that he did not want to lose his job,” said attorney Raymond Babaian, who represented Kopp.

On Oct. 15, 2020, Amazon fired Kopp, citing job abandonment, according to the lawsuit.

Jury award

The case went to trial and, on Nov. 2, a jury awarded Kopp $1.2 million, concluding that Amazon intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Kopp because its human resources department failed to properly address his complaints and stop the harassment.

Jurors, however, deadlocked on Kopp’s disability harassment claim in a 7-5 split in favor of Kopp, so there will be a retrial on that claim. In state court civil trials, at least nine of 12 jurors must find in favor of a plaintiff for the plaintiff to prevail.

“The jury found that Amazon intentionally inflicted emotional distress in perpetrating and allowing the conduct to occur,” said Kopp’s lead attorney, John Barber, in an email. “Michael will now move on and try his harassment claim against Amazon.”

Attorneys Karen P. Kimmey and Chandra S. Andrade, who represented Amazon.com Services during the two-week trial, did not respond to telephone calls and emails seeking comment. Officials at Amazon also did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Exemplary employee

Kopp, who began working at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in October 2015 as a temporary employee and was granted full-time employment in March 2016, was an exemplary employee who in 2019 was recognized as the “#3 associate in terms of productivity for the entire facility,” according to the lawsuit.

But because of his Asperger’s syndrome, dyslexia and difficulty reading, the lawsuit claims, Kopp became a target of “severe abuse” by his co-workers, who made venomous comments to him such as: “You are a waste of life!”, “Why do they (Amazon) hire autistic people?”, “Nobody likes you!”, “ “F—— retard!”, “You should kill yourself!” and “You will never be anything.”

One of Kopp’s main tormentors hurled a box at Kopp as they were loading a truck in 2017. The box, which weigh about 4 pounds, struck him in the head, according to the lawsuit. “My hands went numb from getting hit in the head so hard,” Kopp said in a telephone interview.

Kopp complained to his manager, but didn’t get much support. “He said, ‘please don’t go to HR and tell … because he really needs this job,” Kopp said.

The bullying and intimidation continued despite Kopp’s repeated complaints to managers. Kopp believed his co-workers collaborated in an ongoing pattern and practice of harassment and bullying due to his disabilities.

“It became apparent that (Kopp) was the joke and/or punching bag of the warehouse, which seemed to operate much like a high school bullying the disabled kid,” the suit alleges.

One employee told Kopp she was fired from her previous job because she stabbed a co-worker, leaving Kopp feeling “very threatened,” according to the lawsuit.

Amazon workplace issues

Amazon has come under fire in recent years from current and former employees who allege harsh working conditions, safety issues and unfair treatment of employees.

In March, an Amazon worker at a Bakersfield warehouse filed a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court alleging the company fired him for seeking time off to grieve his parents’ deaths.

The Center for Investigative Reporting has published a series of stories in the past five years on workplace issues and controversies at Amazon, including injuries.

Moving on

Kopp says he felt defeated when he left Amazon, and has struggled in the years since trying to stay grounded and find stable employment again.

“It made me feel terrible,” he said. “I was hoping to grow in the company. But once I left my job I wasn’t able to make car payments. I wasn’t able to make car insurance payments. I lost my health insurance. I couldn’t go to the grocery store to get food. I constantly have to rely on my great-grandmother.”

“I’m stuck with it, and I’m stuck with the memory of who put me in this position. Every time I look at that car I think of that son of a bitch,” Hammond, 53, said of Clayton Thom, the former owner of the high-end auto dealership.

Hammond, a former Santa Clarita resident who now lives in Idaho, said in a telephone interview on Thursday, Nov. 2, that Thom assured him he was buying a solid car at the time of purchase. Hammond, however, said the car presented nothing but problems from the day he bought it.

“The very first night we got that car it almost killed us because the throttle got stuck wide open,” Hammond said.

Hammond was one of dozens alleged victims who claim to have bought super lemons instead of supercars from Thom. Dissatisfied and frustrated customers also alleged CNC Motors was floating titles and not paying them for vehicles sold on consignment, nor was the dealership squaring auto loans with banks. It prompted a DMV investigation that ultimately wound up in the hands of the California Department of Justice.

The dealership finally closed in 2021 as the DMV was investigating widespread complaints.

Criminal charges

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office had filed criminal charges against Thom, 50, and his former business manager, Valerie Tanaka, 61.

Thom is charged with 37 felony counts of grand theft and one count of elder theft for allegedly stealing more than $4 million from 35 customers from 2018 through 2021. Additionally, Thom and Tanaka are both charged with 13 felony counts of tax fraud for allegedly not remitting $4.4 million in sales taxes to the state.

The two pleaded not guilty during their arraignment Tuesday in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court.

Thom remains in custody on $8.7 million bail at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Tanaka was released from custody on her own recognizance following their arraignment, court records show. The two are scheduled to next appear in court on Monday, Nov. 6, for a pretrial hearing. Thom also is requesting that his bail be reduced, according to court records.

In a statement this week, Bonta said, “I am grateful to my legal team and our state agency partners for their incredible work in this case. Fraud against Californians and against the state will not be tolerated by the California Department of Justice.”

Embezzlement scheme

Authorities allege Thom, while acting in his capacity as owner of CNC Motors, encouraged his customers to place their high-value vehicles on consignment at his dealership, sometimes persuading them to surrender the titles to their vehicles.

The alleged victims signed contracts that promised payment within 20 days of the sale of their vehicles. Thom, however, would sell the cars and not pay his alleged victims, using the consigned vehicles to settle his debts and to obtain loans, according to the Justice Department.

Thom allegedly prevented customers who purchased consigned vehicles from receiving legal ownership and did not endorse, date, and deliver certificates of ownership and registration to the customers. In some cases, Thom provided his customers with forged titles, according to the Justice Department.

With Tanaka’s assistance, the Justice Department alleges, Thom collected but failed to pay about $4.4 million in sales tax to the state from 2017 to 2021.

Reached by telephone on Thursday, Tanaka declined to comment.

Court records show a deputy public defender had been appointed to represent Thom.

‘Bittersweet news’

For Thom’s alleged victims, some, including Hammond, were left with conflicting emotions upon hearing the news that Thom was in custody facing multiple felonies.

“There’s a certain sense of satisfaction as you’re telling me this, but I know I will never get any kind of repayment from that guy, which I wrote off long ago,” said Hammond, owner of a design and fabrication company that manufactures props for the film and television industry.

Dan Hurlbert, an Austin-based YouTuber and supercar aficionado who came to Hammond’s aid in 2021 and launched an online campaign against Thom and CNC Motors, said he fielded upwards of 100 complaints on his Normal Guy Supercar website from irate CNC customers who claimed to have been swindled by Thom.

“It’s unfortunate the whole situation happened. There are still tons of people out there who haven’t been made whole, and probably will never be made whole,” Hurlbert said in a phone interview on Thursday, Nov. 2.

He said he understands why it took authorities so long to charge Thom, given the complexity of the case.

“I don’t think it’s enough punishment,” said Hurlbert, who added that the ordeal prompted him to open his own dealership, NG Supercars, in 2022.

“We started our own supercar dealership to have an honest and transparent option for people. This whole thing was a motivator to do that,” Hurlbert said.

Hammond said he’s made attempts to sell the Ferrari, but because he has to disclose its rocky history, few people have shown interest. He said the sale price for the year, make and model of his vehicle ranges from $135,000 to $179,000. He paid $105,000 for it and poured in another $70,000 into repairs.

“I think the best offer I had on it was $112,000,” said Hammond, who had difficulty reconciling the news of Thom’s arrest with everything he has gone through in the past four years.

“It takes some of the burn away, but it still hurts,” he said. “It’s still coming up short for us. So it’s bittersweet news.”

Rene Gregorio Estrella, a now-banned teacher at the School of Business and Tourism at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex near downtown Los Angeles, was arrested Oct. 18 based on data collected from the cellphone of Steven Frasher, who resigned from the Redlands Planning Commission two days after his arrest Oct. 3.

Estrella also is identified as “Greg” in the affidavit, as that was the name that appeared in Frasher’s phone contacts when San Bernardino police scrubbed it for evidence, according to the affidavit obtained by the Southern California News Group.

The affidavit alleges the two men “exchanged multiple photos of adult and child pornography,” and cites a conversation they had consisting of several text messages.

“Frasher sent ‘Greg’ images of child pornography based off of what he considered attractive. ‘Greg’ sent multiple images of child pornography based off what Frasher found attractive,” the affidavit states. “The images of child pornography depicted pubescent children.”

Photos sent of students

Additionally, the affidavit alleges, Estrella would take pictures of students at Miguel Contreras as they were bending over so he could see down their shirts without their knowledge. He sent several of the photos to Frasher, and the two would discuss what the girls were wearing and how “sexy” they were.

“Estella would tell Frasher he wanted more pictures to look like the girls at school,” the affidavit states. As a result, police believe Frasher supplied Estrella with child pornography tailored to his liking.

San Bernardino police booked both men on suspicion possessing child pornography. They subsequently posted bail and were released. Neither has been criminally charged as police have not yet submitted the case to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

“It’s still under investigation and we are pursuing all avenues,” said San Bernardino police Capt. Nelson Carrington, who declined to  comment on whether other arrests are expected or if the investigation has led to educators at any other schools.

Carrington also said he could not comment on the relationship between Frasher, 62, and Estrella, 60, or how the two met.

Estrella responds

Reached by telephone, Estrella denied the allegations.

“It’s completely false — 100 percent. It’s nothing like that,” the Claremont resident said before deferring further comment to his Rancho Cucamonga attorney, Kirk Tarman. Tarman did not respond to requests for comment via email and telephone.

On the day Estrella was taken into custody, Lt. Nina Buranasombati of the Los Angeles School Police Department sent a statement to the “school community” saying “an employee” of the Business and Tourism Academy High School at Miguel Contreras had been arrested and that the district had “prohibited the employee from coming onto any of its sites.”

Officials at Los Angeles Unified would not say whether Estrella is on paid or unpaid leave.

Cyber tip led to arrest

Frasher’s arrest resulted from a cyber tip fielded by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and turned over to the Los Angeles Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, of which the San Bernardino Police Department is an affiliate.

The search warrant explained that, under federal law, all electronic service providers must immediately report the online posting of child pornography to the NCMEC, which then reports the tips to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

The crimes against children task force sent the tip to the San Bernardino Police Department, including the pornographic images allegedly intercepted from Frasher’s electronic network. Police investigators subsequently obtained a search warrant for Frasher’s home in Redlands.

Child pornography allegedly was found at Frasher’s home during the Oct. 3 police search. The following day, investigators obtained a warrant to search his cellphone, where they discovered the text communication with Estrella.

Frasher history

Frasher, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Redlands City Council in 2015, also worked as a public information officer for the Glendale Unified School District from August 2011 to July 2012.

Glendale Unified spokesperson Kristine Nam said that as a PIO, Frasher would not have been in close contact with children. And given that he was employed with the district more than a decade ago, district officials did not feel a need to notify parents of his arrest and prior employment.

“We did not send a specific message from the district; however, the arrest has been covered extensively in the Glendale media,” Nam said.

Frasher also was a spokesman for former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach and an assistant to the mayor for two years before that.

Frasher’s San Bernardino attorney, Mike Scafiddi, said in a telephone interview on Friday, Oct. 27, that he has yet to receive any evidence from police and therefore could not comment on the case.

“We look forward to the entire process and litigating this in the courts,” Scafiddi said.

But Scafiddi did note Frasher’s extensive career in public service.

“Steve Frasher, for his entire professional life, served the public good, including volunteer work with the city of Redlands, on the city planning commission, and as a public information officer providing information to the public that only did the public good,” Scafiddi said.