| News - Friday, September 1, 2006
Digest
Pit Bull owner: 'Don't bring your dog over here'
The owner of a pit bull that killed a dog in Palo Alto last Saturday twice warned the owner of the small dog to stay away, she told the Weekly in a later phone conversation.
"I said, 'Please don't bring your dog over here,'" the owner, Ann Lane, stated.
Palo Alto police later confirmed that the listed owners of the pit bull dogs are Ann and Gill Lane.
A nearby resident told the Weekly the couple live near Ross Road and Clara Drive with two adult daughters and a son, Colin, in his early 20s, who may have introduced the dogs to the home.
The resident also said at one time there were up to five dogs in the house, and one dog got out two years ago and bit a passerby. He said the dogs "bark all the time."
Ann Lane could not be reached for comment on the resident's statements.
"It's a horrible tragedy for both of us," she said of the Saturday incident.
The owner of the small dog, Teruko Kamikihara, said her Maltese dog was "viciously attacked and instantly killed" in the Saturday morning incident at Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue.
But Lane said she doesn't understand why Kamikihara kept coming toward her with despite being asked twice to keep her distance. She said Kamikihara's dog approached her dogs and started barking.
One of them grabbed the smaller dog in its jaws. The dog, Yogloo, was killed instantly in the attack.
Lane said she dropped the leashes of her other dogs in an attempt to save the small dog, as did Kamikihara. Lane said the other two dogs stood by without attacking.
"She was walking directly towards me," Ann said. "I don't know why she did that. I don't know if she didn't hear me."
Lane's dogs, two pit bulls and a pit bull mix, were first taken to the Palo Alto Animal Shelter and are now back home.
There is a strong possibility that Lane's dog will be the subject of a dangerous dog hearing, according to Sandi Stadler, superintendent of animal services for the Palo Alto Police Department.
--Don Kazak
Blood center testing for West Nile Virus
The Stanford Blood Center is testing all donated blood for the presence of West Nile Virus since 88 cases of the infection have been recorded in California, including one in Santa Clara County.
Testing donated blood for West Nile Virus began two years ago whenever the presence of West Nile Virus has been detected in the area.
West Nile Virus is an infection transmitted to people by mosquitoes that have fed on birds carrying the virus. It can result in flu-like symptoms in 20 percent of the people infected and in rare cases can lead to encephalitis or meningitis.
"There is no risk of contracting West Nile Virus, or any other disease, through donating blood," said Michelle Bussenius of the Stanford Blood Center.
--Don Kazak
Former Woodside coach faces prison
Guy Delmar Hayman, former coach of the Woodside High School girls varsity basketball team, pleaded no contest Tuesday to a felony charge of lewd and lascivious conduct on a 14-year-old child and a misdemeanor count of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18.
Prosecutor Gregory Devitt of the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office said Hayman faces up to three years in prison. A sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 15 in San Mateo County Superior Court.
Hayman, who was fired as coach after his Jan. 11 arrest by Redwood City police, is out of jail on $500,000 bail. The bail was increased from $300,000 after he was re-arrested in May on charges that he had been masturbating in public on the grounds of an apartment complex in Mountain View.
The charges did not involve any girls on Woodside's varsity team, prosecutors said. Hayman coached at Woodside for seven or eight years, according to Woodside High Principal Linda Common.
Hayman initially pleaded not guilty in January to three felony counts of lewd acts with a girl, who was 14 when the molestation allegedly first occurred, and 41 misdemeanor counts of annoyance or molestation of the same girl.
The county probation department will study Hayman's conviction and his criminal history in preparing a report for the judge that will include a sentence recommendation, Devitt said.
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