Johnson’s Bail Skyrockets

The woman charged with stabbing an auto-repossession agent five
times in the Cedar Glen Post Office parking lot on Feb. 10 faces
four felony counts and a bail that a judge more than doubled at her
arraignment.

Christina Darlene Johnson, 47, pleaded not guilty to all counts
when she was arraigned by video from jail before Judge Richard V.
Peel on Feb. 15.

Booked at West Valley Detention Center following her arrest in
Big Bear Lake on Feb. 13, Johnson’s bail was originally set at
$500,000. However, according to court records, Peel raised the bail
amount to $1,150,000 after denying her request to be released on
her own recognizance.

Johnson faces one count of attempted murder, two of assault with
a deadly weapon other than a firearm with great bodily injury
likely and one of vehicle theft.

She is scheduled for a pre-preliminary hearing on Feb. 24 and a
preliminary hearing four days later. The public defender’s office
was appointed to represent her.

Johnson’s bail is among the highest set for a mountain defendant
in recent memory. As a comparison, the bail amount set for Jose M.
Rios-Rodriguez, accused of attempted murder in the August 2009
near-fatal stabbing of a state firefighter in Lake Arrowhead
Village, was $1 million.

Rios-Rodriguez later pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly
weapon and was sentenced to three years in prison, but did not
serve that entire term.

He currently faces six new felony counts, including three for
assault, in a  July 30, 2011, attack on an aspiring Riverside
County firefighter, his sister and his girlfriend, also in Lake
Arrowhead Village.

Johnson, whom authorities say has formerly lived in Cedar Glen
and Arrowhead Villas, reportedly purchased a black 2008 Subaru
Impreza from a San Bernardino dealership late last year, paying
with two checks that later bounced.

Officials at the dealership were unsuccessful in several
attempts to contact Johnson to obtain payment, so they hired a
retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy to locate and collect
the car, sheriff’s personnel said.

The man learned Johnson had a Cedar Glen post office box, and
staked it out on Feb. 10. Johnson arrived at there at approximately
noon, and the unidentified repossession agent’s attempt to collect
the vehicle reportedly turned violent, with Johnson allegedly
producing a knife and stabbing him in the back and shoulder and
three times in the wrist.

A sheriff’s detective said the victim required surgery to repair
a severed tendon to his right thumb. He has since been released
from the hospital.

Sheriff’s deputies issued a press release following the
stabbing, stating Christina Johnson was being sought in connection
with the assault. A second release, distributed following her
arrest at a relative’s home, identified her as Christine
Johnson.

However, court records for her arraignment say she gave her true
name as Christina Darlene Johnson.

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Some Kansas City lenders shift gears as auto loans find new traction

At the height of the recession, lenders lamented the number of borrowers who succumbed to auto repossession.

But as the economy slowly improves, repos and outstanding loans are down, and lending and loan performance are looking up.

The number of repossessions peaked in 2009 at 1.9 million and declined 9 percent in 2010 to 1.55 million, according to the 2011 Used Car Market Report by Manheim Consulting, a group that reports on the used vehicle industry.

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, delinquencies are down, and consumers have been making payments on time, spokesman Steve Kinkade said.

“Consumers are saving more, making their payments on time and remain focused on de-leveraging their overall financial position,” Kinkade said.

As the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment persist, car loans have stabilized and are outperforming mortgages, said Thomas Hay, senior vice president and manager of consumer loan products and support at Bank of Kansas City.

“During the economic downturn, consumers who found themselves struggling to make payments began to view their vehicle loan as one of the most necessary debts to maintain,” he said. “Not having a car often equated to not having a reliable means of transportation, which ultimately puts a job in jeopardy.”

The industry seems to be “over the storm,” said Tony Martens, president of Tony Martens Dodge. His business has picked up, and financing plays a role in that. He said lenders have loosened loan restrictions, which only will help.

“I can see the changes,” he said. “Back in 2009, someone would look at a (credit) score and history and give an absolute, ‘No.’ It was black and white, and now there is some gray.”

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Woman To Face Trial in Stabbing

The woman accused of stabbing an auto repossession agent who had staked out the Cedar Glen post office to reclaim the vehicle on Feb. 10 was held to answer on four felony counts at her preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Christina Darlene Johnson, 47, will stand trial on attempted murder and four other charges, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge James M. Dorr ruled after a brief preliminary hearing.

Johnson is also charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one of taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent. She is scheduled for arraignment on March 6.

Court records say Deputy Public Defender Yarrow Neubert presented no affirmative evidence on Johnson’s behalf to counter the evidence presented by Deputy District Attorney Timothy Dixon.

Johnson, a former mountain resident, was arrested Feb. 13 by sheriff’s deputies who tracked her to a home in Big Bear Lake believed to belong to her aunt.

She had been the object of a search since driving away from the post office after reportedly pulling a knife and stabbing the repossession man a total of five times.

The alleged attack occurred as he attempted to take from her a black 2008 Subaru Impreza she had allegedly bought from a San Bernardino dealer, using two checks that bounced.

Authorities said the repo man, a retired Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, had tried to back away from Johnson after she pulled a knife inside the car and stabbed him in the back, but that she followed him to his own vehicle and stabbed him again.

Johnson then reportedly put her car into reverse and rammed the victim’s car, which he had parked so as to block her vehicle, and shoved it away, making her escape.

Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Detective Craig Harris, the case’s lead investigator, said following Johnson’s arrest that she had written a six-page statement after the stabbing, explaining that she had used a knife because she didn’t know the man who had gotten into her car and was acting in self-defense.

Harris said the victim suffered a severed tendon to his right thumb during the attack and required surgery to repair it.

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Capital One Says ING Direct Won’t Change With Purchase

Capital One said it wont change a thing for customers at much-beloved ING Direct, responding to consumer groups worried that its acquisition of the online bank would translate into new and higher fees.

The Federal Reserve approved the deal on Tuesday, nearly a year after Capital One bid to buy ING Direct for $9.2 billion.

When the acquisition is finalized later this week, Capital One will become the fifth-largest consumer bank by deposit size, controlling more than $200 billion.

A concern from the beginning was that ING would go away and the bank that people liked as an Internet bank would be replaced by fees and other bad consumer practices from Capital One, said Alan Fischer, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, one of the consumer groups outspoken about the deal.

A Capital One spokeswoman said in an email Wednesday that the bank will not change policies at ING. Account servicing and functionality will remain the same, said spokeswoman Amanda Landers. Customers will still enjoy the competitive rates, no fees and the same experience theyve come to know and love from ING Direct.

Many ING Direct customers reacted with outrage when the deal was announced. But some now see the acquisition as boon for the online-only bank because it will provide a brick-and-mortar presence. Part of my hesitation in becoming 100 percent online is that I wouldnt have a branch to go to, but I felt comfortable with this, said Willy Staley, 26, a contributing writer at bank review website MyBankTracker.com. Staley said he is in the process of switching from Bank of America to ING Direct, but has not closed his old account because he felt unsure about an all-online banking experience.

ING Direct, a Netherlands-based institution that debuted in 2000 in the US, pays relatively high interest rates on deposits and charges low fees for its Electric Orange account. The account has no ATM fees, no monthly maintenance fee and no overdraft fees, offering an overdraft line of credit with an 11.25 percent interest rate. Capital One basic rewards checking has a monthly fee of $8.95, ATM fees and an overdraft fee of $35.

Consumer groups stepped up scrutiny of Capital Ones business model after the deal was announced. The bank, which started as a credit card company 1988, still relies heavily on profits from its credit card business. Since 2005, Capital One has moved increasingly into consumer banking by purchasing smaller banks, and today heavily markets its high-interest savings accounts and rewards checking accounts. Credit cards still represent 28 percent of the banks total assets, according to figures published in the Feds order on Tuesday.

Consumers have criticized Capital Ones overdraft fees and policies, including automatically enrolling customers in an overdraft protection program.

The bank, like other big banks, has since complied with regulations that makes overdraft protection optional for customers and has a limit on the number of overdraft fees that can be charged per day. Even so, Capital Ones $35 overdraft fee tops the national median of $27.50.

More than half of the complaints to the Federal Reserve during the process leading to ING Directs purchase were about Capital Ones practices for mortgages, small business and consumer lending, and collections. In the past, Capital One has been accused of attempting to wrongly collect money from people who had declared bankruptcy and failing to comply with regulations for auto repossession, the Fed said. The bank settled several class-action lawsuits regarding its car repossession practices prior to 2008.

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Connecticut Police Keep License Plate-Scan Data

But the database also can be accessed by the public and can be searched to show where and when a car has been scanned.

The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the database through a Freedom of Information request and provided a copy to The Associated Press. Its proposing legislation that would allow police to keep the data for two weeks only and would restrict the use of readers to law enforcement.

Once that data is shared, the police department loses all control of the data, said David McGuire, an attorney for the ACLU of Connecticut. You could figure out where someone works or when they leave for work. You could use the persons travel to deduce whether they are a churchgoer or attend a political rally or an AA meeting.

A similar regional database is being set up by about 15 departments in southwestern Connecticut, said Redding police Chief Douglas Fuchs, the president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs association.

It typically costs $8,000 to $18,000 to set up a patrol car with a reader, Fuchs said. The device then automatically scans any license plate in its view and compares the plates to those on a predetermined list, using information supplied by the National Crime Information Center and the state Department of Motor Vehicles, looking for a match.

If you have never stolen a car, if your registration is up-to-date, the license plate reader will never know you exist because its comparing you to a database you are not in, Fuchs said. This is an invaluable tool for us.

License plate readers have been available for years, but their use only recently has become widespread, in part because the technology has improved, the costs have come down and federal grant money has been made available for departments to purchase the units, Fuchs said.

They also have become the only means for checking the validity of license plates in Connecticut, which no longer uses stickers to show when a registration must be renewed, he said.

The readers consist of a 365-degree camera and a similar infrared camera, connected to character-recognition software that reads license plates. Most departments keep the units operating whenever a patrol car is turned on, scanning every car the officer comes in contact with at speeds of up to 80 mph.

Newington police Chief Richard Mulhall, who helped set up the system for the 10 towns in the Capital Region Chiefs of Police Association, said it began operating at the end of summer 2010 and its use has been expanding ever since. The participating departments made 839 motor vehicle arrests and 28 criminal arrests in 2011 using the technology, he said.

There was a case when an officer was responding to a fight and fire, he said. Our suspect said he wasnt at the scene. One of our officers responding to the scene said, `Let me check the file, and, sure enough, his plate was scanned in relatively close to the house where this occurred. Eventually, that person admitted to an arson at the house.

David McGuire of the ACLU said they are more worried about others misusing the technology. Some auto repossession companies have already begun purchasing scanners to use in their businesses, he said. It could be used by divorce lawyers, politicians looking to dig up dirt on opponents and even tabloid journalists, he said.

Some states have placed regulations on the scanners. New Hampshire passed a law in 2007 that bans the use of any surveillance technologies on a public way. Maine has a law that restricts the use of readers to the Department of Transportation and law enforcement and requires the data be destroyed after 21 days.

State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven and a vice chairman of the legislatures Judiciary Committee said he isnt sure whether lawmakers will act on the ACLUs proposal during this years session.

They say technology is expanding at exponential rates, he said. Legislatures dont move at exponential rates, so technology is outpacing us. Its difficult for us to keep up. But if we focus on balancing the rights of privacy and security, I think at least well be focused on the right things.

Fuchs said he would oppose time limits on storing the information. If police develop a suspect in a string of crimes, the data could be used to help link that person to the locations and times where past crimes occurred, he said.

Suppose we found a pickup truck with a missing child alive inside, and we have four or five other missing children that this guy might have had something to do with, he said. We could go back and do the research and see where the license plate readers might have seen this vehicle previously, and might get some good information.

Its not clear how many departments in Connecticut now have the readers, though its the majority of them, Fuchs said. State police have begun testing the readers but arent using them yet, said J. Paul Vance, a department spokesman.

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Top 100 delinquent taxpayers owe $419M

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Amid a crippling state budget deficit and a national debate over raising taxes on the wealthy, the California Board of Equalization has added16 new companies and individuals to its list of unpaid delinquent sales and use taxes for the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to the tax agency, the newcomers included an oil company, a restaurant, several car dealerships, a financial adviser and an auto repossession service. In total, the newcomers owed a combined$21,169,530.

The top 100 list contains more than $419.5 million in owed taxes.

Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a ballot initiative that would raise taxes on high-income earners and increase the state sales tax by a half-cent. The proposal would generate an estimated $7 billion per year over five years for education and public safety services.

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Settlement has been reached in 2007 fatal accident

ROTTERDAM, NY (WTEN) – A settlement has been reached in an auto repossession gone wrong from 2007.

The family of Ed Kosloski Junior will receive more than $1 million dollars.

The Rotterdam man was hit by a tow truck hauling away his reposessed car.

The driver says he didnt see the man as he pulled away, and was never charged. But his family filed a cvil suit against the driver and the towing company and will get $1.2 million dollars.

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