A Fairfield man was arrested Wednesday on allegations he sprayed a movie theater audience with a fire extinguisher in Novato.

The incident happened at about 2 p.m. during a screening of “Ford v Ferrari” at Century Theaters Rowland Plaza. Witnesses called police and provided a description of the car that the sprayer left in, a red Mustang.

Police found a matching vehicle and its driver at Novato Community Hospital, which is down the street from the theater.

Joshua Quinn Meade, 18, was booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of battery, vandalism, releasing a gaseous substance in a theater and disturbing the peace, police said.

“At this point in the investigation, it is not believed that Meade targeted the theater or patrons specifically,” the police department said. “Although medical assistance was requested to the scene, no victims or witnesses reported they were injured nor did they seek medical attention while at the theater.”

Police said it appears that an associate of Meade encouraged him to deploy the spray.

An auto theft suspect with drugs and a loaded handgun was arrested Thursday in Sausalito, police said.

A license plate scanner detected the allegedly stolen 2014 Volkswagen Jetta enter the city from the 4000 block of Bridgeway at approximately 1:53 a.m., Sausalito police Capt. Bill Fraass said. The car was reported stolen from San Francisco on Wednesday.

Tommy Lee Boggs, 47, of San Francisco was found inside the car parked in the 800 block of Olima Street, police said. Officers found suspected methamphetamine, narcotics paraphernalia, burglary tools and a loaded .25-caliber Raven Arms handgun inside the vehicle.

Boggs is wanted on five outstanding warrants in San Francisco for suspected crimes of burglary, vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and violation of post-release supervision. Boggs was booked into Marin County Jail.

Sausalito police have recovered 28 stolen vehicles and arrested 32 people for various crimes since the license plate recognition cameras program launched in May 2017.

Marin sheriff’s deputies arrested two suspects on credit card fraud allegations at the Northgate mall in San Rafael.

Leticia Marie Algere, 41, and David Benjerman Cuevas, 34, both of Novato, were booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of shoplifting, possession of stolen property, conspiracy and other offenses.

Algere was released on $25,000 bail. Cuevas, who has outstanding warrants involving robbery and theft cases, remained in custody Thursday in lieu of a $150,000 bail.

Algere could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Authorities launched an investigation around 8 a.m. Wednesday when a Kentfield resident reported that her purse and wallet were stolen from an unlocked vehicle, Marin County sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider said. Later that morning, the victim reported that she was notified that one of her credit cards was used at Macy’s in Terra Linda, Schneider said.

Deputies spotted Algere inside the store and identified her as a suspect. When deputies made contact with Algere, she ran to a vehicle in the mall parking lot, where Cuevas was waiting.

Algere was taken into custody after a brief struggle. She was in possession of the victim’s credit cards and identifying information, Schneider said.

Further investigation uncovered a large quantity of allegedly stolen mail from throughout the county and 18 grams of suspected methamphetamine.

In September, Algere was arrested in Novato in an identity theft investigation involving at least 19 alleged victims.

Cuevas was also arrested in August in connection with a July burglary at Home Depot in San Rafael. He was accused of stealing a $1,000 pressure washer.

Witnessing the trial of an accused drunken driver play out in Marin County Superior Court proved to be an effective cautionary tale for 17-year-old Alex Garcia.

“Hearing everything that you have to go through, you really see the consequences of driving under the influence,” Garcia said. “It’s not worth it. It’s something I’m definitely not doing.”

A senior at Madrone High School in San Rafael, Garcia was one of about 100 Marin high school students who attended the “Real DUI Court in Schools Program” at the courthouse in San Rafael on Friday.

The program is organized by the Marin County Office of Education in partnership with local high schools, the district attorney, the public defender and the sheriff’s office. The program is aimed at giving young people a heightened awareness of their personal responsibility and lead them to making good choices, according to organizers.

“Prevention works in medicine and it works in the criminal justice system,” said Public Defender Jose Varela, one of the organizers of the program. “Exposing students to the reality of a DUI trial creates a real context for decisions they will make about drinking and driving or getting into a car with someone who is too impaired to drive.”

Marin Superior Court Judge Sheila Shah Lichtblau presided over the trial. A group of the teens were selected to participate in a student advisory jury, and Lichtblau informed them of what they should expect.

“This is not a drama,” she said. “It’s not a play, it’s not a mock trial. This is a real trial.”

The students were tasked with taking notes on arguments from the prosecutor and defense, testimony from the arresting officers and expert opinion from a criminal forensic scientist. In the end, the student jury deliberated and together drew a verdict. The exercise was for educational purposes only, and Lichtblau cast the final judgement.

The students also viewed video evidence, including dashboard camera footage from the arresting California Highway Patrol officer and from the field sobriety test.

Yorvin Mazariegos, a 17-year-old senior at Madrone, was in the audience.

“The message I took away from it, is what not to do,” he said. “I don’t want to be in that situation.”

In addition to serving as a warning against drunken driving, the experience offers other life lessons, too.

It was the first court trial that 17-year-old Stacy Diaz had ever attended. Diaz is a senior at San Rafael High School.

“Maybe this will help me focus on my career,” she said. “I’m not sure what I want to do, but I’m going to be open minded with what I can do. At the least, I can gain the knowledge of how a trial works.”

Central Marin police arrested two suspects accused of stealing packages from a Larkspur apartment complex.

Police said Chivonne Bozarth, 39, and Steven Hirai, 40, both of Novato, were booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of possessing stolen property and narcotics.

Police received a report around 3 p.m. Monday that two people were stealing packages from the Serenity Apartments complex at Larkspur Landing, Central Marin police Sgt. Sean Kerr said.

By the time police arrived, the pair had left, but one of the residents caught their vehicle on video.

An officer later found the vehicle at the Bon Air Shopping Center in Greenbrae. After an investigation, officers recovered 16 allegedly stolen packages, suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia from the pair.

Bozarth and Hirai were released on bail pending further review by the district attorney’s office. They could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A Tennessee man was arrested on allegations he tried to extort nearly $1 million from a relative who lives in San Rafael.

Robbins Lee Thornhill, 47, was booked on an arrest warrant from the Marin County District Attorney’s Office. He surrendered to the sheriff’s department on Monday after traveling from out of state.

Thornhill threatened to shoot the relative or post false social media articles about him being a child molester if he did not pay, the prosecution alleged. The alleged demand was for money to cover medical expenses.

“Failure to make timely payment will not bode well for you,” Thornhill allegedly texted the relative, according to a prosecution affidavit.

Thornhill appeared in court on Wednesday in an effort to get his bail amount reduced from $100,000. His public defender, Kimberly Fitzgerald, said Thornhill should be released on his own recognizance because he has “no prior record at all” and voluntarily surrendered when he learned of the charges.

Prosecutor Thomas McCallister argued that bail should be raised to $170,000 because of the alleged violent threats. McCallister also said that Thornhill violated court orders barring him from contacting the alleged victim.

Judge Paul Haakenson said Thornhill does not appear to be a flight risk but said the alleged threats are too concerning to eliminate bail entirely. Haakenson lowered the amount to $25,000 and ordered Thornhill to wear a tracking device on his ankle if he posts bail.

Thornhill is scheduled to enter a plea on Tuesday. He is charged with attempted extortion, elder endangerment and violating restraining orders.

Thornhill is a former Petaluma resident. He was arrested in Mendocino County last year on allegations of making criminal threats, but the court website shows no charges filed against him.

MARTINEZ — In a case full of drama and shocking plot twists, a then-Marin County social services worker and her estranged husband have been arrested and charged with plotting to murder the husband’s ex-girlfriend.

It is an investigation that Pittsburg police officers testified will stay with them for a long time, both because of its complexity and the multi-day manhunt for one of the defendants, during a span when police believed the intended victim and her mother’s lives could be in imminent danger. Even after both defendants were arrested, prosecutors moved to acquire a sealing order to protect the victims’ names from public disclosure, an uncommon move in murder conspiracy cases.

The defendants, Guadalupe Valenti, 42, of Corte Madera, and Julian Valdez Jr., 45, of Pittsburg, are alleged to have plotted to murder Valdez’s ex-girlfriend while they argued and bickered over her, even planning what gun and type of bullets to use, according to the complaint. During the investigation, police say they uncovered a text message sent by Valdez to Valenti that said he knew she would call the cops on him after the murder, but indicating he still planned to go through with it.

Authorities also allegedly found a file on Valenti’s phone about the alleged victim, entitled “w—-,” which included detailed personal information on Valdez’s ex-girlfriend, such as her address and Social Security number. At the time, Valenti worked at the Marin County Department of Health and Social Services, and it is believed she used her job to access an internal database for the information, prosecutors said.

Valdez and Valenti were charged in August, but prosecutors secured a separate grand jury indictment against Valenti last month. The two have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to be tried early next year.

It all started with a meet-up through a dating app.

According to Valdez’s ex-girlfriend — known in court records as “Jane Doe” — she met Valdez online, and they dated for about two months, during the summer of 2019. She testified before a grand jury last month that she broke off the relationship because Valdez was exhibiting strange, self-destructive behavior.

She told the grand jury she had no idea at the time that Valdez was recently estranged from his longtime wife, Valenti, but that the two were still in touch.

After the relationship, Doe began receiving harassing messages from Valdez’s Facebook page, she testified. Around the same time, she realized she was pregnant and had the pregnancy terminated, she told the grand jury.

During a back-and-forth with Valdez’s account on Facebook, Doe mentioned the abortion, adding that she terminated the pregnancy because it felt like “a parasite,” a Pittsburg police investigator testified. It wasn’t long before Doe started getting increasingly harassing messages, calling her a “baby killer” and escalating to threats.

She also began getting texts from Valdez encouraging her to meet Valenti, and sending her invites on Facebook for the two to meet face-to-face, she said. Doe declined.

She blocked Valdez on Facebook, and then Doe’s mother started getting messages from him, Doe and her mother testified. They included threats, and unwanted naked pictures of Valdez, according to prosecutors.

Another message to Doe’s mother came from Valdez’s account, then came a picture of a gun, with the following message: “I don’t care if I die soon enough, but I will take you both out with me.”

That “really freaked me out,” Doe told the grand jury.

“I was like, ‘OK, well, I’m calling the cops,’” she said, according to the transcript. Police began a manhunt for Valdez soon after, checking his home and places he was known to frequent, but he was nowhere to be found.

Pittsburg police deal with threat complaints on an almost routine basis, but Officer Gregory Simpson said this investigation stood out to him from the beginning.

“I will remember this case for a long time,” Simpson said. “My concern, my sergeant’s concern, steadily went up as the investigation went along, as (Valdez) became harder to find.”

Eventually, though, police tracked Valdez to where he was being held temporarily at a behavioral health center in Fresno. He was arrested Aug. 15, according to public records. When police searched his phone for evidence, there was a surprise waiting for them: Text messages between Valdez and Valenti that spelled out the murder plot targeting Doe, according to the indictment.

According to authorities, on Aug. 11, the defendants discussed through texts how they would buy a semi-automatic pistol called a “44 Bulldog” for the murder. Four days later, the day Valdez was arrested, authorities say either he or Valenti sent Doe a message saying that Valdez would murder her in a week, when he was released from the behavioral health center.

After Valdez’s arrest, Valenti was brought in for questioning, and denied wrongdoing. She said at one point during the interview she thought Doe was trying to manipulate Valdez into paying for a phony abortion, police testified.

But police have a different theory. A Pittsburg evidence technician testified that a review of Valdez’s Facebook account showed that messages were being sent to Doe and her mother’s account from a type of smartphone that Valenti — not Valdez — owned. Investigators believe that when Doe mentioned the abortion to Valdez’s Facebook account, she may have unknowingly tipped off Valenti to the fact that Valdez had a sexual relationship with another woman, fueling a jealous rage.

“Did you have sex with (Doe)?” one text message from Valenti to Valdez said. “Don’t (expletive) lie to me, Julian.”

An auto theft suspect with drugs and counterfeit money was arrested early Wednesday in Sausalito, police said.

Chelsie Erkel, 28, of Windsor was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of possessing stolen property and methamphetamine. Bail was set at $10,000.

The incident occurred at 12:57 a.m. when a license plate reading camera at the 4000 block of Bridgeway detected a 2005 Lexus that had been reported stolen from Fremont on Tuesday, Sausalito police Capt. Bill Frass said.

Police spotted the Lexus on Bridgeway at Harbor Drive. Police Cpl. Brian Mather and Officer Adam Clerici performed a traffic stop and detained Erkel, who was driving the car. Police found suspected methamphetamine and a counterfeit $100 bill inside the vehicle.

Sausalito police have recovered 29 stolen vehicles and arrested 33 people for various crimes since the license plate camera program launched in May 2017.

Two Novato residents suspected in a spree of mail thefts and car break-ins in Larkspur were arrested early Wednesday, Central Marin police said.

Leticia Marie Algere, 41, and David Benjerman Cuevas, 34, were booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of possessing stolen property and conspiracy to commit a crime. Cuevas was also booked on suspicion of providing false identification to police and felony possession of tear gas.

Algere and Cuevas were arrested two weeks ago in connection with a theft and credit card fraud case in Kentfield. They were free on bail.

The latest incident occurred at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, when a resident on the 100 block of Madrone Avenue in Larkspur reported that a man and woman were rifling through his unlocked car in his driveway, said police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher.

Police located Cuevas and Algere on Madrone Avenue. Cuevas, who was wearing a headlamp, was carrying a flashlight and suspected burglary tools.

After an investigation, police located the suspects’ vehicle, which contained suspected stolen property, including mail, such as insurance information and vehicle registration cards from several victims. Police also found gift cards and other suspected stolen items, including key rings with keys to several vehicles, Rohrbacher said.

Police also discovered that mailboxes at homes on Madrone, Onyx and surrounding streets were left open and appeared to have been rummaged through. Cars parked on the street and driveways also appeared to have been broken into, Rohrbacher said.

Police are working to identify potential victims.

Two suspected drug dealers were arrested in Corte Madera after police found them watching porn in a parked car.

The arrest yielded 10 pounds of marijuana packaged in labeled baggies and jars, an undisclosed amount of LSD and syringes filled with methamphetamine suspected for sale, the Central Marin Police Authority said.

Luke Anthony Sawyer, 49, of Newark and Amy Michelle Hunsaker, 41, of O’Brien, Oregon, were booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of possessing of controlled substances for sale.

At 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, a police officer spotted a suspicious vehicle backed up in between fencing on Industrial Way, said police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher.

The officer made contact with the suspects and discovered that they were watching a pornographic video, Rohrbacher said.

Police spotted a small amount of marijuana inside the car, along with suspected used syringes and a 9mm bullet but no gun, Rohrbacher said. The suspects said the marijuana was for personal use.

After checking identification, police discovered that Sawyer had an outstanding arrest warrant for a case in Arkansas.

Police detained the suspects. A vehicle search yielded a rolling suitcase filled with the suspected drugs and paraphernalia, Rohrbacher said.

Sawyer, whose bail was set at $10,000, was also booked on suspicion of felony possession of ammunition. Hunsaker was held on a $2,500 bail.

An 84-year-old woman died in a Wednesday night house fire in Novato, officials said.

The Marin County coroner’s office identified the woman as Ardith Marie Parra. The cause and manner of death are pending further investigation.

The home on the 600 block of Cherry Street was destroyed, an estimated $300,000 loss, Novato Fire Protection District Chief Bill Tyler said.

The fire was reported just after 10:30 p.m. by 911 calls from neighbors who said they saw smoke and flames from a house near the corner of Cherry and Chase streets. At the time of the call, it was unknown if the residence was occupied, Tyler said.

Crews arrived to find heavy smoke billowing from the home fully engulfed in flames.

As crews battled the blaze, a rescue team entered the home in an attempt to locate any occupants. Tyler said the house was densely packed with belongings “floor to ceiling and some windows covered,” complicating the already difficult rescue mission.

The fire crew found the woman collapsed and unresponsive in the hallway outside of her bedroom. She appeared to have suffered from smoke inhalation, Tyler said.

The rescue crew pulled her to the front yard and attempted to revive her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman had been out shopping earlier that evening and returned home around 7:30 p.m., according to a witness.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Tyler said the fire was concentrated in the kitchen, the porch and the attic. The home was gutted and the roof collapsed, Tyler said.

“This was a major fire that was difficult to extinguish,” Tyler said. No other homes were threatened.

Novato police and San Rafael firefighters also responded to the call.

On Thursday morning, Novato authorities closed Cherry Street and reduced traffic to one lane on Chase Street while the fire cleanup and investigation continued.

Gregory Bentley, Jesus Hernandez and Kiley Townsend all have something in common: they’ve been to hell and back.

All three developed crippling drug addictions, committed serious crimes to get the drugs they craved and ended up behind bars as a result. With the help of Marin County’s probation department, all three found the strength to put drugs behind them and right their lives.

They were among 13 Marin probationers recognized this week by the probation department during a ceremony at the Civic Center for their outstanding recoveries. San Rafael resident Michael Pritchard, a former juvenile probation officer turned stand-up comic turned youth counselor, emceed the event.

“Two years ago I was an intravenous heroin and crack addict. I was homeless living in the Tenderloin committing burglaries, robberies and a variety of financial crimes to support my addiction,” Townsend, 26, a Novato native, told a group of some 200 family and friends gathered for the event Wednesday.

“I left my 2-year-old son in the care of his grandparents because I could no longer care for him in the way that he needed. I didn’t care about family, my son, or my friends. I had lost all human parts of me,” Townsend said. “The world I had entered was a very dark and scary place, and I didn’t see a way out.”

Even after the 2017 arrest that sent her to Marin County Drug Court and led eventually to her recovery, Townsend relapsed and ended up in the cardiac intensive care unit of a hospital for the third time. On this occasion, however, when she was discharged and taken back into custody, Townsend said she experienced a moment of clarity.

“I clung to it like my life depended on it and it did,” she said. “Today, I’m a present, loving, patient mother, who strives each day to be better.”

Townsend recently moved into a little house in San Anselmo with her 4-year-old son and is working two jobs.

Hernandez, 22, a Novato native, said it also took him many years to accept the fact that he was powerless over drugs.

“Drugs did for me what I couldn’t do for myself,” Hernandez said, “They made me feel nothing. That’s what I liked most: I liked numbing the pain.”

He was sent to Juvenile Hall after being arrested for stealing alcohol from stores while still in high school. Later he graduated to prescription drugs such as Oxycontin and tranquilizers such as Ativan and started committing more serious crimes to get the money he needed for his drug habit. Some of these crimes involved the use of a firearm. He was incarcerated in Marin County Jail four times, the longest stretch for about four months.

“It was very difficult because I was kicking drugs most of the time,” Hernandez recalled.

In 2015, Hernandez tried to end his pain for good by swallowing a handful of pills.

“I went into a coma and woke up four days later with a tube down my throat,” he said. “Soon after I was sent to my first outpatient program.”

Hernandez said, however, it wasn’t until he was arrested for domestic violence in March, 2018 — “when I realized I could hurt someone that I loved” — that he decided to change his life.

Since entering recovery, Hernandez has been diagnosed as having a major depressive disorder. Today, he is living sober and holds a full-time job.

Bentley, 38, earned a law degree from Golden Gate University and was a successful criminal defense attorney working in San Francisco when he started using opiates.

“I was an alcoholic my whole life and it was untreated,” Bentley said. “I slowly got into the pills and from there it progressed to heroin.”

Then he started stealing cars to get the money he needed to finance his habit. He was eventually arrested and sent to prison after being convicted of four felonies. After being released from state prison in Corcoran in November 2017, Bentley chose to come to Marin.

“At that point in my life, I had lost everything that mattered to me,” he told the audience Wednesday. “I had lost my career, my license to practice law. I was homeless. I didn’t have a lot of hope. I came to Marin County because I knew I needed to make a change.”

Bentley said he was provided access to a rehab program and 90 days at a sober living residence, which he couldn’t have afforded to pay for himself.

“I’m so glad I came here and was willing at the right time,” he said, “because there are a lot of resources here that allowed me to get sober.”

Bentley has been clean and sober now for a year and 10 months, and is working toward reinstatement of his state bar license.

Mike Daly, the county’s chief probation officer, came up with the idea of recognizing high achievers among the county’s probationers seven years ago.  A photo of each honoree together with first-person accounts of their struggles are posted on the “Wall of Change” in the probation department’s reception area.

“We have this Wall of Change ceremony so they feel the support from the community,” Daly said in a statement. “A lot of times, that might be the first real public support and encouragement they have felt in their whole lives. We also do it to inspire the people who are new to probation, so they know the support system from this community event is there for them to succeed.”

Marin Superior Court Judge Paul Haakenson, who presides over Marin’s Adult Drug Court, also spoke at Wednesday’s Wall of Change ceremony.

“To some, celebrating the successes of criminal defendants may seem counterintuitive,” Haakenson said. “Are we ignoring their crimes? Are we dishonoring their victims. Are we condoning bad behavior? The truth is in cases like those we see here today, it’s just the opposite.”

Haakenson said Marin’s probation department has broken new ground by seeking a greater understanding of the role factors such as brain chemistry, genetics, drug use, trauma and mental illness play in motivating criminal behavior.

“Not in the sense of excusing it,” Haakenson said, “but in a sense of understanding it, and addressing it and preventing it from happening again.

“We owe it to ourselves and the community to understand and address these things,” he said, “and not brush them under the rug, not simply blame everything on moral deficiencies.”

A Vallejo man convicted in 2005 of home invasion robberies in Corte Madera and Santa Rosa was denied parole this week for another five years.

Lawrence Reed, 34, was denied parole after a three-hour youth offender hearing on Tuesday at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, where he is an inmate.

A youth offender hearing is held when the parole board considers early release for inmates who were younger than 26 when they committed their crime. Reed was 19 years old at the time.

Reed was charged with a strong-arm robbery and sexual assault that occurred in Santa Rosa in 2004.

Authorities said Reed, along with three other defendants, drove from Marin County to steal marijuana from a Santa Rosa apartment. When they didn’t find what they were looking for, the defendants bound the victims, pistol-whipped them and held them captive while they ransacked their home, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office.

Reed targeted the lone female victim and sexually assaulted her, authorities said. The defendants left with ATM cards, $300 in cash and sports equipment.

Reed and a co-defendant were later identified as having committed an identical robbery in Corte Madera months prior.

After a Sonoma County jury trial, Reed received a 45-year sentence for the Santa Rosa crime. He received an addition nine-year sentence after pleading guilty to the Corte Madera crime.

Aiming to protect neighborhoods and bolster investigation efforts, the Novato Police Department has joined several agencies across the Bay Area and the nation in using Ring, the Amazon-owned video surveillance doorbell maker.

Novato is the first Marin community, and one of eight in the Bay Area, to enlist Ring and its app “Neighbors.” The program allows law enforcement to ask Ring users for their video footage when police need help with investigations into crimes such as home burglaries, package thefts and others. More than 670 departments have joined nationwide.

“These cameras don’t sleep,” said Novato police Chief Matt McCaffrey. “Late at night when everyone is more likely to be in bed, the residents aren’t going to see anything, but these cameras are going to pick it up. It creates a sort of digital neighborhood watch.”

Residents can also download and use the Neighbors app even if they don’t have the Ring device. The benefit of the app is that users can receive real-time alerts from police, including updates on crime and safety incidents, police said.

McCaffrey said the partnership with Ring is an expansion of its surveillance camera registry program that logs the location of security cameras at homes and businesses in the city. Since that program launched in 2015, the city has registered 89 cameras across the city.

Using surveillance cameras to combat crime is not a new idea, McCaffrey said. Knowing which homes and businesses have cameras also allows police to cut back on time spent canvassing neighborhoods door-to-door in search of leads.

From the experience in Novato so far, McCaffrey said it’s simple to use and requires little staff time.

“The hours involved is very minimal, and the potential payout is great,” he said.

The technology does have its critics, who say the privacy rules and civil rights protections are too lax.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., launched an investigation into Ring last September over privacy concerns. In a summary of findings posted on his website recently, Markey said Ring does not limit how long police can keep video or with whom they share it. In addition, he said Ring can’t ensure that its users don’t collect footage from beyond their property, or that users don’t collect footage of children.

“Amazon Ring’s policies are an open door for privacy and civil liberty violations,” he said.

McCaffrey said the whole point of having a surveillance camera is to prevent crime or to assist law enforcement in solving a crime.

“The company has done a good job to make sure there are checks and balances,” he said, noting that police can only obtain video footage with the consent of the user.

“Ring does not own or otherwise control users’ videos, and we intentionally designed the Neighbors Portal to ensure that users get to decide whether or not to voluntarily provide their videos to the police,” a Ring spokeswoman said.

Novato is the first to use Ring, but other Marin law enforcement agencies have surveillance camera registry programs, including San Rafael, Sausalito, Central Marin and others.

San Rafael launched its registry in 2015 and has since logged 96 addresses with cameras, police Chief Diana Bishop said.

“The program has been effective,” she said. “We have had burglaries, shootings, thefts and other cases solved using footage from these and other private surveillance systems. They are very helpful.”

Bishop said she is not familiar with the Neighbors app, but is glad to see that a person does not need to purchase the Ring device to benefit from the apps features.

“It certainly looks like something we will look at,” she said. “I need to see what, if any, staff time is needed to make it a meaningful addition to our tool belt.”

More information on Novato’s partnership with Ring is available at bit.ly/38nCRjp.

Residents and business owners can also go to their local police department’s website to register surveillance cameras.

The Bay Area News Group contributed to this story.

A Kentfield woman was arrested early Tuesday on allegations she broke into a San Rafael home and caused $1,000 in damage.

Jacklyn Sarah O’Connor, 21, was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of burglary, malicious vandalism, battery of an officer and resisting arrest.

O’Connor is also accused of violating a court order that prohibited her from being at the home.

The incident happened at about 12:45 a.m. the 1800 block of Second Street, San Rafael police Sgt. Justin Graham said. When police arrived, O’Connor barricaded herself in the bathroom and refused to cooperate, Graham said.

Once she was taken into custody, O’Connor allegedly kicked the arresting officer.

O’Connor remained in jail Tuesday in lieu of $50,000 bail.

San Rafael police arrested a 38-year-old man accused of swinging an arrow at two downtown pedestrians.

Miguel Angel Aguerrebere, a San Rafael resident, was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

At 9 p.m. Monday, police received reports of a bow-and-arrow toting man riding his bike erratically near Second and B streets, San Rafael police Sgt. Justin Graham said. Callers reported that he appeared to be intoxicated, Graham said.

Aguerrebere rode his bike to the 7-Eleven at 703 B St., where he allegedly switched off the circuit breaker, cutting power to the store. He then rode toward the parking garage at B and Third streets, where he allegedly committed the assault.

Neither pedestrian reported injuries.

Aguerrebere is being held in lieu of a $50,000 bail.

Marin sheriff’s deputies arrested three suspects on various allegations in Mill Valley after they were found asleep in a truck with expired registration tags.

A deputy spotted the pickup truck at 9:40 a.m. Tuesday at the Strawberry Village Shopping Center, sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider said. The deputy checked on the truck because the expired tags and saw suspected drug paraphernalia with the sleeping occupants, Schneider said.

Deputies woke the suspects and searched the truck. They found suspected burglary tools, including a lock picking set, gloves and a hammer.

Nathan David Gooch, 29, of Vallejo was found in possession of identifications and debit cards for other people, Schneider said. Gooch also had less than a gram of suspected fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

Priscilla Placenia, 30, of Gilroy was arrested on suspicion of possessing burglary tools. She also had outstanding warrants for alleged petty theft, obstructing an officer and drug possession.

The driver, Luis Vincent Santiago, 29, of Occidental, was arrested for an outstanding warrant.

The three suspects were booked into Marin County Jail. Santiago was released on a promise to appear in court. Gooch and Placenia remained in custody Wednesday pending a review by the district attorney’s office.

A state appeals court has affirmed the conviction of a man who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend with a pair of pruning shears in San Rafael.

Charles Tooker, 44, was arrested in 2016 at the victim’s residence in Santa Venetia. She was gardening in her yard when Tooker showed up and threatened her with a gun.

Tooker fumbled the weapon, which was inoperable anyway, and then stabbed the woman repeatedly with the shears and strangled her. Neighbors heard the victim screaming and intervened to restrain Tooker.

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office charged Tooker with attempted murder, assault, criminal threats, relationship violence and violating a restraining order.

Tooker had dated the victim for about four years before she broke up with him. He had more than 500 images of her on his laptop and admitted he was obsessed with her.

The case went to trial in 2018. Tooker’s lawyer raised an insanity defense, claiming Tooker suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was attacked by robbers previously in Oakland. The judge ruled Tooker competent to stand trial.

Tooker, who testified at the trial, admitted he dragged the victim off a fence when she was trying to escape, but he could not remember whether he stabbed or strangled her.

A jury convicted Tooker of most charges but acquitted him of premeditation and deadlocked on a firearm-use allegation. Judge Andrew Sweet sentenced him to 16 years in prison.

Tooker filed an appeal on various claims, including flawed jury instructions by the judge. He also argued the judge should not have ruled him competent to stand trial and should not have admitted evidence of Tooker’s prior relationship violence.

The petition was reviewed by a three-judge panel at the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. In a 31-page decision released Monday, the judges unanimously rejected all of Tooker’s claims.

Tooker’s appellate attorney, Edward Haggerty, could not be reached for comment.

Tooker is incarcerated at the state prison in Soledad.

The Sausalito City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the Sausalito Police Association to increase wages and create bilingual incentives, among other provisions.

The three-year deal will increase wages by 2.5% for 21 full-time positions, increasing the cost to the city by $314,000 through 2022. The funds will come out of the 2019-20 general fund surplus, which is at $988,188, according to a city staff report.

Officers who are fluent in Spanish are now able to receive 5% above their base salary, and 2.5% if they speak it well enough to complete a basic investigation.

The changes will go into effect by the first full pay period following the City Council’s approval at its meeting on Tuesday.

A suspect was arrested after an alleged ax attack aboard an anchor-out boat in Richardson Bay, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Christopher Parra, 45, was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of a probation violation, burglary and attempted assault with a deadly weapon.

There were no injuries in the incident, reported at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, said sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider. Authorities received reports of an argument and gunfire on a boat off the shore of Sausalito, Schneider said.

Sausalito police made contact with the victim, but by that time, the suspect, who was later identified as Parra, had fled the scene. Parra allegedly boarded the boat and an argument ensued, according to the victim’s statement, Schneider said.

Parra allegedly brandished a tomahawk-style ax and swung at the victim, Schneider said.

“The victim, fearing for his life, retrieved a handgun and fired warning shots at Parra,” Schneider said in an email. “We determined the victim acted in self-defense.”

Parra, who also lives aboard an anchor-out boat, was contacted on his vessel and was arrested.

The incident is under investigation. Parra remained in custody Friday in lieu of a $50,000 bail.