Prosecutor is Expert in Extraditions

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Deputy District Attorney Sylvia Tenorio, who worked with the U.S. Department of Justice prior to joining the

District Attorney's Office in 2000, is one of the go-to experts when criminals flee San Diego County.  

She has handled numerous extraditions around the U.S. and from countries including Mexico, Belgium and the Philippines. A particularly proud moment was being involved in extraditing a defendant who brutally raped and murdered an 84-year-old Carlsbad woman before fleeing to Mexico.

This was one of the first DNA cases submitted to the Mexican government for consideration of a formal extradition request, Tenorio said. The defendant, Alejandro Avalos Fernandez, was later found and arrested in the huge metropolis of Mexico City and ultimately extradited back to San Diego to face his brutal crime. 

"Although many equally important extraditions preceded and followed this case, this was very significant legally and emotionally," she said. "we overcame a lot of obstacles." 

In the last four years, 15 defendants have been extradited from Mexico and more than 100 from around the U.S. Bringing back a suspect who has fled the country, can take months and requires inch-thick paperwork submissions to multiple agencies here and abroad.  

"The biggest misconception is that Mexico doesn't extradite, nationals," Tenorio said. "But, they do."The cases involve a lot of work, but the results are rewarding."  

When Tenorio is not hunting down criminals on the run, she volunteers with the Barrio Logan College Institute, which helps first-generation college students through tutoring and mentoring.      

 

 

Be a Superhero, Give Blood!

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They look like your normal County employees, but underneath their every day work clothes, they’re actually Superheroes. They’re saving lives by donating blood.

The 28th Annual County Employees Blood Drive picks up again with three collection events this week and another next week. The drive kicked off April 5 at the County Administration Center and actually exceeded its goal by 20 pints, not that we’re fostering any competition!  

The donations do make all the difference to trauma patients or people who suffer from life-threatening blood disorders like aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia and leukemia.  

Border Health Assistant Juan Olmeda knows all about it. He organized the County blood drives for years until he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009. After working to save the lives of others, suddenly he was fighting for his own. As part of his treatment, he needed two pints of blood a day. 

Fortunately, his sister Lourdes proved to be a match for a bone marrow transplant and last year he was able to return to work. Today he’s still recovering. “I’m not 100 percent but going that way little by little,” says Olmeda.  

His message? You never know when you or someone in your family may need a donation. Join the ranks of County Superheroes and do your part to save lives.

Everyone has blood and it’s simple to donate. You can make an appointment on line or walk-in. The dates and locations are below. Remember, Lives Depend on It!    

County Employee Helps Improve Health in Lemon Grove

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As a community health promotion specialist for the County Health and Human Services Agency, Katie Judd has been promoting wellness in East County communities for the past six years.

Given her work in the region and relationship with local leaders, Judd was selected to be in a group of 19 people who will help decide how to spend $1million to improve the health of Lemon Grove residents.

The city is the only one in San Diego County to receive a grant from Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating Active Living Zones, an initiative the health-care provider is rolling out across Southern California. The grant will be administered by Community Health Improvement Partners, a County partner.  

“I am excited,” said Judd, age 32, who has worked for the County for 10 years. “I will get to help focus all the work that we’ve been doing and apply it to a specific community.”

The advisory committee also includes Ernie Anastos, superintendent of Lemon Grove schools, Blanca Brown, school board member, City Manager Graham Mitchell, and representatives from service and community organizations, child-care agencies, health-care providers and Lemon Grove residents.

Over the next three years, the committee will help Lemon Grove create an environment that gives Lemon Grove 26,000 residents easier access to healthy foods and makes it easier to be physically active, key components of the County’s campaign to improve the health and wellbeing of San Diegans.

“We’re really taking on the Live Well, San Diego! initiative and fighting childhood obesity,” Judd said, referring to her work in the East County region. “We are changing systems and the environment to promote wellness.”

The group will lead the efforts to create a wellness hub close to the heart of Lemon Grove, to adopt a healthy vending machine policy across the city, establish a wellness program for school district employees, create walking clubs and encourage local restaurants to offer healthy menu options.

“We hope to establish a Mecca for healthy living,” said Judd. “We will be working collectively to create the vision for what residents want Lemon Grove to look like and creating a healthy community for years to come.”

Spirit Fund Moves Employee to Create Musical Tribute

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Many of us have been moved by success stories of the all-donation Spirit Fund, which pays for medical treatment of animals in the County's care, including those injured by abuse.  Animal Services Lt. Kathy Cleveland was so touched she donated her free time to set pictures of some of the animals helped by the fund to music.  She also lent her voice - that's her singing!  You'll see some Animal Services staff and volunteers in there.  

 

Learn more about the Spirit Fund from this video or the Animal Services website.

 

Talk about Healthy Work!

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Several employees at the HHSA North Central Regional Center were honored for saving the lives of fellow employees. Front row (left to right): Maria de la Paz Palma, Maria Casas, Mignonette Santos, Betty Ronquillo, Lisa Kellum and Isobel Kinsang. Back row (left to right): Aida Pinones, Angel Vazquez-Murillo, Lydia Manangan, Tanya Rowe and Peter Holmes.Recently Mignonette Santos found her co-worker on the floor. It appeared he had suffered a major heart attack.

What followed was a joint effort by several HHSA employees in the North County Regional Center that probably saved the man’s life. Talk about healthy work!

Isobel Kinsang quickly called 911. While emergency services were on their way, Peter Holmes and Aida Pinones checked that the victim’s airways were clear. Luckily a CPR-trained security guard, Maria de la Paz Palma, was nearby and started chest compressions. She was assisted by Public Health Nurse Angel Vazquez-Murillo.

Employees then used the AED (automated external defibrillator) machine to deliver an electric charge to restart the heart. This care continued until paramedics arrived. The employee was taken to the hospital and is now recovering in a rehabilitation facility.

These folks went way beyond “Work Safe, Stay Healthy.” Thanks to their training and enthusiasm, one of our co-workers is still alive.

It’s Tweenie Time!

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Kitten season’s here and that means another call for foster parents who can take care of tiny Tweenies.

Each year the Department of Animal Services (DAS) gets hundreds of kittens who are too young for adoption. The kittens are usually 4 to 8 weeks old and need foster care. These kittens are called Tweenies because they fall beTWEEN the ages of 4 and 8 weeks.

This program started in 2007 with 36 foster parents and 125 Tweenie kittens and has grown to over 110 foster parents and more than 500 kittens fostered last year. Now it’s time to help this season’s Tweenies.

Animal Services is looking for foster families who can care for these little ones until they’re 8 to 9 weeks old and can return to the shelter for spay and neuter and adoption at a robust 2 lbs! DAS loves to have County employees be foster parents to Tweenies because they have done such a good job in the past.

DAS supplies food, bowls, toys, litter and bedding. All you need to do is provide a home and snuggles. You can foster two or more of these babies but no singles as these Tweenies needs the companionship of their siblings.

If you have the time, desire and commitment to be a foster parent, raising young kittens can be very entertaining, rewarding and full of picture perfect moments. For more information on becoming a Tweenie foster parent, contact Department of Animal Services Volunteer Coordinator Marlena Young at (619) 767-2611 or Marlena.young@sdcounty.ca.gov .

Watch a CTN.org video below about a foster parent for pets, including some Tweenies.

 

CAC County Employees More than Meet the Challenge!

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The 28th Annual County Employees Blood Drive is off to a good start thanks to the donors at the County Administration Center. The drive kicked off Thursday at 10 a.m. and by the end of the day, the bloodmobile stationed outside the building exceeded its goal by 22 pints.  

There were 47 donations with 17 first-time donors. Last year, the total for this drive was just 25.

Four more County blood drive events are scheduled this month. If you’d like to help boost the numbers at those drives, check out the dates and locations below. You can make an appointment on line or walk-in. Remember, Lives Depend on It!    

Employees "Reach" New York, San Francisco

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Some are going to San Franciso or New York. Others just around their building or neighborhood. Some keep track of their miles. Others don’t. But they are all walking or running for wellness.

Earlier this year, we highlighted three walking/running clubs which sprung into action as a result of the County’s Live Well, San Diego! initiative.

We decided to check back with them to see how they are moving along.

The group of more than 50 employees at Behavioral Health Services (BHS) has practically taken a bite out of the Big Apple, having logged in a total of nearly 3,000 miles. The group walked a lot, recording more than 550 miles their highest week.

Yes, there were some “Are we there yet?” along the way, but the group reached their destination.

To make the trek to New York more interesting, they plotted their progress in a big map and even emailed group members tourist information of different places they passed along the way.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm,” said Sabrena Marshall, a BHS principal administrative analyst and one of the group organizers. “People seemed to enjoy the ‘virtual sightseeing.’ It’s fun reporting in and seeing where we are now.  It gave me a lot of incentive to walk.”

The group at the County’s ACCESS center does not keep track of their miles, but the 20 members of the unofficial club walk or run consistently on a daily basis.

“I couldn’t tell you the miles for the whole group but they are substantial,” said Taylor McDonald, human services specialist for the Health and Human Services Agency and leader of the group.

Aside from the walking club, he also leads a smaller group of runners. The members run after work and make sure they put in a 4-5 mile run at least once per week.

“It is very inspiring and amazing to see people who don’t usually exercise get out and run or walk,” said McDonald, who has been running four years and also participates in triathlons. “The most inspirational is seeing someone cross a finish line for a race, be it a 5k, 10k, or more.”

And what about the third group of walkers?

The County Communications Office decided to go north along the coast to San Francisco and walk/run the 500-mile trip. They too track their miles and walked a record 147 miles six weeks after the group began late last year.

As a whole, the group is on its way back from San Francisco a second time, having logged about 1,900 miles.

The competition between the top two walkers has become fierce, each trying to out walk/run each other. The leader, who runs before or after work and walks during lunch, has amassed more than 450 miles and is all the way in Santa Cruz. Her closest competitor—the communications specialist who was always at his desk and suspected of living in the office—is in San Simeon, about 100 miles behind.

But he tries to diminish the distance between them, walking twice every day and an average of 30 miles each week.

“I don’t like to be left in the dust,” he was recently heard saying.

The groups have now reached their destination. So what is the next step?

Jennifer Mallory, administrative analyst for BHS, just wants to keep on walking.

“We are going to turn around and head home…or maybe head on to Paris…or…,” she said.

Priceless Donations That Don’t Cost You a Cent

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You can save a life without risking your own or ever opening your wallet.

All it takes is a blood donation during the 28th Annual County Employees Blood Drive this month. It kicks off at 10 a.m., Thursday, April 5 at the County Administration Center downtown. In less than a lunch hour, you can make all the difference to a trauma patient or people who suffer from life-threatening blood disorders like aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia and leukemia. You may even help one of our own.

Border Health Assistant Juan Olmeda organized the County blood drives for years never dreaming that he would need large amounts of blood. The 54-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009. As part of his treatment, he needed two pints of blood a day. In all, he used at least 20 pints. The donations gave him the time he needed to find a matching bone marrow donor.

Olmeda says he’s lucky enough to come from a large family. His seven brothers and sisters were tested but only his younger sister, Lourdes, proved to be a 100 percent match for a bone marrow transplant. He underwent the transplant in 2010 and Juan returned to work early last year.

Olmeda is still on medication but he says his body is getting better day by day. He sees the doctor once a month instead of twice a week. “Thanks to this blood drive, I was able to work again. I’m not 100 percent but I’m going that way little by little.” 

Once again, he’s back at the forefront in organizing the County blood drive but with a renewed appreciation on the important of giving blood. He says you never know when you’re going to be on the other side and need blood rather than give blood.

“Now, it’s different. It helped me and it will help a lot of other people too,” said Olmeda. “It’s really simple to give. Everyone has blood, it’s a way to give back and help people at the same time.”

While Olmeda can’t personally give blood this year due to his medications, his extended family and his three children all donate.

The San Diego Blood Bank needs 400 pints of blood every day to meet demand. Although 80 percent of us will need a blood transfusion during our lifetime, only 5 percent of the U.S. population donates blood. While the County Blood Drive is the third largest for the region behind the Chargers and Comic Convention Drives, much more blood is needed.   

County Supervisor Greg Cox has been a donor for more than 30 years and has given 116 pints of blood.

“Every year, the San Diego Blood Bank depends on us and other donors for supplies,” said Supervisor Cox. “This is another way that we, as public servants, can make a difference. By donating blood, we can save lives.” 

This year, five County locations will host blood drives throughout the month of April. You can make an appointment on line or walk in to make a donation. Employees can use County time to donate by asking for their supervisor’s approval in advance.

As Olmeda says, you never know when you might need help. After all, if something happened to you or a loved one, wouldn’t you want to make sure there was enough blood?