VISTA – Three Solana Beach men accused of conspiring to kidnap and rob the estranged wife of one of the men pleaded not guilty yesterday in Superior Court.
Omar Hernandez, 36, hired Jonathan Martinez, 18, and Alberto Naranjo, 20, to perform the alleged crimes, according to court records. The men broke into the woman's apartment on Rosebay Drive near Encinitas Blvd. in Encinitas on Friday night, authorities said. The woman and her 13-year-old son fought them off and escaped, authorities said.
Hernandez's wife recently obtained a domestic-violence restraining order against him, authorities said.
Judge Adrienne Orfield ordered Martinez and Hernandez held in jail in lieu of $300,000 bail and Naranjo on $500,000 bail.
Santa Fe Irrigation
names new officers
RANCHO SANTA FE – The Santa Fe Irrigation District board has re-elected Robert “Bud” Irvin of Solana Beach as president and Kenneth B. Dunford as vice president. Both will serve two-year terms.
The board also reappointed Michael J. Bardin as general manager. Bardin will also be the district's secretary-treasurer.
Irvin has been on the board since 1997. He represented the district on the San Diego County Water Authority from 2001 to 2006, and also chairs the board of the district's R.E. Badger Water Facilities Financing Authority.
Dunford has been on the board since 2002. He chairs the district's Water Resources Committee and serves on its executive committee.
The Santa Fe Irrigation District supplies 22,000 customers in Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach and Fairbanks Ranch with more than 4.5 billion gallons of water a year.
Coverage expands
for prep basketball
OCEANSIDE – KOCT, Cox Cable channel 18, will begin its coverage of local high school basketball games Saturday.
Replays of tomorrow's games between Carlsbad and El Camino high schools, boys and girls, will run through next week. Coverage of the Feb. 16 games between Oceanside and El Camino will be rebroadcast Feb. 17 and the following week.
Replay times are available on www.koct.org.
Art Root provides the play-by-play, with color commentary by Clete Adelman and sideline reporting by Stacy Waite.
Games are taped and not telecast live.
Staff writers Jose Luis Jiménez, Jim Steinberg and Lola Sherman contributed to this report.
