Central Coast roundup

By El Latino newsroom
[email protected]

Last Sunday around 7:00 pm, the Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD), received a call about a potential childhood endangerment case and officers responded to a residence in the 800 block of Highland Drive to investigate. 

When they arrived and contacted the reporting party, a babysitter who had arrived at the residence to look after a five-year-old child. 

When the babysitter arrived, they found the child alone and unattended in the home. 

The mother was nowhere to be found, the babysitter also observed a “ghost gun” handgun with ammunition on the kitchen counter and another “ghost gun” in the bedroom, both guns were easily accessible to the child.

The babysitter immediately contacted 9-1-1 to report this unusual incident. 

When officers arrived, they learned the babysitter was hired through a childcare website, the babysitter expected to meet the child’s guardian and was extremely surprised to find the child unattended upon arrival. 

Officers learned the child had been left unattended for over 24 hours in the home without food. 

Detectives were notified and assisted with the case by obtaining an authorized search warrant from a judge, and were able to obtain information regarding the mother’s current location. 

When located, the mother was intoxicated and placed under arrest, which occurred at a residence in the 1100 block of Cliff Drive around 8:30 pm. 

She was identified as Lauren Tracy, a 46-year-old Mammoth Lakes resident.

Unfortunately, Tracy was the only family member available in town, and no other adults were with the child. 

Child Protective Services responded to care for the five-year-old. 

Tracy was booked in the Santa Barbara County Jail on multiple felonies; child endangerment, possession of undetectable “ghost guns,” possession of a firearm with a prior misdemeanor conviction, unlawful possession of ammunition, child neglect, and criminal storage of a firearm and her bail was set at $100,000.

ARRESTED FOR MULTIPLE BURGLARIES

The SBPD received four reported residential burglaries occurring in the city in less than 24 hours, reason why deputies responded to these burglaries to investigate further. 

The initial investigations led agents to believe that the same suspect had committed all four burglaries. Information was provided through eyewitness descriptions, physical evidence, video surveillance, and cell phone photos supplied by witnesses. 

On Monday around 8:00 pm, officers were dispatched with lights and sirens to a residence on the 1300 block of Sycamore Canyon Road for a reported burglary in progress. 

When deputies arrived, they discovered the suspect had already fled the area, and he was not located after officers searched the neighborhood and surrounding area.

But on Tuesday around 8:30 am, the SBPD received another report from a neighbor who observed a suspicious individual matching the description from the first residential burglary breaking into the same house on the 1300 block of Sycamore Canyon Road. 

While the suspect was exiting the victim’s home with numerous stolen items, the neighbor confronted the suspect. 

A physical altercation occurred between the neighbor and the suspect. 

The suspect broke free of the neighbor’s grasp, dropping the stolen items and fled the area once again.

The same day, around 1:10 pm, another burglary was reported in the 1st block of Oak Street, the victim of this burglary also reported that the suspect had stolen a key to their vehicle and fled in the now stolen vehicle prior to police arrival. 

At 1:30 pm, a witness reported a hit and run traffic collision in the 500 block of West De La Guerra Street.

The witness informed police the suspect driver had crashed a Toyota sedan into a tree and fled on foot, and provided the license plate of the vehicle to the dispatcher, who confirmed it was the same stolen vehicle taken approximately 20 minutes before from the home on Oak Street.

While deputies were searching the westside area for the suspect, a neighbor reported seeing a suspicious subject breaking into a home in the 300 block of West Micheltorena Street. 

The description provided by the neighbor matched that of the suspect from the other burglaries. 

Officers and a police K-9 surrounded the house as they could see the suspect through windows and gave verbal commands to exit the home, then the suspect complied and was arrested without incident. 

The thief was identified as 33-year-old Miguel Ascencio Torres, a Santa Barbara resident.

 He was transported and booked at the Santa Barbara County Jail for multiple felony counts of residential burglary, felony stolen vehicle, and misdemeanor hit and run with a bail set at $500,000.

CHILD SUPPORT AVAILABLE

The County of Ventura’s Department of Child Support Services (VCDCSS), has launched a new Simplified Enrollment Process for parents to easily enroll for child support services. 

According to Marcus R. Mitchell, Director of the Ventura County Department of Child Support Services, the new Simplified Enrollment Process streamlines the application, enhances user-friendliness, and aims to increase the completion rate for those seeking services from the Department. 

He added that parents will benefit from a faster enrollment process and the support of an online automated assistant that helps them with the enrollment process.

“We know that parental support and involvement in children’s lives drives positive outcomes, so anything we can do to make accessing our services easier for parents will help children and families in our community thrive,” said Mitchell.

The VCCSP serves 15,190 children throughout the County. 

Per the American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2015-2019), it is estimated that 39,751 children in Ventura County live in a single-parent household, and an estimated 30,793 more children live in “other” living situations. 

In federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021 the child support program served 1 in 5 children in the United States. In California, the child support program served 1.1 million children statewide in FFY 2020. 

Mitchell also said the new Simplified Enrollment Process will make it easier for families and their children who need our services to enroll in the child support program.

The VCDCSS provides neutral assistance to parents by engaging with and helping them understand the child support process while gaining an understanding of each parent’s current life circumstances. 

They assist Ventura county families by locating parents, legally establishing parentage, establishing child support and medical orders, enforcing new and existing child support and medical orders, and facilitating the collection of child support payments between parents. The Department ensures that children receive consistent and reliable support from both parents.