‘Either there will be safer streets in Newport Beach or I'll be dead,' says father of young DUI victim

Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 4. I'm Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week's TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county.
On the last Sunday of May there was a somber assemblage near the Balboa Fun Zone to mark the first anniversary of the death of a 14-year-old girl mowed down in a DUI crash on the evening of Saturday, May 25, 2024.
Rosenda Elizabeth Smiley, 'Rose' to all who knew her, had been enjoying a day in Newport Beach with friends after making the trip there that Memorial Day weekend from her dad's home, about 20 miles away from Big Bear Lake. They were in a crosswalk about a block from the Fun Zone when a dark sedan knocked Rose down. By the time first responders made it to her side she had succumbed to her injuries.
Joseph Alcazar, 30, of Fontana, the man behind the wheel of the car, remained at the scene, where he was interviewed by police officers and arrested. Four days later he was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of driving under the influence and causing injuries, along with a misdemeanor count of child abuse and endangerment, the latter charge filed because Alcazar's own 8-year-old daughter was in his car that night, the Daily Pilot reported. His blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was .16, prosecutors alleged in the complaint, twice the legal limit.
In no time, a makeshift memorial filled with flowers took shape on a curb near where Rose's death occurred, and a vigil was organized to mourn yet another innocent victim of a DUI crash. The teen's mother and father — Glori Smiley and Fillmore Smiley — though divorced, were united not only in their grief, but also in their determination to stop such accidents from ever happening again in Newport Beach.
With the support of Glori and his partner Lori, Fillmore Smiley has been lobbying city officials to install elevated and blinking crosswalks at some of Newport's heavily trafficked intersections and possibly implementing portions of a 'Vision Zero' policy adopted in Sweden 30 years ago that cut traffic-related deaths in half, reporters Sara Cardine and Eric Licas related in this Daily Pilot story about the anniversary vigil. He's not yet been successful with those pleas, he said.
Smiley, a recovering addict himself with 21 years of sobriety who earned his doctorate and counsels others battling addition, is also asking Southland pols to introduce into the state Legislature 'Rosenda's Law.' It's a proposed bill that would impose tougher penalties for repeat DUI offenders and even passengers who knowingly get in a car with a drunk driver.
According to The Pilot, Rosenda's Law 'suggests treatment for initial offenders and mandatory drug court for a second DUI. A third conviction would incur a 16-month minimum sentence and a fourth offense would call for five to 10 years. Anything after that would come with a life sentence.' The passengers who willingly climbed into a vehicle driven by someone under the influence could be charged with a misdemeanor reckless endangerment charge that would be erased after a series of educational classes, Smiley explained.
Few legislators he's spoken to have wanted to take on introducing the proposed law, except for Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale). On May 27, the state Assembly declared May 25, 2025 'Rosenda's Day,' via a resolution introduced by Lackey. Smiley traveled to Sacramento for the occasion.
'In the past year, Rose's family members and friends, clad in pink T-shirts, bearing a rose and a picture of the teen with the words 'JusticeForRose,' have packed every courtroom hearing ahead of Alcazar's impending trial for murder, felony DUI and child endangerment,' according to the story.
Smiley has also formed the group 'Rosenda's Gift' to help the families of other victims secure remembrances such as memorial plaques and benches, tributes he considers 'cathartic.'
As to striking out — so far, anyway — with Newport Beach officials in his lobbying efforts for pedestrians to be made safer from the threat of DUI drivers, Smiley is determined to keep going.
'If I can't get Newport Beach to work with me and do the right thing, maybe I can do something at the state level and get some things implemented,' Smiley told The Pilot. 'I'm going to keep at it — either there will be safer streets in Newport Beach or I'll be dead.'
• Much to the surprise of Mayor Pat Burns and others in the know about Huntington Beach's stand with President Trump against illegal immigration, Surf City was the only Orange County municipality on this list of sanctuary cities that was released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security, accusing them of 'defying federal immigration law.' Curiously Santa Ana, an actual sanctuary city, did not. The list was taken down sometime Sunday, the Daily Pilot reports. Burns called the city's inclusion on it either a misprint or a serious mistake and notified the DHS of its error. National Sheriffs' Assn. President Sheriff Kieran Donahue called the list 'arbitrary' and created without any input, criteria of compliance or method of objecting to the designation, The Pilot reported. Before the list was removed from the DHS website, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem defended it Sunday morning on a Fox News program. 'Some of the cities have pushed back,' she said. 'They think because they don't have one law or another on the books that they don't qualify, but they do qualify. They are giving sanctuary to criminals.'
• The coastal rail linking Orange and San Diego counties is expected to resume service next month after closing in April when the California Coastal Commission approved emergency construction because sections of the rail were reported to be unstable. Service from Dana Point in south Orange County to Oceanside in San Diego County — is set to resume June 7, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Civic leaders turned out last week to cheer the wrecking ball when Anaheim demolished yet another seedy motel along Beach Boulevard, the former Rainbow Inn, to make way for much-needed town homes and affordable housing units. 'We want to clean up this area in west Anaheim,' Rep. Lou Correa said at a press conference in front of the motel, according to this TimesOC story on the demolition. 'This is what good government is all about. It's about listening to our locals, to our constituents, responding to their needs and moving forward.'
• Some 4,000 people attended the California Democratic Party annual conclave at the Anaheim Convention Center over the weekend. Speakers on Saturday included possible 2028 presidential hopefuls Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
• Dismayed that his fellow state legislators are not taking up his battle to allow licensed manicurists to work as self-employed contractors without taking a rigorous test now required by law — even though licensed barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians and electrologists can continue the practice without it — Republican Assemblyman Tri Ta announced Monday he was filing a federal discrimination lawsuit. Ta noted that 82% of manicurists in California are Vietnamese, with 85% of those being women. 'This lawsuit seeks only one thing — to make sure that all professionals in the beauty industry are treated equally and to eliminate the obvious discrimination against the Vietnamese community,' the complaint reads.
• The Mission Viejo City Council last week moved forward with the adoption of an updated state map that identifies homes in 'very high' or 'high' wildfire hazard zones. The approval was made with some reluctance, according to TimesOC, as residents raised the specter of how much their already-high homeowners insurance would be raised as a result. 'Mission Viejo is one of 16 Orange County cities with very high wildfire hazard areas,' reporter Gabriel San Román explains. 'Adoption of the Cal Fire map is mandatory and cities do not have the authority to change the risk designations, though they can offer feedback to scale an area's hazards upward.'
• A 657-unit mixed-use development to be built on the former site of a Boomers family amusement center in Fountain Valley is on the table. If it gains all the necessary approvals, the Magnolia street project will help the city meet its state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment, under which Fountain Valley must add 4,839 residential units by 2029.
• Orange Coast College students in the aquarium science program on Friday released 200 tagged white seabass into the ocean at Bayside Beach, near the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol Division office. The college coordinated with the nonprofit Get Inspired, which works with O.C. schools to nurture white seabass, green abalone, Pismo clams and other species before releasing them into the ocean. Before Friday's release, students spent a few months caring for the fish on campus, said Mary Blasius, instructor and aquarium coordinator for the Orange Coast College Dennis Kelly Aquarium.
• In hopes of reducing air pollution, the Buena Park City Council plans to hold a study session where it will learn about the possibility of banning delivery trucks from idling while making their rounds. The session was proposed by Councilmember Susan Sonne, according to this TimesOC article. 'Pollution is certainly a big concern here, because in my district, there's a number of commercial areas that back up against homes,' she said. 'There's also a noise consideration, and I've had residents who've reported large commercial trucks that have idled, not just for a few minutes, but for hours in the middle of the night.'
• Costa Mesa police on Tuesday were searching for leads in a homicide case, with the suspect still at large, after a 20-year-old woman who was found shot on a Lukup Lane sidewalk Monday night died from her injuries. The victim was identified as Monserrat Colorado, of Huntington Beach.
• Four male suspects from Riverside, including one juvenile, were arrested Sunday night after a man was shot during an altercation near a bar at Oceanfront and 23rd Street on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach.
• Orange County Superior Court Judge Judge Gary Paer began hearing the case early this week of 45-year-old Nolan Pascal Pillay, who was charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances in the deaths of his mother and brother on Jan. 31, 2017 at their Irvine home. On Tuesday, Pillay, who on Monday waived the right to a jury, was ruled insane when the crime occurred by Paer and is facing an indefinite commitment to a state mental hospital.
• A 14-year-old armed with flare gun who allegedly shot and killed a 29-year-old man in Huntington Beach on the night May 23 was taken into custody, according to police. The victim, who died later at a hospital, was identified by the Orange County Coroner Division as Jose Manuel Nares of Huntington Beach. Police are seeking security camera footage and additional information.
• The trial started last week in the murder case against Antonio Calizto Navarrete, a 45-year-old convicted drunk driver accused of killing Isadora Stabel, 20, on Aug. 22, 2020 in Irvine. Calitzto Navareete is charged with second-degree murder, hit-and-run with permanent and serious injury and driving under the influence of alcohol in excess of the legal limit of .08% causing injury, all felonies.
• Having put in a lot of work after losing 15-3 its first game of the season to Woodbridge, the Estancia High School baseball team on Saturday captured its second CIF championship. Senior Jake Humphries, the only remaining player from the program's first CIF title team in 2022, hit a bases-loaded triple to deep right field in the bottom of the seventh inning to score three and help Estancia earn a 4-3 victory over Pasadena Marshall.
• For the first time in three long decades, the Marina High School softball team is basking in the glow of having won the CIF title. Avi Valbuena and Eva Mazzotti each drove in four runs, as Marina beat Westlake 8-1 on Friday at Deanna Manning Stadium.
• Four Newport Harbor High School Sailors made a splash when they helped Team USA Cadet win women's water polo gold at the recent Pan Am Aquatics Championship in Medellin, Colombia.
• Someone who purchased a Powerball lottery ticket at a supermarket in Orange for the May 28 drawing is $1.23-million richer, according to California Lottery officials, having picked five of the six winning numbers. The entire jackpot in the very next Powerball draw, held Saturday night, is worth $204.5 million and is going to someone who purchased the lucky ticket at a 7-Eleven in Arleta, a San Fernando Valley neighborhood.
• Watermark Laguna Niguel senior living community recently debuted a unique exhibit titled 'Feeling Our Age,' featuring portraits of older women 60 years or older painted by artist Kathleen Cosgrove. What makes the project especially compelling is that each one of those artworks is accompanied by a personal essay written by the portrait's subject sharing her own experience while aging.
• Byblos Cafe served Mediterranean cuisine and was a favorite in the Orange Circle for 36 years when its owners, Adel and Zalfa Mahshi, decided they were ready to retire and hand the business over to their son, Tim. There was one obstacle: Tim Mahshi fell ill. So the couple spoke to a regular customer and the owner of a neighboring restaurant, JT Reed of Bosscat Kitchen and he offered to become a partner, to collaborate and mentor Tim Mahshi so the family could keep it. The two new partners transformed Byblos Cafe into the quick service Baba G, which recently opened its doors. My colleague Sarah Mosqueda tells the whole story in this feature article.
• Bowers Museum has opened its latest exhibit, 'World of the Terracotta Warriors: New Archaeological Discoveries in Shaanxi in the 21st Century.' The museum is the first in North America to host the new traveling exhibit, which features more than 110 recently unearthed treasures, according to this TimesOC story. It will be on view through Oct. 16. Bowers Museum is located at 2002 N. Main St. Santa Ana. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For tickets visit bowers.org/warriors.
• 'Feed me!' The annual announcement of this event always brings to my mind the musical 'Little Shop of Horrors' and its man-eating plant, Audrey II: The day of the Carnivorous Plant Show and Sale at Sherman Library & Gardens is almost upon us. Presented by the Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts, the judged show will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. The Sherman is located at 2647 East Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. Admission is $5.
• Orange County Museum of Art on June 21 will open 'California Biennial 2025: Desperate, Scared, But Social,' a new exhibit featuring artworks that span generations, from early works from established California artists to contemporary collaborations between artists and their children. The exhibit took its title from the 1995 album by Orange County riot grrrl band Emily's Sassy Lime. OCMA is located at 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free.
Until next Wednesday,Carol
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Washington Post

3 hours ago

• Washington Post

Asking Eric: Brother's drunken phone calls have become a burden

Dear Eric: My younger brother 'Mick' has been a heavy beer drinker for at least three decades with a high-stress career. When he retired, his drinking escalated. He received a DUI which resulted in court-ordered mandatory visits at a local AA meeting for one year. The court also had a blow-and-go breathalyzer installed in his truck for three years.

New York Post

5 hours ago

• New York Post

Michael Goodwin: Hochul's snubbing of Mamdani will only help boost Cuomo's campaign

The observation that politics often makes for strange bedfellows is now offering an extra-strange New York example. It features an unlikely gift from Gov. Hochul to her predecessor and perpetual tormentor, Andrew Cuomo. Although she was his running mate and Lt. Governor for two terms, they were barely speaking by the time Cuomo was forced out of Albany nearly four years ago. Advertisement To this day, their mutual loathing is palpable. So how then to explain that Hochul threw Cuomo a huge last-minute lifeline in his race for mayor? To be sure, an obvious reason is to help herself in her re-election quest next year. But the immediate impact is a boost for Cuomo in his bid for City Hall. Advertisement You would assume the last thing she wants is to see him sitting in City Hall next year, badgering her and settling scores when she's running for re-election. Yet that could be the result of her move. Here's the scenario: Cuomo is in a tightening race to be the Democrats' nominee, with Election Day this Tuesday. 'Affordability crisis' He leads in the polls but his chief rival, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, has been gaining and the early-voting turnout has surged among young people, the core of Mamdani's hard-left base. Moreover, with the city using the ranked-choice voting system, Mamdani has an extra advantage and could ultimately get the votes of four additional lefty candidates in the race through a series of cross endorsements. Advertisement Hochul's shocking help to Cuomo came in response to a question about Mamdani's radical economic platform, which consists of a bunch of free giveaways —buses, child care, etc. All of it would be funded by imposing even higher income taxes on the top 1 percent of New York City residents and hiking the corporate tax. It's part of the progressive playbook he's been selling for months, and his climb in the polls has encouraged other candidates to promote their own expensive wish lists and tax proposals. Advertisement Hochul has been silent all along, but suddenly, and very late in the game, she decided to throw cold water on the proposals that are the heart of Mamdani's eat-the-rich campaign. Asked in a TV interview if she backed his tax plans, the Democratic governor flatly replied, 'No.' 'I'm not raising taxes at a time where affordability is the big issue,' she said. 'I don't want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We've lost enough . . . so let's be smart about this.' Whoa, Nellie. Hochul's answer was clearly prepared in advance, with her adopting Mamdani's theme of an 'affordability crisis' and turning it on its head to use it as a reason not to implement his agenda. In doing so, she effectively kills his proposals because he would need her and the Democratic-controlled Legislature's approval to put his taxes into law. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters And given the timing, her answer could be intended to blunt his late surge by signaling to his supporters his ideas are dead on arrival in Albany. Advertisement Her answer also reveals the outline of Hochul's 2026 campaign. She's effectively taken tax hikes off the table, and if she were to flip-flop next year, she'd be toast. So her answer on Mamdani is as much about her own campaign as his. Dems 'alarmed' Besides, as troubling as Cuomo would be in City Hall, even worse would be the charismatic 33-year-old Mamdani, pushing her and the Legislature even further left. There's also the added baggage of his long trail of antisemitism at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival on several fronts and Dems already are home to Jew-hating Reps Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Having Mamdani, a Muslim, as the mayor of the city with the world's largest Jewish population has some top Dems worried that his election would further damage the party's troubled brand. Advertisement Politico reports that Third Way, a center-left Dem think tank, is 'alarmed' by how Mamdani's positions on Israel and other issues, past and present, would be a feast for Republicans in New York and nationally. The outlet cites a Third Way memo that describes 'defunding the police, closing jails, banning private healthcare and operating city-owned grocery stores as positions American voters would find beyond the pale.' They got that right. Advertisement At the same time, it's worth noting that Hochul's rejection of new taxes also amounts to a reversal of her tenure so far. Although she's lately been prattling about 'putting money in people's pockets,' the happy talk follows years of hikes in fees and taxes on New Yorkers to feed the budget beast she's created. As the cost of living in New York continues to soar, she's responsible for policies that have been driving a record number of New Yorkers out of the city and state, including to Palm Beach, Fla. Recall that during her tight race against GOP nominee Lee Zeldin in 2022, Hochul at one point demanded that he and other Republicans 'Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?,' before adding: 'You are not New Yorkers.' Advertisement The fact that the GOP is toothless in both Albany and City Hall has allowed her party to continually jack up the outrageously high costs of government and be tougher on cops than on criminals. Hochul's role in the disaster are certain to be the centerpiece of the GOP campaign against her next year, especially with New York moving rightward. In the 2024 election, the Empire State had the biggest swing of any blue state toward President Trump, who carried 43 percent of the vote, against just 37 percent in 2020. Vulnerable Hochul has made herself vulnerable with her implementation of congestion pricing, along with other taxes that are examples of her own drunken-sailor budgeting. The fact that several tax measures were designed to fund the always-broke MTA is no excuse because she controls the agency and has done zero to reform its wasteful ways. Her only answer has been to throw more money at it. Still, her response to Mamdani suggests she belatedly realizes there is validity and votes in the argument that the city and state have reached a tax-and-spend breaking point. As I noted recently, just 6,000 wealthy families in a city of 8.5 million people pay 48 percent of Gotham's personal income tax, which raises about $16 billion a year. These families are the geese who lay the golden eggs for both City Hall and Albany, and with the quality of life declining as the cost of living soars, the last thing the politicians should be doing is giving people new reasons to leave. In Hochul's case, it's relatively easy for her to say no to Mamdani, whose plans definitely would make the problems worse. The real test is whether she has any ideas that could stop the exodus already happening on her watch.

Yahoo

10 hours ago

• Yahoo

Longmont police notes: Officers make DUI arrest

LONGMONT Friday • 2:44 a.m. Police arrested a person for DUI at Ninth Avenue and Coffman Street. • 6:28 a.m. Officers issued a summons for trespassing in the 200 block of Lashley Street. • 11:50 a.m. Police wrote a summons for trespassing in the 2300 block of Clover Basin Drive. • 3:39 p.m. Officers took a report of a property damage accident at Ninth Avenue and Sunset Street. • 3:58 p.m. Officers took a report of harassment in the 1900 block of Ken Pratt Boulevard.