Fresh from the Pineda victory; DDA Luke Bernthal has no time to rest; got Jon Goldberg's preliminary right away

Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal won't have much time to take in the victory in the Pineda case since he is due at 2:30 this afternoon to appear in the preliminary for Jon Goldberg.





Press Release:

March 10, 2017

District Attorney Maggie Fleming announced that after a two-week jury trial before Judge Cissna, jurors today convicted Oscar Rene Pineda, 51, of violation of a restraining order, felony stalking in violation of a restraining order, and vandalism.

 The case against Pineda arose in the summer of 2015, when he began sending his ex-wife's attorney threatening emails, and escalated over the next year and a half as Pineda vandalized the attorney's office and violated restraining orders concerning both  the attorney and Pineda's ex-wife.  The defendant's misconduct included repeated incidents where he set off fireworks at the attorney's home, including fireworks possibly modified to cause harm or to start a fire.  On another occasion, surveillance video captured Pineda placing a homemade spike strip across the attorney's driveway during the night. The Eureka Police Department (EPD) also caught Pineda violating the restraining order obtained by his ex-wife. EPD then served a search warrant on Pineda's home and recovered fireworks and items which he used to disguise himself during various incidents.

 Sentencing is scheduled for April 7, 2017. The defendant faces a maximum sentence of 4 years 8 months in state prison.

 Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal prosecuted the case with assistance from Investigator Marvin Kirkpatrick and Detective Richard Bise of the Eureka Police Department. Pineda was represented by Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Dixon of the Humboldt County Public Defender's Office.