Ventura County Sheriff's Department

A 48-year-old Santa Paula woman was arrested for embezzlement from her employer where she worked as a cashier during the month of November of 2022.

The Chevron Gas Station discovered various amounts of cash had been unaccounted for over the month of November totaling a loss of approximately $12,000. This crime was reported to the Fillmore Police Department. Fillmore station investigators identified the suspect as Lupe Mims, a cashier from the gas station. Mims committed the crime by falsifing money drops. Instead of depositing the cash into the safe, Mims pocketed the money for herself.

On December 12, 2022, Mims was located and arrested for the crime. Mims was subsequently booked into custody at the Ventura County Pre-Trial Detention Facility for embezzlement. She remains in custody with her bail set at $ 20,000. Her next court date is set for December 14, 2022.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and Fillmore Police Department is committed to maintaining the safety of all residents by continued community partnerships. Anyone with information pertaining to this crime or any other crimes are urged to contact The Fillmore Police Station @ (805) 524-2233 or the below listed detective. The reporting party may remain anonymous.

Nature of Incident: Suspect Arrested for Embezzlement
Report Number: RB# 22-158833
Location: Chevron Gas Station
704 West Ventura Street, Fillmore, CA
Date & Time: December 12, 2022
Unit(s) Responsible: Fillmore Patrol Services / Fillmore Detective Bureau
(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (P)arty, (D)ecedent, City of Residence, Age
(S) Lupe Cecile Deluca Mims, Santa Paula, 48
Prepared by: Detective Sergeant Will Hollowell
Approved by: Captain Garo Kuredjian

Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

By Linda Nunes

Civic Pride Volunteers have chosen Sheila & Bob Mumme’s home at 1171 Shady Lane, for the Christmas “Yard of the Month” and they received a $50 gift card to Otto & Sons Nursery. They were planning to purchase a plant or plants for an empty place in the front, so look forward to getting some advice at the nursery.

The Mummes have lived in their home for 28 years & this was their first home. Bob does all the outside decorations and Sheila picks & arranges the signs & porch decorations. For their first Christmas, they made wooden painted figures of Mr. & Mrs. Claus with the North Pole mailbox seen in the photo & cheerful barrel footstools for their chairs.

Be sure to go out to the Tradition’s neighborhood to see their classy & well- balanced display, as well as other decorated homes in the courts.

If you are taking a tour around town, honorable mentions would be 343 Foothill, 2nd & Central Ave., 371 & 997 B St. Special previous winners to view are located at 910 Taylor Lane, 408 Robin Court, & 408 Edgewood.

Civic Pride Volunteers appreciate the generosity of Otto & Sons Nursery, providing the gift awards since at least 2003. All are welcome to join in our group which will meet again, January 18, 2023 at 1:30pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. Come help us enrich this already great little town!

Katharine McDowell, Branch Manager of the Fillmore Library, gave an update on the new expansion. Our library is part of the Ventura County Library system which consists of 12 active libraries and a mobile library. The Fillmore Library is now double in size with study rooms, a community room which can seat 50 people, an innovation lab and homework stations with laptops, besides the usual shelves of books for children and adults. The Friends of the Library donated 10 laptops and fund all of Katharine’s programs for the children and more. Library hours are Monday & Tuesday, 2:00pm to 7pm, Wednesday, 10am to 5pm, and Friday & Saturday, noon to 5pm. It is a wonderful new building with something for everyone!

Please join the Fillmore Unified School District in congratulating Barbara Vazquez on being appointed to the position of Director, Child Nutrition Services. Barbara Has worked at Fillmore Unified School District for 18 years. She worked as an Account
Clerk II for the Child Nutrition Services Department for four years and as the Child Nutrition Services Manager for the last six. She has an Associates of Arts degree and Certification in Diet and Nutrition. Barbara’s goal, along with the entire Child Nutrition Team, is to continue to serve healthy, nutritious, appealing meals that meet or exceed the state and federal nutrition standards. We look forward to Barbara’s leadership in this new role. Congratulations Barbara! Courtesy Fillmore Unified School District Blog: https://www.blog.fillmoreusd.org

Courtesy Fillmore Fire Department

This year’s annual Fillmore Community Holiday Giveaway will be held Saturday, December 17th from 9 AM – 12 PM at the City of Fillmore Fire Station, 711 Landeros Lane. This is the annual event where holiday commodities are given to the children who reside within the Fillmore Unified School District boundaries. COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed and the event will be “in-person”. Anyone who is sick is asked to not attend and arrangements may be made for home delivery. Commodities given will be age-appropriate toys, new jackets/coats, reading books and socks. As is customary, a holiday bag of groceries will also be available for each family while supply last. Santa will be available for a picture with each child. As a reminder, this event is only for children who reside within the Fillmore Unified School District boundaries, you must provide proof of residency within the School District such as a utility bill, report card or driver’s license.

This year’s sponsors of the event include our local Fillmore Police and Fire Departments, Santa Clara Valley Legal Aid, One Step A La Vez, Soroptimist International of Fillmore, Rotary International of Fillmore, Fillmore Lions Club, Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Fillmore Citizen’s Patrol, Fillmore Women’s Service Club, Fillmore Friends of the Library, Super A, Salvation Army, the Fillmore Fire Foundation and numerous other generous personal and business donors. Our sponsor list will be updated week to week.

If you would like to help donate to the Fillmore Community Holiday Giveaway, you may give new toys, socks, reading books or canned food; drop boxes are located at the Fillmore Police Station and at the Fillmore City Fire Station. Monetary donations are preferred this year to reduce person to person contact; checks may be made out to “The Fillmore Fire Foundation” with a notation of “Holiday Giveaway”. Donations may be mailed to Fillmore Fire Foundation, PO Box 331, Fillmore, CA 93016 or for drop off, please contact Keith Gurrola (805) 815-0328.

Case #: 2021030478

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko has announced the filing of charges against a group of poachers and wildlife traffickers known as the “E-Bike Crew.”

Seven people have been charged with 21 counts of filing a false or forged document, conspiracy, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of untagged bear, and animal abuse or cruelty. On December 5, 2022, six of the seven defendants were arraigned in the Ventura County Superior Court.

California Department of Fish & Wildlife investigated the “E-Bike Crew” discovering that they worked with Lizette’s Market in Piru to fraudulently reprint hunting licenses and tags. The six-member wildlife trafficking organization (“WTO”) is accused of conspiring with Lizette’s Market beginning in June 2019 through October 2021, allegedly producing the false and fake tags to hunt and take more deer, pigs and bears than legally allowed by state law.

Martin Bravo Sr. (DOB 04/14/63), of Oxnard, Martin M. Bravo (DOB 05/13/92), of Oxnard, Walfre Lopez y. Lopez (DOB 06/14/84), of Oxnard, Gilberto Lopez Hernandez (DOB 02/15/88), of Thousand Oaks, Jaime Mendoza Avila (DOB 10/02/81), of Porterville, and Cristian Lopez Perez (DOB 02/11/91), of Los Angeles, are the charged members of the WTO. Juventino Reyes Guerrera (DOB 09/11/78), of Piru, is facing the same charges and was the operator of Fish & Wildlife licensing equipment located at Lizette’s Market.
There is an active arrest warrant in the amount of $200,000 for Defendant Lopez y Lopez. The other six defendants are in custody and being held on $200,000 bail in the Ventura County Jail. The next scheduled court appearance is December 7, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 13 of the Ventura County Superior Court.

Advertisement from the Piru News, April 24, 1930.
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Sanitary Food Market circa 1936.
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Pete’s Sanitary Barbershop circa 1920.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

Correction from the last “Did You Know?” column. Fillmore Rotary began May 19, 1924 the main Rotary organization did begin 1905. Thank you to Martha Richardson.

When avocadoes first began to be grown in the area, not being sure how to serve them Alice Moore Milton served the pit to visitors throwing away the flesh.

In 1912, Fillmore Billiard and Amusement Parlor advertised “hot and cold baths at all hours.”

At various times, Fillmore not only had the Sanitary Dairy, but a Sanitary Market, Sanitary Barber and Sanitary Bakery.

J. A. Grimes of Grimes Canyon note, was the first person to own a typewriter about 1905. He complained, “the d--- thing can’t spell.”

Carl Caswell “C. C.” Elkins holds several “firsts” for Fillmore: first owner of a general store; first insurance agent; first notary public; first to ship oranges out by train; first to manufacture olive oil; first justice of the peace. There are probably some left out.

Fillmore’s first street lights were strung across Central Avenue between Stephenson’s Market and the Rood Harmonson Store on the north side of Main Street in 1907.

John Galvin was Fillmore’s first city attorney in 1914 after incorporation. He had graduated law school in 1910. When asked how he was chosen with little experience to be city attorney, he replied, “It happened I was in the right place at the right time to draw up the incorporation papers and become the attorney. I had personality, obvious and unimpeachable character and I was the only attorney in town.”

Fillmore’s first undertaker, E. A. French, also owned the Outlet Novelty Store at 330 Central Avenue.

Gold was discovered in 1842 at the San Feliciano tributary of Piru Creek, by Francisco Lopez who had trained as a mineralogist at a university in Sonora, Mexico. This as six years before it was found at Sutter’s Mill.

The William Shiells family donated the land for the Veteran’s Memorial Building and Library as well as Shiells Park.

J. P. McIntyre, a Sespe beekeeper in the 1880s, named his daughters after flowers: Lily, Pansy, Myrtle, Violet, Iris and Flora. His son was named Robert.

The first paved sidewalk was installed by George Tighe in front of his store in 1909. By 1917 there was 5 miles of sidewalk with curbing in Fillmore.

For twenty years (probably with the collusion of fellow Rotarian and Postmaster J K L Schwartz) Frank Erskine answered the local children’s letters to Santa Claus.

In the early 1930s Piru had three barbershop/pool hall combinations – Ideal Billiard Parlor and Barbershop owned by T. H. Green; Belty’s Barbershop (with 3 pool tables) owned by R. O. Belty; and Ruiz’s Barbershop (which also had card tables) owned by G. T. Ruiz.

Santa Paula High School Fire Investigation

On Sunday morning 11/27/22, at about 12:42 a.m., a structure fire was reported at the Santa Paula High School. Firefighters responded to the scene and have since extinguished the fire. The Santa Paula Unified School District announced that school will be cancelled for Santa Paula High School students on Monday and Tuesday, November 28th-29th. The incident is under investigation by investigators from the Ventura County Fire Dept. and Santa Paula Police Dept.

Anyone who may have information pertaining to the fire is urged to call the Santa Paula Police Department at (805) 525-4474 or Detective Shawn Virani at (805) 525-4474 ext. 220. Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous may call Ventura County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS. The Santa Paula Police Department has also established a secure database to collect footage from security cameras or surveillance videos. If you have information or video(s) to share, please notify the Police Department and email SPCrimeInfo@spcity.org.

Also, the Santa Paula Unified School District is offering a WeTip telephone number to report any information: (844) 805-2659.

Join us on Twitter @SP_Police, Instagram @SantaPaulaPoliceDepartment, FaceBook – Santa Paula Police Department and with Nixle by texting your zip code to 888777 to receive local law enforcement and public safety alerts and advisories.

The Fillmore Fire Department in conjunction with the Fillmore Fire Foundation is kicking off the annual Holiday Toy Drive this week. Collection drop off boxes for new toys are available at the Fillmore Police and Fire Stations. As part of the Toy Drive, on Sunday, December 4th, the Fire Foundation will be holding the annual Chicken Dinner Fundraiser to collect donations that will used to purchase hundreds of toys for children in the Fillmore/Piru area. A complete chicken dinner meal is prepared for anyone wanting to donate fifteen dollars ($15)that will be used to purchase a new toy. Because of on-going COVID-19 precautions, all meals will be for take-out only and will be available via a contactless drive-thru process,this year the dinner will be held at the Fillmore/Piru Veteran’s Memorial Building, 511 Second St. Dinner will be served from 5-7 PM.In lieu of a $15 donation, a new toy valued at $15 or greater may be donated. The hundreds of toys purchased from this event will be combined with those that are donated by the Community and then distributed on Saturday, December 17th, from 9AM-12 PM at a huge Community Holiday Giveaway event.If you would like to donate to the Toy Drive/Community Giveaway or would like to purchase tickets/drop off toys, please call 805-815-0328.

1st place winner was Celeste Camarena of FMS; she will be entered in the regional competition with a chance to go to State.
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Lion’s Club member Scott Lee with Patricia Rivera and her mom. Particia won runner-up award for the Lions Club Peace Poster Contest.
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Lion’s Club member Scott Lee with Maria Gallegas. Maria won runner-up award for the Lions Club Peace Poster Contest.
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Every year, Lion’s Club International holds a Peace Poster Contest. The local Fillmore Lion’s Club encourages students to creatively express their ideas about world peace. This year the theme was “Lead with Compassion”. Many students, especially from Fillmore Middle School, entered their artistic renderings. Lion’s Club appreciates the support of classroom teachers, especially Doris Nichols and Megan Baker-Andrade, who help their students not only expand their skills and creativity, but their awareness of the world as well.

The entries were spectacular again this year! Maria Gallegas and Patricia Rivera from Fillmore Middle School both won runner up awards. Celeste Camarena, also from Fillmore Middle School, won first place. Her poster will be entered in the regional competition. If she wins there, her poster will be entered in the state contest, etc. When asked for a comment about her poster, she said, “Compassion is all about how you feel about helping people. Giving them what they need, especially later in life.”

Winning for best group entry were the students in Ms. Megan Baker-Andrade at Fillmore Middle School. Each student received a small cash prize and a certificate. Congratulations Emilio Martinez, Lupyta Castro, Ethan Kaiser, Michael Rico and Whyett Van Kalsbeek. Your entry was truly inspiring!

Lion’s Club sincerely thanks all students who entered for their thoughtful and polished vision for peace. Thank you also teachers and parents for inspiring excellence in our young people.

On Saturday, November 19th the Fillmore Girls Cross Country team competed at the CIF Southern Section Division 4 Cross Country Championships. The meet was run on the historical, and challenging course at Mount San Antonio College. To qualify for State Finals, the Flashes needed to finish among the top 7 teams in a race of 16 teams.

The team was led by sophomore Niza Laureano, who continued to improve throughout this season. Niza finished in 48th place and posted a best time of 19:41.6. Niza was followed by Nataly Vigil 58th in 20:08.4, Andrea Laureano 81st in 21:00.6, Leah Barragan 88th in 21:21.5, Diana Santa Rosa 96th in 21:51.7, Alexandra Martinez 102nd in 22:10.4, and Monique Hurtado 108th in 22:54.5.

In the team competition, Fillmore finished in 13th place out of a 16 team field. The top 7 teams will now move on to the California State Meet.

Elbert Bailey Turner
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Turners Cottage Hotel. 1st in town.
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EB Turner Saloon
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Turners stable turned into Garage.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

The following is a first person account of early life at the beginning of settlement of Fillmore found in the archives of the Fillmore Historical Museum.

In April, 1933, an early pioneer in Fillmore, Mr. C. C. Elkins, was interviewed about Fillmore’s early years. He had described the simple boarding house, where his family had first stayed upon their arrival on the railroad, as an “up and down boarded house.”

Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Bailey Turner were also early pioneers here who had settled first in Fillmore and later moved to the Sespe. They had owned and managed that boarding house on what would become Main St. before and after the arrival of the railroad. Life was hard with few conveniences. It took grit to survive and prosper.

Mrs. Turner (Lucinda) who was then living in San Diego took offense to Elkins’ description of her boarding house and expressed her opinion in two letters to the editor, Mr. Wagner, in the April 28th edition of the Fillmore Herald.

In the first letter she recalled some earlier history as follows: “Dear Friend Wagner: I am writing some news which are facts. We are the oldest settlers of Fillmore. I won’t hear to it for any one to take the feather out of our cap and put into theirs. I was always proud of that place. There was a lot of nice old settlers. I think of the nice picnics in Kenney’s grove. I know there are just as fine people now in Fillmore. If there wasn’t they would not be there. We are well. Best wishes for you and Fillmore people and friends.”

In the second letter she described what she and her husband had to do to survive those early years. “Dear Editor: In our home-town paper, the Fillmore Herald, I read that Mr. and Mrs. C.

C. Elkins, Sr. celebrated their 62 wedding anniversary. We wish them health and many more happy anniversaries.

The writer of their affair was mistaken in one instance. One of the shacks as he called it was a California built house 30 X 60, 12 rooms 10 feet high, cloth on walls and papered, neatly furnished and clean and Mrs. E. B. Turner was the manager and cook, with hired help. We also ran a livery stable. We had a paying business but it was hard work with many disadvantages. No meat market, no stores or vegetable wagon every day at your door. Our meat was shipped from Ventura by the Hobson brothers. Easly of Santa Paula furnished most of our vegetables. E. B. Turner butchered a hog now and then and Alfred Stone killed deer. He sold the best part to us. I pickled beef and sides of pork to help out. We had a pen of fat chickens, paid 25 cents for a five or six-pound young rooster, so you can see it was not a fool’s job to take care of our little business.

I add to this that C. C. Elkins family boarded at our place, the Fillmore Hotel, till he could build a temporary place to live in. In a few weeks he began building a two story building with living room and his store on the first floor. It was needed.

E. B. Turner was the first post master of Fillmore. He fixed a front bedroom in our hotel where he took care of the post office for a year or so. Then it was moved to the depot. George Tighe was depot agent and E. B. Turner appointed George Tighe assistant postmaster. Turner said “There wasn’t any money and no honor to work for nothing.” He rented the hotel to George Tighe’s mother for a year.”

“Here are some facts and I want to say the editor in Fillmore in 1887 was a 13 year old boy, a son of Mr. Buckston. The family lived at the old ranch house. The paper was two sheets about 10 X 12 inches. George was a rustler for news. A neighbor by the name of Bill Smith came in the hotel. He said our baby is dead. It was one day old. I haven’t any money to pay for a coffin. I told him I could make one. We had some wide redwood boards. I measured the size and shape on the floor of our back porch. In about an hour I had it finished. I lined it with white cambric and oiled the outside. It was a neat piece of work. I read of a man making his own coffin. It would be time thrown away for me to make mine, for I want to be cremated. Mrs. E. B. Turner”

In October 1933, C.C. Elkins was being interviewed by Charles Jarrett also for the Fillmore Herald. In that interview he also noted that, “Mrs. Turner had taken offence to hearing her little bungalow hotel described as an “up and down boarded house. He emphasized to the interviewer “Don’t call them shacks. I was bawled out for doing that a while back.”

The Turners prospered, moving to a nice two story home on the Sespe. E. B. died September 12, 1936; Mrs. Turner died in June 1945. They had married in Kingman County, Kansas. According to Mrs. Turner, “Ours was the first marriage ceremony ever In Kingman County, Kansas. The justice of the peace was a bit nervous and had to read his book to find out how to tie the knot. It was cold in his dugout office. All he had for fuel was cornstalks. While he was tying the knot his wife broke up corn stalks to keep the place warm.” The Turners came to California on an immigrant train. Coaches were attached to a freight train. They were 10 days making the journey to San Francisco. They then went to Portland by boat, returning to Ventura County by covered wagon.”
They were very representative of the immigrants to the Fillmore, Sespe region. They came to California by wagon, railroad, and boat. They were hardy. They knew what they wanted and achieved their dreams one mile at a time. But their names were not as well-known as the “city fathers” and large farming companies. They were simply the people who made Fillmore grow and prosper by hard work and ingenuity.