san rafael

Trial date scheduled in police abuse case

A Marin County Superior Court judge has scheduled the trial for a San Rafael police officer accused of abusing an detainee.

Brandon Nail was charged with assault and submitting a false police report after the bloody arrest of Julio Jimenez Lopez in 2022. Jimenez was suspected of drinking alcohol along a street in the Canal neighborhood.

On Wednesday, Judge Kevin Murphy set the trial to begin April 9.

“I have every confidence that the right thing will happen and that Officer Nail will be acquitted,” said his lawyer, Julia Fox.

Nail was fired in 2023, but a state-appointed arbitrator ruled recently that he should be reinstated. Nail will not be eligible to be an officer if he is convicted of a felony, according to the San Rafael Police Department.

SAN RAFAEL

City to honor judge with memorial bench

The City Council has approved a plan for a memorial bench to honor Richard Breiner, a former Marin County Superior Court judge.

Breiner was a San Rafael resident who died in 2022 at the age of 86. The bench will be at the end of the breakwater path at Loch Lomond Marina, according to a staff report by Robert Epstein, the city attorney.

A resolution adopted by the council Monday cited Breiner’s work as a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi during the 1960s; a Marin County public defender; a municipal lawyer for Tiburon, Belvedere, San Rafael, Sausalito, Mill Valley and Ross; and a judge for 20 years.

The resolution authorizes a license agreement with the property owner, SHM Loch Lomond LLC, allowing the city to install and maintain the memorial, including a plaque. The estimated cost of the project is $1,600 to $3,500.

LEGISLATURE

Connolly seeks bump in fairground funding

Assemblymember Damon Connolly of San Rafael has proposed legislation to boost funding for fairground upgrades, citing their use by firefighters and disaster evacuees.

“Today, fairgrounds in Southern California have been called into action to assist as a relocation center for victims, humans and animals, of the devastating fires,” said Connolly, a Democrat who represents Marin and part of Sonoma County. “I have seen the same activity in my district when our fairgrounds played similar roles.”

Since 2012, California’s 78 fairgrounds have been used more than 330 times for services such as wildfire evacuations and COVID-19 medical stations, according to Connolly’s office.

Assembly Bill 258 is designed to change the state’s funding formula for fairgrounds by increasing it to an amount equal to 5% of the facilities’ annual gross taxable sales. The rate now is three-quarters of a percent.

SAN RAFAEL

Pepper spray suspect enters not guilty plea

A San Rafael man charged with a pepper spray attack has pleaded not guilty.

Mitchell Wayne Weifenbach, 31, allegedly doused an auto shop employee on Andersen Drive on Jan. 5 after claiming he owned the property, police said. The Marin County District Attorney’s Office charged him with making criminal threats and unlawfully using tear gas.

Weifenbach entered his plea Friday. He remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $50,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing on the evidence is scheduled for Jan. 28.