Three executives of a La Mesa real estate company and the firm who pleaded guilty to failure to pay for workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment taxes following the death of a worker in 2013 in a tree-trimming accident were sentenced March 26 to probation.
The owner of Three Frogs Inc. paid $290,000 into a trust for the infant son of the deceased worker, Joshua Pudsey, 42, of Lakeside. Pudsey died accidently when a large eucalyptus tree branch hit him on Nov. 12, 2013, at a La Mesa home.
Three executives of a La Mesa real estate company and the firm who pleaded guilty to failure to pay for workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment taxes following the death of a worker in 2013 in a tree-trimming accident were sentenced March 26 to probation.
The owner of Three Frogs Inc. paid $290,000 into a trust for the infant son of the deceased worker, Joshua Pudsey, 42, of Lakeside. Pudsey died accidently when a large eucalyptus tree branch hit him on Nov. 12, 2013, at a La Mesa home.
The company also paid $24,000 in restitution. Walsh placed the firm on three years probation, saying they had paid up what the prosecutor was seeking.
The company president, David Wolfe, 49, and executives Jonathan Cox, 35, and John Murphy, 37, were each ordered to perform 14 days of public service and also ordered them to each pay $1,000 “to the charity of their choice.” Each executive was fined $2,500. Three Frogs was fined $10,000. Walsh reduced the felony charges to misdemeanors March 26.
Man pleads guilty to two counts of assault
A man who was shot by El Cajon Police officers after he pointed a gun at them following a domestic violence incident pleaded guilty March 17 to two counts of assault on two officers with a firearm.
Jose Alberto Garcia, 35, will be sentenced to eight years in state prison, said Deputy District Attorney Will Watkins. He said Garcia agreed to accept the sentence as a result of his guilty pleas.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein set sentencing for May 27. Garcia has remained in jail since he was released from a hospital for his wounds that occurred on May 15, 2014.
El Cajon Police received a 911 call at 6:52 a.m. from Garcia’s estranged wife who said Garcia had showed up at her front door with a gun and demanded that she hand over their two children. Officers responded and contacted him in the driveway of the Ellen Lane home.
Garcia showed officers his gun in his waistband and he eventually drew it. Crisis negotiators talked with him for 90 minutes before he started threatening himself with the gun and waving it around, police said.
Garcia was warned repeatedly and he pulled the trigger, but the gun malfunctioned and did not fire. Three officers fired, striking him in the chest.
