Notable Cases

Victim Beatrice Bellis, age 87, was deaf and functionally mute. She lived at the Mar Vista apartment complex, an elder care facility located in Port Hueneme, California. In June 1993, an unknown assailant slipped into her unlocked apartment, stabbed her repeatedly with a large kitchen knife, and raped her as she bled to death. The perpetrator cleaned up in the bathroom then fled from the building in the dead of night. Despite an intense investigation and neighborhood canvass, the Port Hueneme Police Department was initially unable to develop evidence leading to a culpable suspect.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office's Consumer and Environmental Unit, with 19 other California District Attorneys, the California Attorney General, and the city attorneys in San Diego and Los Angeles settled a civil law enforcement action filed against Target Corporation.

Randolph Kling was a lifelong criminal and con artist who spent most of his adult years incarcerated for 18 separate felony convictions. During his criminal endeavors Kling created or stole more than 100 identities.

Brenda and Dennis Willingham operated both Sunshine Fresh Produce, a strawberry brokering business, and Willingham Farms, a strawberry farming business, in the city of Oxnard.

Diaz, who had three prior convictions for robbery, molested a 13-year-old girl over a one and a half year period. In 1996, this case became the first "Three Strikes" filed in Ventura County.

On February 8, 2019, a malfunction of fruit washing equipment at the Association's facility triggered the release of commercial grade sodium hypochlorite into the air. Sodium hypochlorite is the active ingredient in household bleach and is used to sterilize fruit prior to packing. Two local schools, Blanchard Elementary School and Briggs School, were required to shelter in place due to the incident.