Los Angeles Times - 07.08.2019

CALIFORNIA

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

B

SACRAMENTO — Cali-

fornia’s first-in-the-nation

law requiring presidential

primary candidates to re-

lease their tax returns or be

kept off the ballot was chal-

lenged in federal court Tues-

day by President Trump, the

man who inspired its pas-

sage and whose attorneys

argued that state Demo-

cratic leaders had over-

stepped their constitutional

authority.

The lawsuit, filed in Sac-

ramento, came exactly one

week after Gov. Gavin New-

som signed the legislation.

Two other legal challenges

preceded the one by Trump

and his 2020 reelection cam-

paign. A separate effort by

the state and national Re-

publican parties and several

California GOP voters was

also filed in federal court

Tuesday. All of the lawsuits

struck a similar theme by in-

sisting California cannot im-

pose limits on ballot access

for presidential hopefuls.

“The issue of whether the

President should release his

federal tax returns was liti-

gated in the 2016 election and

the American people spoke,”

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for

Trump, said in a statement.

“The effort to deny Califor-

nia voters the opportunity to

cast a ballot for President

Trump in 2020 will clearly

fail.”

The president has stead-

fastly refused to offer the

public a glimpse of his annu-

al income tax filings with the

Internal Revenue Service,

frequently insisting — with-

out any proof — that he can-

not do so while the returns

were the subject of an IRS

audit. Most of the Demo-

crats vying for their party’s

nomination to challenge

Trump next fall have already

released some of their tax re-

turns, though not all have

met California’s standard of

producing five years’ worth

of information.

State Senate Bill 27,

which passed the California

Legislature on a party-line

vote last month, took effect

as soon as Newsom signed it.

It imposes the tax disclosure

rule on presidential and gu-

bernatorial candidates, and

stipulates that only the

names of candidates who

comply will be printed on the

Trump sues

state to keep

tax returns

out of view

President’s lawsuit

is one of several to

challenge California’s

new disclosure law for

certain candidates.

By John Myers

“RELEASEyour tax

returns as you promis-

ed,” Gov. Gavin Newsom

told the president.

Rich PedroncelliAP

[SeeTrump,B2]

Murder charges

in cop’s death

Two Temecula men

could get the death

penalty in LAPD

officer’s slaying. B

Shooting video

relase barred

Judge says police can’t

reveal Costco footage

of shooting by off-duty

cop for a year. B

Lottery......................B

SACRAMENTO — Cali-
fornia blocked more than 100
felons and other prohibited
persons from buying ammu-
nition in the last month
using a new law requiring
background checks, the
state attorney general said
Monday.
The new figures were re-
leased just days after mass
shootings in California,
Texas and Ohio that left 34
people dead and dozens of
others injured.
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra
reported the numbers to a
federal judge in arguing
against an injunction sought
by gun owner rights groups
to block the law requiring
background checks, which
was approved by voters in
Proposition 63 and through
legislation.
“The evidence shows
that, in the absence of eligi-
bility checks like the ones
challenged here, prohibited
persons regularly purchase
ammunition from unwitting
vendors,” said the written
brief filed late Monday in
federal court in San Diego.
The law that took effect
July 1 prevents ammo pur-
chases by customers at gun
shops if they cannot show
they have a registered fire-
arm or are on a list of felons
or severely mentally ill, thus
are disqualified from

GUNowners need to present their firearm registration and not be on a list of felons or severely mentally
ill to buy ammunition in California, according to the background check law that took effect July 1.

Gina FerazziLos Angeles Times

Law kept felons from

buying ammo, state says

Background checks

blocked more than

100 people, Becerra

tells court in bid to

thwart injunction.

By Patrick McGreevy

Several years after his

mother was shot and killed

and his father wounded in a

2005 rampage by a lone

gunman in Thousand

Oaks, Christian Heyne

went to a gun show in Vir-

ginia with a couple of

friends.

“I wanted to see if it was

true that you could buy a gun without a

background check,” said Heyne, who by

then was working in the gun control

movement.

One of the two friends he was with that

day had been shot four times in the 2007

Virginia Tech shooting massacre that left

32 people dead and 17 wounded. The other

had lost a sister in that same attack.

Heyne took out his wallet at the gun

show and bought a .38 caliber long-bar-

reled revolver, for $250 in cash, from a

dealer who placed the gun into a brown

bag for him.

“There was no record of the sale,” said

Heyne, and no licensing or registration

was required. All he had to do was show

his ID to prove he was a Virginia resident.

“What makes hate lethal,” said Heyne,

now policy vice

GUNS ARE PLENTIFULand, in many states, easy to buy, often with no

background check, no licensing or registration and no record of the purchase.

George FreyGetty Images

Guns make hate lethal

Readers wrote in saying ownership restrictions

won’t make any difference. That’s just nonsense.

STEVE LOPEZ

A tip to investigators
ended a years-long manhunt
for an Orange County multi-
millionaire accused of killing
his wife and dumping her
body before fleeing to Mexi-
co to avoid prosecution, offi-
cials said Tuesday.
Peter Chadwick, 55, a fu-
gitive on the U.S. Marshals
Service’s most-wanted list,
was taken into custody late
Sunday and arrived in Cali-
fornia early Monday. A pho-
tograph of a handcuffed
man said to be Chadwick
was taken as he arrived at
Los Angeles International
Airport.
Police allege Chadwick

strangled and drowned his

wife — 46-year-old Quee

Choo Chadwick — in the

bathroom of their Newport

Beach home, wrapped her in

a comforter from their bed

and dumped her body in a

trash bin in San Diego

County on Oct. 10, 2012.

The couple had been

fighting over a possible di-

vorce and related financial

issues, police said.

Investigators later learn-

ed that Chadwick had been

unfaithful in the marriage.

Inside his wife’s closet, de-

tectives found a list detailing

topics Chadwick had alleg-

edly searched for online, in-

cluding escorts, a divorce at-

torney, abortion costs and,

chillingly, how to torture

someone, police said.

When Chadwick first ar-

rived in Mexico in 2015, he ini-

tially stayed at luxury re-

sorts in various towns. Even-

tually, those resorts began

Tip leads to millionaire fugitive hiding in Mexico

ORANGE COUNTYDist. Atty. Todd Spitzer shares photos of the trash bin where

Peter Chadwick is accused of dumping his wife’s body, left, and of their home.

Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles Times

Peter Chadwick fled

in 2015 while out on

bail awaiting trial in

his wife’s 2012 slaying.

By Hannah Fry

[SeeFugitive,B6]

SACRAMENTO — A

long-awaited study detailing

how much cities and coun-

ties charge developers to

build housing in California

found that such costs are

often hidden, vary widely

across the state and have

slowed growth.

The report, released this

week by the state Depart-

ment of Housing and Com-

munity Development,

comes as Gov. Gavin New-

som and state lawmakers

continue to search for ways

to lower construction costs

to help remedy a shortage of

available homes. The study

recommends that legisla-

tors push cities and counties

to make public their fees, set

standards for services so

that costs will be more pre-

dictable and take into ac-

count how they affect hous-

ing production.

“While fees offer a flexible

way to finance necessary in-

frastructure, overly burden-

some fee programs can limit

growth by impeding or disin-

centivizing new residential

development, facilitate ex-

clusion and increase hous-

ing costs across the state,”

said the report by research-

ers at UC Berkeley’s Terner

Center for Housing Innova-

tion.

In California, local gov-

ernment fees on housing

construction, which can be

used for parks, traffic con-

trol, water and sewer con-

nections and other services,

were nearly three times the

national average in 2015, ac-

cording to a 2018 Terner Cen-

ter report. In some cities, re-

searchers found, fees can

amount to 18% of median

home prices.

Costs also fluctuate from

city to city. In the Bay Area

[SeeHousing fees,B2]

Study

knocks

fees on

builders

Report released by

state says local levies

drive up costs and

slow housing growth.

By Liam Dillon

[SeeAmmo, B4] [SeeLopez,B5]