Extradited Murder Suspect Now in Santa Cruz County Jail
Thursday morning, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office announced the extradition and arrest of Miguel Ramirez Loza, who fled to Mexico after he allegedly attacked two Santa Cruz teenage girls back in 2003. One of the girls was stabbed and died, while the other victim was sexually assaulted. After spending 16 years in Mexico, Loza faces murder charges and is now being held in Santa Cruz County Jail. Loza was raised in Santa Cruz County and has relatives in Watsonville.
In February 2003, Loza allegedly stabbed the teenage girl in a vacant pre-school near Cabrillo College. While she lay bleeding to death, Loza sexually assaulted the other girl, before he urinated on the girl he stabbed. After he fled to Mexico, he was arrested by Mexican police in March 2004 for stabbing and robbing a man. Six months later, Mexican police arrested him again for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl. He spent a month in jail for the stabbing and robbery and 5 months in jail for the kidnapping and rape of the little girl while in Mexico. The Mexican government refused to extradite Loza for many years. Mexican officials typically would not extradite accused defendants who would face the death penalty or life in prison in the US.
Downtown Hit and Run Victim Taken to Trauma Center in Critical Condition
Wednesday night around 7PM, SCPD responded to the area near Cedar and Maple Streets after a report of a hit and run involving a vehicle versus a pedestrian. When they arrived, they found a 55 year old Santa Cruz woman down in the road pinned underneath a vehicle. She was taken to a nearby trauma center in critical condition after Santa Cruz firefighters provided initial help for the victim. The suspect fled the scene and witnesses told police he was jumping fences and running toward Cathcart Street. Two Watsonville men were eventually arrested, and one of them is the registered owner of the suspect vehicle in the hit and run.
Crash and Burn
Saturday afternoon around 1:30PM, a male carjacked and stole a marked Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation vehicle from a city employee from DeLaveaga Park. After SCPD responded to the scene, they found the stolen vehicle down a ditch on Branciforte Drive near Glen Canyon Road on fire with the suspected carjacker still inside the car. First responders pulled the suspect out of the car, and he was taken by life flight to a trauma center for significant injuries. The California Highway Patrol, AMR, the Santa Cruz Fire Department, and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene. He was arrested on suspicion of carjacking and robbery. He’s been arrested 9 times locally since 2013.
Serial Recidivist Dies of Probable Heart Attack in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz police say a 40 year old man died in on his way to Dominican hospital on Saturday. They responded to a report of a man who fell on the ground near River Street and Water Street. When officers got there, they determined that he was under the influence, so they took him to the county jail. While the man was being processed into the jail, he became semi-conscious and was taken to be examined by medical staff. They decided he would need to be taken to the hospital. Paramedics took him to Dominican Hospital, but on the way he started having heart trouble and was pronounced dead at the hospital. He had been arrested 91 times locally since 2014. NINETY ONE TIMES. He finally got off the County Shuffle. Santa Cruz enabled him to death.
Hit in the Head With a Hatchet
Around 9AM on Saturday morning, I heard a report about some kind of domestic disturbance in the Bear Creek area where someone was hit in the head with a hatchet and was taken by life flight to trauma center over the hill. You’d think that would be newsworthy, but details are few and far between beyond information culled from the crime log.
East Cliff Burglar Caught on Video
Last Thursday, a man broke into a vacation rental on East Cliff through a locked window and tried to steal a bike and other stuff from the home. Unknown to him, the home owner was watching him on video cameras and called the Sheriff’s department just as the thief left the house on a stolen bike. Deputies spotted the suspect a couple blocks away and when they stopped him, he had the stolen bike and other stolen property in his possession. He was arrested for residential burglary and taken to jail.
Steal Your Face
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two people Sunday, after finding evidence of identity theft in their car. Deputies say they stopped the vehicle for code violations just outside of Watsonville. A search of the vehicle found a large number of items related to identity theft, including credit cards, identification cards, blank checks, and account login information. Both the driver and a passenger were booked into the Santa Cruz County jail for identity theft and narcotics related offenses.
I Can Think of Better Use of His Time
While I’m thrilled that SCPD is cleaning up “skid row” aka Coral Street, I’m not thrilled they are doing the actual cleanup. What the hell kind of stupidity is this? We have a public works department, we can contract out trash pickup, and the city makes our SCPD pick up trash? Not in the job description Chief! No wonder we have such high attrition at SCPD. It’s hard to rationalize SCPD needing more manpower and resources when the city manager and Chief Wiggum has them out doing trash cleanup on skid row. More law enforcement, less picking up bum trash!
Picking Up Low Hanging Fruit
Wednesday morning around 11AM, a 45 year old transient was arrested near Emeline and Lee streets for having outstanding warrants, having a concealed dagger, and possession of meth. Outstanding!
Someone Needs a Lyft
This Monday, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men after stopping their car for vehicle code violations and finding them in possession of drugs and a loaded handgun. Both the driver and a passenger were arrested on numerous drug and weapon charges. And maybe a vehicle code violation too! Criminals can be so dumb sometimes. Why would you drive a car that you know could be stopped for something obvious when you’ve got a loaded gun and drugs in your possession?
The Usual Bad Behavior Downtown
Last Saturday around 11:30PM, a 40 year old male was arrested on the 900 block of Pacific Avenue for assault with a deadly weapon, battery on a peace officer, resisting arrest, and possession of meth.
Santa Cruz United For Change to the City Council
So there was a story on KSBW on Monday about the “official” initiation of a recall effort against city council members Drew Glover and Chris Krohn. I know a number of different groups have been working on different ideas for this for the past few weeks. I know some coordination went on with some of these groups, while others remained independent but committed to the recall effort in general. At least 2 different groups attempted to file paperwork with the requisite number of signatures, and at least one of those groups paperwork has been accepted. Both Glover and Krohn have been officially served with a copy of the “Notice of Intention”, which is the official paperwork submitted to begin the recall process.
This story is just getting warmed up. I’m thinking about setting up an FAQ page here just for the recall effort. I’m sure people have a lot of questions. I know I do. Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can sign up to volunteer or get updates here.
Looking Good!
I heard on Thursday that Alphabet (the parent company of Google) is buying Santa Cruz based Looker for 2.6 BILLION dollars. Who knew we had a 2.6 billion dollar company quietly headquartered right here in Santa Cruz? Congratulations to all the folks over at Looker!
The Santa Mierda Podcast Network
Be sure to check out the Santa Mierda Podcast Network! We’ve got the latest “Unfiltered” by yours truly, as well as a new podcast, “Untreated” from Sharona. You can find the Santa Mierda Podcast Network on SoundCloud. And Apple Music. And Spotify. It’s free so check it out and give it a listen! Next new podcast should be coming this Sunday night!
Check Out Our Twitter Feed for More Mierda!
Be sure to check out and follow our Twitter feed for even more mierda! Even though the Dump only comes your way once a week, I try to post breaking news and updates on other days as well. So check us out and follow us on Twitter for even more updates about real time news in Santa Cruz you might not otherwise hear about.
Get The Dump Delivered Each Week!
Don’t forget you can sign up and have the Weekly Dump automatically delivered to your email each week! Just click that little box in the bottom right corner of any page that says “Follow the Weekly Dump!” and sign up! All we need is an email.
Hey, Ben, thanks again for all of the information you provide. I’ve become a listener to your weekly podcasts too and recommend them highly. You provide so much information that is lacking and are doing a real service to those of us the really care about our community. I’m hoping the recall will be successful. And that people will keep it civil. Let the other side get ugly.
Thanks for reading, commenting, AND listening! I agree with keeping it civil! There’s no need for Team Recall to get ugly. They are ugly enough already! Keep it clean, on point, on message, and civil! Of course, I might get a bit snarky and jiggy with it but nothing’s personal!
“Santa Cruz enabled him to death”
You couldn’t have said it any better!
Thanks Austin!
Insanity seems to be fitting with all that has happened this week. ?
Kudos to the Judge in San Jose for his ruling !
Thank you for the updates !!
Thanks Paige!
I appreciate what you share on this site. Seeing a lot of this creeping into Felton for quite some time. About time for people to get woke.
Thanks Kristi! Wake up Felton! (I have some very woke friends in Felton….)
Thank you!!! Appreciate the weekly raw information.
About the East Cliff Robber:
This Guy ripped off our Job site at 1011 cedar st. in April, and was arrested for stealing $3,000.00 worth of goods & tools from us. He had been arrested 5 times before, since last November. Last time I spoke with the assistant DA, he was in jail, with a $75 K bail over him. ( a few weeks back ) Why is this guy out again to steal from others?
The FAQ page is a terrific idea. Your support can really help get those two clowns out of there – like it did for getting rid of the needle giveaway folly.
Also on another point I noticed that after you published the Dump this week, Pew Research came out with a poll showing that 70% of Americans listed drugs as the biggest problem in the country. I would appreciate any reporting on the ineptitude of SCPD stopping our drug problem. If our asshat police chief had his cops arresting drug dealers instead of cleaning up trash it might be a step in the right direction. All they have to do is shake down the druggies that they arrest every day, to find out who they get their drugs from. This sounds like a no-brainer
I was at a talk given by a local policeman a couple years ago. He described some kind of countywide sting that had taken place over the course of a year or so that resulted in the arrest of dozens of drug dealers. He said they had all been replaced within a couple weeks, like nothing ever happened.
That is not a reason to stop arresting and disrupting the drug trade. Police need to keep arresting drug dealers. That is life. Set up sting after sting. Each sting will make it easier to pick off the new clueless local dealers. Check the RVs! … No PD will not. I think the drug cartels are allowed to exist and distribute in this small town. The dealers arrested are those independent and competing with the cartels.
No sooner did city police remove (by hand) the wall of bum filth along Coral Street , but lo and behold, another wall of filth has replaced the last one. The police need to be arresting people like this, not packing their filthy trash. My recommendation would be to force the Santa Cruz City Council members to pick up the trash. After all, they’re significantly responsible. Council member DrugLover would probably jump at the chance to rip off some bum’s drugs.