It started with a call about an aggressive dog, but ended with
six people arrested and three small children removed from a home on
Church Street.
Morgan Hill – It started with a call about an aggressive dog, but ended with six people arrested and three small children removed from a home on Church Street.
According to Morgan Hill Police Special Operations Sgt. David Swing, the incident Wednesday morning began when a local animal control officer arrived at 16155 Church St. in response to a call of an aggressive dog.
He checked the license plate number of a car parked in the driveway, Swing said, and discovered that the vehicle was stolen from Milpitas.
“While we were waiting for RATTF (Regional Auto Theft Task Force) to arrive, we sent officers to watch the house,” he said. “We learned two residents of the home were on probation.”
Several RATTF officers arrived at the residence and police Det. Mindy Zen and Officer David Ray assisted them in conducting a search of the residence.
As a result of the search, six people were arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Jail.
Diane Gomez, 39, of Morgan Hill, was on probation for auto theft. She was arrested for alleged probation violation, possession of a short-barreled shotgun and child endangerment.
Swing said the shotgun was modified, cut off at the barrel and stock.
Gomez’s son, Ray Andrade, 19, of Morgan Hill, was also arrested. He had been released from county jail approximately one month ago on drug-related charges, Swing said. Andrade was arrested for alleged probation violation and possession of a short-barreled shotgun.
Robert Luna, 38, of Gilroy, was arrested on a $20,000 warrant for drug-related charges. Joseph L. Catano, 25, a parolee-at-large for assault with a deadly weapon, who also had two other outstanding warrants, $7,500 and $6,000 for traffic and drug charges, was arrested for the warrants.
Romero J. Martinez, 48, of San Jose, was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of a stolen vehicle, but also had a no-bail warrant for possession of a controlled substance and possession of a deadly weapon, and warrants for driving on a suspended license and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Lisa C. Chavez, 27, of Morgan Hill, was arrested for alleged forgery and possession of stolen property because of items found on the property.
Swing said four other adults were in the residence at the time of the raid but were released without charges.
Gomez’s three young children were removed from the home and turned over to Child Protective Services.
“Auto theft is up in Morgan Hill for the first six months of the year,” Swing said. “What happened yesterday is a good example of cooperation between our special ops division and patrol team and RATTF. That collaborative effort allowed us to be successful. We had RATTF on scene in 20 minutes, and undercover officers in five minutes, which allowed us to do some surveillance work.”
At one time there were 12 Morgan Hill police officers at the scene, which included all patrol officers and special ops personnel, Swing said.
