News Briefs News Briefs (May 19, 2004)

Mountain lion killed in Palo Alto

A Palo Alto policewoman fired a single shot and killed a mountain lion in a tree in Palo Alto's residential Community Center neighborhood at about 1 p.m. Monday, May 17.

The lion -- spotted by a newspaper deliveryman at 4:45 a.m. that morning, and an hour later by a couple on an early morning walk -- had eluded police. A resident near Eleanor Pardee Park heard a lion's scream at about 7:30 a.m., according to the Palo Alto Weekly.

A Newell Road father of four, out looking for the lion in the company of his 11-year-old Labrador retriever, discovered it and alerted police, the Weekly reported.

Two attic fires in Menlo Park

Firefighters in the Menlo Park Fire Protection District may have had a deja-vu moment after fighting two similar house fires in east Menlo Park last week: one around midnight on Monday, May 10, at 1011 Windermere Ave., and the other later that afternoon at 442 Falk Court.

Both fires started outside the home, climbed the outside walls and became attic fires, said Division Chief Rich Hall. Firefighters cut holes in the roofs to get at and extinguish the fires. No one was injured in either fire.

The cause of the Windermere Avenue fire may have been spontaneous combustion of oily rags, Chief Hall said. The cause of the Falk Court fire is under investigation.

The Falk Court home sustained $150,000 in structural damage and $50,000 in damage to contents, Chief Hall said. At the Windermere Avenue fire, the damages were $80,000 and $20,000, respectively.

Menlo man sentenced for animal cruelty

Robert Hollywood, 47, of Menlo Oaks was sentenced May 6 to one year in jail for keeping hundreds of live and dead rodents in his home. Superior Court Judge Craig Parsons pronounced sentence.

Mr. Hollywood, who also faces three years of supervised probation, was charged in October with felony animal cruelty and pleaded no contest on March 9 on the condition that he would not be sentenced to time in state prison. He will serve out his sentence with credit for time he has already served.

In March, Peninsula Humane Society officers, working on a tip from a visitor to Mr. Hollywood's home on Colby Avenue, discovered 228 mice, 68 rats, five hamsters, two snakes and a cat, said humane society spokesman Scott Delucchi. Seventy of the rats and mice were dead.

Many of the animals were in such bad condition that they had to be euthanized, but the humane society was able to find homes for others.

Judge Parsons said Mr. Hollywood was repeatedly warned by the health department to limit the number of rodents in his home, but ignored the warnings.

Mr. Hollywood offered an explanation for his conduct at his sentencing, saying that he cared deeply for his animals and the ones that died had died of old age, not from abuse.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report

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