STPUD board president sentenced for 3 misdemeanors

By Kathryn Reed

Dale Rise, president of South Tahoe Public Utility District’s board of directors, was sentenced today for three misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest.

Rise was arrested in September 2009 on felony charges after he got in a confrontation with officers at his South Lake Tahoe residence. Officers were called to the house by his daughter.

Dale Rise

He pleaded guilty to the three misdemeanors on Sept. 2. Last spring he told Lake Tahoe News he wanted the case to go to trial. Why he pleaded guilty is not known since he didn’t return phone calls.

Rise was sentenced to a 52-week anger management course, three years probation, 500 hours of community service, $2,250 in fines, and peaceful contact with his wife and daughter. The latter means if an argument between them becomes unpeaceful, it will be a violation of his probation.

At the Sept. 17 sentencing before El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Kingsbury the judge gave a little lecture to Rise about the importance of police officers being able to do their job and enter a home when need be. She used the analogy of how law enforcement didn’t thoroughly investigate what was going on where Jaycee Lee Dugard was held captive for 18 years and how if officers don’t investigate, then no one knows what crimes might be occurring behind the door.

“We thought it was a fair disposition,” said Pete O’Hara, El Dorado County deputy district attorney.

He called Kingsbury’s analogy “appropriate.”

When it comes to Rise’s position on the STPUD board, nothing will change unless his colleagues want it to. State law and utility district code only call for the removal of a director if convicted of a felony.