Saw this linked from Advrider:
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
Neighbors charged in dirt bike incident
Anger over noise may have led to strung-rope trap
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Rising anger over noise may have led three Los Gatos hills residents to booby-trap a road where a motorcyclist was seriously injured, neighbors said Friday, while an attorney for one of the accused said a rope was strung across the road to slow down speeding bikers.
"Apparently the rope was supposed to slow people down," defense attorney Dennis Lempert said after a brief hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court for two of the three defendants.
Whatever was strung across the roadway on May 6 caught Robert Barnes across the upper lip, hurling him 30 feet from his motorcycle and leaving him with 500 stitches, missing teeth and titanium plates in his head, Barnes and police said.
Barnes, 46, believes, because of the extent of his injuries, that a length of metal rebar or something similar was secured across Loma Chiquita Road in unincorporated Santa Clara County. He slipped into a coma for five days after surgery, but appeared in court Friday walking with a cane, surrounded by about 10 supporters.
"I don't think it was about me," Barnes said outside court. "I think it was about dirt bikes in general. It could have been anyone. It could have been (Edward Anderson's) kid. He dirt bikes."
Anderson, 48, his girlfriend, Donna Olsen, 46, and neighbor Donald Bryant, 62, were charged this week with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for the attack on their neighbor Barnes and another biker in his group who was slightly injured. The three face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
The case has generated intense interest among the motorcycling community and some environmentalists who oppose off-road vehicles in rural settings. But the rift among residents of this enclave perched among hillside pines and narrow, winding roads may have its roots outside a clash over the environment. "I've lived up there for 20 years," said Christine Towner, 21. "I'm not surprised it happened at all."
Anderson and Bryant had complained about noise before, but Anderson's son rides a motorcycle and the two men "shoot guns all night," Towner said.
Barnes said his motorcycle was stolen from his pool house after his crash.
Court records show that Anderson and his girlfriend, Olsen, have had violent domestic disputes and drunk driving arrests. Anderson's license was suspended in 1999 for "excessive blood alcohol level," and he was later charged with misdemeanors, including driving with a revoked license and failing to stop at a red light, after being involved in a crash, court records show.
Olsen pleaded no contest to DUI and child endangerment charges in November after she was pulled over going 90 mph on Highway 85 at about 10:45 a.m. with two young children in her van, court records show. There were beer cans on the front seat and floorboard, and Olsen at one point said she had "earlier" drank a glass of "pink wine," according to the police report.
When faced with having her license suspended if she refused to submit to an alcohol test, Olsen told an officer: "Where I live, I don't need a license to drive," the police report said.
Olsen also pleaded no contest in November 1999 to misdemeanor spousal battery charges after allegedly jumping on top of Anderson in bed and hitting him, before injuring her ankle in the scuffle, according to court documents.
At the time, she was on probation for "narcotic-related" offenses, according to the police report.
Olsen is the only one of the three defendants in the motorcycle incident who has not posted bail. She was led into the courtroom Friday with a group of three other female inmates, and cried at one point while huddling with a public defender.
The hearing to enter pleas was rescheduled for Friday so all three defendants could be in court at the same time.
Bryant declined to comment outside court. His attorney, Lempert, said Bryant was in the area of the incident, but there was no evidence he tied the rope.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department said the trio watched from the bushes after securing a rope to a tree across the road and pulling it taut. Barnes said the incident happened right in front of Anderson's home.
But even the prosecutor in the case has yet to determine why.
"I'm still looking into the reason," Deputy District Attorney Leigh Frazier said.
