Briefly

Shelton sues over allegedly shoddy shop
Bill Shelton, owner of Stagecoach Station Antique Mall, filed suit against a business partner last week, alleging that Richard Sinatra Jr. bilked him out of thousands of dollars.

You may remember Shelton. He’s the former Butte County jail guard who blew the whistle on an alleged inmate beating several years ago and then sued the county when it fired him for breaching confidentiality rules.

Since then, he’s operated his antique shop, located across the street from Automotive Elite on Oroville Avenue in Chico. He filed suit Nov. 20, alleging that his landlords, Richard Sinatra Sr. and his son Richard Sinatra Jr., backed out of a deal to sell Shelton $17,500 in consignment contracts at the store and then badmouthed him to sellers, causing many of them to take their wares elsewhere.

The suit also alleges that the Sinatras ignored Shelton’s requests to repair a leaky roof, allowed harmful mold to grow in the damp store and allegedly cost Shelton thousands of dollars’ worth of lost inventory when the store flooded last year.

According to the suit, Shelton is asking for reimbursement of his salvage effort to the tune of $34,000, along with compensatory damages in the amount of $75,000 and a refund of half of his rent paid since January.

Man shoots self in the middle of busy Downtown Plaza Park
A 58-year-old Chico man shot and killed himself in Downtown Plaza Park at about noon Nov. 20.

Joseph Leon Jones reportedly walked to a park bench, looked around briefly, sat down and then shot himself in the chest. When police arrived, they found his handgun still on the bench next to him.

He died a short time later at Enloe Medical Center.

Paradise Town Council: Maybe not, amen
The Paradise Town Council, which seemed ready to unanimously support putting prayer back in Ridge schools last week, backed away from the idea somewhat at a meeting Tuesday night.

Two members of the five-member council said they had rethought their initial support of the idea. Several members of the Magalia Community Church had gathered upward of 1,000 signatures from parishioners to have a moment of prayerful silence in PUSD schools and had asked the council officially to endorse the movement at a meeting earlier this month. At the time, the council was all for the idea, but members Steve Lambert and Lew Hubb said Tuesday night that they had reconsidered.

Clarence Deaton, who spearheaded the movement for Magalia Community Church, said he would continue trying to gather support for prayer in schools.