welcome to "assignment 7". today on our program -- >> you're the guy. >> eight years ago, the fajita fight that triggered a police scandal. a look at where the key players are now. no way out. a local fire engine stranded for years behind a washed out bridge. and 7 on your side investigates, an arrest warrant issued and bank accounts frozen. but it was all a mistake. let's begin with a look back at fajita gate that started over a street brawl over an order of fajitas and grew into a scandal that toppled two police chiefs and eight years later, what happened to the key players?

>> reporter: it all started over this. a fight over fajitas. but the brawl turned into what some called the biggest scandal ever to hit the san francisco police department. >> doesn't seem like eight years. seems like it's only been a few months. >> reporter: david lee was a rookie cop who was charged with assault in that fight. adam snyder claims he was the victim of the beating. >> i was pummeled. it seems like yesterday. >> reporter: in the early morning hours of november 22, 2002, snyder had just closed the blue light saloon where he worked as a bar tender. he and a customer walked out on union street. lee and two other off-duty officers were leaving the bus stop bar, a block away. >> they wanted my food. >> reporter: one of them demanded his bag of fa tee at thats. he refused and the fight started. the three officers were detained but not arrested. from there, it grew into a huge

scandal. it turned out fagan junior's father was the assistant police chief. district attorney cried cover-up, saying the department intentionally mishandled the investigation. the three young officers were ultimately charged with assaulting snyder and santorum. a grand jury indicted chief earl sanders, fagan senior, five members of their command staff, and two other ranking officers. the charge? obstruction of justice. although the charges against the police chief and the department were ultimately dropped, the upheaval from the scandal continued to rock the department. lee, tonsing and takinger junior were acquitted of assault charges. a jury found two liable for some damages. lee was completely exonerated, but even after eight years, his past still follows him. >> i'm known as you're the guy from fajita gate. >> lee and fagan junior left the

police force after fail to go complete their probationary service as rookie officers. lee now works in private security. but his dream is to be rehired by the department. he applied again three years ago. >> passed the written test, the physical agility test, psychological evaluation. the hiring board unanimously said, let's roll with him. >> reporter: but lee says former chief's administration passed him over. >> when you're found not guilty, i thought that meant something. it doesn't. >> reporter: townsing is no longer a police officer. fagan junior is now an army ranger serving with an elite special ops unit in afghanistan. life has begun good to adams snyder. he we want to part owner of a group of nightclubs but still feels animosity toward the three former officers. >> absolutely. >> there is no closure? >> not really. >> will there ever be closure?

>> i hope so. maybe we day we bump into each other and there is an apology handed out. >> chief handers took a disability retirement. takinger senior succeeded him, but left the department to serve as head of the emergency services and then he retired. sanders wrote a book about the serial murders of the 1970s which held the city in terror. he says, there will be a movie down the road. fagan will soon move to london as the spouse of a diplomat would be assigned to the american embassy. james santorum's life has been full of twists and turns. he was arrested after police found large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for sale in his home. his lawyer is the former district attorney who lost his reelection bid to harris a year after fajita gate. santoro became another big player in another scandal. his drug charges were dropped,

along with hundreds of others when the crime lab was shut down when a former lab technician admitted stealing cocaine evidence. the d.a.'s office says it will refile charges. vick lee, abc 7 news. >> stanford researchers say they're one step closer to finding a cure for hearing loss. abc 7's lisa amean says why stem cells seem to be the key. >> reporter: at stanford school of medicine -- >> when we saw this, this was a major point. >> reporter: excitement is building around something that's invisible to the naked eye. >> this is beautiful. >> reporter: but could make all the difference in the ear. researchers say these small stem cells could be the key to finding a cure for hearing loss. >> stem cells are widely available and you can grow them up to the millions. our original thought was to generate them center stem cells. >> reporter: inner ear cells are almost impossible to test on

because there are so few of them. now they're not only able to grow them by the million, but recreate the small hairs found on top of the cells that detect vibration and sound in the human ear. right now one in three adults over the age of 65 have hearing loss, specifically caused by the destruction of hair cells in the ear. now with so many testable cell, researchers hope to test drugs on them in the coming years and find a cure for deafness. >> we can look for drugs that lead to regeneration of the cell. >> reporter: this doctor is part of thed has team and has treated people for hearing loss. >> it's really a tough situation for them and there is no cure. >> reporter: he's sure this discovery which was published will give patients hope. >> say the word. >> reporter: at the hearing center, it already is. >> for them to be able to sin thetically do it, it's fantastic it's a great leap in hearing.

>> reporter: it's a leap so many can't wait to take. in san jose, abc 7 news. when "assignm co 7" continues, no way out. >> any way to take the fire truck in and out of the station in a satisfactory manner. >> a coastal community where the only fire engine in town has been left stranded for years. also, have you ever wanted to do this? we'll show you a place where people can make and air tv programs of their own choice. and a sonoma county car company tapping into china's lucrative

welcome back. a north coast vacation spot is facing a fifth consecutive year of long delays for emergency fire and medical service. the problem is in the town of jenner. it has a fire station, but no bridge for its engine to use. abc 7's dna ashley reports. >> this picturesque town has

been drawing visitors for decades. jenner is nestled at the foot of the rusher river along the pacific coast, a stunning spot where sometimes you can find more harbor sales than humans. only 125 people live here year round. but jenner still needs emergency services for thousands of tourists who pass through. at the moment, though, those services take a long time to get here. >> it is problematic. >> reporter: he's talking about the volunteer fire department and their engine. here it is. ready to go at a moment's notice. but there is a big problem. the bridge from the fire station into town has been condemned. so the engine can't cross it. >> while we have a fire station here that has a fire truck, we don't have any way to take the fire truck in and out of the station in a satisfactory manner. >> reporter: the bridge crosses jenner creek, usually a pleasant stream with water so low you can't even see it behind the fire house. but five years ago, during a big storm, the creek roared over its

banks. david kenly, the president of the community club, saw it happen. >> the abutment under the entire south end of the bridge had been washed away. there was water coming over the bridge. >> reporter: with the bridge no longer passable, the only way out of the station is an often muddy road that meets highway 1 and a blind curve. >> some of the firemen have said they will not drive out this way. they consider it to be so dangerous. it's not worth their life. >> reporter: so when there is a fire or medical emergency, the engines have to come from out of town. >> it takes 20 minutes, 20, 25 minutes for the truck to get here from up in duncan mills. >> reporter: that makes many residents nervous. >> we feel we are not protected to the degree that we need to be protected. >> reporter: in the old days, the towns people might have spent a weekend just fixing the bridge themselves. but that's not an option now. >> we have to meet the requirements of 11 different agencies. >> reporter: those agencies are require ago new, much stronger bridge and the stream is a

protected salmon area, so there are lots of environmental restrictions. that adds up to $400,000 for a new bridge. the federal emergency management agency, fema, will pay 300,000, but that still leaves 100,000 and the fire department simply doesn't have it. >> we're like everybody else in the whole state. watching our pennys. >> reporter: the town of jenner raised more than $20,000 with community events and bake sales. but there is still a long way to go. >> $80,000 is a lot of brownies. >> reporter: so now the town is hoping some of those people who like to visit jenner will be willing to help. >> we have one more tourist. people coming here to go kayaking, come out to the various restaurants. >> reporter: of course, the more people who come, the greater the risk of an emergency. in fact, the day we were in jenner, an engine had to come all the way from ten miles away to respond to a call for help. after five years of fundraising, jenner is badly in need of a

benefactor. >> we're shovel ready and we don't have the money. >> reporter: dan ashley, abc 7 news. >> the explosion at the new social media means just about anybody can post video or send messages on-line. but as abc 7's karina rusk reports, good old-fashioned community access tv has its place, even in silicon valley. >> reporter: the team is a full service, nonprofit media center in downtown san jose. the community access channel is called create tv. behind the lights, cameras and action is suzanne st. john crane, the executive director who manages the public and educational channels on comcast cable. >> you see cooking shows, political talk shows. we have programs in seven different languages on channel 15. so we are giving voice to a lot of communities that wouldn't have one on television. >> reporter: the shows that air on channel 15 are as diverse as san jose itself.

there are about 150 people and organizations who produce content on a regular basis. including this in studio production for a program called arabic tv. >> normally the media, main media, they like to show the bad things, blood, killing. we like to show the other way around. we want to show the culture, the community. >> reporter: create tv is not just a place to make and air community programming. it's a learning center for hundreds of people who want access to state-of-the-art video and editing equipment. members can take classes and rent professional grade, high def field equipment for as little as $20 a day. >> a tripod, a mic, it's here. >> reporter: after two years in their new facility, word of this valuable resource is getting out. create tv now has about 600 members. >> it's wonderful. it's been great. i have actually put together

some music videos and hip-hop videos. >> reporter: the programming on channel 15 reaches 170,000 households in san jose and campbell. it also streams live on create tv's web site. in san jose, abc 7 news. >> a santa rosa electric car company is set to break into the car market in china, which is set to become the biggest in the world. now that story. >> reporter: this zap car all electric suv sits in zap's santa rosa show room. right now only a handful exist. but zap chairman hopes that some day soon, there will be thousands of them rolling through the streets of china's biggest cities as taxis. >> not all of them will convert immediately. but the government has committed, in order to reduce pollution, to have as many of these taxis become electric vehicles. >> reporter: and she says the government is backing that

commitment with subsidy. >> there is not only subsidies for the manufacturers to deliver these vehicles, but also the city government who actually owns the taxi business, if you will, is committed to actually make this happen because it has to support the central government. >> reporter: she wants zap to be the first in line for those subsidies. it just signed a deal for mass production with chinese auto maker johnway. >> right now the particular partner that we have is capable of producing 4,000 vehicles per month and scaling up to 6,000. >> reporter: the suv taxi runs on 117 will lithium batteries and can go 180 miles before recharging. the batteries are positioned underneath the car, so cargo and passenger space are preserved. sales price, between 20 and $30,000. the zap sports car alias, was just shown at the beijing auto show. it will also eventually be produced at the china plant. and some day maybe in the u.s. >> we'll be filing with the

d.o.e. for grant money to, in fact, have a manufacturing plant here in santa rosa, as well as in kentucky. >> reporter: it remains to be seen how many taxis they can sell. so far they have an order for 400 from korea and working on prices and orders for china. the first taxi could be rolling off the chinese assembly line at the end of this year. abc 7 news. >> up next, a warrant for her arrest and her bank accounts frozen. michael finney with a warning about a simple mistake that turned a bay area woman's life upside down. ♪

♪ ye ♪ look, they fit! oh my gosh, are those the jeans from last year? how'd you do it? simple stuff... eating right...whole grain. whole grain? [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have healthier body weights. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories. more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios. the constant expansion of electronic records, you never know which databases might contain your name and identity. 7 on your side michael finney reports on how a simple mistake got one woman blamed for a crime she didn't commit. >> reporter: it all began here at free month city jail, a woman named maria jimenez was booked

for assault with a deadly weapon and then a terrible mistake. one that reached e way to the central valley to the tiny town of riverbank to this close knit family of five. and turned their quiet lives upside down. >> i'm thinking, there is no way. i'm a good person overall. this can't be happening to me. >> reporter: at first maria duena had no clue of any problems. she was working full time, raising three kids and caring for a husband who is blind and diabetic. then one day, $150 was taken from her bank account, and the account is frozen. it's all by court order from, of all places, the city of fremont. she called to find out why. >> she said when you got out of jail, you stopped paying. it was like someone just pulled the rug out from under me. i lost it. i was like, i was arrested? and i screamed it out while i

was at work?eporter: maria had >> reporter: maria had never been arrested, yet now there was a bench warrant out for her. but she frantically tried to find out why she had no access to her money, no food, no gas, no insulin for her husband. she told her children to borrow money for lunch. >> i couldn't even look at them. i couldn't even look at them when i told them i didn't have money. >> reporter: her husband says she is sugar level shot dangerously high without insulin. >> it happened to be at that time that i ran out of my mfingers started tingling. will i wake up in the morning and be in the hospital? >> reporter: it took weeks to figure out what was going on, which brings us back to maria jimenez. booked for assault and that mistake. >> what we did amounted to a data entry error. we had a new system at the time. the jailer wasn't that familiar with it.

>> reporter: the detective explains when jimenez was booked, 13 women with the same name popped up in the computerized database. they included our maria because her maiden name was mara jimenez. by mistake, the jailer clicked on our maria's name. the real inmate was in jail, but all the blame went to our innocent maria. >> it should have been checked. it's the jail technician that should have looked at it and seen the date of birth was different. >> reporter: she didn't know she had someone else's criminal record and owed someone else's restitution. to prove she wasn't the convict, she had to go to her local sheriff's office. deputies there took her fingerprint. she wondered if they would lock her up, too. >> i thought, oh, my god, if i don't come out, i need to make sure somebody comes out from school. >> reporter: it took two weeks to clear her name and release her funds. but it had cost her time and anxiety and money. she filed a $5,000 claim with

the city of fremont. the city simply said no. >> you're joking, right? you can't turn somebody's life around, turn it upside down that way and force somebody to have to look into their kids' eyes or be ashamed to look into their eyes. >> reporter: the city said a government agency is immune from liability for this type of mistake. dean johnson says that's true. >> some cases, like her case, even though wrong may have been done, the suit simply can't be brought because the government is immune from suit. >> human error and we do make mistakes. unfortunately this caused some grief for someone who didn't deserve that to have grief. >> i just wanted to get my own money back. that's all i wanted was my own money back for a crime i didn't commit. >> reporter: michael finney, 7 on your side. >> after reviewing maria's case,

the city did pay her $726 for the time she spent unraveling this mess and her bank reimbursed overdraft fees. ahead, the uptown theater in downtown napa, newly restored jewel is now lighting up the night life in wine country. so my mercury moment happened during our family camping trip. i grabbed my son a juice box...and left the cooler lid open. twenty minutes later, all our hot dogs were gone. and so was most of the car. my mercury agent, steve, told me the car was covered. i switched to mercury because i saved hundreds of dollars on my car insurance, but it was the service that really made me a happy camper... er...ex-camper. call 888-4-mercury or visit mercuryinsurance.com

to get a fast, free quote and start saving today. [ maget readycer ] for the ride of your life. turkey & bacon avocado. wipeout in waves of tender turkey and crispy bacon. gaze upon the rad rainbow of voluminous veggies and cool, sea-green avocado all on freshly baked bread. are you up for the ultimate? ♪ then you've got to try the totally new subway ultimate turkey & bacon avocado. carve one up today. crank up the flavor at subway. yeah. you must really care about him. what? no, no. you gave him fiber. no she didn't. this tastes way too good to be fiber. they're delicious crunchy clusters with sweet honey and half a day's worth of fiber. you care about my fiber? not really. i care about youfiber too. i have for while. ok, carl. why don't you care about her fiber?

hey carl. [ male announcer ] fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. art deco jewel of a theater reopened in may after years of restoration. arts and entertainment reporter don sanchez give us a tour of the new uptown theater. >> reporter: it's a classic of 1937 art did he co- design, such few of them remain. this man bought it in 1998, hoping to bring it back to life. >> it was such a beautiful thing at one time. i want to restore it. >> reporter: it had been turned into a fourcomplex, run down, then shut down. george would have to wait. >> downtown was deteriorating. so i quit when i thought -- i thought, i'm not going to lose

my shirt. so i'll kind of hold it and eventually napa will come back. >> reporter: last year he decided it was time. breaking through coats of paint and walls, they found these designs. his granddaughter directed the pricey restoration. >> there were a lot of original details that i had to work with. that was helpful. >> reporter: in a word, it is stunning, recapturing a past glory. >> it's a beautiful job. it's beenngly pain-stakingly refurbished and the detail, the ceiling. >> reporter: it took 12 years to open this place as the city of napa went through some tough economic times. now the uptown and other businesses are the catalyst for good times downtown, a new night life is dawning. >> now those people are going to stay here, good for napa. >> reporter: times are changing here. visitors aren't passing by napa to go up valley. >> what i like to call realizing the destination it should be. >> it's like a breath of fresh air. >> the mayor says it's become a place of opportunity for

businesses. new hotels, restaurants. the change came with a flood control project. >> once we cleared the safety community, every community, everybody seen the jewel behind it. >> this is the most unique thing i'll ever do in my life. >> don sanchez, abc 7 news. >> if you want more information on the stories on our program today, go to our web site and look under the news links on the left side for "assignment 7". that's all, thank you for joining us. we'll see you next time. >> carolyn: a young girl is killed in an early morning apartment fire in san jose. >> alan: the new program that has san francisco civilians taking fingerprints and dna tests at crime scenes.