Winters councilman pleads no contest to weapon charges

By lAuren keene Enterprise staff writer

A Winters city councilman charged with felony weapon possession made a plea agreement Wednesday that reduces his two most serious charges to misdemeanors.

Richard Thomas Casavecchia’s deal won’t be official until Aug. 2, however, as his attorney, who appeared in Yolo Superior Court remotely via Zoom, inadvertently filed a plea form that did not include Casavecchia’s signature.

Under the agreement, Casavecchia pleaded no contest to two counts of possessing an assault rifle. A third count, possession of an unserialized firearm, will be dismissed. Casavecchia, 39, is expected to be sentenced to one year of informal probation and 100 hours of community service. He pledged to surrender the two rifles to law enforcement. His attorney, Michael Wise, could not be reached for comment. Documents filed in support of the motion alleged that police found the assault rifles in Casavecchia’s home on April 2, after Casavecchia’s wife arrived at the Winters Police Department to approved the bill earlier this month and it is now under consideration by a third.

This two-way charging has big potential — but also faces big obstacles. By 2035, California expects to have 12.5 million electric cars on the road, but it’s an open question how much California can rely on them to feed the grid. Automakers say the technology would add report a domestic violence incident and request an emergency protective order.

“She then told Winters police that defendant has a concealed weapons permit along with other weapons,” the document says. She initially declined to give officers consent to enter her home and remove the weapons, but later reversed that decision.

About two hours earlier, a Winters patrol officer

S, PAGe A4

Public Works director and city engineer Dianna Jensen said the project, which was granted to the Stockton-based F. Loduca Company, came in over the engineer’s estimate. “But what we look at is the range of bids,” she said. “All of these came in fairly close to each other.”

Ria de Grassi, a longtime Davis resident, said as a taxpayer, the project amount “is a heck of a lot of money for a picnic area.”

“I don’t know all the ins and outs,” de Grassi said, “but part of my issue is prioritizing what needs attention.” She urged the council to deal with more “pressing issues with the parks” first.