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View Comments A Salinas man was charged with murder Tuesday in connection with allegedly killing his ex-wife in an agricultural area east of Oxnard. Josefino Cayetano Maldonado, 41, appeared in Ventura County Superior Court for an arraignment hearing in the murder case. The Ventura County Public Defender s Office was appointed to represent him. He did not enter a plea Tuesday. Maldonado s arraignment hearing was continued to Aug. 10, court records showed. Given the seriousness of the crime and the safety of the victim s family, Judge Nancy Ayers granted the prosecution s motion to hold Maldonado in Ventura County jail pending trial. Oxnard police had been searching for Gonzales Rojas since July 11, when her family reported her missing. Family members said she had gotten into an unknown vehicle the previous night. She never came home and didn t return phone calls, police said, prompting the report to authorities. ....
Editor s note: This story has been updated to add comments from the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Association on the court opinion. An appellate court Wednesday overturned a Ventura County judge s ruling blocking the release of certain police misconduct records made public under a 2018 law. The three-justice panel in the 2nd District Court of Appeal s Division Six, located in downtown Ventura, reversed the trial court s judgment and dissolved a court order opening up the records to the public for the first time. Ventura County was the last jurisdiction in the state where police unions were challenging the scope of Senate Bill 1421 over privacy concerns and claims the law was not retroactive. The bill took effect Jan. 1, 2019. ....