Man arrested in stranger’s house

Mary A. Castillo

A North Laguna Beach resident said he walked into his house in the

900 block of Cliff Drive to find a stranger in red swimming trunks

with a can of beer and watching TV in the living room.

Each man demanded what the other was “doing in his house,” and

when the intruder refused to leave, the owner ran out of his home to

call police, Sgt. Greg Bartz said.

Bartz and officer Debbie Kelso initially confronted the suspect,

Carl Sherman, 42, of Newport Beach, at 2:32 p.m. Tuesday.

“[Sherman] was acting in an irrational manner,” Bartz said.

Refusing to cooperate with their demands to get down on the floor,

Sherman managed to shake off pepper spray and a baton blow, Bartz

said.

They chased Sherman through the house and then cornered him when

he barricaded himself in a bedroom.

“He was screaming that he was the creator and that he owned the

house,” said Sgt. Jason Kravetz, who was among the 12 officers who

arrived as back-up. They distracted Sherman and broke the door down.

When he still refused to cooperate, officers shot him with taser

darts.

He was transported to South Coast Medical Center, where doctors

removed the darts and administered tests to determine if he was under

the influence. Those tests had not been returned by press time. He

was arrested on suspicion of burglary, vandalism and resisting

arrest. After he was booked, he was transported to Orange County

Jail.

Investigators discovered that Sherman had been spotted at two

neighboring homes earlier that afternoon. A construction crew told

police that he walked into the home they were working on, and a woman

claimed that Sherman had been in her back yard, banging on her door.

“No one called police when those incidents occurred,” Kravetz

said. “Sherman has a long criminal history.”

Sherman allegedly broke through a window to enter the home and

disabled the security system. Police also believe that he damaged the

owner’s irrigation system.

The shock from the taser gun incapacitated Sherman, but did not

cause permanent injury, Bartz said.

“The taser disrupts the nervous system only for the time when you

apply the voltage,” he said.

The owner was shook up by the incident, but uninjured, Bartz said.