On 06 Mar 2022, PaxPerPoten <PaxPerPoten@magik.beanz.net> posted some
news:t03hqf$27c53$33@news.freedyn.de:

> The country is falling apart and all Rudy can do is cry about Trump.

OAKLAND � A San Jose woman on Tuesday made her first court appearance on
special circumstance murder charges in the death of an Oakland couple and
their son, a triple slaying that has the victims� family members searching
for answers.

Dana Rivers, 61, is accused of fatally shooting and stabbing semi-retired
Berkeley school district teacher Patricia Wright, 57, and her wife
Charlotte Reed, 56, fatally shooting Wright�s 19-year-old son Benny
Diambu-Wright and then setting fire to the family�s East Oakland home in
an attempt to destroy evidence.

Rivers, a former Sacramento school teacher, gained national attention when
she had a sex change operation to become a woman in the 1990s.

�It�s just unbelievable,� said Michael Campbell, the father of Wright�s
other son, Khari. He described the slain women as �normal moms.�

Diambu-Wright was an aspiring nurse who was attending Laney College and
working at Walmart. Wright and Reed had been married for over a year and
had three children between them.

People who knew Reed said she was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and
owned a hair salon in San Jose.

Wright also worked part-time at Esperanza Elementary School in Oakland as
a computer prep teacher, said John Sasaki, a spokesman for Oakland Unified
School District.

Wright�s principal, Kathleen Arnold said the teacher brought so much to
the school.

�She was a true educator and so excited to work in her community,� Arnold
said. �It really was a match made in heaven. She wanted to be part-time,
and that�s what we needed. I offered her a job on the spot.�

Campbell described Rivers as an acquaintance.

�I knew this woman (Rivers),� said Wright�s son Khari Campbell-Wright, 19.
�I don�t know the whole confines of what was going on. I know she (Rivers)
was in a motorcycle club. My mom had no part of it. My brother had no part
of it.

�Wrong place, wrong time,� he said.

Police said Rivers was covered with blood and was about to flee on a
motorcycle belonging to Reed when she was arrested by police about 12:30
a.m. Friday, moments after officers responded to the house in the 9400
block of Dunbar Drive for reports of gunfire.

Authorities said Rivers had tried to set the house ablaze but her fire was
confined to the garage area and quickly controlled.

Diambu-Wright was found shot to death outside the front of the two-story
house. Court documents identified him as Toto M. Diambu, but his family
and neighbors said he was known as Benny Diambu-Wright.

Inside the house, police found the Wright and Reed stabbed and shot.

Rivers was charged with three counts of murder, the special circumstance
that there were multiple killings, arson of an inhabited structure and
possession of metal knuckles. The charges call for life in prison without
the possibility of parole and make her eligible for the death penalty if
the Alameda County District Attorney�s Office decides to pursue capital
punishment.

Authorities have not released a motive but have indicated it might have
been a dispute over some property.

In court documents, police said Rivers �began to make spontaneous
statements about her involvement in the murders.� The document also
states that officers found ammunition and knives in her pockets.

Two decades ago, Rivers had a sex-change operation to become a woman and
was dismissed as a school teacher in a Sacramento suburb.

Born David Warfield, she was an award-winning school teacher before she
began hormone treatments and surgeries to become a woman in 1999,
according to the Associated Press and other media accounts. After she made
her intentions known to school officials at Center High School in suburban
Sacramento, the school district put her on administrative leave and
eventually dismissed her. She sued and reached a settlement.

Rivers is being held at Santa Rita Jail without bail and returns to court
Wednesday morning.

Staff writer Katrina Cameron contributed to this report.

<https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/15/oakland-san-jose-woman-charged-in-
triple-killing/>