Shooting Victim Recovering, 'Growing Up'
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Jan. 27, 2001
PLEASANT HILL -- Sina Sharareh has made some sharp, unexpected turns in his life during the past 13 months.
Earlier this month, he made national headlines when he was shot in the buttocks at a Southern California bar by a vengeful husband who accused him of raping his wife.
And in December 1999, the 22-year-old Pleasant Hill man, whose attorney said he was working as a police informant, was shot through the neck at a downtown Walnut Creek parking garage.
"I've done a lot of growing up. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to show it," said Sharareh, who is using a pubic catheter and faces surgery to remove the 9 mm bullet still lodged under his testicles.
"People don't really know how luck runs. When you catch some bad luck, you can't say how long it will last. There's no limit to it. And I've been catching a lot of it lately."
Sharareh, a registered sex offender convicted previously of rape, is trying to recover from the bullet he took Jan. 4. Police say he was shot by Anthony Starita of Redondo Beach, who accused him of sexually assaulting his wife near a Hermosa Beach pub.
Though the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to file rape charges against him, Sharareh's troubles are far from over. His civil court case against Central County law enforcement agencies begins next week.
And doctors have been unable to tell him for certain of the long-term ramifications of carrying a bullet that bisected his colon and severed his urethra. He faces a round of multiple surgeries, but is confident of a full recovery.
"He sees himself as a celebrity," said Paul Peterson, an inspector for the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office. "To try and get the facts from him is impossible.
"He'll portray himself as someone who has been randomly shot twice and that he had no idea how it happened."
But Lisa Radcliffe, Sharareh's attorney, said: "To suggest that my client is enjoying his celebrity after having been shot twice is patently ridiculous. "Do you think my client, who has a colostomy bag, is enjoying this?"
The suit is the result of his alleged involvement as a Walnut Creek police informant when he was shot in the neck Dec. 24, 1999. Police say he was shot by Matt Anderson at a downtown Walnut Creek parking garage. Anderson was later shot and killed after trading gunfire with police.
Sharareh's most recent travails stem from an unusual shooting at Patrick Molloy's bar in Hermosa Beach that quickly attracted an avalanche of media attention.
Police say the husband, using a composite police sketch of the suspect in his wife's rape, waited for a man fitting that description to return to the Irish pub. When Sharareh entered the bar, Starita recognized him immediately.
Police say Starita, 32, shouted, "This is for my wife" before firing a single shot into Sharareh's buttocks while he was urinating in a men's room.
"I didn't really know what happened until the blood started to flow," said Sharareh, who believes Starita had carefully aimed the weapon before pulling the trigger.
"He knew what he was doing and where he was shooting."
Starita, who accused Sharareh of raping his wife in an alley near the bar Dec. 31, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He is free after posting $40,000 bail, police said.
On Jan. 5, in a sharp twist to the case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to file rape charges against Sharareh.
The case weakened significantly after prosecutors learned that the 26-year-old woman had admitted to investigators that the two had kissed in a parked car before the alleged attack.
"Her story is so far-fetched. I don't know if her jealous husband forced her to say things or whether she was scared," said Sharareh, whose friend captured on a video that he gave to police -- a passionate kiss between Sharareh and the wife.
Sharareh, who spent eight days at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles recovering from the gunshot wound, was never arrested on suspicion of rape.
"They couldn't prove that an actual crime had occurred," said Hermosa Beach police spokesman Paul Wolcott.
Nevertheless, the case drew national headlines, from the Los Angeles Times to the TV show "Inside Edition."
Sharareh said he made a trip to Southern California last month to visit relatives and hang out with friends, partly because of the stress of having been shot in Walnut Creek.
About 11 p.m. Dec. 30, he and a pal made their way toward Patrick Molloy's bar. They spotted the wife arguing on a cell phone.
Later, he approached the woman inside the bar. He asked whether she was OK.
"She commented that she had been fighting with her husband, who had beat her up," Sharareh said. "I told her not to worry about it."
After drinking and dancing, the two made their way out to a parked car, he said. They cranked up the radio and engaged in foreplay, but did not have sex.
Shortly before 3 a.m., the woman declined a ride from Sharareh and his friend, saying she would walk to a friend's house nearby. The woman would later tell authorities that she broke Sharareh's nose while fending off his advances after being pushed into a stairwell after their tryst.
The video footage refuted that claim. "There was no indication that he was involved in any kind of a struggle," Wolcott said.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe said she is investigating whether the two shootings are somehow related; she declined to elaborate.
Contra Costa Newspapers
Jan. 27, 2001
PLEASANT HILL -- Sina Sharareh has made some sharp, unexpected turns in his life during the past 13 months.
Earlier this month, he made national headlines when he was shot in the buttocks at a Southern California bar by a vengeful husband who accused him of raping his wife.
And in December 1999, the 22-year-old Pleasant Hill man, whose attorney said he was working as a police informant, was shot through the neck at a downtown Walnut Creek parking garage.
"I've done a lot of growing up. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to show it," said Sharareh, who is using a pubic catheter and faces surgery to remove the 9 mm bullet still lodged under his testicles.
"People don't really know how luck runs. When you catch some bad luck, you can't say how long it will last. There's no limit to it. And I've been catching a lot of it lately."
Sharareh, a registered sex offender convicted previously of rape, is trying to recover from the bullet he took Jan. 4. Police say he was shot by Anthony Starita of Redondo Beach, who accused him of sexually assaulting his wife near a Hermosa Beach pub.
Though the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to file rape charges against him, Sharareh's troubles are far from over. His civil court case against Central County law enforcement agencies begins next week.
And doctors have been unable to tell him for certain of the long-term ramifications of carrying a bullet that bisected his colon and severed his urethra. He faces a round of multiple surgeries, but is confident of a full recovery.
"He sees himself as a celebrity," said Paul Peterson, an inspector for the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office. "To try and get the facts from him is impossible.
"He'll portray himself as someone who has been randomly shot twice and that he had no idea how it happened."
But Lisa Radcliffe, Sharareh's attorney, said: "To suggest that my client is enjoying his celebrity after having been shot twice is patently ridiculous. "Do you think my client, who has a colostomy bag, is enjoying this?"
The suit is the result of his alleged involvement as a Walnut Creek police informant when he was shot in the neck Dec. 24, 1999. Police say he was shot by Matt Anderson at a downtown Walnut Creek parking garage. Anderson was later shot and killed after trading gunfire with police.
Sharareh's most recent travails stem from an unusual shooting at Patrick Molloy's bar in Hermosa Beach that quickly attracted an avalanche of media attention.
Police say the husband, using a composite police sketch of the suspect in his wife's rape, waited for a man fitting that description to return to the Irish pub. When Sharareh entered the bar, Starita recognized him immediately.
Police say Starita, 32, shouted, "This is for my wife" before firing a single shot into Sharareh's buttocks while he was urinating in a men's room.
"I didn't really know what happened until the blood started to flow," said Sharareh, who believes Starita had carefully aimed the weapon before pulling the trigger.
"He knew what he was doing and where he was shooting."
Starita, who accused Sharareh of raping his wife in an alley near the bar Dec. 31, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He is free after posting $40,000 bail, police said.
On Jan. 5, in a sharp twist to the case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to file rape charges against Sharareh.
The case weakened significantly after prosecutors learned that the 26-year-old woman had admitted to investigators that the two had kissed in a parked car before the alleged attack.
"Her story is so far-fetched. I don't know if her jealous husband forced her to say things or whether she was scared," said Sharareh, whose friend captured on a video that he gave to police -- a passionate kiss between Sharareh and the wife.
Sharareh, who spent eight days at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles recovering from the gunshot wound, was never arrested on suspicion of rape.
"They couldn't prove that an actual crime had occurred," said Hermosa Beach police spokesman Paul Wolcott.
Nevertheless, the case drew national headlines, from the Los Angeles Times to the TV show "Inside Edition."
Sharareh said he made a trip to Southern California last month to visit relatives and hang out with friends, partly because of the stress of having been shot in Walnut Creek.
About 11 p.m. Dec. 30, he and a pal made their way toward Patrick Molloy's bar. They spotted the wife arguing on a cell phone.
Later, he approached the woman inside the bar. He asked whether she was OK.
"She commented that she had been fighting with her husband, who had beat her up," Sharareh said. "I told her not to worry about it."
After drinking and dancing, the two made their way out to a parked car, he said. They cranked up the radio and engaged in foreplay, but did not have sex.
Shortly before 3 a.m., the woman declined a ride from Sharareh and his friend, saying she would walk to a friend's house nearby. The woman would later tell authorities that she broke Sharareh's nose while fending off his advances after being pushed into a stairwell after their tryst.
The video footage refuted that claim. "There was no indication that he was involved in any kind of a struggle," Wolcott said.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe said she is investigating whether the two shootings are somehow related; she declined to elaborate.
posted by Corey at 3:12 PM
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