Castaways Bar Fights Make Busy Saturday for Sheriff's Deputies

Multiple skirmishes at The Castaways bar on Portola Drive early Saturday morning resulted in plenty of activity for the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department.

At 12:36 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the Live Oak bar after they got word that a fight had broken out. They were told that the suspect had left in a white pick-up truck, Sheriff's deputy April Skalland told Capitola-Soquel Patch. 

"Shortly after the deputies left, the bar called back and said there was another fight in which one of the bouncers was punched. So they went back to the bar and talked to the victim," Skalland said.

In the time of the deputies' absence, a man, who Skalland said "caused several problems for the bouncer throughout the night," punched the bouncer in the left side of the face. Starting at 9:30 p.m., the man was denied entrance to the bar for lack of an identification card. He was able to sneak into the back door, and later punched the bouncer in the face. Simultaneously, another man struck the bouncer in the back of the head, Skalland said. 

The bar owner identified one man as Alex Xavier Magallanes, 28, of Santa Cruz, who Skalland said was recognized as a customer for two or three years. The other man, Gregory Josheph Gomez, 27, of Watsonville, was identified on site through the owner's Facebook account. 

"Deputies also got video surveillance of the fight and requested a warrant for both of these guys for battery," Skalland said. 

Meanwhile, officers and deputies in town were on the lookout for the white pick-up truck that fled the scene of the first fight at The Castaways. 

At 12:52 a.m., a deputy was driving on 38th Avenue near Avis Way, just a block from the bar, when According to Skalland, he spotted a white truck turning right.

"So he believed the truck might have been involved in the incident at the bar and he pulled over the truck," Skalland said. "When the deputy walked toward the truck, it starting moving forward. The deputy ran back to his vehicle and the truck continued at 25-30 miles per hour down 38th Avenue. After about 100 yards he pulled over at 38th and Bramble Lane."

Once the truck was at a stop, the deputy could see the driver shuffling items in the cab of the vehicle. The man reached his hand out the window and dropped a small piece of pastic, Skalland said. When he finally complied with the deputy and exited the car, he was arrested and identified as Gary Theodore Brich, 46, of Santa Cruz.

"Once we was detained they found he was on probation and saw a bag with white crystalline matter on the ground," Skalland said.

By searching the vehicle, the deputy also uncovered 2.95 grams of methamphetamine, capsules, unmarked pill bottles, methadone pills, syringes, marijuana and a spring-loaded brass device that Skalland said "burglars use to break car windows."

Brich was arrested on possesssion of a controlled substance, possession of a hypodermic needle, probation violation, and flight from a pursuing police officer.

As it turns out, Brich and his white pick-up truck were actually not the same one seen fleeing from The Castaways minutes earlier.

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