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Man critically injured in high-speed crash A 23-year-old Santa Barbara man remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital on Tuesday after his speeding car went off Highway 101 and hit a tree near Las Positas Road on Christmas night. The crash impact split his 1987 Nissan Sentra in half and severed his right leg.

California Highway Patrol officers said Byron Williams was estimated by witnesses to be driving 100 mph when he attempted to change lanes and lost control of his vehicle, striking the rear of a 2004 Dodge Intrepid also in a southbound lane. In addition to severing his leg below the knee, Williams suffered head and internal injuries in the 7:50 p.m. crash, officers said.

The Dodge, driven by Michael Watts, 57, of Wichita, Kan., spun out and came to rest on the right shoulder. Watts, who had just flown into Santa Barbara to visit his son, was uninjured.

Santa Barbara city firefighters helped extricate Williams from the Nissan. He is likely to face reckless driving charges, CHP officers said. — S.C.

Victim identified in fall from cliffs The victim of a Dec. 21 fall from a cliff at the Douglas Preserve has been identified as Kerri Lynn Becke of Santa Barbara.

Becke, 35, the mother of two, was with her boyfriend at the oceanside park before the 8 p.m. fall, according to police. The unidentified boyfriend was questioned but was not in custody for the incident, police Lt. Doug Kresky reported. The boyfriend was taken into custody for an unrelated warrant, Kresky said.

Emergency crews found Becke at the foot of the 70-foot cliff and transported her to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Detectives were continuing to investigate the cause of the fall. — S.C.

Christmas storm pounds area; other skips out to sea Christmas dinners and new presents were put on hold as a Christmas Day storm blustered through the South Coast, with rains and high winds that brought power outages ranging from brief blips to hours-long darkness to 5,000 customers from Goleta to Carpinteria.

Meanwhile, a second major storm that was forecast to strike the area with wind and rain Monday night unexpectedly skirted the area, bringing only light showers even as residents began loading up on sandbags.

The Dec. 25 storm, the first Christmas Day rain here in two decades according to the National Weather Service, brought 1.37 inches at the official Santa Barbara downtown measuring station at El Estero Wastewater Treatment Plant. That was on top of .31 inch measured Christmas Eve.

Power outages were reported throughout the foothills and areas of Goleta, including San Marcos Trout Club, the 1100 block of Via del Rey; the 1400 block of Holiday Hill Road; Camino Palomera, Camino Cerralvo and Camino Rioverde in the Rancho del Ciervo area; and along Cambridge Drive, said county fire Capt. Charlie Johnson, a department spokesman.

Some areas that lost power Christmas afternoon did not get it back until Friday morning.

Six circuits from Goleta to Carpinteria were affected, all wind- and rain-related, said an Edison spokeswoman.

Branches were also down throughout the area as winds gusted to 50 mph. — S.C.

Jackson claims jailhouse injury Pop star Michael Jackson has added charges of being injured, manhandled and humiliated in his November booking at the County Jail along with

protestations of innocence of child molestation charges filed by county officials.

In a taped interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS-TV show, 60 Minutes, the Santa Ynez Valley resident claimed he was in constant pain from a dislocated shoulder suffered at the time of his arrest, and his right wrist was bruised by handcuffs put on him by sheriff’s deputies. He also said he was locked 45 minutes in a bathroom smeared with feces.

Local officials strongly denied Jackson’s latest allegations.

“Mr. Jackson was treated with courtesy and professionalism throughout the process,’’ according to a Sheriff’s Department statement on District Attorney Tom Sneddon’s Web site.

“At no time was he mishandled or subjected to any form of mistreatment.’’

Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Pappas, a department spokesman, also said the booking process took 30 to 45 minutes. Jackson’s attorney, Mark Geragos, was “complimentary’’ about the way the arrest was handled, Sneddon’s office added.

No formal complaint of mistreatment has been lodged, Pappas said. — S.C.

Firefighter, search dog dig through Paso Robles rubble One earthquake a week was enough for Santa Barbara County firefighter Howard Orr and his search dog, Duke.

Early last week, Orr and Duke were called to search the rubble in downtown Paso Robles after a 6.5 earthquake struck nearby.

When a magnitude 6.6 quake struck Bam, Iran, on Friday, Orr and Duke, a 6-year-old chocolate Labrador, were summoned to join a Los Angeles task force to fly to Iran. Minutes before their military aircraft was scheduled to take off from March Air Force Base on Saturday, the flight was put on hold.

Buildings had totally collapsed in rubble and earth and there were “no voids where live bodies were being found,’’ Johnson said.

At least 25,000 people are believed to have died in Bam, a historic city in southeastern Iran.

Two women died in Paso Robles. Aftershocks were continuing this week.

Orr, an engineer-paramedic at Station 11 in Goleta, was expected to return Sunday night. — S.C.

Two arrested in burglary of auto A Ventura man and his female companion were arrested late Monday near Summerland after Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies found them with items stolen from an auto break-in at Rincon Beach Park earlier in the day.

Louis Kelly Kimes, 41, and Diann Renee Elliott, 34, were both booked into county jail on charges of burglary, officers said. Bail for each was set at $10,000.

The victim of the early morning break-in flagged down a deputy on patrol and provided a description of the vehicle, a red, lowered Dually pickup truck, occupied by two people.

A description of the truck was broadcast and a deputy later spotted it in the Loon Point parking lot. All the stolen property was recovered except for a small amount of cash, officers said.

Kimes was also charged with possession of burglary tools and possession of narcotics paraphernalia.

Elliott, who initially gave officers a false name, was found to have a no-bail warrant issued by the Department of Corrections. Elliott, who goes by many other aliases, according to deputies, was booked on the warrant and on a charge of providing false information to peace officers. — S.C.