Local Briefs

A man who struck a parked vehicle with his own car in San Mateo Wednesday night had to be assisted in being removed from the "significantly damaged" car, a fire spokesman said.

San Mateo Fire Battalion Chief John Healy said the driver, who may have been intoxicated, was driving on 13th Avenue at B Street just before 10 p.m. when he collided with the parked car.

The struck vehicle was totaled and the driver's car had severe damage, Healy said. The driver was semi-conscious when medical assistance arrived and they had to take precautions while removing him.

Healy said the man was taken to Stanford Hospital for treatment and will be tested for alcohol and drugs.

No one was inside the parked car at the time of the accident.

Driver pleads not

guilty to attempted murder

A female motorist accused of intentionally hitting and dragging a woman in a Redwood City parking lot after the pair argued will stand trial for attempted murder in March.

Gail Nora Mason, 53, facing trial on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon and an allegation she caused great bodily injury. She pleaded not guilty and was ordered back to court March 2 for a pretrial conference and March 23 for jury trial.

Mason turned herself into Redwood City police Sept. 2, the day after the alleged altercation. Mason and another woman, both transients, already knew each other and ran into one another in the parking lot across from discount retailer Big Lots. The pair argued over the victim's boyfriend, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Angry, the victim reportedly broke the side mirror on Mason's van. Mason, according to prosecutors, drove the van directly at the woman who was standing in a curbed planter with her back to the vehicle. The van struck the woman, dragging her several feet before Mason reportedly fled. The victim sustained compressed vertebrae and serious lacerations.

Mason remains in custody on no-bail status.

Home invasion rape

suspect gets March trial

A 36-year-old man accused of brutally raping a 57-year-old Daly City woman at knifepoint and scrubbing her down in the shower in an attempt to destroy genetic evidence will stand trial on numerous felonies in March.

Burgess Raymond Crosby Jr. has pleaded not guilty and was ordered to stand trial March 30.

The charges of rape and forced oral copulation alleged during a residential burglary make Burgess eligible for the state's one-strike life in prison term if convicted.

The burglary and rape took place on Aug. 26, 2007, but Crosby wasn't identified until the state's criminal DNA database matched seminal fluid from the victim to his genetic profile collected after a 2001 conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse.

At 5 a.m. Aug. 26, the woman awoke to a masked man in her apartment. He reportedly held a knife to her throat, tied her up and covered her face with duct tape. After a brutal sexual assault, Burgess allegedly dragged her to the shower and forcibly washed her body with soap.

Burgess remains in custody on no-bail status.