Local Briefs

PG&E first learned of the outage at 1:07 p.m. Initially almost 25,000 customers were in the dark, PG&E spokeswoman Melissa Mooney said.

Power was restored to the majority of customers by 2:58 p.m., Mooney said. The remaining 2,300 customers had power back on by around 3:30 p.m., she said.

Customers in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, northern Daly City and parts of Brisbane were affected, Mooney said.

PG&E is trying to establish whether the outage was related to a similar, widespread loss of power in the same area Thursday morning. In that outage around 32,000 PG&E customers lost power for around an hour, Mooney said. Some 2,000 of those customers remained in the dark for another 45 minutes.

Mooney said traffic lights were likely affected by the outage Friday.

The cause of the blackout is not the same as that on Thursday and appears to be some sort of equipment failure, she said.

Check cashers fight

off armed robbers

Two employees of a South San Francisco check cashing business fought off two men attempting to rob them at gunpoint as they closed the store for the night late Thursday, police reported Friday.

At about 9:45 p.m., the two workers, a man and a woman, were leaving J&J Check Cashing at 220 Cypress Ave. when two men whom police say might have been waiting for them outside the store assaulted them. One of the men was holding a revolver, police reported.

While the man brandishing the revolver forced the male employee inside the store, the other suspect pushed the female employee to the ground, according to police.

Inside the office, the male employee ran behind the teller's window, locked the door and pushed the alarm button, police reported.

Despite scraping her face on the ground, the female employee struggled with her attacker and "grabbed him in the groin area," police reported, before both suspects fled.

A witness reported seeing the two suspects walking toward a nearby 76 gas station at Grand Avenue and Airport Boulevard. The suspects were described only as black men, 18 to 30 years of age, according to police.

Police are unsure whether a woman seen waiting at the gas station with a blue sedan with the trunk open may have been connected with the attempted robbery.

Antique shop owner pleads

no contest to molestation

The 88-year old Menlo Park antique store owner accused of molesting a young girl and an undercover decoy in his store last summer pleaded no contest to count of lewd acts on a minor in return for no prison time.

Bela Joseph Demeter changed his plea Friday after prosecutors dropped five more counts of lewd acts on a minor more than 10 years his junior and two counts of battery.

On July 11, the Demeter Antiques Ltd. shop owner allegedly cornered a 14-year-old girl who was shopping alone in his store, and then kissed and groped her, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

The girl reported the incident to Menlo Park police, and a week later a decoy undercover officer was sent to Demeter's store, the District Attorney's Office reported. On two separate days, the female officer was also groped and kissed by Demeter, according to the District Attorney's Office.

He remains out of custody on $250,000 bail pending sentencing.

Former BBC member

faces probation violation

A day after Reza Eslaminia declined a court-appointed attorney and asked to be sent straight to prison for violating probation, the former Billionaire Boys Club member exonerated in his Belmont father's murder changed his mind and will have a hearing on the matter next month.

Eslaminia, 45, asked for an attorney at his May 7 probation violation conference and remains in custody. The alleged violation is Eslaminia's second since December 2005 when he received a suspended jail sentence and five years of probation for drug possession and driving on a suspended license in July 2002.

In 1987, Eslaminia was convicted in connection to the death of Hedayat Eslaminia, a 56-year-old former Iranian Cabinet member who fled to the United States reportedly with $30 million. The elder Eslaminia was kidnapped from his Belmont apartment in 1984 and suffocated in a steamer trunk while being driven to Southern California. Eslaminia was one of five men -- collectively labeled "The Billionaire Boys Club" -- charged in the alleged extortion and murder scheme. A federal court reversed Eslaminia's conviction and the case was dismissed in 1998.

Teen cuts deal in drug case

An 18-year-old girl arrested on drug charges after police reportedly discovered heroin and cocaine in her wallet and in her 10-year-old sister's sweatshirt during a routine traffic stop pleaded no contest to felony drug possession for sale and misdemeanor child endangerment.

Maria Guadalupe Miranda previously delayed a preliminary hearing while mulling an offer to avoid trial on two counts each of drug possession for sale, transporting drugs and child endangerment.

At approximately 5:30 p.m. March 23, a Redwood City police officer pulled Miranda over and reported she had only a Carlmont High School identification card. During a voluntary search of Miranda's wallet, the officer reportedly found two twists of cocaine and heroin. The officer also reported finding two ounces of heroin in the sweatshirt of Miranda's 10-year-old sister. The girl allegedly told police Miranda gave the drugs to her to hide. Miranda was to take the drugs to somebody at the Hillsdale Shopping Center to earn money for college, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Miranda's 6-year-old cousin was also in the vehicle.

Miranda returns to court June 28 for a probation report and sentencing. She is free from custody on a $25,000 bail bond.