Arraignment put off in molestation case The...

Arraignment put off in molestation case

The arraignment for a Newport Beach man charged with child

annoyance after he allegedly engaged in “intimate physical contact”

with a 15-year-old girl, has been postponed, according to the Orange

County district attorney’s office.

Thomas Konnerth MacFarlane, 48, a former music teacher and chorale

instructor at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach, was arrested Aug. 26.

MacFarlane allegedly had inappropriate contact with the child on

several occasions at the temple, in MacFarlane’s Newport Beach home,

and in Aliso Viejo, police said.

According to a spokesperson for Temple Bat Yahm, MacFarlane had

not been associated with the temple since May.

MacFarlane is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 24 in Harbor Court in

Newport Beach.

Newport officials hold disaster drill

Officials from the city of Newport Beach held a disaster drill

Thursday, responding to a simulated, intentionally set brush fire.

Representatives from all city departments, including police, fire,

public works and recreation, converged in the city’s designated

Emergency Operations Center at the police department to devise a plan

for handling the disaster.

The city holds the drill every year, creating a different disaster

scenario each time.