Crime & Courts

Got an Glock or AK-47 hanging around your house, and you just don't want it anymore? The Compton Sheriff's Department might have the answer you've been waiting for. From City News Service:

A "Guns for Gifts" exchange will be held in Compton Dec. 5-6.
A $100 gift card from Best Buy, Ralphs or Target will be given for each gun surrendered, Sgt. Carmichael Octave of the sheriff's Compton Station said.
The biggest challenge to the program is to ensure residents understand "this is a completely anonymous process, where we will ask no questions of the person surrendering the firearm," Octave said.
The gun exchange will be conducted in the Ralphs parking lot at 280 E. Compton Blvd.

A man stumbled after getting off a Torrance Transit bus Thursday and was killed when he fell under its wheels, firefighters said.

Firefighters called the 4:30 p.m. death at Torrance and Crenshaw Boulevard the result of a freak accident.

Torrance fire Capt. Steve Deuel said witnesses said the man got off the westbound bus and walked into a pole or some other object on the sidewalk.

He stumbled backward as the bus was departing and fell into the traffic lane under its wheels.
The driver detected what had happened and stopped.

Firefighters pronounced the man dead at the scene. He was believed to be about 40 years old.

Torrance police traffic detectives were investigating the crash. Torrance Boulevard was closed for the investigation and for the coroner to arrive.

Here's the update on the burglar in Redondo Beach, according to police Sgt. Phil Keenan:

A business owner found the man inside his locked building in the 2000 block of Manhattan Beach Boulevard about 2 p.m. He chased the man out and called the police.

The man ran into the neighborhood between Aviation Boulevard and Warfield Avenue when police officers arrived.

Seventeen police officers from Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach surrounded the area adn searched with aid of police dogs and a Los Angeles police helicopter.

About 2:40 p.m., the man emerged and was spotted on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. He had slightly changed his clothes.

Officers arrested him on suspicion of burglary.

They are now working to figure out what his name is.

I'm pretty sure that's what this no-nonsense cop would say, since he seems just so intent on getting the job done - despite a fuzzy, sharp-clawed distraction. This one is courtesy of our pals over the South Bay Pets blog.

If you wondered what the helicopter was doing flying over Manhattan Beach and Aviation boulevards this afternoon, police were looking for a burglar.

They caught him.

I'll have more info in a little bit when more becomes available.

Just got word that a federal judge declared a mistrial in the insurance fraud case against Lawrence Saks, a former plastic surgeon who practiced in Torrance and San Pedro. No details yet, but check later for a story on dailybreeze.com.

Here's one for the stupid criminals file:

The Los Angeles Police Department just issued an advisory to the media that officers have discovered a marijuana growing site -- at a home 25 feet from the back door of the Topanga police station in Canoga Park.

Police officers served a search warrant about 3 p.m. at an address right behind the station.

Officers started their investigation a week ago, when officers smelled marijuana from the parking lot of the police station.

No word yet on arrests. More when we get it.

From City News Service:

A state appeals court panel upheld a former Carson resident's conviction for murdering his ex-wife's boyfriend in Downey more than four years ago.

In a 13-page ruling released this week, a three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Jeffrey Denard Lewis' claim that errors were made in his Norwalk Superior Court trial.

Lewis was convicted in February 2008 of first-degree murder in the May 21, 2005, slaying of Da Shun Stafford.

Jurors found true the special circumstance allegation that Lewis was lying in wait before the attack.

Lewis -- who unsuccessfully tried to reconcile with his ex-wife -- was wearing a wig and carrying a loaded handgun when he shot Stafford four times, hit him in the head with the gun and stomped on his head.

The defendant is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole.

Jurors in the Lawrence Saks insurance fraud trial sent a note to a judge on Wednesday indicating that they are deadlocked on all 16 counts, according to a court clerk.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California jury will return to court Thursday. It is expected Judge Consuelo Marshall will speak to them and they will continue their discussions, the clerk added.

The jury has deliberated about two days on the charges.

The Rolling Hills resident, who practiced plastic surgery in Torrance and San Pedro, is accused of double-billing insurance companies on four procedures.

He claims the procedures were medically necessary and the documents he filed were accurate.

                                                                         Hermosa Beach lawyer Albro L. Lundy III was honored as the Consumer Attorney's of California Trial Lawyer of the Year for an $11.6 million jury verdict he won on behalf of an elderly Rancho Palos Verdes resident who was seriously injured on a rural highway.

From a press release issued by Lundy:

Lundy, a partner in Hermosa Beach law firm Baker, Burton & Lundy,  received the award November 14 at the 48th Annual Awards Dinner of the Consumer Attorneys of California held at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Francisco.  The Consumer Attorney's award is given annually to a case that demonstrates how the civil justice system works to provide justice for victims, change behavior, remove dangerous products or conditions and hold wrong doers accountable.  

 

The Schmidt v. Caltrans case is a perfect example of how consumer attorneys help create a safer society. The case involved a single car automobile accident that occurred on the night of January 16, 2006. The accident occurred in the high desert at the T-intersection of Hwy 62 and Hwy 177 in a rural northeast corner of Riverside County. Rancho Palos Verdes Resident Clete Schmidt, age 77, was on his way to Lake Havasu when he was unable to see a stop sign in time to stop, thus crashing into a five-foot stoney embankment just beyond the T-intersection and crushing his Ford Crown Victoria. The accident placed Clete in intensive care for two months where he nearly died on several occasions. The impact left him a  ventilator dependent quadriplegic. 

As a result of an extensive discovery campaign by Albro and his team, evidence was discovered which demonstrated that the roadway was unsafe. Photographs were found hidden away in the Sacramento storage vault, verifying that rumble strips made out of Botts Dots had existed at the approach to the intersection 30 years ago. Caltrans knew the rumble strips were an important warning system approaching a stop sign in the desert and had even replaced them at least once in the 1990's. The Caltrans photographs documented the lack of maintenance. It was additionally discovered that a large double arrow "End of the Road" sign had originally existed and but disappeared and was not replaced.

Clete's injuries left him in a precarious condition and the slightest thing, even a cold, is life threatening. The jury verdict of $11.6 million dollars not only provided for Schmidt's medical costs, but also motivation for Caltrans to change its roadways.  Filing this case first resulted in a new "End of the Road" sign being put up at that intersection and the verdict triggered a review of all similar rural T-intersections throughout the whole state of California. In the 21 months before this case was filed, eight serious accidents occurred at this intersection. After the replacement of the End of the Road sign, no accidents had occurred in the 18 months up to the time of trial.

This case was highly rewarding for Lundy in a very personal way.  At age 11, Lundy lost his father in the Vietnam conflict in 1970. He was embraced by the Schmidt family following this tragic loss and Clete Schmidt became Lundy's surrogate father. Schmidt was actually the best man at Lundy's wedding.  Clete's comment after the trial was fitting. He stated haltingly "I took care . . . of him, and . . . now he took . . . care of me."   Winning the 2009 Trial Attorney of the year award further validates the impact of this case.