Larry Altman: February 2012 Archives

A teenage boy and his girlfriend were shot to death Sunday evening as they walked in Wilmington, police said.

Meldrick A. Melgoza and Carolina Ramirez were both 16, the coroner's office reported.

The teens were shot as they walked on F Street at Bay View Avenue at 7:10 p.m.

The teens died at the scene.

Harbor Area Councilman Joe Buscaino said family members stood nearby as police investigated.

"It's disheartening, disgusting and just uncalled for," Buscaino said.

The homicides are the seventh and eighth to occur since Jan. 1 in Wilmington, where police have called in extra resources to battle the problem.

Police said the crime did not appear to be gang-related.

A male and female, possibly in their teens, were shot to death Sunday evening in Wilmington, police said.

The victims were shot shortly after 7 p.m. as they walked on F Street near Bay View Avenue, Los Angeles police Capt. William Hayes said.

It was unknown if the crime was gang related.

No other information was immediately available.

Police are searching a Gardena neighborhood for three men suspected of robbing a shoe store in Hawthorne.

The robbery at Millenium Shoes, 14304 Hawthorne Blvd. occurred about 10:15 a.m. when three men entered and robbed employees at gunpoint, Hawthorne police Lt. Scott Swain said.

A Hawthorne officer spotted the robbers getaway car a short distance away, followed it and tried to pull it over at El Segundo and Crenshaw boulevards.

The car stopped in the 2900 block of El Segundo Boulevard. Three men ran.
The female driver remained in the car and was arrested.

Police surrounded the area bounded by Van Ness Avenue, Crenshaw and El Segundo boulevard and 132nd Street.

Purche Avenue School was locked down.

Officers from several South Bay departments are searching for the men. They are using 13 police dogs, Swain said.

Administrators at Purche school were planning to release students to parents in a staggered schedule at 2:30 p.m.

A man riding a motorcycle with flashing lights and wearing a tan and green outfit posed as a sheriff's deputy Tuesday morning and pulled a motorist over in Lawndale, deputies said.

The 35- to 40-year-old white man flashed blue and red lights and pulled a driver over near 147th Street and Inglewood Avenue. He was wearing a tan uniform shirt and green pants similar to those worn by sheriff's deputies.

His badge, however, appeared to be a fake.

"When the motorist asked the man what sheriff's station he was assigned to, the individual remounted his motorcycle and rapidly sped off," sheriff's Lt. Jeff Adams said.

Deputies asked anyone with any information about the man to call South Los Angeles station detectives at 323-820-6700.

Deputies advised motorists being pulled over to:

• Stop in well-lighted areas that can be easily seen by the general public;
• Ask the officer or deputy to identify himself with an identification card.
• Note unusual or odd uniform markings.
• Be aware of any strange requests or personal 

The Lunada Bay Little League is offering a $500 reward for information that can lead police to burglars who broke into its storage facility and snack shack in Palos Verdes Estates.

The thieves took an all-terrain vehicle used for field maintenance, and electronics including game recording and surveillance camera equipment, police and league officials said.

The burglary occurred Saturday night at the league's facility in the 2000 block of Palos Verdes Drive West.

Thieves pried open doors with crowbars. Property loss and damage was estimated to be $10,000.

The league asked anyone with information to contact league president Steve Gherardi at 310-377-0840 or the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department at 310-378-4211.
Gherardi also can be contacted at sgherardi@hotmail.com.

An elderly driver lost control of his car today and crashed into a Carson restaurant, injuring a diner, police said.

The man was entering the driveway of the Las Palmas Cafe at 23909 S. Avalon Blvd. at 11:35 a.m. when he lost control and drove into the structure, Carson sheriff's Lt. Scott Gage said.

A woman eating inside the Mexican restaurant suffered minor injuries.

She and the driver were taken to hospitals for treatment.

A San Pedro gang member has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for possessing an assault rifle, prosecutors said Thursday.

Joseph Giacco, a member of the Rancho San Pedro gang, was sentenced Wednesday in Long Beach court after he entered a no contest plea to weapons possession, Los Angeles City Attorney's Office spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

The charge stemmed from Dec. 30 when Harbor Division police officers searched Giacco's San Pedro home. Giacco, 24, was on parole for narcotics and firearms charges.

Officers found an AR-15 assault rifle behind a refrigerator and covered by a t-shirt in a rear garage, Mateljan said.

The assault rifle was illegal to possess in California.

Three reputed gang members have been charged in a crackdown on gangs in the Harbor Area, prosecutors said Thursday.

Bruno Pineda, a reputed Rancho San Pedro street gang member, faces one count of receiving stolen property and 10 counts of forgery, Los Angeles City Attorney's Office spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

Pineda, 20, of San Pedro allegedly deposited 10 checks he received from his sister into an account at his bank in July. The checks, ranging in amounts from $100 to $230 and totaling $1,615, were stolen from a storage area burglarized earlier that month, Mateljan said.

Wendy Lizeth Nunez, a reputed member of Westside Wilmas gang, has been charged with one count of making criminal threats and one count of petty theft.

Mateljan said Nunez, 23, confronted a minor while walking to Banning High School in Wilmington in October. The defendant allegedly demanded the victim's cell phone and pretended to have a gun under her sweatshirt.

Andre Jeremiah Merced, 18, of San Pedro was charged with four counts of burglary from a motor vehicle, two counts of tampering with a vehicle and one count of vandalism.

Prosecutors allege he and two teenagers vandalized a number of cars in San Pedro and Rancho Palos Verdes on Jan 5 and 6, Mateljan said.

Pineda, Nunez and Merced all face additional gang allegations. They are scheduled for arraignment Feb. 22 in Long Beach.

A Mira Costa High School student has been arrested on suspicion of making threats against classmates and staff at the Manhattan Beach campus, police said Wednesday.

The 16-year-old boy was taken into custody at his Manhattan Beach home Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats and possession of marijuana for sales on Wednesday, Manhattan Beach police Officer Stephanie Martin said.

Detectives made the arrest after receiving a tip that he teen "made threatening statements towards students and school staff at Mira Costa High School," Martin said.

The specifics of the threats were under investigation.

"It's still early," Martin said. "None of the victims involved were directly threatened. They were indirect threats. Everybody who was affected by it was notified and has been contacted."

The motive behind the threats also was not immediately known. Martin said no one was in imminent danger.

No search of the campus was necessary, Martin said.

Police searched the student's home, but information on what, if anything, was recovered was not available.

In a letter sent Wednesday to parents, Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Michael Matthews said school officials were working closely with police and that the student would be suspended and recommended for expulsion.

"As you know, we live in a time where threats of any kind must be taken very seriously," Matthews said.

Trial continued today in Torrance Superior Court for Sylvester Rawls, accused of sexually assaulting a student in the restroom at Redondo Union High School in 2003.

I stopped by to check on things, but didn't stay for a story. An investigator told me they are going through a number of prosecution witnesses providing testimony about DNA. I'll check back tomorrow to see how things are progressing.

About 60 Wilmington residents joined Harbor Division Capt. William Hayes and Councilman Joe Buscaino on a unity walk Monday night along L Street to show solidarity against recent violence in the area. Another walk is set for Wednesday.

This video was made by Branimir Kvartuc, Buscaino's communications director.

*Update: This gentleman was found in Long Beach and was returned to his family.

Detectives are seeking the public's help to find a missing elderly Carson man.

Luis Martinez was last seen at 1 p.m. Monday leaving his home in the 200 block of East 211^th Street. He suffers from Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure.

Martinez is Latino, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 160 pounds. He speaks Spanish only and is missing his two lower front teeth.

He was last seen wearing a long sleeve black and brown shirt and brown pants.

Anyone with information should call their local police department or the missing persons unit at the Sheriff's Department's homicide bureau at 323-890-5500.

A woman was found dead Monday at the base of a radio tower in the unincorporated Rancho Dominguez area, deputies said.

The discovery was made about 4:30 p.m. in the 2200 block of University Drive, just east of the Carson borderline at Wilmington Avenue.

The cause of death was not immediately known.

Homicide investigators were responding.

The U.S. Attorney's Office sent this press release over just a few minutes ago:

CALIFORNIA SEAFOOD CORPORATION SENTENCED TO PAY $1 MILLION FOR FALSE LABELING OF SEAFOOD PRODUCTS

LOS ANGELES - Seafood Solutions Inc., a Torrance-based corporation, was sentenced today to pay $1 million in fines and community service payments for its role in the false labeling of frozen fish fillets.

The corporation was fined $700,000 and ordered to make a community service donation of $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The money is to be used to fund projects related to methodologies, databases and other research into the identification of marine organisms. In addition, the company was sentenced to three years of probation, was ordered to forfeit all remaining inventory of the falsely labeled fish and to develop and implement a corporate compliance plan.

The sentence stemmed from the conviction of Seafood Solutions on July 25, 2011, on a single count of trafficking in fish knowing that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the U.S. Lacey Act. Specifically, the fish was Pangasius hypophthalmus, a species in the catfish family that were misleadingly labeled as "Paradise Grouper" and "Falcon Baie Grouper." Seafood Solutions was one of three defendants named in the same charging document. Co-defendants Chau-Shing (Duke) Lin, and Christopher Ragone also entered guilty pleas on July 25, 2011, according to plea agreements.

Duke Lin, 64, of Rancho Palos Verdes, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in fish when in the exercise of due care he should have known that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the Lacey Act. Duke Lin also pleaded guilty to one count of misbranding food. Christopher Ragone, 50, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty to two counts of misbranding food. Lin and Ragone are scheduled to be sentenced on February 13.

According to the plea agreements, in approximately June 2004, Seafood Solutions began to sell a fish it declared to customs as "ponga." The fish being imported as ponga was Pangasius hypophthalmus, a species in the catfish family. The fish was then sold under the brand names, and in boxes labeled in part as, "Paradise Grouper" and "Falcon Baie Grouper."

Between July 2005 and February 2006, a wholesale distributor that had purchased this product returned approximately $411,194 worth of the product labeled as "Paradise Grouper" and "ponga" or "Falcon Baie Grouper" and "ponga" because the wholesale distributor's customer mistakenly believed that the fish product was grouper. Seafood Solutions agreed to be invoiced for and received the returned product, knowing that it had been inaccurately labeled. Defendants Lin, Ragone and Seafood Solutions knowingly again sold and transported the fish in interstate commerce even after its return from the customer, knowing that it was misleadingly labeled. From February 2006 to April 2006, Defendant Ragone sold approximately $2 million worth of Pangasius fillets knowing that the product bore the "Paradise Grouper" and "ponga" labels and was thus misleadingly labeled.

The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Law Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

The local contact on this matter is Assistant United States Attorney Joseph O. Johns, chief of the Environment Crimes Section in the U.S. Attorney's Office, (213) 894-4536.

Nancy Aguilar of Wilmington sent this to me early Wednesday:

Here I am unable to sleep for the second night due to all this craziness.

I had put a little story on Facebook regarding this. I couldn't just sit there and not have an opinion of my own little town.

See, growing up here you have three things that keeps Wilmington in the news.

1) The Port
2) The Refineries
3) The violence

I've always said that our town needs to be funded to have more activities. It's sad to say our community is not as involved and our Mayor is never present. Things were quiet and all of sudden since this girl's death things are popping up.

I prayed heavily last night because this little town is all we're left to, so thank you for answering them and letting me know more will be done.

Our town never had like a town meeting and I wouldn't even know where to start but I do believe we all need to come together and do more besides being on the map for the 3 main things I told you about.

Ashley Camacho sent this email about what she thinks needs to happen in Wilmington:

I think that Wilmington should do the same think that Redondo Beach did in 1995 with the Redondo Beach Project. They basically set in place an injunction on everyone and didn't allow them to enter a 24 block radius. RBPD enforced this to the fullest. Along with the RB citizens Redondo is now a great place to live. I think that Harbor Division should make a much stronger version of this.

Wilmington has the potential to be more. We need to nurture our youth, instill a confidence that allows them to do right by themselves and others, If we instill this in the formative years there will be no need to worry when adults because the foundation had been place.

My heart breaks watching these young boys self destruct, following a path paved by lost hopes and dreams. My little brother-in-law is serving a few months for weapon charges. When you ask him why he carried a semi automatic, he with cold eyes will reply, "For protection. Watching my dad and brother get shot in front of my house would change anyone and I am no different. If no one will protect me then I will."

Now how is this right. His dreams shattered because of our failures; our community's failures. His childhood gone; washed away with each blood soaked block.

Wilmington is covered corner to corner with candles, crosses and carnations. The constant reminder of death. Mobs of photographed tee's baring the names of loved ones lost. Friends losing their brothers and sister, children losing their parents and mothers placing their children in plots intended for themselves.

And this is Life in Wilmington....not a life to live....

All greatness overshadowed. What beauty this city carries is fading with each article printed in the crime section.

Time to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and take back their city. The blood shed needs to stop. Police need to enforce laws and stop this war among the children.

Police cited 13 people who agreed to buy alcohol for a minor during a "shoulder tap" sting operation last week in three South Bay cities.

Officers said the minors, working undercover for police, stood outside stores in El Segundo, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach on Jan. 27 and asked 232 adults to buy alcohol for them.

Of those adults, seven bought alcohol in Manhattan Beach, two made a purchase in Hermosa Beach and four did so in El Segundo, Manhattan Beach police Sgt. Chris Vargas said.

They were cited for furnishing alcohol to minors.

Police and state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents conducted the sting in an effort to reduce alcohol sales to minors.