October 2007 Archives

The story of indicted Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona snowballs. The OC Weekly carries a story with the above photo of Carona in a Newport Beach bar with convicted felon Rick Rizzolo, a Chicago Mafia associate. In his story, R. Scott Moxley says this:

Pictures speak volumes, and they can raise questions—like what the hell was Sheriff Mike Carona thinking when he posed for a photo with Rick Rizzolo, a man the FBI calls a mob associate?

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona who was charged in a federal corruption case pauses before answering a question during a private interview at the Orange County Sheriff's headquarters in Santa Ana on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Carona was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering in a wide-ranging indictment unsealed Tuesday that also implicates his wife, his "longtime mistress" and two former assistant sheriffs. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The Times follows up on the unfolding scandal involving Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, whom TV personality Larry King once dubbed, "America's Sheriff."

Court documents describe a furious pursuit of money, perquisites and expensive baubles, including more than $200,000 in payments and loans, a boat, a Lake Tahoe vacation, luxury box seats to the World Series, Mont Blanc pens and Ladies' Cartier watches. Carona, 52, is also accused of helping co-conspirators get a piece of a wrongful-death settlement that the family of a dead deputy won in a lawsuit.

latimes.com
Earlier

A story I wrote about a mural that recently went up in Reseda has created quite a stir. Or I should say, the mural itself has created quite a stir, and I simply wrote about it.

Graffiti expert calls in to complain
Before I ask you to read it, I want you to know that I received several calls on the piece from various people, including Cheryl Onaitis, who's quoted in the story. Onaitis is the program manager for West Valley Alliance, a nonprofit graffiti-removing organization. Ms. Onaitis was very helpful and a pleasure to talk to.

However, she called to dispute a quote attributed to her. In the story, a woman contacted Onaitis, complaining about the mural. After asking if she can call police because the woman thought the mural was an eyesore, the story quotes Onaitis as saying: "No, you can't," Onaitis responded. "Unless it says `kill children' or something derogatory or racist."

I can only say that I have the quote in my notes and it's solid. She said it.
However, Onaitis left me a message today strongly saying she would never tell a constituent that they can't call police. Never.

It appears what she literally said to me in the phone interview and what she meant to say (based on her message to me today) are not exactly the same. I never thought that the quote meant the woman absolutely could not call police, but that doing so in this instance wouldn't necessarily lead anywhere. We can all call police whenever we want, after all.

Still, out of fairness to Ms. Onaitis, I wanted to mention it here. She's somebody trying to do a vital job and it certainly wasn't my intention to slight that effort.

Now, about the story. Here it is.

See video here.

The Times today broke the story of the federal indictment lodged against Orange County's top cop, Sheriff Michael Carona, accused of misusing his office for financial gain.

His one-time friend, former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, has already pleaded guilty and has admitted to collecting as much as $45,000 in cash and gifts and hiding the money by not reporting it on his income tax statements.

Here's more:

As part of the plea agreement, Jaramillo is cooperating with prosecutors in the Carona investigation.

"He has cooperated in the past, has cooperated while in jail and will continue to cooperate in the future," Jaramillo's attorney, Robert Z. Corrado said.

Jaramillo is serving a 12-month sentence on state charges in a pay-to- stay facility in Montebello and is expected to be released next month.

Federal investigators "were asking questions about Carona's activities since he was elected sheriff," Corrado said. Investigators asked Jaramillo specifically about "gifts and monies" Carona had received.

Jaramillo and federal prosecutors reached the plea agreement months ago, but it was sealed while investigators continued to pursue the case against Carona and is expected to be made public at an arraignment today.

Carona's longtime political advisor and attorney, Michael Schroeder, said that federal authorities had not questioned the sheriff or officially informed him he was a target of an investigation. The sheriff did not respond to a request for an interview.

An indictment would mark a spectacular fall for the 52-year-old sheriff, who only five years ago was seen as a rising star in California Republican politics. Since then, there have been attacks on his character and calls for his resignation, but he was narrowly reelected to a third term in 2006.

The full scope of the federal investigation remains unknown, but one apparent focus is a scheme outlined in Jaramillo's plea agreement.

The 30-page plea agreement describes Jaramillo's involvement with individuals identified as "M.C." and "D.H." Corrado said the initials stand for Carona and former Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl.

The agreement says that beginning in late 1998 or early 1999, Haidl arranged for Jaramillo and Carona to be appointed to the boards of directors of several companies that paid them compensation or honoraria.

latimes.com dailynews.com

You can see the Sheriff's Web site by clicking here, but it appears somebody's taken down Carona's bio.

The second highest ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in Riverside County was captured in Mexico. Tony Gonzales Rodriguez was arrested by Mexican officials in Baja California and turned over to U.S. authorities on Saturday. The 37-year-old man was indicted earlier this year on federal drugs charges. Eme directs gang violence and methamphetamine and weapons deals in Coachella Valley, the feds say.

Eme has recently been the focus of a new book, "Mexican Mafia," by our compadre, Tony Rafael, who peeled back the layers of the entrenched and secret prison gang by looking at the work of a veteran prosecutor who took several of the Eme associates head on in court. Rafael also writes under the nome de plume of Wally Fay at his blog, In the Hat.

The Times today has an interesting story out of Compton. A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang task force in place there has helped push down the gang crime rate over the last two years. Deputies report 29 slayings so far this year, the lowest in 20 years. Gang violence has been falling in Compton for nearly two years, since Sheriff Lee Baca assigned a special team to tackle the problem. There were 65 homicides there in 2005. The sheriff’s task force has been confronting suspected gang members and searching them and their homes for guns. latimes.com

Not a Russian Woodpecker

One of the exciting things about working at a newspaper is that people frequently call, write, e-mail and, sometimes, fax in their theories about why certain things went down. For many years, I believed that my office number was handed out at conspiracy theorist clubs and their members were instructed to deluge me with calls about the real root causes of nefarious social problems such as high gasoline problems and Spanish language signs in the local CVS.

Now that the wildfires have calmed down a bit, I'll share this one that came over the fax machine the other day, courtesy of a Mr. Zuckerman from New Jersey. How he got our fax number, I'll never know, but here's what he had to say:

Dear Editor:

Instead of confronting this root cause of the wacky weather patterns, people generally assume it is from the combustion of fossil fuel. The inventions of Nikola Tesla have been used by evil governments, including our own federal government in project H.A.A.R.P.! The sue of these devices are detrimental to our environment and health. We need to curb the "Russian Woodpecker" pulses and Project H.A.A.R.P.!
[Name, address and phone number withheld]

Wait till Gov. Schwarzenegger hears about this one! Sounds like a job for Col. John Matrix, who'd clearly be the one to stop this evil pecking once and for all!

Col. John Matrix

As is often the case with letters like this, there are some elements of fact to Mr. Zuckerman's claim. "The Russian Woodpecker" is -- or was -- a real technology, but it looks like it was a big radar instead of Tesla's rumored deathray. And it doesn't look like it works anymore, either as an instrument of detection or as an international fire starter.

Real Russian Woodpecker

For that matter, Project H.A.A.R.P. turns out to be a real scientific endeavor, as well. It generally involves scientific concepts that I'm not smart enough to understand, but you can read all you'd like at its H.A.A.R.P. FAQ site. Most questions seem to revolve around its location in Alaska. And, I should warn you, this should not be confused with AARP, which is a bunch of retired folks and also not a deathray.

So thank you, dear readers, for this time reading Mr. Zuckerman's thoughts on the fire. Now, let's get back to more productive things, like rebuilding from this gigantic catastrophy instead of spreading crazy theories.

The District Attorney just announced the filing of arson charges against a A 41-year-old Sun Valley man who was caught trying to light up a hillside the other day by quick-thinking Woodland Hills residents who called 911. What bonehead thinks of trying to torch a hillside (allegedly) when probably the worst wildfires to hit Southern California have erupted? Here's the short take from the D.A., with a link below to the earlier piece.

Catalino Pineda faces one count of arson. Witnesses allegedly spotted Pineda lighting a fire on a hillside near Del Valle Street and Ponce Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and walk away, police said. The fire was quickly extinguished. Witnesses followed Pineda to a nearby restaurant and notified police, who arrested him. He is being held on $75,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to six years in state prison.

Earlier

Crime story of the day:

LANCASTER - It wasn't Mike Tyson nor did it occur in the boxing ring, but cops today were looking for a man who bit off part of another man's ear.

The crime occurred last night in the 43000 block of 27th Street East, said sheriff's Sgt. Brian Dunn of the Lancaster Station.

The victim, whose name was unavailable, told deputies that a named suspect "had bit his ear off, then spit it back at him after a short struggle ..." he said.

The suspect was identified as 37-year-old Gregory Jordan of Lancaster. It was unclear what provoked the attack.

The victim was hospitalized, Dunn said. The lower half of his ear was not found, he said.

Deputies arrested a woman who helped Jordan evade arrest, Dunn said. Her name was unavailable.

Daily News

Here are a couple of arrests from yesterday.

• A 32-year-old Tarzana woman and a 34-year-old mechanic from Reseda were arrested in the Rampart area of the city on suspicion of robbery.

• 5600 block of Kanan Road: A 24-year-old manager from Van Nuys was arrested on suspicion of rape. We'll get more details.
  

So Tony Castro has filed an early dispatch from the courthouse on one of L.A.'s most wanted fugitive gang members, who now faces the death penalty for three killings and four attempts. Here's the top of the story.

in three murders One of Los Angeles' most feared gang leaders with a penchant for writing rap lyrics about his killings was convicted Thursday of murdering rival gang members for control of a lucrative drug trade -- and now could face the death penalty.

Timothy Joseph McGhee, 34, leader Toonerville gang in Atwater Village, was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder and four of attempted murder in a case in which prosecutors were heavily aided by an autobiographical notebook in gang lyrics in which he boasted about his crimes.

"I am why you lock your doors. I am why your daughters are whores " McGhee wrote in one set of lyrics that authorities said underscored his murderous rampage for which McGhee came to be called the Monster of Atwater, with cops even comparing his murderous nature to Charles Manson.

The three murder convictions and two of the attempted murder counts - involving attempts to kill peace officers - carried special circumstances charged upheld by the jury and qualify McGhee for the death penalty.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry immediately set penalty phase hearings to begin Friday morning.

Check out the rest of the story by clicking here

So this one comes out of West Hills. A man apparently itchy to light something on fire is accused of trying to torch a hillside - only at a time when the whole region of Southern California is going up in flames.

Here's the story.

As wildfires ripped through Southern California, a 41-year-old Sun Valley man was arrested on suspicion of arson after quick-thinking West Hills residents allegedly saw him lighting a fire and called 911, police said this morning.

West Hills residents saw a man lighting a fire then walking away about 4:30 yesterday on a hillside near Del Valle Street and Ponce Avenue. After calling police, the residents followed him to a restaurant and waited for police to arrive.

Police booked Catalino Pineda, a day laborer from Sun Valley, into the Los Angeles County Jail where he was being held on an arson charge. Bail was set at $75,000.

Pineda is a native of Guatemala. He is currently on probation for making excessive false emergency reports to law enforcement, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call West Valley Area detectives at (818) 374-7730. On weekends and after hours call the 24-hour Detective Information Desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton says he still gets angry when people shoot people and he wants to put the culprits away for the rest of their lives every time it happens, he tells Rachel Uranga today reflecting on his five years at the top of the country's second largest police force. He says he get's a jingle on his Blackberry everytime there is a major shooting in the city. He has seen the number of homicides drop, says gangs are still problem number 1, especially in the San Fernando Valley, and hopes to reduce crime by 5 percent.

Let me say for the record that Bob Pool is one of the greatest journalists in Los Angeles. And I hate him. Nothing personal against him-- he's a fine guy whom I run into from time to time. Very pleasant. Very polite. But he gets the most freaking amazing stories, frequently right under my nose. I dread the assignment where we go head-to-head. The guy's a master.

For example, consider this passage:

Wheeler began killing time by writing. Perched on his motorcycle with a yellow pad on his knee, he wrote love poems. And then one romance novel, and another.

"Writing love stories, sitting in the gutters of L.A."

The rest of the story of Robert Wheeler, retired motor cop, romance novelist and abstract painter, is similarly fantastic. I wish I'd have written it myself. But don't take my word for it.... check it out yourself here. Nice work, Bob. And nice life, Robert.

Now back to fires and other unpleasant things.

I was looking for another story when I ran across this eye-catcher by Hector Becerra and Maeve Reston at the Times.

Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.

Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists.

Amid all this fire coverage, here's a break, courtesy the Los Angeles Police Department:

Chief of Police William Bratton today announced the following transfers and promotions of LAPD Command Staff, effective Nov. 11.

• Captain III Scott Kroeber, currently assigned to Metropolitan Division, has been promoted to Commander. He will become Assistant Commanding Officer of Special Operations Bureau.
• Lieutenant II Lance Smith, currently assigned to Medical Liaison Section, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Northeast Area.
• Lieutenant II Phil Fontanetta, currently assigned to Emergency Operations Division, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Southwest Area.
• Lieutenant II Ivan Minsal, currently assigned to Foothill Area, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Foothill Area.
• Lieutenant II Dennis Kato, currently assigned to Incident Management and Training Bureau, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of 77th Street Area.

The following paygrade advancements were announced:

• Captain II Jeffrey Greer, currently assigned to Metropolitan Division, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of Metropolitan Division.
• Captain I Rob Hauck, currently assigned to Office of Operations, has been promoted to Captain II. He will become Assistant Commanding Officer of Metropolitan Division.
• Captain I Steve Zipperman, currently assigned to Foothill Area, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of West Valley Area.
• Captain II Bill Eaton, currently assigned to LAX, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of West Los Angeles Area.

The following reassignments were also announced:

• Captain III John Sherman, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of West Valley Area, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of the new 21st Northwest Community Police Station, scheduled to open October, 2008.
• Captain III Matt Blake, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of West Los Angeles Area, will become the Commanding Officer of the new 20th police station tentatively name Olympic Area Community Police Station schedule to open November 2008.
• Captain II Bill Sutton, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of South Traffic Division, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of LAX.
• Captain I Eric Davis, currently assigned as Patrol Captain of Northeast Area, has been reassigned as Special Assistant of Office of Operations.
• Captain I Don Schwartzer, currently assigned as Patrol Captain of Southwest Area, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of South Traffic Division.

Bridget O'Brien

Forgive the somewhat off-topic rant, but here's what's really a crime: when a young person gets cut down before they can enjoy all that life has to offer. It's common and it's tragic.

The reason I bring this up is that a friend of mine joined that rotten list last week. While her death wasn't a homicide or any of the things we usually write about here, that doesn't make me any less angry about it. Bridget O'Brien died in a car crash, along with her husband, Hayden Sweeney. She was 26 years old.

I went to college with Bridget and I'll always remember her as a sweet, hard-working girl who shot great pictures and smiled easily. We worked together at the Daily Bruin, the same paper that wrote her obituary.

We cover a lot of horrible things in newspapers. I spent the afternoon chatting with people whose homes burned down. Last week, it was drugs. The week before, homicide, then the week before that... they all blur together. And you always try to find a reason for everything, a way to justify each terrifying thing.

Some guy gets shot-- oh, he shouldn't have been hanging out on that street corner in a bad part of town, you tell yourself. Someone's house burns up-- well, that's the price you pay for living in a canyon. Someone OD's-- you knew those drugs were bad, right?

How do you justify a kid like Bridget, who died because a deer ran across the freeway? There's no way to do it. You just realize that it's terrible-- just like it is for the people who loved the homicide victim, the house that burned down, the addict who killed himself with a needle in his arm. And I hope, next time I write about any one of them, that I remember how I feel right now.

Elsewhere, my old pal M remembers her with a post and a very rude photo. Just how she'd have liked it.

(I've been working on this post for several days, but the fire keeps sucking me back in. Now, at 11:49 at night, maybe I can escape flame coverage for 10 minutes and finish this...)

One of the things I dig about our downtown friends is Outside the Tent, where they invite local authors to rag on their coverage. I think it takes some guts to use your own pages to let people say you suck.

The most recent critic to weigh in is Robert CJ Parry, whom you may remember from a previous post here. I've chatted with him numerous times, and, a few months ago, we enjoyed a delightful conversation over hot cereal at his Westwood office (he chose the oatmeal, I opted for cream of wheat. I got the sense he was judging me for my choice, but I didn't hold it against him). We seem to have completely opposite political viewpoints, but I respect him as a smart dude.

In his Times takedown, Parry argues that the paper focuses too much on negative cops stories at the expense of positive ones. He brings up some good, valid examples that lend credence to his position and tells me that the Times' Op-Ed folks were careful and thorough in their fact-checking.

[Tuesday, 11:56 p.m. edit... I've been trying to figure out how to critique this for two days now, but everything I wrote sounded stupid, so I'm just going to close here and let you make your own judgments.... actually, come to think of it, I will say something that's sort of related....]

Let's stipulate that what Mr. Parry says is true and that the Times favors negative coverage and neglects the heroic ones. I don't know their relationship with the cops they cover or their agenda, so I can't get into that too much of my own. But I will say this: cops (and all law enforcement agencies, for that matter) often don't help things by the way they deal with the media.

Whenever I end up on a crime story, I've found there are two sorts of cops: they're either ridiculously helpful or the extreme opposite. You get a good relationship with one and they'll help you out on a story, give you fair access and allow you to tell their side of the story. The other sort spend all their time complaining about how they don't like the media and how some reporter gave them a hard time in 1982 and how we just don't understand them.

Well, guys, I'm sorry for whoever was rude to you, especially if it was me. And I realize there's often things you can't talk about because of your investigations or because you're busy chasing men with guns. Hey, that's cool, I can respect that. But y'all oughtta realize that we've got a job to do that's very similar to yours: to serve and inform the public. If we're going to do that, we need your help and your honesty. If you offer that up, you're much more likely to get an accurate, fair story about whatever you're working on.

That's my soapbox, however, not Mr. Parry's. I hope they're kind of related. Whatever. It's late. Let me know what you think of his piece and have a lovely evening.

The Los Angeles Police Department this morning reported a burglary that happened Monday 3:30 p.m. in the 20300 block of Blythe Street. The suspect knocked on the victim’s front door and when there was no answer, he went to the garage door and kicked it in. The victim who was upstairs, then saw the suspect and screamed. He then fled without taking any property.

Just wanted to drop a line to say that, no, we haven't closed up shop. Just been busy covering the raging wildfires that have been ripping through our state and searing into our consciousness. To keep you updated on the latest crime news, check out the story below by the Associated Press. It followed a story that my colleague Rick Coca wrote last week about a 40-year-old female teacher accused of molesting a student. You can read that story by clicking here.

Here's the AP story:

More than 300 California educators had their teaching licenses revoked or suspended because of sex-related offenses from 2001 through 2005.

But you can't tell that from the state's enforcement records - at least not those available to the public.

While some of the most egregious sex abuse is flagged, California law allows many offenses to remain confidential in education records, even when teachers go to prison and register as sex offenders.

Greetings, dear It's a Crime readers. You may recall, a few months ago, we met up with Paul White of the West Valley Leadership Academy. He tipped me to the story of Dantae Livingston, an ex-gangster who renounced his gang ties in favor of schoolwork. Last I hear, Mr. Livingston was still doing well, working and attending classes.

Anyhow, White's back with an editorial on The Huffington Post, Stopping and Preventing Gangs: There's No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing.

Paralleling the nation-wide growth of criminal gangs, is the growth of so-called gang prevention groups run by "former" gang members. The most well-known organization of this kind is Homeboy Industries of Los Angeles. Sacrilegious as it may seem to some readers, this venerated group of gangsters and its iconic leader, Father Boyle, are actually part of our (growing) gang problem.

While I don't share White's opinion (I think both Homeboy and Communities in Schools, whom White also criticizes, provide an important component to gang intervention-- so does the LAPD, for that matter), it's an interesting piece and he can speak with authority, given his results. Read on and let us know what you think.

Here's a pair of unusual ones out of our friendly rivals downtown.

First off, check out Ms. Leovy's interview on Gangsters Anonymous at The Homicide Report.

"It's a 12-step program, based on Alcoholics Anonymous. We are recovering gangsters who meet to help each other stay crime-free. We believe the gangster mentality is a disease--a mental disorder. We are sick. We suffer from a criminal mentality. But recovery is our responsibility. " - Kenny Mitchell, 44, longshoreman and founder of Gangsters Anonymous.

And when you finish that, pour yourself a drink, kick back and treat yourself to The exotic dancer, the police chief and the dividing line by Peter H. King. It's an absolutely phenomenal read, telling the crazy tale of a cop, his stripper wife and two feuding towns on the Utah/Nevada border. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine such a bizarre set-up.

WENDOVER, UTAH -- Sylvia, for whatever reason, needed another pair of shoes. So, on a late Wednesday night in mid-August, police chief Vaughn Tripp headed across town in his red Chevy pickup, hauling high heels to the club where his wife performed as an exotic dancer, stage name "Ecstasy."

"I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't drink alcohol and I don't do drugs. Never have," he declared, not long after he'd been battered by the tabloid whirlwind created when his wife was arrested on narcotics charges.

And it only gets better from there. King really knocks this one out, capturing the sadness and craziness with a great tone. As strange as the story becomes, he never loses the emotions of the characters. Well done, sir.

There was a homicide last night in the Northeast Valley area. Looks like two guys possibly got into a drunken fight and one man stabbed the other. It's still early so there aren't a whole lot of details available, but police did arrest a man.

LAKE VIEW TERRACE - A 42-year-old man was stabbed to death in an apparent drunken fight with an acquaintance who now faces a murder charge in connection with the death, officials said this morning.

A man identified as Cesar Jose Diaz died after being stabbed in the abdomen just before 8 last night in the 11600 block of Hunnewell Avenue, a coroner's official said.

Police responded to a call of a cutting at the home and found the victim and the suspect, identified as Jose Luis Aviles, at the scene.

Diaz was taken to Pacifica Hospital where he died.

Aviles, 38, was booked into the Van Nuys Jail with bail set at $1 million. No other details were immediately available.

Here's something you don't see everyday. A man in San Jose could get a prison term of 25 years to life because he allegedly killed his girlfriend's dog, and he already has previous felony convictions and under the state's "three strikes law" he could be eligible for that prison term.

Alex Castro is being held in Santa Clara County Jail after being arrested on suspicion of killing the ten-year-old cocker spaniel of his now ex-girlfriend. Santa Clara County prosecutors have charged Castro with felony animal cruelty, a charge they say makes him eligible to be sentenced -- if convicted -- under the state's "three strikes" law because of his previous felony convictions. Authorities say the 46-year-old Castro's record includes separate felony convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious injury. He served three years in prison and a series of shorter stints for six parole violations from 1999 to 2004.

From Dailynews.com:

SANTA CLARITA - A sting targeting parking lot cheaters netted 19 citations for fraudulent disabled person parking placards, the Department of Motor Vehicles announced Thursday.

"Those that righteously had the placards were very appreciative," he said. "Those who got caught copped some attitude. The usual, `Don't you have anything better to do?' In many cases, they were downright defiant, like, `How dare you challenge me?"'

That attitude reminds me of a girl named Olga, with whom I went to college. While the rest of us were riding the bus, or, if lucky, drove beat up, 15-year-old cars (go Datsun Pulsar!), Olga had a brand new BMW. Her dad bought it for her. He also got her a shiny blue placard with a white icon of a person in a wheel chair.

He was a doctor. She had no disabilities, aside from a massive sense of entitlement.

Our dorm, the fun but uncomfortable Sproul Hall, had a handful of meters out front and one or two spots reserved for people with disabilities. On most days, she took up one of them so she'd be spared the indignity of actually having to pay for parking or walk any distance. Whenever I saw a person struggling up the hill on crutches or in their wheelchair because she swiped their space, I became convinced that Olga was bound for a special place in hell.

We should have said something, aside from telling her she was a rotten person. I think my buddy Tony let the air out of her tires once, but we never actually turned her in. Which is a shame, because UCLA ended up getting quite a bit more careful about tracking down folks like her. Gee, I wonder why?

Detective Jim Pollock's shadow

On Wednesday night, Detective Jim Pollock cut up a big, blue cake with his colleagues at the San Fernando Police Department. Then, he pulled on a black raid jacket, tucked his reading glasses into his pocket and went to work. It was his 30th anniversary on the job.

James Anthony Rojas

As if the housing market wasn't fraught with enough drama these days, I ran across this story yesterday. If it's true, it's a pretty dastardly way to make a buck.

SAN FERNANDO - James Anthony Rojas' attempts to cash in on the foreclosure market ran him afoul of the law, police said Wednesday.

Anyone with information about the case can call the San Fernando Police Department at (818) 898-1267.

Midway through an extremely long day on the job, I dropped in on Lt. Tom Smart of LAPD's West Valley Gang unit. He loaded up his slick-top hybrid and toted me around for awhile and we got to chatting.

It was a quiet, slow day and the conversation meandered from the old days of policing "when you just had your stick and your mouth to protect you" to Lee Harvey Oswald to gangster etiquette. That led us to how gangs recruit.

"If they don't get affection, kids go and look for it with the gang instead of Little League or piano lessons," he said.

But not all of them-- plenty of kids who grow up in jacked-up households reject that and go onto become upstanding, law-abiding citizens. Even the gangsters often dream of holding down respectable jobs, sometimes more unusual ones than you'd think.

"Almost every single guy you arrest says they wanted to be a cop," he continued. "'Oh, yeah, I was gonna do that, then I got the whole felony drug thing.' They wanted to do it for the same reason they join the gang-- the camaraderie, the family, the sense of belonging."

So what's the solution? How do we get kids to become the next generation of police officers instead of their "clients?" What makes some get into trouble while others stay straight? And for that matter, what makes cops sometimes go bad? Or gangsters sometimes go straight?

I wish, dear readers, that I had those answers for you. But I fear that it's quite late and I'm not quite as keen an observer of human nature as the lieutenant. So we'll save that for another time, when I'm sure I'll be able to decipher all the mysteries of the human soul. In the meantime, just make your kids read Harry Potter. Little League and piano lessons might not be a bad idea, either.

Here are some arrests from yesterday:

• Sepulveda Boulevard: A 23-year-old unemployed man from Panorama City was arrested on suspicion of supervising a prostitute.

• Van Nuys Boulevard: A 31-year-old computer repairman was arrested on suspicion of rape.

• Ventura Boulevard: A 42-year-old life-style trainer from Sherman Oaks was arrested on suspicion of robbery.

• 12500 block of Sherman Way, North Hollywood: A 27-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of car theft.
  

JK Rowling

This isn't strictly crime-related, but it got me thinking....

So I went to an event yesterday featuring JK Rowling. If you've been living under a rock for the past decade, she wrote some books about this kid named Harry Potter. Mr. Potter is very, very popular. If you really want to learn about him, please check out Portkey to Hogwarts, our excellent blog by Mr. Haddock and Ms. Kaplan about everything you could ever want to know about the books and movies.

Anyhow, this big hoo-haw I went to yesterday featured her reading from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," signing books and taking questions from the 1,600 LAUSD school kids in attendance. After too much murder and mayhem as of late, I was kinda glad to get something light. And while these sorts of things are often ridiculous, staged events to make other people look good by using the kids as props, this was a legitimately cool event.

The thing that I liked about it was these weren't just rich kids from wealthy parts of town-- they came from the Southside, San Fernando, Van Nuys and other places that get more reports of gang shootings than good news. And they were all really, really into Harry Potter. Even the slacker-looking high school kids were pretty jazzed about it.

Basically, JK Rowling turned these kids into whimsical, dreaming nerds-- little versions of herself. All the kids I talked to liked to write and wanted to emulate her (it probably doesn't help that she's allegedly a billionaire-- they were quite disappointed to learn that I am not). And while it's not like their only other career choice would be gangbanging murderer, I'd be willing to bet that Harry Potter diverted at least one of those 1,600 from less wholesome pursuits.

(Just as a note, all the kids with whom I spoke seemed like perfectly lovely young children, all of whom will, I'm sure, go on to become perfectly lovely adults)

This is a long, rambling set-up, but here's my point: whether it's books about wizards, karate, soccer, or learning to freakin' juggle, we've got to find a way to catch kids at a young age. Maybe the one who turns into a nerd (or a jock) won't turn into a ne'er-do-well. And that's a lot easier than arresting 'em and throwing them in prison later on.

Alright, enough of this blather. Everyone except Rick's gone home and I should do the same. There are some leftovers and a night of mindless relaxation awaiting me.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Steve Sambar out of West Valley Division today called me back about a case involving a man who was beat with a hammer and robbed of the $6 he had in his wallet. Here's the story:

Police were searching for three men who beat a man with a hammer then while he was on the ground bleeding and unconscious and took his wallet containing $6.

The attack occurred Oct. 12 about 9 p.m. in the 6700 block of DeSoto Avenue in Canoga Park. Three males, described as Latino between 20 and 25-years-old, approached a 37-year-old man, asked him for a smoke, then hit and kicked him, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Steve Sambar.

The victim fell to the ground and a third man attacked him with a hammer before taking his wallet. A witness yelled out that he was going to call police when the attackers got into a white four-door car and disappeared.

The victim was taken to a hospital where he was treated for a fracture to an eye socket and released.

"That's pretty low," Sambar said. "That's pretty sad. But the absolute wonderful thing is that a witness in the area helped stop the attack."

Police were searching for four people involved in a home invasion robbery that occurred just before 6 last night in the 6300 block of Wynne Avenue in Tarzana. The robbers actually knocked first, then when the victim didn't answer, they pried the front door open. Once inside, the men ordered the victim to a room and to ransacked the place. Nobody was injured.

In Van Nuys, police got a report of a robbery yesterday afternoon in the 7200 block of Sepulveda Boulevard. Two men broke into a house, punched a man, giving him a cut lip and broken tooth before taking money and disappearing north on Sepulveda. Police set up a perimeter and requested search dogs, but had no luck finding the culprits.

A cop with about a year on the job shot and killed a pitbull that the officer says charged at him. The shooting occurred on Sept. 28, at about 1:30 p.m., when Officer Cody Lewis and his partner responded to a radio call of pit bulls attacking one another at the 10200 block of Vena Avenue in Arleta. The officers used a fire extinguisher to stop the pit bull fight, and one of the dogs charged at the officers. Officer Lewis fired his duty weapon one time and struck the dog. The dog died as a result of its injuries.

Rosario Gambino, a cousin of the dead mob chief Carlo Gambino, is in the news today. In federal custody on a heroin trafficking conviction, the Italian government wants to extradite him to face charges there, and a federal judge has denied the request citing the risk of torture. latimes.com

Just two months ago, Sandra Ruiz was the victim of a shocking, senseless attack that wounded her and killed her son, Sev'n. On Friday, she thanked the people who've helped her through this horrible time. Rick attended and wrote a very moving piece.

THOUSAND OAKS - Two months removed from a vicious attack that took her young son's life and left her near death, Sandra Ruiz stood behind a church lectern Friday, remarkably composed and strong.

Ruiz was so touched by the outpouring of support from the community that she decided to have a memorial for her son, which also featured touching words from family members, school officials and church leaders.

For the rest, please click here
Previously, Cleaver attack kills 6-year-old, part 1.
Cleaver attack, part 2.

Here's three quick ones before I head off to court....

A man whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit when his large SUV slammed into a car on Pacific Coast Highway, killing film director Robert Clark and his son, is scheduled to be sentenced today.

Clark directed numerous movies, including the holiday season standard "A Christmas Story" in 1983 and "Loose Cannons" in 1990. He also directed, wrote and produced the teen cult films "Porky's" and "Porky's II: The Next Day." His son studied music at Santa Monica College.

Elsewhere on dailynews.com, we have another story of street racing.

SUN VALLEY - A young man who had been taking part in a multi-vehicle street race suffered serious injuries today when he slammed a subcompact into a utility pole as he was being pursued by Highway Patrol officers in Sun Valley, police said.

The vehicle was totally destroyed, Dunnet said, adding that investigators are trying to determine whether the Civic had been stolen.

You'd think that with all the horrible news we've heard about racing in the street in the last week, they'd learn. Don't get me wrong, I'm a car guy and I understand the need to go fast, but not if it's going to endanger innocent people.

And finally, Mssrs. Bartholomew and Gutknecht offer us this package on cat hoarding gone horribly awry.

NORTHRIDGE - Los Angeles police Officer Jenny Potts crawled under a house Thursday through the refuse of 70 sick cats.

Armed with a search warrant, the task force arrested Ron Mason before 6 a.m. Thursday as he walked out to feed the cats.

It's rare that my not-so-cool part of town makes the news, but I'm pleased to see the Times found something Palms-adjacent. And, even better, one involving bondage parlours and strippers. I'm sure dedicated readers of It's a Crime, will be glad to know I live in such a choice area.

From Martha Groves' story:

For residents of a tiny pocket of the South Robertson Boulevard area of Los Angeles known as Regent Square and for nearby business owners, the slogan of the moment appears to be: Better the X-rated business you know than the one you don't.

"The irony has not been missed," Dotson said of his seemingly unlikely position. But the fact is, he said, that the Dominion club on Venice Boulevard, run by a proprietor named Lady Hillary, has been "so quiet we didn't even know they were there." The proposed strip club, on the other hand, is "just way too close to a residential area and to Hamilton High School."

For the rest, click here.

Woo Suk Yang, who seeks to open the Skin Cabaret, appears to be in the clear on First Amendment grounds, the story says, but just to be on the safe side, Yang has engaged prominent nudie club defender Roger Jon Diamond. Diamond, who's a Hami High alumni (he also attended my alma mater, I see), says the Constitution will protect their right to get naked near a church and his old school.

The Skin Cabaret's going into a building that once housed Culver City Meat Co., which used to proclaim its excellence with this slogan:

Just another perfect day...