Recently in Courts Category
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Trial status conference in the case of Kimberly Carter, Northridge woman charged with murder.
- Preliminary hearing setting for Pedro Ortiz, charged with Valley child molestations.
Tuesday, July 29
- Van Nuys Courthouse
- Preliminary hearing setting for Marquis Dejon Jiles, a man charged with murder in a hit-and-run crash.
- Preliminary hearing setting for Amir David Tamado Nejad, a Woodland Hills man charged with attempted murder.
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Preliminary hearing setting for George Miller, a former priest charged with sexual molestation.
Friday, Aug. 1
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Preliminary hearing setting for Robert Ramon Gasca, a Pacoima man charged with shooting four people.
- Pasadena Courthouse
- Jury trial in the case of Ezel Ethan Channel, a Nickelodeon employee charged with child molestation.
- Antelope Valley Courthouse
- Pretrial conference in the re-trial of Raymond Lee Jennings, charged with murder.
Today:
- Criminal Justice Center
- Preliminary hearing in the case of Michael Henschel and Alan Mitchell, Valley businessman and an associate charged in a widespread real estate fraud case.
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Trial status conference in in the case of Kimberly Carter, a Northridge woman charged with murder.
- Testimony in the trial of Roberto Mendez Alba and Edwardo Medina, charged with kidnapping for ransom.
- Arraignment for Ernesto Romero, Ritchi Palomo, Eddie Alvirez, Oscar Abdiez Andia, Victor Torres, Ronald Ruiz and Erik Viveros charged in a gang-related kidnapping for ransom.
- Jury trial in the case of James Anthony Rojas, a Mission Hills man charged in widespread real estate foreclosure fraud case.
- Antelope Valley Courthouse
- Sentencing in the case of Christopher Anthony Hall, a Palmdale RV driver charged with murder and attempted murder.
Tuesday, July 22
- Van Nuys Courthouse
- Status hearing in the case of Jesse Bernard Winnick, a man charged with fatally stabbing his mother.
Wednesday, July 23
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Pretrial conference in the case of Jacquelin Linaras, charged in the death of an infant.
Thursday, July 24
- Van Nuys Courthouse
- Preliminary hearing in the case of Kevin Lamont Thomas, a former coach at Birmingham High School charged with sexually molesting four teenage girls in a private basketball camp he ran.
- Pretrial conference in the case of Bennett Ira Goldberg, a man charged with animal cruelty after his dog died in a hot car.
- Pasadena Courthouse
- Jury trial in the case of Ezel Ethan Channel, a Nickelodeon employee charged with child molestation.
My colleague, Larry Altman, over at the Daily Breeze in Torrance got the scoop today of a ring of burglars busted in some 40 cases from the South Bay to Tarzana. Check out the Crime and Courts blog for more.
Today:
- San Fernando Courthouse
- Jury selection in the case of Roberto Mendez Alba and Edwardo Medina, charged in kidnapping for ransom.
- Pretrial conference and motions in the case of Antonio Rodriguez and Debby Saravia, charged with child abuse, murder in death of 5-year-old girl, alleged abuse of 6-year-old boy. Saravia and Rodriguez were arrested in November 2004 after paramedics were called to a home in the 28000 block of Sturbridge Drive in Castaic and found the girl in convulsions, sheriff's officials said shortly after the two were taken into custody.
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Van Nuys Courthouse
- Preliminary hearing setting in the case of Pedro Ortiz, who was charged in San Fernando Valley child molestations.
Wednesday, July 16
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Van Nuys Courthouse
- Pretrial conference in the case of Jay Selznick, who was charged with carjacking.
- Mental competency report in the case of Song Nam Chang, who was charged with the murder of his son.
Pasadena Courthouse
Thursday, July 17
- Pasadena Courthouse
- Pretrial conference in the case of Ara Grigoryan, who was charged with murder.
- Pretrial conference in the case of Jacquelin Linaras, charged in the death of an infant.
San Fernando Courthouse
Friday, July 18
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San Fernando Courthouse>
- Pretrial conference in the case of Anthonio Llerenas, accused of using a child as a shield.
On the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's slaying at a Los Angeles hotel, The San Francisco Chronicle writes about the conspiracy theories that abound in the case.
Examples:
-- Sirhan fired his .22-caliber revolver from a few feet in front of Kennedy, according to police, yet Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi reported that the fatal shot was fired less than one inch from Kennedy's head, behind his right ear. Of the four shots fired at Kennedy, all came from the rear. None of this was raised at Sirhan's trial because his defense was based on the theory that he suffered from "diminished capacity" rather than on any challenge of prosecutors' evidence.
-- Sirhan's revolver held eight rounds; a radio reporter's tape recording of the shooting has sounds of what one audio expert describes as 13 shots. Sirhan never had a chance to reload before bystanders tackled him. Two of the sounds on the tape are what forensic experts call "double shots," which means two shots so close together that they couldn't have come from the same revolver.
-- Several witnesses saw a security guard just behind Kennedy draw his revolver, and one reported seeing him fire it.
-- Over the years, Sirhan has told investigators who interviewed him in prison that he was in a hypnotic trance during the shooting and can't remember it at all. He said he could not remember writing, "RFK must die." He did not respond to an interview request for this story.
Our sister paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram analyzed arrests of juveniles in Long Beach. They find that while the country has been seeing a decline in juvenile crime, Long Beach has been steady, among other findings. I haven't gotten through it all yet, but check it out here.
A Superior Court judge on Monday upheld the murder charge against Ara Grigoryan, the man charged in the July 2007 hit-and-run death of Elizabeth Sandoval. Grigoryan's defense team had sought to reduce the murder charge before going to trial, arguing that prosecutors made certain assumptions about the incident and had overblown the 20-year-old's prior driving infractions to infer a "wanton disregard" for human life -- a key finding for murder.
Rocky Delgadillo is cracking down on prostitutes and pimps by using the same kind of enforcement he uses with gang injunctions. Here's the press release.
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, the City's chief prosecutor, today joined with representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department to announce the filing of a groundbreaking lawsuit seeking to prevent five pimps and 36 chronic prostitutes from operating in the Figueroa Corridor. He is also unveiling a diversion program to educate prostitutes and "Johns" about the legal consequences, health risks, and community impact of their illegal conduct."We're launching the injunction for chronic offenders and the
diversion program for first-time offenders at the same time because
fighting crime in the 21st Century means getting smarter - not just
tougher - with our public safety initiatives," said City Attorney
Delgadillo.The Pimp and Prostitution Injunction
The nuisance abatement action brought by the City Attorney's Safe
Neighborhoods Division seeks to exclude five pimps and 36 chronic
prostitutes from the Figueroa Corridor - an area defined as 100 yards
to each side of Figueroa Street between Vernon Avenue and El Segundo
Boulevard in South Los Angeles. The defendants have repeatedly returned
to the Figueroa Corridor despite law enforcement efforts to stop them.All 36 prostitutes named in the injunction have been convicted at least
twice for engaging in prostitution in the Figueroa Corridor, and account
for 127 prostitution arrests in the Figueroa Corridor and more than 300
prostitution arrests throughout Southern California.Four pimps named in the injunction are affiliated with gangs including
the Shotgun Crips, Front Hood Crips and Denver Lane Bloods.Pimps named in the injunction are excluded from the Figueroa Corridor
and are prohibited from associating with or assisting prostitutes; using
intimidation; interfering with traffic or possessing weapons. They must
also report any vehicle and residential information to law enforcement.
Prostitutes named in the injunction are also excluded from the Figueroa
Corridor. Violations of the injunction could result in criminal
prosecution.We have included within this injunction an opt-out provision which
provides those who can demonstrate they are no longer engaging in
criminal activity - and have met certain court-ordered requirements --
with a way out.The Prostitution Diversion Program
The City Attorney also today announced the launch of the Figueroa
Corridor Prostitution Diversion Program. The program is designed to
reduce the number of prostitutes and "Johns" along the Figueroa
Corridor.The Diversion program is open to first-time offender prostitutes and
"Johns" who have no prior convictions for drugs or violence.
Program participants must enroll in, and complete, an eight hour seminar
and must submit to an AIDS test and follow-up support services. If the
offender completes of the seminar and appropriate referral services, no
charges will be filed.The Figueroa Corridor suffers more from the harmful actions of pimps,
prostitutes, and those seeking prostitutes than any other part of the
City. The LAPD has devoted vast resources to attacking this problem,
including conducting undercover operations, and providing dedicated
patrols and foot patrols. Since 2002, more than 1,000 prostitutes have
been arrested in the Figueroa Corridor and prosecuted by City Attorney
Delgadillo's Neighborhood Prosecutors. The City Attorney targeted 20
nuisance properties for abatement because of vice and drug activity
linked to prostitution, resulting in the reduction of
prostitution-related crimes at these locations by 65%.Deputy City Attorney Dan Whitley is the City prosecutor assigned to the
litigation and Neighborhood Prosecutor Sonja Dawson created the
prosecution diversion program in cooperation with LAPD and our service
provider partners.
U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation, latimes.com.
SAN DIEGO -- Authorities say a woman who escaped from a Detroit prison 32 years ago has been arrested in San Diego, where she was a wife and mother living under a false name. U.S. Marshals say 53-year-old Susan Lefevre was taken into custody Thursday in the Carmel Valley area.
An inter-agency police auto theft task force uncovered a cache of machine guns, stolen cars and motorcycles and a hunting dog breeding operation run out of a home in Sylmar and didn't publicize it when the story broke in 2006.
Here's the story in a nutshell, given to me by the good folks from the Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention (TRAP) - West Team. TRAP is a team of cops which investigates commercial vehicle theft and fraud countywide.
The case began July 27, 2006, at 9 p.m. when LAPD Mission Division patrol officers found a stolen Nissan Altima parked in front of a home in the 13000 block of Parkland Circle in Sylmar. The thief had stolen the car by stealing someone's identity from a lost wallet. And the suspects used his information to purchase vehicles.
The next day, at 8 a.m., TRAP detectives saw the suspect, identified as Don Park, leave his residence, get into a Nissan Maxima - which turned out to be stolen - remove the sun shade and back out of the driveway.
Detectives confronted Park and later determined that five other vehicles at the residence were also stolen.
Park faces auto theft, making a false financial statement and identity theft charges at a court hearing set for next month.
A search of Park's residence turned up 45 firearms, large amounts of ammunition, ballistic vests, police scanners, and 11 automatic assault weapons/machine guns in an upstairs bedroom that had been converted into a storage room.
Police found an additional cache of ammunition in the living room cabinet. Additional weapons charges were also filed against Park.
In the garage of the home, detectives discovered three stolen motorcycles, taken from a locked motorcycle dealership on Hollywood Way in Burbank. The suspects had cut the chain to a locked gate in August 2004 afterhours.
Police also found that Park had been allegedly illegally breeding hunting dogs at his residence and had previously been cited by Animal Regulation officers for the activity.
Eleven dogs were confiscated and held pending the investigation.
Park has a prior felony conviction for robbery with a gun and was sentenced to 92 months in the state prison. Park had previously been deported to Korea after completing his sentence. Park entered the country and illegally set-up residence, police said.
An FBI agent testified Friday that he was unable to decrypt some audio files seized during raids on the offices of indicted private eye Anthony Pellicano.FBI agent Donald Schmidt was the only witness called by Pellicano, who is acting as his own attorney. Pellicano reserved the right to testify on his own behalf later in the trial. Lawyers for four other defendants were set to begin presenting their cases.
Pellicano questioned Schmidt, an Internet technology specialist, for about an hour.
Wonder what this guy's nickname's going to be in prison ...
A Long Beach man has been convicted of federal smuggling charges for bringing into the United States several extremely rare iguanas after stealing them from a nature preserve in the Republic of the Fiji Islands.Jereme James, 34, was found guilty yesterday of one count of smuggling and one count of possessing the endangered animals. The evidence presented during a three-day trial showed that James stole three hatchling Fiji Island banded iguanas (Brachylophus fasciatus) and brought them to the United States in violation of federal and international law.
The operator of two English language schools was charged Wednesday with running a scheme that allowed foreign nationals, including several Russian prostitutes, to fraudulently obtain student visas to enter and stay in the United States, The Los Angeles Times writes. Bezhad "Ben" Zaman, 50, of Beverly Hills, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran, was arrested by federal agents without incident in what investigators believe is the largest student visa fraud scheme ever staged on the West Coast, authorities said. He was charged with seven counts of fraud and misuse of visa, one count of conspiring to money-launder and six counts of concealment for money laundering.
Here's a few headlines from the Daily News crime pages ...
- I'm chasing down some more details on a homicide from Sunday night in North Hollywood. Here's what we have so far. A man was fatally shot as he sat in the passenger seat of a car parked outside a liquor store, authorities said Monday. The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Sherman Way and Lankershim Boulevard, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section. North Hollywood has seen more than five homicides so far this year, appears to be the the highest number in the Valley. dailynews.com
- In case you missed it, I wanted to throw some props to my colleague Troy Anderson who wrote about court security problems as threats against judges and other officials has skyrocketed.
Even as Los Angeles County's sprawling court system seeks to mete out justice, security is becoming a growing concern as the number of threats against its 600 judges, commissioners and referees has more than doubled in the past two years. Threats against court personnel surged from 99 in 2006 to 267 last year, according to court records. And as violence and threats have risen, security costs have soared from $132 million three years ago to $169 million.
- And a promotion at the LAPD ... Terry S. Hara became the highest ranking Asian- American in Los Angeles Police Department history as he was promoted to the rank of deputy chief during a ceremony at the Police Academy.
LAPD officer Manuel Tarango uses a microscope to look at a .380 bullet shell casing at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center/LA Regional Loboratory. The shell casing comes from the gun of a suspect in a shooting in the Valley.
Rachel takes us into the offices of the LAPD's ballistics unit for a story about how cops piece together bullet fragments and shell casings found on the streets to the people responsible for pulling the trigger.
She writes that the unit is the backbone of law enforcement and can make or break cases.
If you want to know what's going on crimewise in the South Bay, check out our partners in crime at the Daily Breeze, our sister paper's new crime and courts blog. The bloggers are staff writers for the Daily Breeze veterans Denise Nix and Larry Altman. Nix has spent most of the last dozen years in the courtroom. Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. Glad to have them as our partners in crime. Welcome to the world of blogging.
Imagine this scenario: You're fast asleep. You hear rustling coming from outside your home. You grab a knife and step outside your home, prepared to fend off an intruder and protect your family. Only, instead of a criminal, you find yourself face-to-face with SWAT officers pointing assault weapons at you.
What the hell's going on?
You've been "swatted."
Turns out, somebody thought it would be a kick to make a fake 911 "I just killed somebody in my house" call. Using Internet technology, they're able to fool the dispatcher into believing they're making the call from your home, instead of thousands of miles away.
Read "Swatting" here.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when you have pot and cash at unsecured businesses - pot clinics - you're going to have a cottage industry of takeover robberies. The violence is making life hell for pot clinic employees, giving police more work, and in return forcing taxpayers to fork over more money to combat the problem. Talking with Joe Esquivel, a LAPD North Hollywood Division robbery detective, this morning, he gave me the tip about this latest pot clinic heist in Studio City.
STUDIO CITY - Police today were searching for two men involved in an armed takeover robbery of a Studio City medical marijuana dispensary that netted the crooks $4,500 in cash and an unknown amount of pot, police said this morning.Two men, described as African American, one armed with a shotgun, the other with a pistol, entered Wellness Caregivers on Ventura Boulevard about 1:30 yesterday, and ordered three employees to the floor, said Los Angeles Police Detective Joe Esquivel. One gunman tied up two employees with duct tape and locked them in a back room, while the second gunman took the manager room-to-room, seizing cash and pot, before taking off, Esquivel said.
No one was injured in the heist and no description of the gunmen was available. Nobody saw a getaway car. Police were hoping to retrieve surveillance video today.
This has been a case that I've been tracking for a while. Talking with the robbery detectives over at the North Hollywood division this morning looking for news, I got the tip that arrests were made in a violent robbery that left a jewelry store owner injured in October. The male and female suspects are from South Los Angeles and came up to the Valley allegedly to commit their crime. They are now facing robbery and assault charges. The female suspect apparently told cops that her male accomplice recruited her into the scheme. Here's the story in full today.
STUDIO CITY - A male and female duo from South Los Angeles were in custody this morning in connection with a violent jewelry store robbery that left the owner injured and the suspects with $30,000, police said this morning.Eric Jackson, a 37-year-old convicted robber, and Tranika Rispress, 20, were being held on robbery and assault charges at the Los Angeles County Jail.
They are believed responsible for the Oct. 11 robbery at Dana Kathryn Jewelry on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, police said.
The suspects allegedly entered the store about 4:30 p.m. and began to browse and ask questions about jewelry inside the cases, police said. Five minutes later, the male suspect pulled out a blue steel pistol and pointed it at the face of the 17-year-old son of the owner while the female suspect grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, according to a police report.
The suspected gunman then ran behind the jewelry case and began punching and kicking the female owner in the face and neck, knocking her down, after she tried to trigger the silent alarm, police said. He then hopped the case, used the butt of the gun to smash it, and took a bracelet from inside, police said.
Both suspects then ran to the back of the store, grabbed a box of jewelry, ran out the front door and across Ventura to a Staples parking lot. There, they were seen getting into a silver Dodge Charger with tinted windows and after-market rims, police said.
The 46-year-old female store owner suffered injuries to her head and neck and was taken to a hospital. She has since recovered, police said.
In early November, police put out images from surveillance video taken at the store to the news media. In December, an anonymous caller identified the suspects, said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark O'Donnell.
Rispress was arrested at her home Thursday. She told police she grew up in the same neighborhood as Jackson and he recruited her to participate in the scheme, O'Donnell said.
Jackson was already in custody Jan. 26 in connection with violating terms of his parole in connection with an earlier robbery conviction when police served him with a warrant in connection with the Studio City robbery, O'Donnell said.
Police in Glendale and Whittier are combing through robbery reports to see whether these two were involved in other similar cases, O'Donnell said.
There was a gang-related homicide in North Hollywood Friday night. I just spoke with Detective Rich Wheeler, a supervisor over at the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood station about it. No arrests have been made. Here's what I've got so far.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A 31-year-old man with no apparent gang ties was fatally wounded Friday night in a drive-by shooting two blocks away from his North Hollywood home, police said.Alvaro Ely Calderon was on his way home from an am/pm mini market with a 40-ounce bottle of Miller Lite when somone inside a white vehicle fired shots, striking him at least four times before 11:40 p.m. on Bellaire Avenue near Blythe Street, said Los Angeles police Detective Rich Wheeler.
Calderon died later at a local hospital.
The gunman was inside possibly a Honda or Nissan car with as many as four people in it, Wheeler said.
Calderon, who is divorced and has a child has no known gang ties, nor any gang-related arrests, Wheeler said. He was living with his mother and father who were asleep at home at the time their son was shot.
"This is a murder you hate to get," Wheeler said. "There's not a lot of good, juicy clues to follow up on."
Anyone with information is asked to call Wheeler or Detective Martin Pinner at (818) 623-4075.
I got this story late Friday and expect to be checking with the District Attorney's Office today to see whether or not charges are being filed. Stay tuned.
NORTH HILLS - A former employee with the Penny Lane Family Center in North Hills has been arrested in connection with having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old girl, police said this evening.Eugene Portis Jr., 37, of Victorville, was arrested Jan. 15 at the North Hollywood Division police station in the 11600 block of Burbank Boulevard, according to the arrest blotter. Details about the arrest were not immediately available.
Portis was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of having unlawful sex with a minor and has since bailed out of jail after posting $20,000 bond. No charges have yet been filed, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. But they could come before his sheduled court appearance on Feb. 5, Gibbons said. Since he has bailed out of jail, she said, police have more time to file their case with the D.A.
In a press release released Friday night, police said that Portis was previously employed by Penny Lane's Foster Care/Foster Family Agency. A 16-year-old Latina reported to police that while seeking drug counseling, Portis engaged in a sexual relationship with her, said Los Angeles Police Detective Karen Crawford. No other details were immediately available.
No one answered calls to Penny Lane late Friday.
It appeared Portis had been working at Penny Lane for about three years, according to a spring 2005 Penny Lane online newletter.
Police are asking that anyone who has information about Portis to call LAPD detectives Makarenko or Kimrey at (818) 623-4090.
I got this story about the conviction of a man for a botched kidnap for ransom case that has been dragging out over the last six years. It was prosecuted out of the organized crime section and was handled by Glendale cops. I posted the story onto dailynews.com late last night. But here it is in full, in case you missed it. I'll try to tease out a few more details when I get settled in again tonight as I'm covering for a colleague.
GLENDALE - A 40-year-old ex-con has been found guilty of orchestrating a botched kidnapping for ransom conspiracy that backfired when both the intended target and the would-be kidnapper engaged in a gun battle and were wounded on the streets of Glendale six years ago.In a downtown Los Angeles Superior courtroom, Arutyun "Gordo" Khrayan was found guilty Tuesday of three counts, including conspiracy to commit kidnap for ransom, attempted kidnap for ransom and assault with a semi-automatic firearm, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Marcia Daniel. Khrayan, who has been in jail since his June 2003 arrest, faces life in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced March 28.
It was an unusual scheme concocted in the most unlikely of places by two men who were recovering drug users at the Tarzana Treatment Center in January 2002.
It began when an associate of Khrayan asked a parolee and admitted heroin user if he would kidnap an Armenian businessman in exchange for a new car.
It ended when the would-be kidnapper, James Patlan, and his intended target, Armen Mkrtumyan, were injured in a gunbattle on Los Feliz Boulevard in Glendale, court records show.
In an odd twist, after the shootout, both victim and assailant were taken to the same hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds. Oddly, Mkrtumyan happened to see Patlan being wheeled by his room and identified him as his assailant to police, Daniel said.
Mkrtumyan, who was in the bread distribution business, was legally carrying a gun the night he was attacked, Daniel said. He had a permit to carry a gun between his business and his car because he was the victim of a previous kidnap attempt a few months earlier, Daniel said.
Khrayan's associate Karapet "Gary" Davtyan was at the Tarzana Treatment Center as part of a court-ordered visit when he met and befriended Patlan, Daniel said.
Patlan admitted in court testimony that he was voluntarily at the center and the only reason he checked out was to join Davtyan in a criminal enterprise, Daniel said.
Phone records linked Davtyan with Khrayan. Davtyan has been convicted previously in the conspiracy and is serving a state prison sentence, Daniel said.
Khrayan was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1992 and joyriding in 1994, officials said.
"It was a difficult case in that my star witness had been a state prison inmate who was an admitted heroin addict and then to connect the defendant to the crime itself absent the identification by James Patlan was all primarily circumstantial evidence," Daniel said. "Yet the jury followed my request to reject the unreasonable and accept the reasonable in their findings that Arutyun Khrayan was indeed the man known only to Patlan as "Gordo" who had directed him on the night of the kidnapping to get the victim into the car using the gun."
GLENDALE - A Glendale man accused in a hit-and-run crash this summer that left a 24-year-old woman dead pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges, officials said.
Ara Grigoryan, 21, entered his plea yesterday in a Pasadena courtroom. He also pleaded not guilty to one count each of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run involving a death in connection with the July 10 crash that left Elizabeth Sandoval dead.
Grigoryan was driving a black Mercedes-Benz S430 at highway speeds when he hit Sandoval at 9:40 that night at South Glendale Avenue near Windsor Road, police allege.
Four days after the crash, by activating the vehicle's tracking device, police found the Mercedes-Benz near a Van Nuys body shop, with signs of fresh body work on the vehicle, police said.
The car was registered to a relative of Grigoryan's and he became the subject of a weeklong international manhunt that ran through Tijuana before he was arrested July 18 in Mexico City. He was detained while trying to flee without proper travel paperwork to Spain, Glendale police Chief Randy Adams said at a news conference when he announced Grigoryan's arrest.
Spain was believed to be a pit stop on the way to Russia, then Armenia, where Grigoryan was born, police spokesman John Balian said.
Grigoryan has been cited for seven traffic violations over two years while driving the car, police said. They include failure to yield to pedestrians and three incidents of speeding.
Grigoryan is in jail, awaiting another court hearing set for Feb. 13.
Here's the latest on that bar fight that left a man dead at the Red Square bar from November:
WOODLAND HILLS - Two Hoover High School friends were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a man who suffered fatal head wounds in a fracas that was sparked when someone accidentally broke a man's necklace while dancing at a Woodland Hills nightclub, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said today.Sidney S. Singleton, 19, and Dimitri Hermozshamoun, 19-year-old friends from Hoover High School, pleaded not guilty to the charge in a Van Nuys courtroom yesterday, officials said. Hermozshamoun posted $50,000 bail and was freed from jail. Singleton remains in jail. The men are expected in court again on Jan. 24.
Doing my routine checks of all the arrests from overnight around the city, I got the story of a drug rip off crew with a back story that gets real murky and involves a drug sale to a teen girl who overdosed this summer. This is the top of the story.
Three men have been charged and a fourth was being sought in connection with a semi organized dope-rip off ring that targeted dealers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.The latest arrest came Wednesday when one of the suspects, Fatshi A. Touresian, a 21-year-old North Hollywood salesman, showed up in a Van Nuys courtroom to appear on an earlier case of vehicle tampering. He was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on charges stemming from a pot rip off in April at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive that went bad when Jeffrey Jenkins, 25, was shot in the neck and survived, said Los Angeles Police Detective Martin Pinner. Bail was set at $626,570.
GLENDALE - A man enraged at a group of men who were looking at his female relative tried to run them down with his van during a soccer game at a Glendale sports complex, police said today.
Seroj Zadorian, a 53-year-old plumber, is accused of trying to run down four Armenian men, ages 25 to 40, who were standing on the sidelines of a game at The Glendale Sports Complex in the 2800 block of Fern Lane, said Glendale Police Officer John Balian.
They were among a group of up to 70 spectators who scattered as Zadorian's white plumbing van, complete with a Sergio's Plumbing sticker affixed, began lumbering toward them on Tuesday, Balian said. No one was hit.
After trying to run the men over, Zadorian drove off, Balian said. Police were summoned and when they found the van, it stopped and the suspect tried to hide in some bushes before he was arrested without a fight, Balian said.
He is expected to appear at a Dec. 20 arraignment hearing where he will face charges of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
24-year-old Yuliya Kalinina turned to the Internet in search of a husband, she made it absolutely clear what she was looking for in a relationship: "Green Card Marriage -- Will pay $300/month. Total $15,000," the Russian national living in Los Angeles wrote in an ad placed on the Craigslist website. "This is strictly platonic business offer, sex not involved." She and her husband were arrested in connection with a federal case of sham marriage. Scott Glover in the Los Angeles Times
Summertime is traditionally what cops call the killing season, when kids are out of school, temperatures are hot and things get a little buggy in the big city. But last night there was a double killing in Van Nuys. Not a whole lot of details yet, but stay tuned. So far here's the skinny:
VAN NUYS - Police sought the public's help today in the search for whoever fatally shot two men on a sidewalk near an apartment building in Van Nuys.The shooting occurred last night in the 7000 block of Hazeltine Avenue, just south of Sherman Way, said Capt. Jim Miller of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Station.
Police received calls around 10:15 last night reporting that shots had been fired near Sherman Way and Hazeltine Avenue, but officers dispatched to the area could find no evidence of a shooting, he said.
About 10 minutes later, however, a caller reported two males on the ground in the 7000 block of Hazeltine Avenue, and there - on the grass by a sidewalk adjacent to an apartment building - the officers found two victims with gunshot wounds to the upper body, he said.
One victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and the second died later at a hospital, he said, adding that both victims appeared to be adults. Their identities were not immediately released because family members had not been notified, said Los Angeles Police Detective Mike Coblentz.
"We have no witnesses to the shooting so we are asking for the public's help," Miller said.
"It's just a whodunit," Coblentz said.
A polygraph machine used in the 1950's by the Los Angeles Police Department is on display at Parker Center. (Tina Burch/Staff Photographer)
When leads dry up or the truth is murky, LAPD detectives end up here, on the fourth floor of downtown's Parker Center, headquarters of the Polygraph Unit. In these tattered 10-by-10-foot rooms, lies were exposed that cracked a Manson murder case and opened a trail to a stolen $3.5million Stradivarius cello. dailynews.com
Rick Coca writes today about the high percentage of folks who flee from a scene of a crash in the San Fernando Valley, where car crashes are about as common as the sun coming up in Southern California everyday. Last year, nearly half of all 16,792 Valley traffic collisions were hit-and-runs, and investigators solved just 54percent of the cases, LAPD Valley Traffic Bureau officials said.
I bet there are a few happy cops out there saying that justice is sweet. A thorn in the side of LAPD and other local police agencies, Stephen Yagman was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion.
Apparently, Yagman, who made a career out of suing law enforcement, was sporting some serious theatrics in court.
From LA Times:
In an unusual courtroom hearing that spanned three days, Yagman and his attorneys painstakingly went over the evidence in the case and accused the U.S. attorney of targeting him because of his long and confrontational history with the federal government.
"A cage went in search of a bird," Yagman told U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, quoting from Franz Kafka's book "The Zurau Aphorisms." "I'm the bird, and they got me."
Wearing a blue suit and a sailboat-decorated tie, Yagman also quoted from, or referred to, Woody Allen, Abraham Lincoln and Socrates during more than four hours of oration. At times, he was remorseful, but for the most part, he was defensive.
Quick one here on the rappin' gangster of Toonerville. Mr. Castro's on the trial trail, once again.
Convicted multiple killer Timothy Joseph McGhee might have received a reprieve on a date with the death penalty Friday when a mistrial was declared in the penalty phase of his trial.
Deadlocked at 10-2 in favor of execution, an eight-man, four-woman jury concluded after almost three days of deliberations that it was deadlocked.
McGhee, 34, one of Los Angeles' most feared gang leaders with a penchant for writing rap lyrics about his killings, was convicted Oct. 25 of murdering rival gang members for control of a lucrative drug trade.
In declaring a mistrial in the penalty phase, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry scheduled a Dec. 12 hearing to determine how to proceed.
Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun said prosecutors would seek to retry the penalty phase, in which jurors can recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
McGhee, the leader of the Toonerville gang in Atwater Village, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and four of attempted murder.
His autobiographical notebook of gang lyrics, in which he boasted about his crimes, proved vital in the conviction - which is not affected by the mistrial in the penalty phase.
Here's the whole thing.
Also, Mr. Blackmoore weighs in with some choice words that we're not allowed to use in the newspaper.
Just about every bomb scare plays out like this: suspicious package turns up, people freak out, the bomb squad comes out, then someone's gym bag/backpack/briefcase gets examined or blown up. Most turn out to be nothing, thank goodness. And, given the stakes if you get it wrong, I'm all for an overabundance of caution-- better to have a laugh about the "bomb" that turned out to be someone's dirty laundry rather than the "dirty laundry" that turned out to be a bomb.
With that in mind, this was really pretty funny.
SAN FERNANDO - A forgotten sandwich, an alleged Sylmar explosives maker and an anonymous bomb threat brought the San Fernando Courthouse to a halt, police said Friday.
Cops chuckled over the bizarre coincidence today, but they were deadly serious Thursday morning around 9:30 a.m., when an anonymous man picked up a payphone on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and claimed he was going to blow up the courthouse.
Tim Komonyi, a Sylmar electrical engineer, was on trial in a bomb case. The called the Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who oversee the court. A sweep of the building revealed a suspicious package outside, next to a planter.
"We take every necessary precaution," said court spokesman Allan Parachini. "Often, it turns out to be innocuous ... but the best thing to do with a bomb threat is to find out what it is."
Coincidentally, sheriff's Deputy Ed Nordskog, a bomb expert, was in court to testify in Komonyi's case. Deputies brought him to the scene, where he determined the package could be connected to the trial. He identified it as potentially lethal, with a kill radius of 150 feet and enough power to affect the entire first floor.
Authorities convened and elected to evacuate the building. The bomb squad rolled. By 11 a.m., the court cleared out.
News of a "major incident" raced through the 2.4-square-mile city. San Fernando Middle School went on lock down. School police sent four units. Streets closed. The city administrator and police chief were called.
Luis Aguirre, who was in court to take care of a traffic ticket, noticed the commotion all centered around the spot he'd been sitting a few hours earlier. He made his way to the front of the crowd and notified the incident commander he had valuable information.
"It was just my lunch," he laughed later. "It was just a fish sandwich, but everyone was scared."
As a final precaution, sheriff's bomb technicians X-rayed the bag and found that it was, in fact, a fish sandwich. Street barricades disappeared, the school went back to normal and everyone sighed with relief as the court reopened for business.
"We were done at 12:03," said Lt. Tony Ruelas, SFPD's patrol commander. "Hey, right in time for lunch."
Aguirre agreed, retrieving his X-rayed fish and going on with his day.
"Afterward, I just ate it," he said. "It was fine."
Such was not the case for Komonyi. SFPD is now investigating to see if he put someone up to making the call.
You shoulda heard my futile attempts to have a sensible conversation with Mr. Aguirre in Spanish. They didn't teach "Was your lunch a bomb?" in Spanish 1, unfortunately. But luckily, I got the point across and he spoke good enough English that we got by.
The story also got a few comments from readers:
I didn't know Fish had such a large Kill radius, I guess if any jurors read how they over reacted and had wild fantasys roll through there head they might see there sometimes full of B.S.
I can't understand someone eating anything that was outside of there view, let alone fish left out for several hours doesn't food poisioning come to mind ?
Just a thought | 11.10.07 - 1:54 pm | #
They should have done a cat scan on the package. A cat would have recognized it by the smell.
Marshall Sumner | 11.10.07 - 7:24 pm | #
The first one's a little confusing, by I enjoyed Mr. Sumner's suggestion. I've heard of bomb-sniffing dogs, but perhaps we need a feline unit, as well.
At the end of September, we had the sad story about Canoga Park High School teacher Hadas Winnick, who was allegedly stabbed and killed by her son, Jesse. We set up a Reader Reaction blog to allow people to share their memories. Most were kind words from former colleagues and students, but we got an unexpected post from Amy Winnick, Hadas' daughter, the other day.
I doubt anyone will read this since it's "old news" at this point - but it will never be old news to me. This was my family. Jesse and my mom were my best friends. Because of his savage, idiotic, selfish, disgusting act of violence, I no longer have either of them. There is no excuse. My mom was not brutal. Opinionated, yes. But perhaps the fact that Jesse told her she was fat, ugly, worthless, pathetic, deserved to die, was the reason she was so sad? Can you imagine having to go through that every day, whenever Jesse had a bad day or just felt like dumping on her? She was a beautiful woman, dedicated beyond belief to her children, students, and friends. She was the best mother she could have ever been. I wake up missing her more and more each day, but also thank God more and more each day for the time I did get to spend with her. So, to you, SKT - I pity your close-minded, ignorant views. And to everyone else, especially Paula, thank you. Mom and I love you dearly.
I can't imagine how painful it must have been to write those words. Our hearts go out to you, Amy, and to everyone else touched by your mom's life. Hang in there and good luck.
Mr. Bartholomew has an amazing, heartbreaking story of a terrible West Hills murder in today's paper.
Using his unique, masterful touch, he sets it up like this:
WEST HILLS - She was the bubbie who could turn matzo balls - and nearly everything else - into gold. He was the grandpa who couldn't get enough cuddling with his grandkids.
On a winter day nearly seven years ago, Bert Lasky was kibitzing with her niece on the phone. Bill, her husband of 53 years, had just sat down for lunch and a friendly game of Skip-Bo.
It would be the last time anyone in their family would see them before they were savagely slain.
"I remember waving at her goodbye. She was on the phone. That was the last time I ever spoke with her," said daughter Beth Lasky, a professor of special education, choking back tears at her office at California State University, Northridge.
"I know for me, I feel that I've become angry at everything. There was not a day that went by when I didn't talk to my parents."
Today, one of the men implicated in the stabbing deaths of William Lasky, 76, and his wife, Bertha, 73, is finally expected go on trial in Van Nuys Superior Court.
Gregory Douglas Miner, 32, faces life in prison without parole if convicted on two counts of murder, with special circumstances of committing robbery and burglary.
For the whole thing, click here. The whole thing gives me the shivers.
Authorities recorded a record number of arrests of criminal aliens and fugitives this year in the Los Angeles area, federal officials said today.
Some 2,667 immigration violators have been taken into custody between Jan. 1, 2007 and Sept. 31, 2007 - a 63 percent increase over last fiscal year, according to the latest statistics available. Of those arrested, 576 had criminal histories in addition to being in the country illegally.
Among the criminal aliens taken into custody recently by the Fugitive Operations Teams was a Maywood man convicted of beating another man to death here more than a decade ago. Luis Medina Gonzalez, 34, was arrested Oct. 24 at his home and deported to Mexico the following day.
Medina was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in August 1996 on charges stemming from a fist-fight that left another man dead. He was ordered deported based upon his criminal conviction, but failed to comply with the immigration court's order. Medina also has a prior conviction for narcotics charges.
"As a country, we welcome law-abiding immigrants, but foreign nationals who violate our laws and commit crimes against our citizens should be on notice that ICE is going to use all of the tools at its disposal to find you and send you home," said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and removal operations.
ICE established its Fugitive Operations Program in 2003 to eliminate the nation's backlog of immigration fugitives and ensure that deportation orders handed down by immigration judges are enforced. Today, ICE has 75 Fugitive Operations Teams deployed across the country. In fiscal year 2007, those teams accounted for more than 30,000 arrests nationwide.
This year, for the first time, the nation's fugitive alien population showed a decline, officials said. Estimates now place the number of immigration fugitives in the United States at slightly under 597,000, a decrease of more than 35,000 since October 2006.
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.
Hector Manuel Velazquez-Nava, 25, faces a six-year state prison term in the death of Robert Clark, 67, of Pacific Palisades and his son, Ariel Hanrath- Clark, 22, of Santa Monica.
On April 4, Velazquez-Nava was driving a GMC Yukon on PCH between Sunset Boulevard and Temescal Canyon Road about 2:20 a.m. when he drifted into oncoming traffic around 2:20 a.m. and struck Robert Clark's 1997 Infiniti Q30.
Authorities said Velazquez-Nava had a blood-alcohol content of .24 percent -- three times the legal limit.
Velazquez-Nava, an illegal immigrant, was charged with two counts of manslaughter and entered a no-contest plea in August.
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