March 2009 Archives

A man convicted by a jury in February of murder and other charges for a 2004 drive-by shooting has been granted permission to represent himself in the next stage of his case.

Jose Laguna, 24, was convicted by a West Valley Superior Court jury Feb. 3 on one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder for the June 19, 2004 Montclair shooting that killed David Velez, 20, and injured two other men.

Laguna appeared in court Friday for a sentencing hearing, but the sentencing was delayed because Laguna was granted a request to act as his own legal counsel.

The Pomona man faces up to 110 years to life in prison when he is sentenced.

He is now set to be sentenced May 1, but the hearing could be delayed further if Laguna seeks a new trial, said Deputy District Attorney Mike Dowd, the prosecutor in Laguna's case.

Dowd said that Laguna indicated Friday he intends to petition the court for a new trial.

Dowd said he believes Laguna's decision to represent himself is a stall tactic to delay proceedings in his case.

Dowd noted that Laguna represented himself before his trial, a move that delayed the case for about a year.

Laguna's trial attorney, James Brown, did not return calls seeking comment.

Witnesses who testified at Laguna's three-week-long trial said that in the early morning hours of the shooting, the driver of a black Jeep Cherokee opened fire on a group of people who were socializing in the driveway of a home in the 9500 block of Helena Avenue.

Velez was shot in the chest and died from his injuries. One man was shot in the thigh, and another man was hit in the leg by a bullet but largely unharmed because the shot ricocheted off a marijuana pipe in his pocket.

Laguna was arrested following a high-speed chase two days after the shooting.

Police found a handgun in Laguna's black Jeep Cherokee that was linked by ballistics tests to bullets recovered from the scene of the drive-by shooting.

Police also found gunshot residue inside Laguna's Jeep, which matched witnesses' descriptions of the SUV used by the shooter.

Prosecutors did not identify a motive for the shooting during Laguna's trial.

Laguna did not testify at his trial. Brown, during his closing argument, said Laguna was misidentified by police and prosecutors as the shooter.

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County courthouses in San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Riverside counties will be closed Tuesday in observance of Cesar Chavez Day.

The courts will reopen Wendesday.

Two Pomona men accused of beating a Claremont man nearly to death during a home-invasion robbery re-entered not guilty pleas in Pomona Superior Court this morning to attempted murder and other charges.

Robert LaMonte Jones, who turned 21 today, and Messigh Liketin Perry-Garner, 16, are set to next appear in court May 11 for a trial readiness hearing. They each remain jailed in lieu of bail, a clerk in Pomona's Dept. N courtroom said.

Jones and Perry-Garner are accused of beating 61-year-old Vincent Gottuso with guns on Jan. 20 when Gottuso returned home to find the men burglarizing his home in the 700 block of West Tenth Street.

Gottuso, a Realtor with offices in Claremont and Upland, was initially hospitalized in critical condition.

Click here to read a blog post on Jones and Perry-Garner's March 2 preliminary hearing.

A Chino Hills man has been convicted by a jury of sexually abusing two underage female relatives over a period of several years.

David Sosa, 45, a former site security manager for an aerospace defense contractor, was convicted Feb. 26 in West Valley Superior Court on two felony counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child. He faces up to 32 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Sosa, who worked for 25 years for Raytheon in El Segundo, regularly sexually abused two young female relatives from 1998 to 2001.

The allegations surfaced in 2005 when one of the women told a friend about the abuse, and the friend's mother contacted sheriff's deputies, according to a sentencing report prepared by the San Bernardino County Probation Department.

Two additional family members later surfaced with abuse allegations against Sosa, the report states.

One woman said she was abused by Sosa in the early 1980s when she was in her early teens.

The other said she was abused in the mid 1970s when she was nine years old, according to Deputy District Attorney Steve Mitchell, who prosecuted the case.

Sosa testified during his trial that he never molested his family members, Mitchell said.

"He said that it never happened ... and had no idea why they were making those allegations against him," Mitchell said.

Sosa testified that his relationships with family members had soured, and those broken relationships may have prompted what he claims are false allegations, Mitchell said.

Following his convictions, Sosa, who had been free on bail, was taken into police custody. He was fired from his $100,000-a-year job that day.

The probation department recommended that Sosa be sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Sosa was set to be sentenced Thursday in West Valley Superior Court, but the sentencing date was postponed because Sosa is in the process of hiring a new attorney to argue that he should be granted a new trial, Mitchell said.

Sosa is next due in court April 9 for a hearing to confirm his retention of a new attorney, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he expects Sosa to be sentenced at the end of June or the beginning of July.

An alleged gang member convicted of murdering the 18-year-old son of a Monterey Park police lieutenant was sentenced by a judge to 164 years to life in prison this afternoon in West Valley Superior Court.

Paul Anguiano, 26, was convicted by a jury in May 2008 of shooting and killing Dennis Vaughn Harris, 18, and attempting to murder three other men during an Oct. 4, 2005 confrontation in Rancho Cucamonga.

Anguiano has maintained that he was misidentified as the shooter by sheriff's deputies, and prior to his sentencing today he faced Harris' family in court and pleaded his innocence.

"I can tell you from one man to another, I didn't kill your son," Anguiano said to Eugene Harris, Dennis Harris' father.

Dennis Harris, of Corona, was shot and killed near a market on 25th Street near Hermosa Avenue.

He and three friends had been in a fight earlier in the day with Anguiano and some of his friends, prosecutors say, and they had returned to confront the men when the shooting occurred.

Prosecutors allege Anguiano shot and killed Harris, then fired at the other three men as they fled the area, wounding one of them.

Before Anguiano was sentenced this afternoon, Harris' mother and father spoke in open court about their son and his death.

"My son will be able to rest in peace now," said Maria Harris, Dennis Harris' mother.

Eugene Harris, a police officer of 20 years, said that after Anguiano is sentenced, the alleged Cucamonga Kings gang member becomes irrelevant. "I'm not going to think about you at all," he said.

It was after Eugene and Maria Harris' comments that Anguiano pleaded his innocence to them.

"All I can tell you is I didn't do it," Anguiano said.

Before he was sentenced, Anguiano unsuccessfully argued that he should be granted a new trial.

Anguiano, with the assistance of his defense attorney, Maryanne Murphy, argued that Anguiano's trial attorney failed to raise issues during the trial that would have helped his case.

Judge Raymond Haight rejected Anguiano's motion for a new trial.

Anguiano has 60 days to file a notice of intent to appeal his case, Haight said at the end of the hearing.

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO -- A federal judge on Thursday blocked a portion of a crime victims' rights measure approved by California voters in November that restricts legal rights for parole violators.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento ruled that a permanent federal injunction previously agreed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration trumps voters' support for Proposition 9.

The administration agreed in 2004 to provide, at taxpayers' expense, lawyers for ex-convicts who risk being sent back to prison for violating parole conditions. It also requires the state to act quickly on parole violation allegations and to set up rehabilitation programs that can be used instead of returning the violator to a cell.

Karlton rejected the administration's argument that voters' approval of the ballot measure nullifies the administration's settlement of the class-action inmate rights lawsuit. The measure was supported by 53 percent of voters.

While the Schwarzenneger administration supported the original settlement, its lawyers say the administration is legally bound to uphold voters' will. The authors of Proposition 9 had written language into the initiative intended to overturn the lawsuit settlement.

That's not enough to overturn the injunction, Karlton concluded:

"A change in state law standing alone is not the type of change in factual circumstance that renders continued enforcement of a consent decree inequitable," he wrote in a 34-page opinion.

It costs the state about $30 million annually to provide alleged parole violators with lawyers, according to corrections officials. Victims groups say the agreement exceeds constitutional requirements, though attorneys representing inmates say it is cheaper than other ways of protecting ex-convicts' legal rights.

Proposition 9 writes victims' rights into the California Constitution and contains numerous other restrictions on criminals that are not affected by Karlton's ruling.

Administration lawyers previously said they are required by state law to appeal Karlton's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"This is an unfortunate reversal of the will of California voters," Nina Salarno Ashford, founder and board member of Crime Victims United of California, said in a statement. "What's worse is that we should never have been at this point in the first place."

She blamed the administration for agreeing to the 2004 settlement.

The settlement ensures that parole can't be revoked without a proper and swift hearing, responded attorney Ernest Galvan, who represented parolees in the case.

"What Judge Karlton did protects that process," Galvan said. "I think it's a win for public safety in California. I think what we're learning every day is we need to use our scarce prison beds to keep the dangerous people behind bars and to give the parole agents the tools to keep the less dangerous parolees in the community."

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Seth Unger said the administration is reviewing Karlton's decision. Corrections officials never implemented the portions of Proposition 9 overturned in Karlton's decision because the judge had entered a temporary stay immediately after the November election.

"We are implementing the will of the people on Marsy's Law aside from the areas which the court has ordered us not to implement," Unger said, using the proposition nickname adopted by supporters.

That includes giving more notice to crime victims and delaying parole hearings for inmates serving life sentences. Previously, inmates serving life sentences were entitled to a hearing every one- to five years, but now they are eligible every three- to 15 years.

Chino spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden issued a press release this afternoon identifying the officers involved in last month's shootout. The release includes the officers' first and last names -- it's the first time the city has disclosed the officers' first names.

The release follows:

Names of Officers Involved in Armed Robbery Released

After numerous media requests and a lengthy review of precedent setting case law regarding officer involved shootings, the Chino Police Department is electing to provide the full names of the six officers who responded to the armed robbery in progress that took place at the Papa John's Pizza restaurant on Sunday, February 1st.

Their names are:

Corporal Claudia Lisner

Sergeant Kevin Mensen

Officer Nick Mutrux

Officer Charles Paul

Officer Rodney Tamparong

Corporal Dave Villaran

...

Click the link below to read today's story on the shootout.

An Upland woman accused of murdering her husband with a sword last year re-entered not guilty pleas in West Valley Superior Court this morning to three felony charges.

Prosecutors say Naomi Valdivia, 34, murdered her husband, 34-year-old Jose Luis Gonzalez, on April 26, 2008 following an argument between the couple at their apartment in the 800 block of West Orchid Court.

Valdivia, a mother of five, claims her husband came at her first with the sword, and she acted in self-defense during the struggle, according to Valdivia's family members.

A judge held Valdivia to answer last month on charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse following preliminary hearing testimony from Upland police officers.

Valdivia pleaded not guilty to the charges this morning.

Her defense attorney, Valerie Young, also sought this morning to have Judge Michael Libutti taken off Valdivia's case, claiming the judge is prejudiced against Valdivia, said Deputy District Attorney Theodore J. Smith, III.

Judge Aurhur A. Harrison denied the request, saying it was untimely, according to minutes from the hearing.

Valdivia remains in custody at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Her bail is set at $1 million.

Click here to read past blog posts on Valdivia's case.

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The flags in front of West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga were flying at half-staff this morning in remembrance of the four Oakland police officers who were shot and killed by a parolee last weekend.

Some San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies at the courthouse also had black bands around their badges in honor of the officers.

The two men accused of engaging police in a shootout during the botched robbery of a Chino pizzeria appeared in West Valley Superior Court this morning for a routine pre-preliminary hearing.

The hearing was continued to April 30.

Edward Ramon Cisneros and Joel Anthony Jaquez, both 27, allegedly fired at Chino police officers who responded to a robbery at the Papa John's restaurant at 12615 Central Ave. on Feb. 1.

An innocent bystander, 23-year-old Daniel Balandran of Rubidoux, was shot and killed by a Chino police officer during the shootout between police and the two alleged robbers.

Cisneros and Jaquez have each pleaded not guilty to murder and 13 other felonies.

The last names of six of the officers involved were named in the prosecution's complaint. They are Sgt. Mensen, Officer Mutrux, Officer Villaran, Officer Paul, Officer Tamparong and Cpl. Lisner.

Prosecutors have filed a misdemeanor spousal abuse charge against an LA/Ontario International Airport police officer accused of punching his wife in the face.

Francisco Santiago, 46, pleaded not guilty to the charge Friday in West Valley Superior Court. He is next due in court April 8 for a pre-trial hearing.

Santiago's wife called the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department at about 5 p.m. on March 17.

She told deputies that her husband punched her in the face in the couple's home in the 7100 block of Westhaven Place in Rancho Cucamonga, a sheriff's spokeswoman said last week.

Santiago posted $10,000 bail Friday after his arraignment hearing, and was released from custody.

A spokesman from the the Los Angeles Airport Police Department, which patrols LA/Ontario and other airports owned Los Angeles World Airports, declined to comment Tuesday on Santiago's employment status.

The spokesman, Sgt. Jim Holcomb, said the department would not comment until after Santiago's criminal case is resolved.

Click here for the initial story on Santiago's arrest.

Two men have pleaded not guilty to murder and 13 other felonies for their suspected involvement in the February robbery of a Chino pizzeria that ended in the death of an innocent bystander.

Edward Ramon Cisneros, of La Mirada, and Joel Anthony Jaquez, of Hacienda Heights, are accused of trying to rob a Papa John's restaurant at 12615 Central Ave. on Feb. 1.

The men, both 27, allegedly fired at Chino police officers who responded to the robbery as they attempted to flee the area. Both men were shot by police and initially hospitalized in critical condition.

An innocent bystander, 23-year-old Daniel Balandran of Rubidoux, was shot and killed by a Chino police officer during the shootout between police and the two alleged robbers.

Cisneros and Jaquez are each charged with murder, four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a firearm on a police officer, two counts of robbery, and one count each of burglary, criminal threats, and kidnaping to commit robbery.

Cisneros pleaded not guilty to the charges on March 18, and Jaquez pleaded not guilty Monday.

Both men remained jailed this afternoon in West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bail.

They are due in West Valley Superior Court on Wednesday morning.

Balandran's family has hired an attorney who says he intends to file a civil lawsuit against the city of Chino for Balandran's death.

The attorney, Mark Algorri, says Balandran was shot in area separate from the shootout. A Chino policewoman wrongly believed Balandran was involved in the robbery, he said.

Algorri said Balandran and a friend, Carlos Orozco of Riverside, were sitting in their car in a McDonald's parking lot when the shooting started.

The two men exited the car and started to move away from the gunfire when they were confronted by the officer and her partner, Algorri said.

The officer told sheriff's investigators she told the men repeatedly to put their hands up, Algorri said. Orozco denies the officer's assertion, Algorri said.

"(The officer) said Balandran was holding something in his hands close to his stomach, and she couldn't see what it was, and that he kept moving east," Algorri said. "He put his arms forward towards her and she shot him."

The officer remains on paid administrative leave, said Chino spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office will review the officer-involved shooting before deciding whether to file criminal charges against the Chino officer.

The three Pomona men arrested this month for the December shooting death of a 41-year-old woman at a boutique hotel allegedly conspired to rob the woman because they believed she kept large sums of cash in her hotel room.

Kimberly Michelle Sum, a mother of two, was discovered dead in her room Dec. 20 at the Hotel Indigo in Ontario. She had been shot once in the upper chest.

According to multiple people interviewed by police, including Sum's teenage daughter, Sum was a drug addict and a prostitute.

Sum used cash to pay for her room at the Hotel Indigo, located northwest of the 10 Freeway and Haven Avenue, where she had been living since late July 2008, a hotel staff member told Ontario police investigators, according to police reports.

One of the men arrested for Sum's murder -- 29-year-old Larry Darnell Shyne -- was at one time Sum's pimp, according to several people interviewed by police.

Shyne conceived and help to organize the robbery, according to police reports.

Shyne allegedly enlisted the help of two people for the robbery -- his cousin, 21-year-old Donald Ray Walker, and Matthew James McClane, 27. Both men were on parole at the time.

Shyne was arrested March 14, and Walker and McClane were arrested March 12. All three have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and robbery, and each remain in custody at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

After Walker was arrested, he granted an interview with detectives and confessed to participating in the robbery, which he said ended unexpectedly in Sum's death.

Walker, who was released from prison Nov. 26, told police that Shyne contacted him and suggested they rob a woman he knew -- Sum -- who kept large amounts of cash in her bedroom because of her occupation as a call girl.

"(Shyne) was hoping to get some money, and scare the victim so she would come back to him," according to the police account of Walker's interview.

Shyne instructed Walker and McClane to arrange a meeting with Sum through Craig's List, a classified-listings Web site where Sum advertised her services, Walker told police.

At about 11 p.m. on Dec. 19, Shyne dropped off McClane and Walker at the hotel, and the two men proceeded to Sum's room, each putting on gloves before they arrived, hotel surveillance footage shows, according to the police report.

According to Walker, Sum opened the door for the two men into wearing a white bathrobe.

McClane asked Sum several times where "the money" was, and hit her. "She kept saying, 'What money?'" Walker told police.

Walker said Sum's voice got louder and louder during the course of the encounter, and McClane took out a chrome pistol and shot her.

"Walker looked up and said he wanted to keep it real, and he said he asked McClane why he shot her," the police report states. "McClane told him it was an accident."

Walker repeatedly insisted the two men did not go to Sum's room intending to kill her.

"I admit I was at the motel -- I admit it," Walker told police, according to the report. "I didn't do the shooting!"

Walker told police he and McClane did not find any money or jewelry in Sum's room.

About three weeks after Sum's killing, Ontario police publicly released images of the two alleged robbers captured by the Hotel Indigo's surveillance system.

After the images were released, police received multiple anonymous tips that Walker was one of the men pictured. The informants said Walker bragged of the robbery and murder.

Walker, McClane and Shyne are next due in West Valley Superior Court on April 9.

When Sum first arrived at the Hotel Indigo, she was living at the hotel with her new husband, Essie Bell, and was known to hotel staff as Kimberly Bell, hotel staff members told police.

Bell, who was also allegedly Sum's pimp, was arrested and imprisoned in August 2008 for violating parole, according to the police report.

After Bell was imprisoned at the California Institute for Men in Chino, Shyne began pimping Sum, one of Sum's former roommates told police.

Shyne allegedly knew Sum because Sum was friends with Shyne's girlfriend, Jerica Mangham, a prostitute who went by the nickname "Diamond."

Click here for past stories on Sum's killing.

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Jim Erwin, County Supervisor Neil Derry's chief of staff, was arrested this morning on 10 felony counts.

In count six, prosecutors accuse Erwin, 46, of failing "to disclose receipt of prostitution and masseuse services on or about January 30, 2007 on Fair Political Practice Commission Statement of Economic Interest form 700."

Read the complaint here: Erwin_Complaint.pdf

The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office has ruled that sheriff's deputies' use of force was lawful and justified during the April 24, 2008 death of Anthony Roland Rodriguez, 35, following a high-speed chase.

Sheriff's deputies fired 13 shots at Rodriguez, hitting him four times, after Rodriguez rammed a patrol car in Upland and sped toward another group of deputies, according to the district attorney's office's summary of their investigation.

Rodriguez's death was caused not by the gunshot wounds, but by blunt-force trauma to his chest when his car crashed into a 210 Freeway soundwall near Mountain Avenue following the deputies' shots, ruled the doctor who performed the autopsy for the Riverside County Coroner's Office.

Here is the DA's Office's full 16-page investigation summary: ARodriguezreport.pdf

Julie Marshall, the Colorado judge overseeing Ward Ryan Welty's criminal case in Fremont County, said the circumstances surrounding Welty's failure to appear Tuesday look "a little bit like gamesmanship," according to a report in the Cañon City Daily Record.

From the report:

"By his own action, he does not appear in court," Marshall said Tuesday at what would have been the beginning of Welty's trial. "Frankly, it looks a little bit like gamesmanship. He was certainly aware that the trial date was today."

Welty, the former manager of Tropical Lei in Upland and two other strip clubs, was sentenced to 270 days in custody and subsequently jailed Monday in West Valley Superior Court.

He pleaded guilty locally to three felonies: soliciting a child for sex, possession of steroids for sale, and possession of child pornography. In Colorado, he faces five felonies and could be sentenced to life in prison.

Welty was arrested in June 2008 after he traveled to Colorado to allegedly meet a woman willing to involve her 9-year-old daughter in sex. The woman Welty communicated with was an undercover police detective.

A police officer assigned to LA/Ontario International Airport was arrested on suspicion of felony spousal abuse Tuesday in Rancho Cucamonga.

Francisco Santiago, 46, was arrested at about 5 p.m. in the 7100 block of Westhaven Place, which lies northeast of Rochester Avenue and Base Line Road.

Santiago remained jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail this afternoon at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

He is set to be arraigned Thursday morning in West Valley Superior Court, according to online records from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

The circumstances of Santiago's arrest remained unclear this afternoon. A spokeswoman for the Rancho Cucamonga sheriff's station did not return calls seeking comment today.

Sgt. Jim Holcomb, a public information officer for the Los Angeles Airport Police Department, said he can't reveal whether Santiago, an airport safety officer, is on leave or faces any other punishment because of his arrest.

Holcomb declined to say how long Santiago has been employed by the department. The position of airport safety officer is not an entry-level job, Holcomb said.

The Los Angeles Airport Police Department patrols LAX, LA/Ontario and other airports operated by Los Angeles World Airports.

Its officers are responsible for firefighting in addition to traditional police duties, Holcomb said.

Lisa Barden, of Rancho Cucamonga, pleaded not guilty in Riverside Superior Court this morning to 276 felony charges alleging she obtained prescription drugs using patients' stolen identities.

She is next due in court April 16 for a felony settlement conference.

Here is the brief written by Jason Pesick on Barden's arrest, published Feb. 5:

Doctor charged with painkillers fraud

The Riverside County District Attorney's Office has filed charges against Rancho Cucamonga Dr. Lisa Barden after officials say she stole patients' identities so she could get powerful painkillers.

Barden was arrested Jan. 29 after a state investigation that began in November 2007, according to a news release from the Attorney General's Office.

According to the release, Barden obtained more than 30,000 tablets of prescription painkillers, including, Vicodin and Oxycotin. The prescriptions were filled at more than 43 pharmacies.

Authorities found personal information belonging to 93 people whose identities authorities said have been stolen, as well as prescription pads for 12 doctors.

Barden was charged with 276 felony counts, including forgery, commercial burglary, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, possession of a controlled substance, insurance fraud and identity theft.

A Pomona woman accused of drowning her 5-year-old son in a hotel bathtub in October pleaded no contest to a murder charge today in Pomona Superior Court and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

According to prosecutors, 23-year-old Jose Stephanie Navarro, of Pomona, drowned her son, Edgar Manuel Sanchez, on Oct. 20, 2008 at Comfort Inn, 1421 S. Garey Ave.

Navarro then tried to take her own life by swallowing sleeping pills, authorities said.

Navarro had pleaded not guilty to murder and assault on a child causing death after her arrest.

Today before Judge Jack P. Hunt, Navarro pleaded no contest to the murder charge, and the assault charge was dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Hunt sentenced Navarro to serve 15 years to life in state prison.

During an interview with police officers following her arrest in October, Navarro said she wanted to die because of problems in her life, and she didn't want to leave her son behind, authorities said.

Click here for past blog posts on Navarro's case.

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Three Pomona men have been arrested and charged with murder for the December shooting death of a 41-year-old woman at a newly opened boutique hotel.

Kimberly Michelle Sum, a mother of two, died of a single gunshot wound to her upper body on Dec. 20.

Sum was unresponsive when staff members discovered her alone in her room at Hotel Indigo, a boutique hotel that opened in July just northwest of Haven Avenue and the 10 Freeway.

Last week, Ontario police officers arrested three men on suspicion on murdering Sum: Donald Ray Walker, 21; Matthew James McClane, 27; and Larry Darnell Shyne, 29.

Prosecutors have charged the three men with murder, and each man has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Each man remained jailed Tuesday at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga in lieu of $1.5 million bail. They are each due back Thursday in West Valley Superior Court.

Following the death of Sum, who lived at the hotel for about three months prior to her death, police identified Walker, McClane and Shyne as the three men they believe were responsible for the killing, according to an Ontario police news release.

Surveillance video footage from the hotel shows two men -- later identified by police as Walker and McClane -- leave Sum's room at the time of the shooting, then run to the hotel's parking lot several seconds later, according to a police news release from January.

Police say it's unclear what motivated the the shooting.

"Robbery is possibly a motive, but it's undetermined and unclear what the true motive was for the murder," said Ontario police detective Jeff Crittenden.

Crittende declined to identify which of the three men is the alleged gunman.

Jeff Wentz, the Ontario detective who investigated the shooting, declined to comment Tuesday when asked about the circumstances of the shooting.

Walker and McClane were each arrested Thursday in Pomona after police simultaneously served searched warrants on each man's home.

Walker was arrested in the 2400 block of Valhalla Street, and McClane was arrested at the Lemon Tree Motel in the 1700 block of Gillette Road.

Shyne was arrested Saturday in San Bernardino following an unrelated traffic stop, according to the news release.

An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly reported Sum's last name as Sun.

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A police investigation into a stabbing in Ontario last month is currently inactive because the stabbing victim is unwilling to cooperate with police.

Ontario police Officer Dereck Anthony said today that the victim, who was stabbed Feb. 11 in the area of Ontario Mills Parkway and Milliken Avenue, is unwilling to cooperate with police "as far as providing statements or identifying the suspect."

Clyde Michael Johnson, 28, was arrested Feb. 11 and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but prosecutors dropped charges against him on March 4, saying they didn't have enough evidence to proceed.

"We don't really have a case if we have a victim who won't cooperate," said Anthony, a department spokesman.

Al Parra, the investigating detective, did not say why the victim was unwilling to cooperate, Anthony said.

A Colorado judge issued a $1 million arrest warrant Tuesday morning after former strip-club manager Ward Ryan Welty failed to appear for his trial date.

Welty, whose father owns Tropical Lei in Upland and two other local strip clubs, was set to stand trial in Fremont County, Colo. on five felony charges for allegedly soliciting sex with a 9-year-old girl.

The Rancho Cucamonga resident failed to appear because he is currently jailed in San Bernardino County, where he pleaded guilty last month to three felonies -- one related to his Colorado case.

He was sentenced to 270 days in jail Monday in West Valley Superior Court, and was taken into custody immediately following the hearing.

Welty, 36, was arrested in Colorado in June 2008 when he traveled to the state to allegedly meet a woman -- actually an undercover police detective -- who said she was willing to involve her young daughter in sex.

Ed. note: This picture is Welty's mugshot from Colorado.

Kathy Eberling, assistant district attorney for 11th Judicial District in Colorado, said that when Welty didn't appear Tuesday, assembled prospective jurors were sent home.

"The court forfeited Mr. Welty's $50,000 cash bond and issued a warrant in the amount of $1 million," Eberling said.

A new trial date was set for June 22, with a status conference set for June 12, Eberling said.

"Our office is preparing the request for a governor's warrant in order to transport Mr. Welty back to Colorado for trial on June 22," Eberling said.

Welty's attorney, Roger Diamond, maintains his client shouldn't face prosecution in Colorado because Welty has already been convicted in California, and a second prosecution violates Colorado's double-jeopardy laws.

Diamond's motion to dismiss the charges on double-jeopardy grounds was dismissed by the trial court in Colorado last week. Diamond has appealed the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.

The original version of this post incorrectly reported Welty's age as 38.

Kathy Eberling, assistant district attorney for 11th Judicial District in Colorado, said in an e-mail this morning that a judge issued a $1 million warrant this morning for Ward Ryan Welty's arrest.

Welty, the former manager of Tropical Lei strip club in Upland, was jailed Monday following sentencing in West Valley Superior Court. That's why he failed to appear as scheduled this morning in Colorado.

Ed. note: This picture is Welty's mugshot in Colorado following his June 2008 arrest on suspicion of soliciting a child for sex.

Here's the e-mail from Eberling, the Colorado prosecutor:

"Today Mr. Welty failed to appear in Canon City for trial. The jury was sent home. The Court forfeited Mr. Welty's $50,000 cash bond and issued a warrant in the amount of $1,000,000 cash only. The Court also set trial for the week of June 22 (and a status conference for June 12.)

"Our office is preparing the request for a Governor's Warrant in order to transport Mr. Welty back to Colorado for trial on June 22."

Prosecutors have dismissed criminal charges filed against a Baltimore man accused of stabbing another man last month in Ontario.

Clyde Michael Johnson, 28, was arrested Feb. 11 on suspicion of attempted murder -- and later charged with assault with deadly weapon -- for stabbing another man following an argument at about 2 p.m. in the area of Ontario Mills Parkway and Milliken Avenue.

Prosecutors announced they could not proceed with the case on March 4, when Johnson was set to face a preliminary hearing in West Valley Superior Court.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Jones said this afternoon that there wasn't enough evidence to proceed with the case.

Jones said there was an argument between the alleged victim and a group of people -- one of whom was Johnson -- before the stabbing occurred.

"What happened at that point (of the stabbing) is unclear," Jones said.

The man who suffered the stab wound could not identify Johnson as the assailant. And there were no other eyewitnesses to the stabbing itself, Jones said.

Witness saw Johnson walking away from the scene with blood on his clothes, Jones said.

"We didn't have enough evidence for the case to proceed to the next level," Jones said.

Jones said he wasn't sure whether Ontario police are investigating the case further. An Ontario police spokesman said the investigating detective was unavailable for comment today because he had the day off.

The former manager of an area strip-club chain was taken into police custody this morning after being sentenced in West Valley Superior Court to 270 days in jail.

As a result, Ward Ryan Welty -- whose father owns Tropical Lei in Upland and two other strip clubs -- will not stand trial in Colorado Tuesday as scheduled for allegedly soliciting sex over the Internet with a 9-year-old girl.

Welty, of Rancho Cucamonga, was arrested in rural Fremont County, Colo. in June 2008 after he traveled there to allegedly meet a woman he believed was willing to involve her young daughter in sex.

The woman Welty met online was actually an undercover Colorado police detective, and Welty, 36, was arrested when he arrived at a predetermined meeting place.

Following his arrest in Colorado, San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies conducted their own investigation of Welty, and prosecutors charged him with three felonies: soliciting sex with a minor, possession of steroids for sale, and possession of child pornography.

Welty pleaded guilty to all three charges last month.

His attorney, Roger Diamond, said Welty is innocent of the charges, but pleaded guilty to avoid prosecution in Colorado, where he has been charged with five felonies and potentially faces a life sentence.

Diamond argued unsuccessfully before a Fremont County judge last week that the Colorado charges should be dismissed on double-jeopardy grounds because of Welty's local conviction.

Diamond has appealed the judge's ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Welty was originally scheduled to be sentenced locally on Friday, but would likely have missed the sentencing date because its timing conflicted with the Colorado trial, which was set to start this morning.

Because of that conflict -- and because he wanted to leave no doubt that his client had been convicted in California -- Diamond said he arranged last Friday to move up Welty's sentencing date.

"The Colorado judge in effect forced our hand," Diamond said in an interview this afternoon.

Following the first 100 days of Welty's jail sentence, he will be eligible to petition the court to complete the rest of the time on weekends, Diamond said.

Welty was also sentenced today to five years' probation, and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Diamond said.

Thom LeDoux, district attorney for the 11th Judicial District in Colorado, said his office intends to prosecute Welty's case after Welty is released from jail in California.

To prevent a Colorado prosecution, Diamond said he is "about to launch a fight the nature of which no one has ever witnessed."

In addition to seeking dismissal of Welty's charges on double-jeopardy grounds, Diamond said he is going to "go into detail about what this judge is doing in Colorado -- it's a scandal."

Diamond alleges the Fremont County judge handling Welty's case, Julie Marshall, hands down disproportionately lengthy prison sentences and is biased against defendants.

Diamond said Marshall rejected his assertion last week that Welty, by pleading guilty in California, had been convicted. Her ruling shows "no respect at all for the California courts," Diamond said.

After Welty was sentenced this morning in Rancho Cucamonga, Diamond said he called Marshall's courtroom to notify the court that Welty would be unable to appear for Tuesday's trial.

Diamond said the court's clerk put him on speakerphone in the courtroom, and Marshall told him she intended to revoke Welty's bail Tuesday and issue a warrant for his arrest.

There was an implication, according to Diamond, that Marshall felt Diamond orchestrated Welty's local plea to avoid prosecution in Colorado.

"It wasn't orchestration," Diamond said. "Ryan is relying on his rights. He can't be forced to give up a right he has to be speedily sentenced."

Click here to read past stories on Welty's case.

The original version of this post incorrectly reported Welty's age as 38.

An Upland woman accused of killing her husband with a sword last year must stand trial on murder and other charges, a West Valley Superior Court judge has ruled.

Prosecutors accuse Naomi Valdivia, 34, of stabbing 34-year-old Jose Luis Gonzalez to death following an argument in the couple's apartment in the 800 block of West Orchid Court.

Judge Elia V. Pirozzi ruled Friday at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing that Valdivia must stand trial on three felony charges: murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse.

Valdivia's family members have said Valdivia was acting in self-defense the day her husband was killed.

"She was beaten that night," Lydia Arias, Valdivia's sister, said in January. "He brandished a weapon, his own personal weapon in the house that night, came at her with it and assaulted her with it first."

Valdivia rejected a plea offer for 13 years, 4 months in prison in January, and now faces 26 years to life if convicted of murder and related charges.

Two Upland police detectives testified on Friday, the third day of testimony in Valdivia's preliminary hearing.

Upland police officers testified at the two previous hearing dates, said Deputy District Attorney Theodore J. Smith, III.

Valerie Young, Valdivia's defense attorney, has not returned a call seeking comment.

Valdivia is next due in court for an arraignment hearing March 26. She remained in custody Monday at West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $1 million bail.

Click here to read past blog posts on Valdivia's case.

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Business at Zendejas restaurants has been slow the last eight months -- sales have been down 40 percent.

Tony Zendejas estimates that at his family's seven local Mexican restaurants, at least $2 million in business has been lost due to publicity of his July arrest on rape charges.

"It's been devastating for our business," said Zendejas, 48.

But with his acquittal last week -- it took a Pomona Superior Court jury only about two hours to return not-guilty verdicts -- Zendejas hopes traffic will pick up.

"I can understand why people wouldn't want to come in," he said.

Zendejas, a former NFL placekicker and Los Angeles Ram, sat down for a far-ranging, hour-plus interview at his San Dimas restaurant on Wednesday, the day after his acquittal on rape and sodomy charges.

He reflected on his criminal case -- he called it a "living nightmare" -- and opened up about a wide array of issues. He had been publicly silent about his case following his arrest.

Prosecutors accused Zendejas of putting GHB or a similar date-rape drug in drinks he served to a woman on Jan. 25, 2008 at his San Dimas restaurant.

They alleged that he later raped and sodomized the woman at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas maintains he is completely innocent of the charges against him, and is very critical of the government's investigation and prosecution of his case.

He estimated he spent a "couple hundred thousand dollars, roughly," on his defense -- but the personal toll the case has had on him and his family has been worse, he said.

"It's been a living nightmare 24/7 for the last eight months," he said. "It's hard to explain. It's just devastating."

He said his extended family and his teenage daughters have been sick because of stress over his case. His 18-year-old daughter has been in therapy because she was traumatized by Zendejas' arrest at his home in Yorba Linda, Zendejas said.

He said sheriff's deputies pointed guns at his head and at his daughter's head when they entered his home.

"They traumatized her for life," he said.

When the jury's not-guilty verdict was read Tuesday afternoon, "It was like a million pounds came off my shoulders," Zendejas said.

He said he was told he would have been taken into custody immediately had he been found guilty.

Zendejas said he would opt to be "killed or shot" rather than be accused and convicted of rape -- he said he imagined his daughters having to tell people their father was in prison for rape.

"I would have taken (death) 100 times," Zendejas said.

Zendejas declined to answer specific questions on some of the evidence presented by prosecutors.

"The case -- I got acquitted," he said. "I'm not on trial anymore."

Zendejas says he and the woman -- they had been friendly before Jan. 25, 2008 -- had consensual sex at the Red Roof Inn after seeing each other at his restaurant.

He admits he wasn't a gentleman after the sex. He left the motel and failed to return the woman's phone calls.

"I regret leaving Jane Doe and not calling her back," he said.

He said he believes the woman wanted more of a traditional relationship, and after being scorned may have been triggered to concoct a story about rape.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know what her motivation is."

He says he now wishes he had stayed the night with the woman, taken her out for breakfast in the morning, and taken her out for dinner that night.

"That would have been it," Zendejas said. "Nothing would have happened."

Zendejas said he hadn't decided whether to pursue civil action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, or the alleged victim in the case.

But he said he feels the woman slandered him.

"Of course," Zendejas said. "She tried to kill my family name, my whole existence, the whole existence of my family, my business, and the future of my family, and my daughters."

The woman who accused Zendejas of rape declined interview requests last week.

Zendejas saved some of his harshest words for the police and prosecutors who pursued his case.

He said he believes the government ignored evidence and failed to follow leads that would have proven his innocence.

"They had zero concrete evidence. What they had was speculation. ... They just wanted to win," Zendejas said.

Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim said in interviews after the not-guilty verdict that he believes Zendejas was guilty.

He disputed Zendejas' defense attorney's assertion during the trial's closing arguments that the defense had proven Zendejas' innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.

"I felt that we had plenty of evidence to show his guilt, so I would respectfully disagree with that statement," Ebrahim said. "But what myself or the defense attorney think is irrelevant -- it's what the jury believes."

Zendejas said he believes deputies and investigators at the San Dimas sheriff's station may have been out to get him because of previous disagreements over incidents at his restaurant.

"It didn't surprise me they would try to hurt me again," he said.

The sheriff's department's investigating officer in the Zendejas case did not respond to a request for comment.

When contacted Thursday for a phone interview about Ward Ryan Welty's criminal case, Welty's attorney, Roger Diamond, spoke at length -- with little to no interruption -- about what he termed "the scandal that's occurring in Fremont County (Colo.)."

"The county court in Fremont County has an economic incentive to impose very drastic, extremely high sentences to make sure the prisons that are located in that county have plenty of inmates, so whereas a court should only consider for sentencing purposes the circumstances of the offense and the background of the person, the court in Fremont County is improperly attempting to keep the prison stocked with prisoners for as long as possible, because the economy of the county depends on the prisons.

"The county has living there families dependent upon the prisons. You have the guards and their spouses and children and so forth living in that county and dependent upon inmates, so the court has an incentive to provide inmates. So in Mr. Welty's situation, he's facing life imprisonment in Colorado, which is totally disproportionate to any alleged wrongdoing that he may have engaged in, and he engaged in no wrongdoing.

"He is innocent of the charges, but faced with a life sentence, he pleaded in California on February 20th for the sole purpose of trying to get the Colorado charges dismissed. This is a nightmare that nobody should have to be involved with.

"In addition to the prisons giving the county courts the incentive to sentence as severely as possible, the judge in the case, Julie Marshall, has had an extremely close relationship with the prosecutor for 20 years. Ms. Eberling basically is the DA who prosecutes in Judge Marshall's court. We have a small, two-judge county, an hour south of Colorado Springs, and for this one Asst. DA Eberling to operate in the same courtroom before the same judge for approximately 20 years is not good for the system of justice. For various reasons, prosecutors should rotate out and go to different courts. It's just, they're too close, it's almost like incest.

"And during the hearing on the motion, on March 9th, the judge was trying to help the prosecutor and made arguments that even the prosecutor had not advanced. For example, the judge, Julie Marshall, asserted that our double jeopardy argument was not valid because Ryan has not yet been convicted in Rancho Cucamonga, because he only pleaded guilty to count three of the charge in Rancho Cucamonga but he's not been sentenced yet.

"But the judge in Rancho Cucamonga, Judge Harrison, specifically ruled on the record that Ryan's guilty plea meant that he was convicted under California law. Judge Marshall, contrary to Judge Harrison, disregarded California law and disagreed with Judge Harrison and contended that since Ryan would not be sentenced until March 20th, a week from tomorrow, that he's not yet convicted.

"I pointed out that she was violating the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution that requires each state to honor the rulings of the judicial branch of other states. So in this particular case, Judge Marshall, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, basically rejected the ruling of Judge Harrison in order to deny the motion to dismiss.

"That should not be allowed, and that's one of our arguments before the Colorado Supreme Court. I also pointed out to Judge Marshall that after she denied our motion to dismiss she should give me time, and the Colorado Supreme Court time, to address the double jeopardy issue prior to trial.

"Ordinarily a trial court judge, after making a ruling adverse to one side, will allow that side to seek appellate review, and will not try to sabotage that pre-trial appellate review. So after I had the motion to dismiss denied because Marshall disagreed with Judge Harrison as to the meaning of California law - something Judge Marshall had no authority to do - she refused to postpone the trial to allow orderly appellate review in the Colorado Supreme Court.

"Based upon the way the court has conducted this case, I anticipated that possibly could occur, and already had prepared the petition to be filed with the Colorado Supreme Court. The court session before Judge Marshall was not over until 5 p.m. on Monday, March 9th, but on early Tuesday morning, March 10th, in Denver, which is a couple of hours away from Cañon City, I filed the petition with the Colorado Supreme Court and I also asked the Colorado Supreme Court to stay the trial until it has an opportunity to rule on the merits of our petition.

"And the bind we are in is we also need for the Colorado Supreme Court a transcript of what happened in court on Monday, March 9th. The clerk's office closed at 4:30 on Monday, March 9, so while we were filing the petition in Denver before the supreme court, we were ordering the transcript from the trial court in Fremont County. And that's taking just a few days to get.

"And this creates a problem because we want the Colorado Supreme Court to have a full record of what happened before Judge Marshall on Monday, March 9th. And so by not delaying the trial, Judge Marshall has made it more difficult to get an appellate ruling on the issue that we presented to her.

"In my experience, and I've been practicing law for over 41 years, even if a trial judge should disagree with the defense, or with any party, they should at least have the decency to allow pre-trial appellate review without forcing the party to have to scramble and drive fast to Denver. ...

"I also reminded her that Ryan has to be back in Rancho Cucamonga Friday, March 20th for sentencing. Yet if she did not postpone the trial, Ryan would have the problem of having to be in two places at once.

"So Judge Marshall is making it as difficult as possible to get a ruling, and if we can't get the ruling, we have to go to trial. And therefore what Judge Marshall has done is also made it impossible to handle the case in a normal way.

"I have asked the FBI in Denver to investigate the Fremont County court because of the extreme sentences imposed upon defendants when compared with the other counties in the state of Colorado.

"What piqued my interest in this whole subject of local courts giving disproportionately high sentences was the circumstance regarding two juvenile judges in Pennsylvania, who were sending juveniles to juvenile detention facilities in Pennsylvania in exchange for kickbacks from those private facilities. The two juvenile court judges in Pennsylvania who did this were just convicted within the last two or three weeks of federal fraud and obstruction of justice. ...

Ed. note: Click here to read a New York Times report on the Pennsylvania judges.

"This is the situation. So Ryan was basically forced into a maneuver that was designed to block the Colorado prosecution. He would have much preferred to fight the case in California, but by pleading - even though he has a defense to the charge - by pleading guilty in California he hoped to use the double jeopardy provision of Colorado law to avoid a life sentence in Colorado for an alleged crime that he actually did not commit.

"But when the risk is life imprisonment, for strategic reasons a person facing this particular situation might very well do what Ryan did, which was to plead in California to try to benefit from the Colorado double jeopardy law.

"And Eberling, on Monday, her main argument, which the judge did not accept ... Eberling's argument was to attack me for being so clever in setting up this motion to dismiss. She basically claimed that I orchestrated the entire proceeding, because the California sentencing provisions are so much lighter than Colorado's. So that was her main argument, just attacking me for being clever."

The former manager of a local strip-club chain is set to stand trial in Colorado on Tuesday for allegedly traveling to meet a police detective posing as a mother willing to involve her 9-year-old daughter in sex.

Ward Ryan Welty, 36, whose family owns Tropical Lei in Upland and two other strip clubs, communicated online and by phone with the undercover detective for nearly a year before his June arrest in rural Fremont County, Colo.

Read past stories here and here.

According to Welty's defense attorney, the criminal charges in Colorado should be dismissed because the prosecution violates Colorado's double-jeopardy laws.

Welty pleaded guilty in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga last month to three felony charges filed in the wake of a local investigation launched after Welty's arrest in Colorado.

Welty, of Rancho Cucamonga, maintains he is innocent of the local charges, said Roger Diamond, Welty's attorney, but entered the plea to avoid prosecution in Colorado, where he has been charged with five felonies and faces a potential life prison sentence.

"He would have much preferred to fight the case in California, but by pleading -- even though he has a defense to the charge -- by pleading guilty in California he hoped to use the double-jeopardy provision of Colorado law to avoid a life sentence in Colorado for an alleged crime that he actually did not commit," Diamond said.

Diamond's motion to dismiss the charges against Welty on double-jeopardy grounds was denied by a Fremont County judge on Monday.

Read Diamond's motion to dismiss: 030909WeltyMotionToDismiss.pdf

Diamond has appealed the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court, and said the court could grant the dismissal or issue a stay postponing Welty's Colorado trial date until it rules on the double-jeopardy issue.

At the close of business Friday, the Colorado Supreme Court hadn't issued a stay or ruled on Diamond's appeal, according to the court clerk's office.

Welty's father, Waldon Randall Welty, is the owner of Manta Management, the parent company of Tropical Lei, the Flesh Club in San Bernardino, and the Hawaii Theatre in the City of Industry.

Ryan Welty has been identified in past news reports as the owner or manager of Tropical Lei and the Flesh Club. Diamond has said those descriptions are inaccurate.

Welty has no current role in his father's company, he and Diamond have said.

If Welty's case goes to trial in Colorado as scheduled on Tuesday, the proceedings could conflict with his Friday sentencing date in Rancho Cucamonga.

Welty faces up to five years, four months in prison when he is sentenced locally, though he is also eligible for probation, Diamond said.

If Welty's trial in Colorado continues through Friday, he will miss his sentencing date in Rancho Cucamonga, Diamond said.

Welty may never face sentencing in California if he is convicted by a Colorado jury and jailed pending sentencing there.

Diamond -- as well as prosecutors locally and in Colorado -- say they don't know how the issue of the dual prosecutions will be resolved.

Welty began communicating with the undercover police detective in August 2007 in a Yahoo.com "fetish" chat room, according to a Cañon City, Colo. police report.

The detective was posing as a 29-year-old woman willing to involve her 9-year-old daughter in sex -- Welty told the woman he had been searching for such an arrangement for more than three years, the report said.

Welty traveled to Colorado in June to visit the woman, and was arrested by Cañon City police when he arrived at a prearranged meeting place in Penrose, Colo., a rural city about 100 miles south of Denver, the report said.

After Welty's arrest, San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies served search warrants at his Rancho Cucamonga apartment, Tropical Lei and other locations.

Deputies found about $60,000 in steroids they allege Welty was selling, as well as three child-pornography images on Welty's computers, according to police testimony at a January preliminary hearing.

Welty pleaded guilty in West Valley Superior Court last month to three felonies related to steroids, child pornography, and contacting a minor for a lewd act.

The original version of this post incorrectly reported Welty's age as 38.

A hospital caretaker accused of having a sexual relationship with an underage girl in his care has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges filed by prosecutors.

Antonio Quiroz, 30, was a caretaker at Canyon Ridge Hospital in Chino when he had a relationship with the underage girl, according to police.

The girl, now 17, told police that she and Quiroz met when she was 15 and a patient at the facility.

The girl told police she and Quiroz had consensual sexual contact at the hospital -- which offers behavioral health and substance abuse treatment -- and at a home in Ontario.

Quiroz, of Montclair, pleaded not guilty Monday in West Valley Superior Court to one felony count of lewd or lascivious acts with a 14- or 15-year-old child, and one felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor more than three years younger.

He is next due in court Thursday, and remained in police custody late Wednesday in lieu of $175,000 bail, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department online records.

Here's the original story on his arrest:

Hospital worker accused of sex crimes with minor

Jannise Johnson, Staff Writer

Created: 03/07/2009 12:33:15 AM PST

Ontario: Police detectives have arrested a 30-year-old man suspected of sexual contact with a minor while he was her caretaker at a hospital.

Antonio Quiroz of Montclair was arrested Thursday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with a 17-year-old girl while she was under his care at Canyon Ridge Hospital in Chino.

The teen told police she met Quiroz when she was 15 and a patient at the facility. She told investigators the two had sexual contact on hospital premises.

At one point during their association, Quiroz took her to a house in Ontario where they had sex, police said.

The girl told police the meetings were consensual.

According to its Web site, Canyon Ridge Hospital is a full-service psychiatric facility that offers behavioral health and substance abuse treatments.

Ontario police investigators were contacted by the alleged victim in February about her relationship with Quiroz, according to a police news release.

She told police that Quiroz encouraged her to meet him once she was released from the facility.

Quiroz had been employed at the hospital as a staff member since 2006, police said.

John Van Mol, spokesman for Canyon Ridge, issued a statement about the hospital's policy Friday that the hospital administration is cooperating with the police investigation.

The statement also said that hospital policy forbids any inappropriate contact by staff members with patients or former patients. The hospital was unaware of the allegations until Quiroz's arrest, according to the statement.

Quiroz was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of being a caretaker committing lewd acts with a minor and oral copulation with a minor. He was being held in lieu of $450,000 bail.

Police contend there may be others who have had inappropriate contact with Quiroz.

Anyone with further information is asked to call Detective Mark Ortiz at (909) 395-2833 or Detective Tim Glisson at (909) 395-2740.

In the hallway outside the courtroom following this afternoon's acquittal in the Tony Zendejas rape case, the jury foreman, a 51-year-old man from Walnut, granted an interview.

Jurors took about two hours of deliberations to reach their verdicts in Pomona Superior Court.

"We discussed the case, and decided there wasn't enough evidence to reach a guilty verdict," said juror 11, who declined to give his name.

Asked what the major factors were in reaching the verdict, the juror said, "There were a lot of questions about the credibility of several witnesses, and the conflicting reports on the science alone was enough to put in some reasonable doubt."

He said that after the jury retired to deliberate, the nine men and three women on the jury discussed the case before taking an initial poll of jurors' positions on Zendejas' guilt.

The juror said the first vote favored acquittal, but was not unanimous. He declined to say how many jurors initially favored guilt. He said that 45 minutes after the initial vote, jurors reached a consensus on the not-guilty verdict.

He said he was not surprised it took only two hours to reach a verdict. He said Zendejas' career as an NFL placekicker "didn't even come up in our discussions."

Asked whether the not-guilty verdict came easily for the jury, the juror said "it came very easily to me. It was probably a little bit more difficult for some of the others."

Asked whether he thought Zendejas' accuser was honest on the witness stand, the juror said, "We collectively had issues and concerns with the credibility of many of the witnesses ... (Jane Doe) included."

Asked whether jurors felt Zendejas was honest in his testimony, the juror said, "I don't think that entered into our discussions."

Asked whether he believes Zendejas and the woman had consensual sex, the juror said, "I don't know the answer to that question."

Asked whether he believes Zendejas drugged the woman, the juror said, "I don't think that was proven."

Tony Zendejas granted his first media interview this afteroon shortly after he was acquitted of rape.

The following is the entirety of that interview, using direct quotes when available and paraphrasing the remainder.

Asked his reaction to the verdict, Zendejas said: "My reaction is it's unbelievable because you've been accused of something and you know you're innocent."

He said the accusations of the alleged victim were "totally false from the get-go," and said the woman and the sheriff's department were "horrible trying to put an innocent man in jail."

He said the sheriff's department and the alleged victim collaborated to bolster the criminal charges against him. He called their actions "unspeakable."

"What they did to me goes beyond criminal" and should be investigated, Zendejas said.

He congratulated his attorneys -- James Reiss and Timothy Younger -- and said they did a "great job."

"I'd also like to thank my" family and friends for their support, he said.

He also said he had support since his July arrest from patrons and regulars at his San Dimas restaurant, Zendejas Mexican Restaurant. "They never thought for a second that I was guilty," Zendejas said.

Asked what was going through his head in the moments before the jury's verdicts were read, Zendejas said "you never can tell what" a juror is thinking, but said he was confident the jury would return a not-guilty verdict.

Prosecutors "had zero, zero evidence," he said.

Zendejas said he believed the alleged victim -- he identified her by name during the interview -- "lied the whole time" about the alleged rape.

Zendejas said the woman was unhappy that he failed to return her phone calls and left their encounter as a one-night stand. He said the woman was trying to get back at him.

Asked whether he is considering bringing civil action against the sheriff's department and the woman, Zendejas said he would speak to his attorneys about that before making a decision. He said "that is a possibility."

He said the sheriff's department "didn't do an investigation. ...Their focus was totally on me."

Undercover detectives tried to bait him in secretly recorded interviews, he said.

He said that when he was arrested at his Yorba Linda home, deputies held guns to his head, held guns to his daughter's head, and told her to shut up.

Asked if he had anything additional to add, Zendejas again thanked his attorneys and said that next to them, the prosecutor "looked like an amateur."

Former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas was acquitted by a jury this afternoon on charges that he drugged a woman at his San Dimas restaurant in January 2008 and raped her at a nearby motel.

A jury of nine men and three women took about two hours of deliberations to reach a not-guilty verdict on the two felony counts.

As the verdict was read in Pomona Superior Court, 48-year-old Zendejas, a former Los Angeles Ram, hung his head and cried softly.

In an interview afterward, Zendejas thanked his defense attorneys, thanked family members for supporting him, and lashed out at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the woman who accused him of drugging and raping her.

"My reaction is it's unbelievable because you've been accused of something and you know you're innocent," Zendejas said in his first public statement since his arrest in July.

"What they did to me goes beyond criminal," Zendejas said of the sheriff's department and the alleged victim.

Prosecutors accused Zendejas, of Yorba Linda, of putting GHB or a similar date-rape drug into mixed drinks consumed by the alleged victim on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant. They alleged he then raped and sodomized the woman at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

"Obviously we're disappointed" in the verdict, Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim said shortly after leaving the courtroom. Ebrahim said he believed the "evidence clearly showed (Zendejas) was guilty of those charges."

In testimony last week, the alleged victim said she was served two mixed drinks by Zendejas the night of the incident, and her memory of the night - save for brief flashes of being with Zendejas - ended about two hours later.

She testified that she woke up the next morning alone in a hotel room, and felt pain in her vaginal and anal areas.

The physician who examined the woman on Jan. 26, 2008 testified that the injuries were consistent with rape, and a toxicologist hired by the prosecution testified that the woman's story was consistent with drug-induced rape.

Zendejas testified in his own defense Monday, and said he had consensual oral, vaginal and anal sex with the woman. He said she did not appear intoxicated, and she pursued him aggressively earlier in the night at his restaurant.

The defense's expert witnesses refuted the prosecution's claims that date-rape drugs were used. Other defense witnesses supported Zendejas' claim that the alleged victim pursued him aggressively the night they had sex.

In the interview after the hearing, Zendejas called the charges "totally false from the get-go," and said prosecutors had "zero, zero evidence."

Of the woman who accused him of raping her, Zendejas said, "She lied the whole time."

Zendejas said he believes the woman wanted a relationship beyond their "one-night stand," was upset at him for ignoring her, and fabricated a story of being drugged and raped to retaliate against him.

Zendejas was also critical of the San Dimas sheriff's investigators who worked on his case, saying, "they didn't do an investigation."

He said he felt detectives ignored evidence indicating his innocence, and collaborated with the alleged victim to bolster the criminal charges against him. He said the sheriff's department was "trying to put an innocent man in jail."

He said he would consider bringing civil action against the sheriff's department and the alleged victim. He said he wanted to consult with his attorneys before making a decision.

The jury foreman said in a brief interview after the hearing that jurors "discussed the case, and decided there wasn't enough evidence to reach a guilty verdict."

The juror, who declined to give his name but said he was 51 years old and from Walnut, said "conflicting reports on the science alone was enough to put in some reasonable doubt."

"We collectively had issues and concerns with the credibility of many of the witnesses," the juror said, "(Jane Doe) included."

Jurors began deliberating at this morning in the rape trial of former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas, who faces two felony counts and up to 13 years in prison for allegedly drugging a woman at his San Dimas restaurant, then raping and sodomizing her at a nearby motel.

Jurors retired to the deliberation room at about 11:25 a.m. following closing arguments this morning from the prosecution and defense attorneys, and broke at about noon for lunch. They will resume deliberations at about 1:30 p.m.

Prosecutors accuse 48-year-old Zendejas, a former Los Angeles Ram, of putting GHB or a similar date-rape drug into mixed drinks consumed by the alleged victim on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant. They allege he then raped and sodomized the woman at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas' lead defense attorney, James Reiss, told the jury this morning that Zendejas and the woman had consensual sex.

He said the alleged victim fabricated a story about Zendejas raping her because she was upset that Zendejas left her alone at the hotel the following morning, and failed to return multiple phone calls.

A jury on Monday convicted a San Bernardino man in a 2006 deadly shooting that stemmed from a dispute at El Patio Night Club in Rialto.

Andres Landeros Garcia, 23, was found guilty of murdering 24-year-old Rosa Trigo and the attempted murder of a man who was driving with her April 17, 2006, San Bernardino police said.

He was also found guilty of assault with a firearm on another passenger in the vehicle.

Trigo was wounded in the 1800 block of West 5th Street when several men inside a Hummer H2 pulled alongside the vehicle she was riding in and opened fire. She died minutes later.

Trigo and the man driving her were at the El Patio Night Club in the 300 block of East Foothill Boulevard in Rialto when a dispute arose between them and several men. Trigo and her companion left the club and were followed by several men in the Hummer.

melissa.pinion-whitt@inlandnewspapers.com

Former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas took the witness stand Monday and denied accusations that he drugged a patron at his San Dimas restaurant and raped the woman at a nearby motel.

Zendejas, who faces up to 13 years in prison for the Jan. 25, 2008 alleged rape, testified that "there's no question" the sex he had with the alleged victim was consensual.

"She'd been wanting to do that for a while," Zendejas said of the alleged victim, who testified in Pomona Superior Court last week that she blacked out after being served drinks at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant, then woke up in a motel room with injuries a physician testified were consistent with rape.

Zendejas' testimony Monday afternoon concluded his defense attorneys' case. Prosecution and defense attorneys are now set to deliver closing arguments Tuesday, and jurors will begin deliberating afterward.

During his 50 minutes on the witness stand, Zendejas, 48, testified that the alleged victim pursued him the night he allegedly raped her.

The woman, who described herself on the witness stand last week as a divorced woman in her mid-40s, walked up to him in the restaurant at about 10:30, and "the first thing she did was grab my crotch" and say she wanted to have sex, Zendejas testified.

He said he never made any drinks for her and did not drug her.

The woman was a regular at the restaurant, and the two had known each other for a year or a year and a half, said Zendejas, who was soft-spoken and wearing a dark suit during his testimony.

Zendejas that he and the woman danced together and kissed at the restaurant until they left together between midnight and 1 a.m. the following morning.

"She just said, 'Let's go (have sex).' I go, 'OK,'" Zendejas testified.

Zendejas detailed the sex he and the alleged victim had at the nearby Red Roof Inn. Zendejas testified that the alleged victim did not appear intoxicated, was awake and alert, and was enjoying their time together.

He testified that when he told undercover detectives he "knocked out" the alleged victim, he meant that he and the alleged victim had sex for so long she was "knocked out."

Also on Monday, Judge George Genesta announced he had ruled to dismiss two of the four felony charges originally filed against Zendejas.

Genesta granted a defense motion Friday to dismiss the charges - which allege that the woman was unconscious or unable to give consent - based on insufficiency of the evidence, then later on Friday determined his ruling was erroneous and said he would research whether he had the authority to reverse it.

He announced Monday that he could not reverse his decision to dismiss the charges, "even if the court acknowledges error," Genesta said.

"What's done is done," Genesta said.

Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim appeared upset by the judge's ruling, but said in an interview that Zendejas faces the same amount of prison time - 13 years - whether he's convicted on the four original felony counts or the two remaining counts, which allege Zendejas drugged the woman before raping and sodomizing her.

Prior to Zendejas' testimony Monday, his defense attorneys called to the witness stand a sexual-assault expert who said she believes Zendejas did not rape the alleged victim.

Former Los Angeles Police Department officer Trinka Porrata said that after reviewing documents about Zendejas' case, she also believes the woman was not drugged.

Also called to testify were a bartender at Zendejas who worked the night of the alleged rape, and a friend of the alleged victim who was with the woman the night of the alleged rape.

The bartender said she made at least one of the drinks that prosecutors believe contained GHB or a similar date-rape drug, and said Zendejas did not have access to it.

The bartender also said she saw the alleged victim grab Zendejas' crotch.

The alleged victim's friend testified that she drank three of the mixed drinks that the alleged victim drank, and did not feel any effects different from the normal effects of alcohol.

Click here to read past coverage of Zendejas' case.

A judge has granted a motion to dismiss two of the four felony counts filed by prosecutors against former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas, who is on trial for allegedly drugging a woman and later raping and sodomizing her.

Judge George Genesta made the ruling Friday after the prosecution rested its case, but later on Friday determined that he ruled erroneously. He told attorneys he would research whether he's permitted to reverse his ruling.

On Friday, attorneys downplayed the importance of the development. Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim said the sentencing range for Zendejas would be the same if convicted on all four or on only two of the felony counts.

At the start of trial proceedings in Pomona Superior Court this morning, Genesta announced he reviewed the trial transcript and he affirmed his ruling that two of the four felonies were dismissed.

Zendejas' defense attorneys argued Friday that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence to support two felony counts alleging the woman was unconscious at the time of the alleged rape.

Genesta granted the defense motion, leaving two felony counts standing against Zendejas for allegedly drugging the woman before raping and sodomizing her.

In an unusual scene this morning, Genesta repeatedly admitted he ruled in error on Friday when he dismissed the charges. He said he believes there is sufficient evidence for the charges to go forward.

But he said the law does not allow him to reinstate the charges after he has already dismissed them - "even if the court acknowledges error," Genesta said.

"What's done is done," Genesta said.

Ebrahim appeared upset by the judge's ruling, and said he would contact the appellate division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office's to inquire about possibly appealing the judge's ruling.

"I invite you to do so," Genesta replied.

After the court took its break for lunch, Ebrahim said the ruling "was a mistake by the court that has caused that, and it's unfortunate that we're in this situation."

After the judge's announcement of the dismissed charges, Zendejas' defense attorneys called to the witness stand a sex assault expert who said she believed Zendejas did not rape the alleged victim.

Former Los Angeles Police Department officer Trinka Porrata said that after reviewing documents about Zendejas' case, she believes the woman was not drugged.

Porrata testified that if the woman had been drugged at 9:15 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2008, as prosecutors allege, she would have blacked out sooner than she claims.

After Porrata testified, the bartender who was working the night of the alleged rape testified that the alleged victim was grabbing Zendejas's butt and groin at the restaurant.

The bartender, Christina Ledezma, said she prepared and served the initial mixed drinks given to the alleged victim - the drinks prosecutors believe were laced with GHB or a similar date-rape drug.

Ledezma said Zendejas did not have access to those drinks.

The final witness of the morning was Janette Mier-Lomeli, a friend of the alleged victim who was with the alleged victim at the restaurant on Jan. 25, 2008.

Mier-Lomeli testified that she had three of the same small red mixed drinks that the alleged victim believes included date-rape drugs, but did not feel any effect different than the usual effects of alcohol.

Both women who testified this morning said the alleged victim was not stumbling or acting intoxicated at the restaurant the night she was allegedly drugged.

Timothy Younger, one of Zendejas' defense attorneys, said during a break from testimony this morning that Zendejas will testify this afternoon.

The defense remains on track to rest its case today, and if that happens attorneys will deliver closing arguments Tuesday, Younger said.

Click here to read previous stories on Zendejas' case.

Former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas will take the witness stand today to defend himself against accusations that he raped and sodomized a patron at this San Dimas restaurant, his defense attorney said Friday.

The woman testified in Pomona Superior Court last week that she drank two small mixed drinks served to her by Zendejas on Jan. 25, 2008, then was put in a "zombie-like state" and eventually blacked out.

She testified that she woke up the next morning alone at a motel, with injuries on her vagina and anus a medical examiner testified were consistent with rape.

Zendejas has maintained the sex was consensual, his attorneys say.

Click here for past coverage of Zendejas' case.

The prosecution rested its case Friday after calling two witnesses in the rape trial of former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas.

The physician who examined Zendejas' alleged victim testified Friday morning in Pomona Superior Court that she found injuries on the woman's body consistent with a drug-induced sexual assault.

A sheriff's detective also testified for the prosecution, detailing a series of undercover meetings with Zendejas.

The former Los Angeles Rams kicker repeatedly said, "I knocked her out," when asked by the detective about his sexual encounter with the alleged victim.

Prosecutors accuse Zendejas, 48, of drugging a woman with GHB or a similar date-rape drug on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant in San Dimas - which Zendejas owns - then raping and sodomizing her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts filed by prosecutors, and his defense attorneys told the jury during opening statements Thursday that the sex was consensual.

Zendejas will testify Monday in his own defense, his lead defense attorney, James Reiss, said Friday. Reiss said he expects to rest his case Monday.

Friday morning's proceedings began with testimony from Malinda Wheeler, the physician who examined the alleged victim on April 26, 2008 - nearly 24 hours after she was allegedly drugged.

Wheeler testified Friday that the woman had two tears on her vagina and two tears on her anus that were consistent with sexual assault.

One of the anal tears was "very unusual and very significant," with a blood clot on it indicating the tear had caused bleeding, Wheeler testified.

"It's very significant, it's very deep, it's very large," Wheeler testified.

The prosecution's final witness was Liza Vera, a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective who said she met Zendejas for lunch on May 22, 2008. She said she initially met Zendejas during visits to his San Dimas restaurant, assuming an identity as a real estate agent from the San Diego area, she testified.

During their lunch conversation, recorded portions of which were played in court, the detective asked Zendejas about his sexual encounter with the alleged victim.

Zendejas repeatedly says, "I knocked her out," but never appears to make an explicit admission that he drugged her.

Zendejas mentioned serving red mixed drinks to the woman, saying the drinks "loosen them up ... putty in my hands."

Prosecutors believe the drinks contained GHB or a similar date-rape drug.

Zendejas' attorneys said before the trial that he was defending or bragging about his sexual performance when he said "knocked her out." During his cross-examination, Reiss implied Zendejas meant the alleged victim was "knocked out by the sex."

After the prosecution rested, Reiss called an expert witness to the stand who refuted many of the claims made Thursday by a toxicologist who testified for the prosecution.

Gordon Plotkin testified that based on the timeline of events presented by the alleged victim, he does not believe she was drugged with GHB or a similar date-rape drug.

Plotkin testified that if the woman had been drugged, she would have felt the effects of the drug far more quickly than the woman claims she did.

He also said that a hair sample from the woman that tested negative for GHB is significant because GHB should always be detectible on a hair sample.

The defense emphasized Plotkin's extensive experience compared to the prosecution's expert witness. Plotkin said he had testified on hundreds of cases, while the prosecution's expert witness said Thursday it was his first case.

Reiss also called to the witness stand three people who were at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant the night the woman claims Zendejas drugged her.

Culver City police Lt. Carlos Reynosa, who said he is a regular at the restaurant and a friend of Zendejas, said he saw the alleged victim with her hands "all over" Zendejas.

"Basically she was all over him, smothering him with kisses, grabbing his buttocks and his groin," Reynosa testified.

The other two patrons who testified said they saw the alleged victim acting affectionate toward Zendejas, but did not see her grab Zendejas's butt or groin.

With a jury trial looming, a man accused of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old woman at gunpoint in Upland in 2006 agreed to a plea offer from prosecutors this week in West Valley Superior Court.

Seuti Magba-Kamara, 24, would have faced a sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison if he had been convicted at trial of the five felony counts filed against him.

By taking a plea bargain and pleading guilty to three felony counts on Tuesday, Magba-Kamara, of Rancho Cucamonga, will be sentenced to 30 years in prison and may be eligible for parole in about 22 years, said Deputy District Attorney Carlo DiCesare.

According to prosecutors, Magba-Kamara forced a woman who was walking home into his car at gunpoint in the area of Eighth Street and San Antonio Avenue in March 2006. He then pulled into a nearby alley and forced her to have sex, prosecutors said.

The woman, who was 18 at the time of the attack, opted to walk home after the car she was riding in was impounded by police following a late-night traffic stop in the area of 14th Street and Euclid Avenue in Upland.

She called police about two hours later to report that she had been raped.

Trial proceedings in Magba-Kamara's case had been ongoing for about a month, with attorneys selecting a jury before a mistrial was declared because of a legal oversight, DiCesare said.

A new jury trial was set to begin when Magba-Kamara's defense attorney approached prosecutors about resolving the case, DiCesare said.

"I think it's a good result ... and it's my understanding that the victim is satisfied," DiCesare said.

The woman Magba-Kamara allegedly raped did not want to testify against Mabga-Kamara or see him again in court, DiCesare said.

Staff Writer Rod Leveque contributed to this report.

A man accused of meeting an underage boy for sex in a public park accepted a plea bargain from prosecutors on Thursday and will be sentenced next month to 180 days in jail.

Valiant Leonid Phipps, 44, was arrested Jan. 19 after a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy found him in a bathroom stall with an underage boy at a park in Rancho Cucamonga.

Phipps agreed to plead guilty Thursday in West Valley Superior Court to one felony count of unlawful sex with a minor more than three years younger. The two felony counts initially filed by prosecutors will dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Phipps will be required to register as a sex offender.

Staff Writer Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino contributed to this report.

The prosecution rested its case this morning after calling two witnesses in the rape trial of former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas.

The physician who examined the alleged victim the day after Zendejas allegedly raped her took the witness stand first this morning in Pomona Superior Court.

Malinda Wheeler, owner of Forensic Nurse Specialists, testified that the alleged victim had two tears to her vagina and two tears to her anus that were consistent with drug-induced sexual assault.

One of the anal tears was "very unusual and very significant," with a blood clot on it indicating the tear had caused bleeding, Wheeler testified.

"It's very significant, it's very deep, it's very large," Wheeler testified.

Prosecutors accused Zendejas, 48, of drugging the woman with GHB or a similar date-rape drug on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant in San Dimas, then raping and sodomizing her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas has pleaded not guilty to four felonies, and his attorneys maintain the sex Zendejas and the woman had was consensual.

After Wheeler's testimony, which lasted from about 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. this morning, Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim called to the witness stand a Los Angeles County Sheriff's detective who posed as a Realtor and secretly taped a conversation with Zendejas.

The detective, Liza Vera, said she met Zendejas for lunch at a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant in Brea on May 22, 2008. She initially met Zendejas during visits to his San Dimas restaurant, assuming an identity as a real estate agent from the San Diego area, she testified.

During their lunch conversation, recorded portions of which were played in court, the detective asked Zendejas about his sexual encounter with the alleged victim in the case.

In the conversation, Zendejas repeatedly says "I knocked her out," but never appears to make an explicit admission that he drugged her. His attorneys said before the trial that he was defending or bragging about his sexual performance.

During his cross examination, James, Reiss, Zendejas's lead defense attorney, implied Zendejas meant the alleged victim was "knocked out by the sex."

One of the exchanges from the lunch conversation follows:

-- Zendejas: I gave her a couple of drinks; likes her little red drinks; she's hammered.

-- Vera: We were, we were calling them Tony's special.

-- Zendejas: That's what they always want so I get them a couple of those, loosen them up a little bit.

-- Vera: And then you don't need to ask for permission; you just get them going and then ...

-- Zendejas: They're done.

-- Vera: Done. Nothing wrong with that.

-- Zendejas: Putty in my hands.

After Vera's testimony, Ebrahim rested his case, and the defense called as their first witness a self-described regular at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant who was at the restaurant the night Zendejas allegedly drugged the woman.

The man, Culver City police Lt. Carlos Reynosa, said he saw the alleged victim with her hands "all over" Zendejas.

"Basically she was all over him, smothering him with kisses, grabbing his buttocks and his groin," Reynosa testified.

Reynosa said he goes to the restaurant three to four times a week and considers Tony Zendejas and other Zendejas family members his friends.

Reynosa said the alleged victim "didn't appear to be intoxicated at all" from the time he first noticed her with Zendejas, to the time he saw the woman and Zendejas leave the restaurant together at about midnight or 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 26.

"She was obviously attracted to (Zendejas)," Reynosa testified.

Zendejas' defense is set to call more witness when the lunch break ends at 1:30 p.m.

The woman who accuses former NFL place-kicker Tony Zendejas of raping her testified Thursday that in the hours after Zendejas served her two mixed drinks at his San Dimas restaurant, she was left in a zombie-like state, then blacked out.

The next morning, she woke up naked and alone in a hotel room, with physical symptoms prosecutors say are consistent with rape.

Thursday was the first day of testimony in the Pomona Superior Court rape trial of Zendejas, a 48-year-old former Los Angeles Ram.

Zendejas has pleaded not guilty to four felonies filed by prosecutors, who allege he drugged the woman on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant, then raped and sodomized her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

"It started out like any weekend evening, but it ended in betrayal," Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim told jurors during his opening statement Thursday.

When the alleged victim visited the restaurant in April 2008, Zendejas told her, ""I knocked you out. I had to knock you out," in response to the woman's questions about what happened in January, Ebrahim told the jury.

Zendejas's lead defense attorney, James Reiss, said in his opening statement that Zendejas did not drug the woman, and said the sex they had last year was consensual.

He characterized Zendejas' conduct after the sex as "ridiculous" because he left the hotel room without saying goodbye, and failed to return messages from the woman. But Zendejas' behavior was "not criminal," Reiss said.

Reiss implied the alleged victim wanted a relationship with Zendejas, and felt hurt after their encounter.

"This is simply an issue of rejection, of disrespect, of classless, boorish behavior," Reiss said.

The alleged victim, who described herself on the witness stand as a divorced, in her mid-40s, with two adult children, said she went to Zendejas Mexican Restaurant on Jan. 25, 2008 to meet a friend who was there to celebrate a relative's birthday.

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The woman said she and her friend had visited Zendejas' restaurant on a weekly basis since November 2007, and had become acquainted with Tony Zendejas, who owns the restaurant and was often there when they visited.

The woman testified that she felt fine when she got to the restaurant, located at 665 W. Arrow Hwy., at about 8 p.m.

She had only half a beer the entire night, she testified, and also drank two small mixed drinks that Zendejas served to her - one at about 9:15 p.m. and one at 10 p.m.

She testified that the drinks made her feel uncoordinated, later in the night put her in a "zombie-like state," and ultimately caused her to black out and lose her memory of the evening after 11:30 or 11:40.

She said she felt "numb, just paralyzed. It was a feeling I had never felt before."

Between 11:30 or 11:40 and the time she woke up the next day at about 5 a.m., she said she has only three flashes of memory:

-- Sitting in the passenger seat of a car with black leather interior - not her own car - and seeing a figure to her left she believes was Zendejas.

-- Standing in a hotel lobby with Zendejas.

-- Standing in a hotel room with Zendejas.

The next morning she woke up alone and said she could tell from the way her body felt that she had had sex. She knew instinctually that it was Tony Zendejas she had slept with, she testified.

Later in the day, after consulting a rape counselor, she contacted Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and was examined for sexual assault at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center.

A physician there found that the woman suffered a large anal tear consistent with rape, Ebrahim said in his opening statement.

During his cross-examination of the woman, Reiss focused primarily on a series of e-mails sent between the woman and Zendejas between November 2007 and January 2008.

Reiss attempted to characterize the e-mails as flirtatious, filled with sexual innuendo. The woman denied that she was flirting with Zendejas, and testified that she had no romantic interest in the former football player.

Reiss told the jury during his opening statement that the woman had been seeking a lawyer to sue Zendejas civilly. The woman denied that she had contacted an attorney when asked by Reiss during his cross-examination.

The only other witness to testify Thursday was a toxicologist, Cyrus Rangan, who said the woman's symptoms, as she described them, are consistent with GHB or a similar date-rape drug.

He also said that negative drug tests of the woman are not inconsistent with drugging because GHB and similar drugs will leave the system before 12 hours - the amount of time that passed before the woman was tested.

Ebrahim said he expects to call as witnesses today the physician who examined the alleged victim, and a sheriff's detective who went undercover in April when the alleged went back to Zendejas Mexican Restaurant and recorded Zendejas saying, "I knocked you out" and "I took that booty."

Erahim said he expects to rest his case today.

Reiss said Zendejas will testify during the trial, likely on Monday or Tuesday.

Click here for past stories on Zendejas' case.

The woman who accuses former NFL place-kicker Tony Zendejas of drugging and raping her took the witness stand this morning to testify during Zendejas' rape trial in Pomona Superior Court.

The woman - identified in court as Jane Doe - has testified for about two hours, detailing her Jan. 25, 2008 encounter with Zendejas, when he allegedly drugged her at Zendejas Mexcian Restaurant in San Dimas, then raped her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas, 48, of Yorba Linda, is facing four felony counts of rape and sodomy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Zendejas played in the NFL from 1985 to 1995, including four seasons for the Los Angeles Rams from 1991 to 1994.

Before the alleged victim took the witness stand, Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim and Zendejas's defense attorney, James Reiss, delivered opening statements to the jury, which includes nine men and three women.

Reiss told the jury that Zendejas and the woman had consensual sex, but she reported the incident as a rape because she was angry at Zendejas for leaving the Red Roof Inn without saying goodbye, and for failing to return the woman's phone calls.

Reiss implied that the woman wanted a relationship with Zendejas, and was angry because she felt she had been rejected.

"This is simply an issue of rejection, of disrespect, of classless boorish behavior," Reiss said.

Reiss said the woman is seeking to get even at Zendejas. He called his client's behavior "ridiculous," but "not criminal."

Reiss also told the jury the woman had been seeking a lawyer to sue Zendejas civilly. The woman denied that she had contacted an attorney under cross-examination later in the morning.

In his opening statement Ebrahim told the jury that the alleged victim went to Zendejas Mexican Restaurant the night of the alleged incident to celebrate a birthday of a friend's relative.

"It started out like any weekend evening, but it ended in betrayal," Ebrahim said.

Zendejas and the alleged victim had known each other for about three months before the alleged incident, Ebrahim said.

While the woman was at the restaurant, Zendejas gave her two small mixed drinks that Ebrahim told jurors included a date-rape drug such as GHB or something similar.

The drug was a "short-acting sedative," Ebrahim said, which can clear a person's system in less than 12 hours. The woman tested negative for drugs the day after she was allegedly drugged.

Ebrahim called such date-rape drugs a "powerful weapon for a predator."

When the woman woke up the following morning, she was fully nude and alone in the hotel room. A medical examiner found a large anal tear consistent with rape during an examination later in the day, Ebrahim told the jurors.

On April 17, 2008, the alleged victim returned to Zendejas Mexican Restaurant with two undercover female police detectives. The victim, who was wearing a wire, recorded Zendejas telling her "I knocked you out. I had to knock you out," Ebrahim told the jury.

When the woman took the witness stand, Ebrahim began his questioning by taking the woman through a chronology of what happened the nigh she was allegedly drugged and raped by Zendejas.

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The alleged victim said she arrived at about 8 p.m. or 8:15 p.m., and felt fine. She had eaten taquitos and some fideo soup for dinner before arriving.

When she got to the bar she had half a Bud Lite beer. At about 9:15 p.m. Zendejas brought her the first small red drink, a mixture of Southern Comfort and cranberry juice, she said.

The woman said she had known Zenejas, who owns the restaurant, since she started coming weekly in November 2007. The two had a friendly relationship and exchanged e-mails. Their contact included sexual banter, she said, but he always rejected Zendejas's advances, she testified.

More than once Zendejas told her, "When are you going to let me tap that booty?" She said she always replied: "Never."

She said the red drink had a different effect on her than the mixed drink had had in the past. She said she felt the effects within a half-hour.

She said that after she had the drink, she and a friend danced from about 9:15 to 10:15. She said she felt uncoordinated. "My body was stiff."

When she got back to her table after dancing, Zendejas brought her another red drink, she said. She said she drank it. Afterward she and Zendejas started dancing, she said.

At about 11, she went back to a table with Zendejas. She noticed a strap on her purse had come undone, and tried to reattach it. She was unable to, and her purse fell to the floor and her belongings scattered on the floor.

"I felt immobile. I couldn't do it," she testified.

She said she felt "numb, just paralyzed. It was a feeling I had never felt before."

She said Zendejas brought her another red drink and she took one sip before giving the drink her friend.

By about 11:30 or 11:40 p.m., her memory of the night more or less ended, she testified. She said she has three flashes of memory for the rest of the night.

The first is sitting in the passenger seat of a car with black interior - not her car - and seeing Tony Zendejas in the driver's seat.

The next memory is being in a hotel lobby with Zendejas.

The next memory is being in a hotel room with Zendejas, she testified.

She said the next morning she woke up alone, fully naked, with her clothes scattered around the hotel room. Her keys were on an end table and so was her purse.

"I was completely confused, and I was in disbelief," she testified.

She said she left the hotel and walked to her car at Zendejas Mexican Restaruant. She talked to her friend Jeannette, who had been at the restaurant the night before, and asked her what had happened. Jeannette said she didn't know.

The woman said she called Zendejas, but he didn't pick up. She left him a message, which was never returned.

After speaking on the phone to a rape counselor, she reported the incident to the San Dimas station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. She went on Jan. 26, 2008 to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center to be examined for sexual assault, she testified.

Later in her the woman's testimony, Ebrahim played a recording in the courtroom from the woman's conversation with Zendejas in April.

During his cross-examination of the woman Reiss has focused this morning primarily on a series of e-mails sent between the woman and Zendejas between November 2007 and January 2008.

Reiss has been attempting the characterize the e-mails as flirtatious, filled with sexual innuendo. The woman has repeatedly denied that she was flirting with Zendejas, and testified that she had no romantic interest in the former football player.

She is set to retake the witness stand at 1:30 p.m. today, after the lunch break ends.

Click here for past stories on Zendejas' case

A jury of nine men and three women was seated this afternoon following a full day of jury selection in the rape trial of former NFL place-kicker Tony Zendejas.

With the trial's jury selection phase completed, the prosecutor and Zendejas' defense attorney are set to give opening statements Thursday morning in Pomona Superior Court.

Prosecutors accuse Zendejas, 48, of spiking a woman's drinks with GHB in January 2008 at the San Dimas restaurant he owns - Zendejas Mexican Restaurat - then raping and sodomizing the woman at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

When the woman returned to the restaurant April and asked Zendejas about the night they spent together in January 2008, he allegedly told her: "I knocked you out. I took that booty."

His statement, which was secretly recorded, has been taken out of context by prosecutors, said James Reiss, Zendejas' defense attorney. Zendejas was defending his sexual performance, Reiss said.

Zendejas, who played for the Los Angeles Rams from 1991 to 1994, has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts. He denies drugging the woman and maintains the sex was consensual.

After the attorneys complete opening statements to the jury, the woman Zendejas allegedly raped is set to testify, Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim told Judge George Genesta at the end of today's proceedings.

Ebrahim told the judge that testimony from a toxicologist and a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective will follow on Thursday.

Ebrahim said he expects to rest his case Friday after calling to the witness stand the nurse who examined the alleged victim.

During jury selection today, prospective jurors were polled on their familiarity with Zendejas' football career and his restaurants, and were asked if they had read or heard about the case before arriving for jury duty.

About a quarter of the 18 prospective jurors said they knew Zendejas was a football player, and about half said they had eaten at his restaurant. One-third said they had read or heard about the case in media reports.

One juror initially told Genesta he believed Zendejas was guilty based on what he had read in newspaper articles - the man was later dismissed from the jury.

Click here for past stories on Zendejas' case.

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Opening statements may be heard today in the rape trial of former NFL place-kicker Tony Zendejas.

Trial proceedings for the former Los Angeles Ram commenced Tuesday afternoon in Pomona Superior Court, with the judge polling prospective jurors for about an hour during the jury selection phase.

Jury selection is set to continue this morning, and opening statements will follow once a jury is seated.

Zendejas, 48, is accused of spiking a woman's drinks with GHB in January 2008 at the restaurant he owns in San Dimas -- Zendejas Mexican Restaurant -- then raping and sodomizing her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas, of Yorba Linda, has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges filed by prosecutors, and maintains that he had consensual sex with the woman.

Shortly after 50 prospective jurors entered Judge George Genesta's courtroom, attorneys in the case identified themselves, read lists of potential witnesses' names, and Zendejas was identified by name.

When jurors were asked if they knew anyone involved in the case, one man said he was familiar with Zendejas.

Another prospective juror raised his hand and asked, "What if you go to the bar that he owns?"

Genesta told jurors they would be asked today about their familiarity with Zendejas and with the case.

Zendejas played in the NFL from 1985 to 1995, including four seasons with the Rams from 1991 to 1994.

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Two men accused of beating a Claremont man nearly to death after breaking into his home in January must stand trial on charges of attempted murder and first-degree residential robbery, a judge ruled Monday.

The ruling came after about an hour of testimony at a preliminary hearing in Pomona Superior Court, where police officers revealed details of the beating that nearly killed Vincent Gottuso, 61, who owns real estate offices in Claremont and Upland.

Prosecutors allege Robert LaMonte Jones, 20, and Messigh Liketin Perry-Garner, 16, were in the process of burglarizing Gottuso's home Jan. 20 in the 700 block of West Tenth Street when Gottuso came home.

The men, of Pomona, repeatedly beat Gottuso in the head with a rifle and shotgun belonging to the homeowner, then left believing Gottuso would die from his injuries, authorities believe.

Gottuso was initially hospitalized in critical condition, but has since returned home and made significant progress in his recovery, his sister said in an interview.

Claremont police Officer Christopher Casas testified that he and a detective were the first to respond to a 911 call placed by Gottuso's wife.

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She initially told police she had returned home and found blood and a handgun in her home, and said she didn't see anyone in the home.

When officers arrived, the woman "was hysterical, crying uncontrollably," Casas testified.

Before officers arrived, the wife said she found a bloodied man on the couch in the home's library, Casas testified.

She told officers she couldn't recognize the man -- who was later identified as Gottuso -- and believed he was dead, Casas testified.

When officers first contacted Gottuso, "he seemed to be going in and out of consciousness," Casas said.

Gottuso was initially able to repeat his name, but by the time paramedics arrived Gottuso was unable to remember his name, Casas testified.

The house had been ransacked, with drawers left open in the kitchen and master bedroom, and items scattered around the bedroom, Casas testified.

The officer said a window in the bedroom was open two to three inches, and the screen had been removed. On the outside of the home, bricks had been stacked at the window, apparently for use as a step stool.

Casas testified that he found a rifle an a shotgun covered in blood on the bed in the master bedroom.

The men now facing charges were arrested in the days following the attack at Claremont West Suites, 475 East Foothill Blvd. in Pomona, where police believe they were living.

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Claremont police detective Jason Walters testified that in the men's motel room, he found two bloody pairs of pants, and two sets of tennis shoes with blood stains on the soles and sides of the shoes.

Police found numerous items belonging to the Gottuso family, including jewelry, video games and a video-game system, and a bag with Vincent Gottuso's name and address on it, Walters testified.

Police also located a social-security card and a Claremont West Suites rental agreement in the room -- both with Jones's name on them.

After the two men were arrested, they both admitted their involvement in the robbery, but each blamed the other for striking Gottuso repeatedly in the head with the butt of a weapon, Claremont police detective Hector Tamayo testified.

Both denied striking Gottuso, though Jones told police he choked Gottuso to keep him from yelling, Tamayo testified.

Tamayo said he visited Gottuso the day of the beating at Los Angeles County--USC Medical Center.

Gottuso's face was swollen, his eyes were shut, his left ear was cut, and large cuts on his head -- ranging in length from 5 to 8 inches -- had been closed with staples, Tamayo said.

The following day, Tamayo again visited Gottuso, and he had recovered to the point where he was able to give a more detailed description of the incident, Tamayo testified.

Gottuso said he came home from work and found two men in his home, Tamayo testified.

"They just started beating him severely," Tamayo testified. "They were like animals, is how he described it."

Following testimony from the three officers, Perry-Garner's defense attorney, Kent Thomas, moved to dismiss the attempted murder charge.

He told Judge Robert Martinez that it appeared there was evidence of an assault presented by the prosecution, but no explicit intent to kill.

Martinez denied the motion, which was joined by Jones's attorney, then held Jones and Perry-Garner to answer on the criminal charges.

Gottuso's sister, Lorie Anderson, said in an interview after the hearing that Gottuso is now doing "better -- a lot better."

She said Gottuso is going to work daily during the work week, but usually works less than a full day.

"It's a process," she said. "Everything is a process. But yes, he's going into work now."

Neither Gottuso or his wife attended Monday's hearing, because "he has no desire to be around (the defendants)," Anderson said.

"This is a horrendous thing that happened to this family," she added.

Bail remains set for both Jones and Perry-Garner at $1 million. They are next due in court March 16 to be arraigned on the confirmed charges.

Oct. 15, 2009 CORRECTION: A previous version of this blog post identified Jones and Perry-Garner as brothers. They are not related. The men told Claremont police officers they were brothers when they were arrested.

Former NFL place-kicker Tony Zendejas is set to stand trial Tuesday morning on charges that he raped and sodomized a woman after allegedly drugging her at his San Dimas restaurant.

Trial proceedings will begin with jury selection in Pomona Superior Court, said James Reiss, one of Zendejas's private defense attorneys.

Prosecutors accuse Zendejas of spiking a patron's drink with GHB in January 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant on Arrow Highway, then raping and sodomizing the woman at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas, who kicked for the Los Angeles Rams from 1991 to 1994, has pleaded not guilty to the four felony counts filed by prosecutors.

The Yorba Linda resident maintains he did not drug the woman, and says the sex they had at the motel was consensual, Reiss said.

Reiss said he expects testimony in the case to take four days -- two for the prosecution, and two for the defense.

"I would think by next week we'll get a verdict," Reiss said.

Reiss said he believes Zendejas will testify, but will not decide whether to put his client on the witness stand until after the prosecution has completed its case.

"(Zendejas) wants to clear his name," Reiss said.

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The family of a man who died in an apparent accidental shooting is mulling whether to file a civil lawsuit against the Iraq war veteran who was recently acquitted of voluntary manslaughter for the 2006 incident.

Yesenia Valdez said in an interview last week that the jury's not-guilty verdict last month for Christopher Sullivan was "not fair," and said Sullivan has taken "zero responsibility for his actions" that led to the death of her brother, 24-year-old Cesar Valdez.

She said her family doesn't know whether they will pursue a wrongful-death claim against Sullivan. She said they hadn't retained an attorney, and are "keeping (their) options open."

"As a family, we feel that justice wasn't served," said Yesenia Valdez, 26, of Chino. "Chris isn't taking any responsibility for his actions."

Sullivan, a 27-year-old Marine veteran who completed training with the Los Angeles County sheriff's department before the April 8, 2006 incident, was acquitted of manslaughter Feb. 20 for Valdez's death.

Sullivan, of Upland, returned home from Iraq less than a week before the shooting, and the night before the morning shooting was out with friends to celebrate his return home.

Sullivan and Valdez, close friends since high school, were saying goodbye to each other and talking in Sullivan's front yard in the 1500 block of Winson Court before the shooting.

Sullivan had his sheriff's-department-issued pistol with him. Sullivan told police Valdez grabbed at his arm or gun before the weapon fired in Valdez's mouth.

Heather Montoya, Valdez's girlfriend, was waiting in her truck for the men to finish talking when Valdez was shot.

Montoya was the only other person present at the scene besides Sullivan and Valdez. She testified during Sullivan's trial in West Valley Superior Court that she saw Sullivan point his weapon at Valdez about five seconds before the fatal shot.

Montoya, who now lives in Cottonwood, Ariz., said in an interview last week that she was unhappy with the jury's verdict. She said she was in Arizona when she learned of the verdict through a text message from Yesenia Valdez.

"I'm happy I wasn't there that day to see (Sullivan's) face," said Montoya, 25. "I don't have anything to say to (Sullivan or his family). I don't even want to see them."

Sullivan has not responded to requests for comment since his acquittal.

Montoya said Valdez's death "was the hardest thing that I've ever been through. I've never gotten over it."

"We were so in love," she added. "We were together for a couple of years, but in our eyes we were just beginning and looking forward to the future."

Sullivan, Cesar Valdez and Yesenia Valdez were very close friends, said Yesenia Valdez. She said she was upset because she feels Sullivan has never fully explained the incident.

"He betrayed me. He betrayed my brother," she said. "Like I said, take some credit for being irresponsible. It's your gun."

Both Montoya and Yesenia Valdez said they had limited contact with Sullivan immediately following the shooting, and no contact since he was charged criminally for the shooting. Both women said Sullivan has never offered an apology for Valdez's death.

"He never really said what the story really was," said Valdez, who said she was upset Sullivan didn't testify at his trial.

Of the day the jury's verdict was read, Valdez said "it was the second worst day of my life. The first time was when I lost my brother."

Photo is of Cesar Valdez and Heather Montoya in 2005 at Marines Miramar Air Station in San Diego.