Arcadia police announced they’ve made an arrest in the shooting death of Justo Cesar Morales, 25, of Arcadia. Officers found Morales at about 1:40 p.m. Sunday, dead inside his parents’ home in the 2200 block of Canyon Road.
Brandon Michael Landreth, 30, of Monrovia was arrested in Pasadena last night in connection with the killing he is being held in Twin Towers without bail. Arraignment is scheduled for Friday.
We were tipped to this information from a Crime Scene reader. Thank you.
Arcadia police officers, who had no problem talking to us during their contract dispute, refused to discuss the case beyond the basics with reporter Robert Hong.
That’s OK though, we’re still going to get the whole story for tomorrow’s paper.
WHOA! That’s not fair, Frank. I’ll bet it wasn’t APD representatives who spoke to you during the contract dispute, they were APOA reps. Might be the same individual person, but two very distinctly different hats.
Police work should be – and rightfully is – seperate from politics.
Even though the groups are closely related and the individuals the same folks, its not fair to tret them as one-in-the-same. In fact, it’s down right unethical, and un-American.
You know better!
I don’t know about unethical or unamerican. APD and the APOA may be two separate entities. But the newspaper is one entity. I get really ticked when it’s used by the same people (wearing different hats or not) for their own means.
I think the thing that struck me was total non responses Robert got after his initial phone call. Here’s a challenge to the watch commanders and detectives who we talk to on the phone: Why not engage in a little give and take with a reporter? You don’t have to give up the store. The fact is that everybody in Arcadia and Monrovia connected to this case knows the details already. And, they are talking to each other and to us. If they are spreading rumors it’s going to hurt you more at trial than getting out the truth as you know it when you know it.
That’s my opinion.
That’s fair, but keep the two seperate entities clear. Bad things happen in places where those lines blur.
I won’t argue with that.
I am so glad that they arreseted someone now we can all sleep a little better.
Frank you’re off base on this. There are legit reasons information isn’t readily available to you guys and you all gripe about it so much.
Until you have to answer to a Captain or Chief about info you gave out than you can’t understand why a W/C might be hesitant. Ass chewing is a daily part of police work and it works it’s way downhill.
I know a certain officer who years ago gave a comment to a local reporter (not you) that was blown way out of proportion regarding a certain high profile case. That officer was not only misquoted he was named as the source of the comment which he was promised would not happen. His chief was not pleased.
He refused to ever give info to reporters again and never did. Once burned twice shy and it goes both ways. I’m sure you know that.
Local Boy
LB,
I get the asschewing thing.
Guess what? It happens here too, and I’m guilty of giving the young reporters hell when they can’t put a story together. That said I want to repeat the crux of my argument: There are people out there who know the skinny in this case and they are talking to us. Why not provide an official spin?
Another example of this sort comes from the weekend. There were several posters on the Foothill Cities spewing information that our reporter couldn’t get directly from the Monrovia watch commander.
That was a little weird considering Dick Singer put out a ton of stuff and the posters on Foothills had been talking to police sources in Monrovia.
I was glad to see Foothills had all that info, but the W/C and detectives should get up to speed and realize that all the information they want to hold back is out there waiting to be reported in the blogs and in print.
I get your point Frank. Maybe those people who post here with information from confidential police or city hall sources are doing so knowing the info is OK to put out.
Rules for the officers are a different thing when put in the official context and you know and I know there is a degree of distrust between law enforcement and the media.
I won’t say the media has always been the problem but they have been at times and that’s not easy for people who give trust reluctantly as it is to forget.
Blogs like this give out needed info in a more timely manner than papers due to “the rules” and are a help to the public as far as I’m concerned.
The us against them (media vs cops) crap does nobody any good but will always be present to some degree. It’s just the way it is. You get upset in print with cops your job won’t get any easier my friend. Better to vent about over a cold one.
Local Boy
I heard a comment today from a guy being interviewed on TV…”the internet is the great equalizer.” How true it is and how times have changed. Information is no longer a phone call or a letter away; it is almost immediate. So be it tips or eyewitness accounts, the media gets the info about as quick as the cops. That reality does bring the necessity that law enforcement and the powers above modify the way that “official” information is dealt with. No doubt and I think most folks would agree with that aspect Frank.
But as to attacking the mid level supervision and IO’s on a case, you need look to a slightly higher pay and political grade. A career is not worth the intentional or unintentional release of information for want of pleasing the media. As LB points out, we answer far up on the food chain.
From the get go, my name has been on my posts, letters and communications. No hiding who I am or where I am. Scolding the POA, for which I have been the most vocal I think, is not the best route. I think you lean that way in the latter posts. In many circumstances, not all by any means, there should be a little more detail and an “official spin”, but at our level, it is not our call.
Ok Tom fair enough about looking higher. But that’s always a problem too, because when we go up they come down on the mid-level guys for letting it get that far.
As for picking on APOA, I’m sorry if that’s the imnpression I left here Tom. Again it’s the absolute roadblock put up for the reporter by the lead IO on the case that frustrated me.