Recently in Bell Category

Former Bell police officer from Pico Rivera sentenced for on-duty sexual assault

By Brian Day on December 23, 2010 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

LOS ANGELES -- A Pico Rivera man and former Bell police officer received a 9-year sentence Thursday for sexually assaulting a woman after pulling her over for a traffic stop, authorities said.

Feliciano Sanchez, 35, was sentenced to federal prison by U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank, U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said in a written statement.

He pleaded guilty last year to pulling over a woman on May 16, 2007, driving her to an isolated parking lot and forcing her to perform oral sex, Mrozek said.

Sanchez was in full uniform and had his hand on his duty weapon when he committed the assault, officials said.

Twice after the assault, Sanchez went to the victim's workplace and told her he was watching her, officials said. The visits prompted the woman to quit her job.

"This former police officer violated his oath to serve and protect the community by committing a crime that was particularly offensive, dehumanizing and harmful," United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. said. "In this case, Mr. Sanchez committed an egregious assault, caused incalculable pain and suffering to the victim, and damaged the honor of the thousands of men and women in law enforcement who serve us every day."

Bell Eight enter not guity pleas -- Rizzo escorted by body guards

By Frank Girardot on October 21, 2010 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

From AP

LOS ANGELES - Eight current and former officials including alleged ringleader Robert Rizzo, have pleaded not guilty to looting millions of dollars from the city of Bell's treasury.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hilleri G. Merritt ordered them to return to court Dec. 8 for a preliminary hearing. None of the eight, including Bell's mayor, vice mayor and ousted city manager spoke in court Thursday except to say "yes" when Merritt asked if they were agreeable to the hearing date.
The not guilty pleas were entered by their attorneys.
An additional hearing was scheduled for Friday for one of the defendants, Councilman George Mirabal, so his lawyer could discuss pretrial motions. A scheduling conflict kept Mirabal's chief attorney from appearing in court with him Thursday.
Only two of the defendants, Mirabal and former Councilman Victor Bello, are still in custody.

Maywood disbands PD; will layoff 100 employees -- LASO and Bell take over

By Frank Girardot on June 22, 2010 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

From the Los Angeles Times:

The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said.

In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.

"We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city manager. Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.

Bell's suspected bad cop

By Frank Girardot on May 30, 2008 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Whatever happened to the unnamed victim in this story, it sure sounds ugly. Thank God the feds are keeping on eye on suspicious cops in southeast LA County. No one else seems to care.

Here's the top of Ruby Gonzales' story:

LOS ANGELES - A former Bell police officer and Pico Rivera resident was arrested Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman after a 2007 traffic stop.
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Feliciano Sanchez, 33, on one count of depriving the woman of her civil rights under color of law and one count of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.
FBI agents took Sanchez into custody Thursday and he appeared in the afternoon in federal court. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center without bail and will be arraigned Monday on the charges, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tammy C. Spertus.
Sanchez's attorney, Ira Salzman, could not be reached for comment.

City News is ringing the Bell

By Frank Girardot on May 29, 2008 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

These blurbs come from the City News Service wire. They are written in an easy-to-read format for radio. I've supplied links to related content:

A former Bell police officer is due in a federal courtroom in downtown L- A this afternoon on charges of forcing a woman to have sex with him following a traffic stop just over a year ago. 33-year-old Feliciano Sanchez of Pico Rivera is accused of stopping the woman in Bell last May, then driving her to a remote location and forcing her to perform a sex act.
Meanwhile ... a Bell High School teacher is being accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student. 37-year-old Alex Diaz was arrested May 21st on suspicion of having sex with a minor. Diaz and the teen were allegedly caught in the back seat of a car in a Carson parking lot. He's out of custody on 20-thousand-dollars bail.