Recently in celebrity justice Category

This from the Associated Press, covering the Phil Spector murder trial downtown. Mr. Spector has a new hair-do for the occaision:

Jury selection for music producer Phil Spector's murder retrial began Monday.

About 80 prospects reported to court Monday and an initial group of 18 has been
chosen for questioning.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler asked the nine men and nine women if they can be fair and impartial and follow his instructions.

Spector is charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 death of Lana Clarkson.

 

The 40-year-old actress died of a gunshot through the mouth while sitting in
the foyer of his Alhambra mansion.

Spector's first trial ended a year ago when jurors deadlocked 10-2, with the
majority favoring conviction. Spector's defense suggested Clarkson shot
herself.

You have to read down to the bottom of the entry. Basically. blogger Jim Treacher posted a pre-debate bit of satire Tuesday. This afternoon, talk show host Sean Hannity, heard locally on KABC 790, used the bit without attribution, Treacher said.

<snip>

P.P.P.S. I'm told Hannity used this without attribution on his 10/2 radio show. If that's the case, and if you enjoy my work, could you please let him know he should give me credit for it? If he's going to criticize SNL, he should try a little harder than they do.

You can read the rest of entry here.

Certain events retain a power that stays with you for life. Clearly the Kennedy assassinations or that of Martin Luther King have that sort of effect on people.

I would argue that June 18, 1994 might be one of those moments -- certainly in my life.

The title of this post should give away the content (if the picture doesn't). I spent that Friday from about 6:30 a.m. until at least 11 p.m. outside Parker Center, O.J. Simpson's Brentwood home and back outside Parker Center as part of one of the most surreal events I'll ever cover.

Here's some of what we ran the following day:

Simpson's arrest ends day of drama

'Fallen American hero' faces murder charges in death of former wife, her friend

By Tom Scanlon, Tori Richards and Frank Girardot Staff Writers

O.J. SImpson took off on the longest, most dangerous run of his life before being arrested on murder charges last night.

"O.J. Simpson is in custody," said LAPD Cmdr. David Gascon at a 10 p.m. news conference. "He is being booked and processed."

The double murder defendant -- called a "fallen American hero" by the man in charge of prosecuting him was arrested at his Brentwood home after a 60-mile 90-minute police chase. The chase began in Orange County and crossed much of Los Angeles with Simpson, 46, keeping police away by pointing a gun to his head.

The 8:50 p.m. arrest of Simpson, accused of killing his ex-wife and her male friend capped a bizarre day that included a bomb scare, fears that Simpson would kill himself, a mysterious 911 call to the home of murdered Nicole Brown Simpson, pleas by officials to have Simpson turn himself in, a police force on the defensive and a public reading of an emotional note from Simpson.

The former USC and National Football League star running back had eluded police since 11 a.m. when he was suppossed to turn himself in.

The question of the day was "Where's O.J.?" For most of the day the Los Angeles Police Department had no answer.

He was considered armed and dangerous, and after he was finally arrested, a gun was recovered from the cat that led police on a chase watched by much of the country.

Simpson was carrying photos of Nicole Simpson and their daughter when he was arrested. Gascon said SImpson would be taken to the Men's Central Jail. He probably will be held there -- perhaps under a suicide watch -- until Monday, when he is likely to ... 

If you are a freelance photog you probably want to get a shot of what Yahoo Buzz says are the hottest actors right now:

1		2	Elisha Cuthbert (23)	+196	366	1	Jacinda Barrett	1465%
2		43	Jacinda Barrett (2)	+173	184	2	Natassia Malthe	803%
3		3	Jessica Alba (1158)	-1	86	3	Paula Garces	752%
4		5	Lindsay Lohan (1049)	+5	72	4	Carla Gugino	534%
5		16	Eliza Dushku (2)	+40	72	5	Greta Garbo	433%
6		4	Miley Cyrus (385)	-13	66	6	Monica Keena	430%
7		6	Angelina Jolie (1257)	+3	66	7	Kim Cattrall	318%
8		93	Natassia Malthe (2)	+49	55	8	Dominique Swain	285%
9		89	Paula Garces (2)	+49	55	9	Priyanka Chopra	268%
10		11	Hilary Duff (1307)	+4	53	10	Mallika Sherawat	246%
11		32	Katrina Kaif (112)	+36	51	11	Katrina Kaif	236%

Just don't go to Malibu if you want to get some photos:

From LAObserved:

The seaside city has asked Ken Starr, dean of the Pepperdine Law School, to convene media and legal experts to help draft an ordinance that would control paparazzi swarms around local celebs. They're talking about possible buffer zones and a tax on the photogs. "We're coming up on another summer season. Let's hope we are not in store for another tsunami of paparazzi," Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich says.

Spotted this on Newsmax:

Attorney Jon Eardley, who purports to represent Britney Spears, has filed documents in an L.A. U.S. District Court to move Britney’s conservatorship case from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to federal court. Eardley maintains offices in Washington, D.C., Jericho, New York, and Whittier, Calif.

Eardley claims in court papers that, without due process, Spears “is being confined by the conservator to the private prison of her own home,” and he contends that this is a violation of her civil rights.

After Britney twice spent time in a psychiatric ward, Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz placed her in a temporary conservatorship under her father Jamie and his attorney, Andrew Wallet. The order will continue until a scheduled hearing on March 10.

“I see the case as a civil rights case,” Eardley told People magazine. “These are issues of confinement. Very serious confinement. Not allowed to contact her friends. Not allowed to use the phone. Not allowed to come and go as you please. Bodyguards controlling you and so forth.”

Forget about the war on terror. Forget too about helping out on the streets where gang violence is out of control.

The FBI has bigger fish to fry, according to the NY Post:

February 8, 2008 -- THE FBI is poking around the celebrity magazine world on the West Coast, investigating allegations of kickbacks and pay-for-play schemes, according to a source who was contacted by investigators.

The source was told that the probe, which appears to be at a preliminary stage, involved "paparazzi and In Touch" magazine.

The source was contacted by an agent named Dennis Webster in the FBI's Los Angeles office. Webster had not returned calls to Media Ink by presstime.

Specifics about what the feds are looking into remain murky, but people at the celebrity magazines have been burning up the lines in recent days since a story about the FBI probe was posted Wednesday on the complex.com Web site and picked up by gawker.com and jossip.com.

However, the source said that West Coast legal circles have been buzzing that Hollywood stars who have long felt they were being harassed by the paparazzi were perhaps pushing the feds to act.

Stars have long been frustrated that local law enforcement has been unable to thwart the paparazzi unless they either pose a real threat to someone or are trespassing on private property.

It also says Paris Hilton didn't get preferential treatment. The report, released this afternoon by the OIR goes into a wide variety of other topics regarding the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

UPDATE #1 3:44 p.m. 12/20/07

It's funny how we focus on the celebrity aspects of a report like this and miss some of the more important details. A whole section of the report deals with in custody deaths and while it is entirely without names...there is a curious entry on page 24:

C A S E A 76-year old inmate went down in a dorm at North County Correctional Facility and
subsequently died. He had been seated on his lower bunk and, when he tried to get up,
he fell and struck his head on the floor. While being treated for the resulting laceration,
he complained of chest pains and was transported by ambulance to the hospital, where
he was treated for various ailments, went into cardiac arrest, and died three days later.
An NCCF sergeant interviewed several inmates assigned to bunks near the deceased
inmate’s. All said that the inmate had been in poor health, and none noted anything
unusual about the fall or the circumstances surrounding it. Even though the facts
suggested this elderly inmate died from natural causes, because the deceased inmate had
gained notoriety for his role in the murder of an LAPD officer decades earlier, both
Homicide and IAB investigators responded to the scene to insure there was no suspicious
activity. The on-call OIR attorney likewise rolled out. In the end, the coroner determined
the inmate had died of natural causes. However, the case did raise the issue of
whether this particular inmate, given his age and background, should have been housed
in a more appropriate location than a general population dormitory. Housing older
inmates is an ongoing problem for the jails, and the LASD used this case as an occasion
to renew its efforts to create specialized “old man” dorms or housing units.

Obviously this refers to Jimmy Lee Smith, one of the infamous Onion Field Killers.

I plan on linking to the complete report in a post later today.

UPDATE #2 4:57 p.m. 12-20-07

And....here  is the report.