Recently in CHP Category

Jennifer McLain shot this picture at lunchtime near the intersection of Arrow Highway and Enid street in Covina/Azusa.

Apparently a car blew through the intersection about 12:30 p.m. and caused a three car accident that sent three people to the hospital with minor injuries.

We're halfway through hands-free Tuesday and cell phone users ignoring the new law are apparently plentiful.

I know I saw at least two people talking on the phone this a.m. on my way in. Both had something in common: both were women and both were driving slow and I was stuck behind 'em.

We've had reporters and photogs out in the field doing ride-alongs and they've seen some interesting stuff today.

KFI reporter Shannon Farren said she spotted nine people using their cell phones westbound on the 10 between downton and the 405 this morning. One was using the phone and smoking.

*As for now, I'm suffering through an extreme case of nomophobia.

Here's the photo caption:

Here's California Highway Patrol officer Joe Zizi from the Santa Fe Springs CHP office gives a citation to a female on Rose Hills Road in Whittier for Hands-Free Cell Phone violation on July 1, 2008.  Today is the first day the law goes into effect.  The La Habra woman, who did not want to give her name, said she had been working too long and forgot about the new law. (Raul Roa) 

 

The accident on Glendora Mountain Road Monday claimed the life of  an 18-year-old who was apparently not wearing a safety belt, according to early reports. This from reporter Amanda Baumfeld, who is working the story this morning:

Mary E. Lange, 18, has died after a car she was a passenger in went over an embankment on Glendora Mountain Road Monday around 6 p.m., according to Officer Elizabeth Van Valkenburgh of the California Highway Patrol.

It is likely that Lang was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car, Van Valkenburgh added.

Lange was riding in a Toyota Tercel apparently driven by *Stephanie Bergner, 18, * officials said. The driver lost control and the car careened over an embankment at mile marker 5*, authorities said. Berger and a third girl, identified as Esther Cota, were severely injured.

Here's the AP story. I'll update with a map and photos later.

*The girls apparently lived in the David and Margaret Youth and Family Services home in La Verne.

*We've found MySpace pages apparently associated with the girls. 

Here's a MySpace apparently belonging to Mary.

This may be the MySpace for Stephanie.

**CHP sources tell us that the girls may have been in the mountains to go fishing. There is no evidence that alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash, officials said.

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Mayor's son questioned in car theft case.

An unidentified person was detained at Mayor Ron Beilke's home Wednesday as part of an auto theft investigation, authorities said.

<snip>

Beilke said deputies questioned his 17-year-old son, who visited the same house as Sonny Costello, a 19-year-old transient, who is accused of stealing a 2002 Chevy Suburban on Tuesday night.

Monrovia plans outside investigation of claims against PD.

MONROVIA - Police Chief Roger Johnson said Wednesday that an outside agency would investigate sexual harassment allegations contained in a lawsuit filed against a Monrovia police officer.

Rudy Ramirez, 25, a former Monrovia jailer and member of the Monrovia police Explorer program, filed the lawsuit last month. He claims Sgt. Dan Verna sexually abused and harassed him beginning in 2000 while he was a minor until November 2006 when Ramirez was terminated by the department.

"Any of these allegations are going to be reviewed by a law enforcement agency independent of the Police Department to determine if there's been any wrong-doing," Johnson said.

<snip>

To bolster claims in his lawsuit, Ramirez states that Verna helped a suspected gang member, Salvador Parra, get released from Monrovia city jail on two occasions in 2006.

Sheriff's officials on Wednesday said a deputy saw Verna and Parra in 2006 inside of a parked car in Fish Canyon.

On patrol May 2, 2006, Deputy Mike Silva spotted the pair, authorities said. When he saw a gun in the car, the deputy detained Verna and called for backup, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Richard Shaw. 

Man shot and killed in Hacienda Heights.

Police responded to the 1100 block of Finegrove Avenue to reports of shots fired around 9:50 p.m., according to Deputy Aura Sierra of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

They found a Latino man, 30, with multiple gun shots wounds in his torso, Sierra said.

CHiPs OIS follow up; woman identified.

Two CHP officers patrolling the eastbound 10 Freeway just after 11 p.m. initially noticed the woman as she passed them in her car, driving at a high rate of speed, Dolson said.

The officers thought she might have been under the influence, so they pulled her over at Hellman and Garfield avenues, just off the freeway, Dolson said.

When one of the officers approached the vehicle, the woman pulled out the replica handgun, prompting the officer to fire one round, he said.

The fake handgun was later recovered at the scene, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Oscar Butao.

"It looked exactly like a righteous firing gun," Dolson said. "You would probably have to handle it and examine it for a short time to realize it wasn't real."

We're following this story as it develops. Officers told reporter Tania Chatila that the woman is still not identified. But somehow they know she was 52-years-old:

ALHAMBRA - Authorities are investigating the shooting death of a woman by a California Highway Patrol officer Tuesday night after the woman allegedly brandished a fake handgun.

The incident occurred about 11 p.m. off the 10 Freeway near Hellman and Garfield avenues.

Authorities believe the woman - who has not been identified - pulled out a replica handgun prompting the officer to fire back.

The woman died at the scene, according to reports.

No further details were immediately available.

This from the Associated Press:

ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) _ A California Highway Patrol officer has shot and killed a woman during an Alhambra traffic stop after she pulled what turned out to be a replica handgun.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Aura Sierra says the shooting just off Interstate 10 east of downtown Los Angeles occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Sheriff's investigators remained on the scene Wednesday morning at Hellman and Garfield avenues.

KTLA television says the CHP officer spotted the woman's red BMW speeding on the freeway and made a traffic stop just off the interstate.

Investigators say the woman pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and the CHP officer, fearing for his life, shot her. Sierra says the woman was declared dead at a nearby hospital.

The woman's name hasn't been released.

Reporter Brian Day's story on Tuesday's officer involved shooting in Covina has the first actual quotes by representatives of Glenn Patrick Rose's family.

Here's the story top:

COVINA - Details continue to emerge about a fatal officer-involved shooting earlier this week and the local man who was killed.

The driver, Glenn Patrick Rose, 25, was shot to death by police. Rose and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Sarah Morales, were both zapped with a Taser prior to the shooting and Rose had been convicted twice before of fleeing police, according to police and court documents.

Rose and Morales were inside an allegedly stolen pickup truck when he rammed a car being used for cover by a sheriff's deputy and a California Highway Patrol officer, said sheriff's Lt. Dan Coleman.

Records show that Rose was convicted of evading police in July 2001 and May 2002. He had also been found guilty of grand theft and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent.

Brian Claypool and Eric Maier, attorneys representing Rose's family, said Rose had no history of violent crime and that the 6- and 7-year-old convictions only bolster their belief that he was merely trying to evade officials, not attack them.

"When the officers opened fire, they didn't know that (Rose had a criminal record)," Claypool said, adding that past deeds do not excuse bad decisions made by officials.

"He was really doing a lot to change his life," Claypool added. "He was really working hard."

Though Rose had a drug problem in the past, he had been sober for more than four years, Claypool said.

After two days of intensive reporting Brian Day is set to report several new revelations that have emerged from his investigation into the slaying of Glenn Patrick Rose.

Among those revelations, Rose had been Tasered prior to an officer involved shooting that led to his death. Additionally he had been convicted of participating in at least two police pursuits in 2001 and 2002.

On Tuesday morning, Rose was shot to death by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and officers from the California Highway Patrol. The shooting occurred after Rose led officers on a high speed pursuit from Walnut through West Covina.

Rose, a woman who was riding in the car with him, and the officers ended up in a Covina alleyway near First and Puente avenues in Covina.

Once there, officers said Rose attempted to steal another car before attempting to run them down.

As many as 15 shots were fired and Rose was killed.

Here's the new information:

• Rose was Tasered before he was shot, according to an autopsy performed by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.
• Rose had a criminal record in Los Angeles County that included convictions for fleeing officers in 2001 and 2002. His record also included convictions for grand theft and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent.
• An attorney hired by Rose's family to possibly file a wrongful death lawsuit against the county told Day in an interview Friday he was unaware of convictions, but believes it bolsters his case; as Rose was never charged with violent crimes stemming from previous pursuits.
• Rose's family and friends as well as the attorney told also told reporter Day that Rose, who previously had a substance abuse problem, had turned his life around and was attending a 12-step program.
• Rose's girlfriend Sarah Rebecca Morales remains in custody for her role in the pursuit. She is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Much of this continues to be debated in a Topix forum that's been pretty heated.

As a sample, here's an anonymous comment from a person identified as a friend of both Rose and Morales:

 I knew Sarah and Patrick very well. I was in sober living with Patrick and knew Sarah from her job at Alpha Omega. She was and is a sweet young lady. It is so sad to see what the drugs and alcohol do to us and how we turn into a totally different person once we are on them. I am in recovery and have been sober for four years. I know the strugles of staying clean and sober. I relapsed many times befor I got the four years I have today. The one thing that AA tell us is,(If we do not stop doing the drugs and drinking and work the Spiritual Program put befor us, that we are doomed to Jails, Institutions or Death. It is just really sad and ashame that Patrick had to draw the death card, because when he was sober he was a very good person and helped many.) I have seen so many guys that I care about and that have been through the sober living that I went through and managed go back to prison and institutions that it really hurts. But, Sarah and all of the men that have had to go to jail or back to prison are the lucky ones, because they can resume there lives once they have served there time,

CHP officers may have saved a box full of kittens from burning to death in a flaming SUV in South El Monte near Rooks Road and Peck, officials said -- or did they.

SGV crack crime ace Brian Day is getting conflicting reports from Chippies at the SFS office and firefighters on duty at County Station 90.

Chippies are saying they saved the kats. Fire says the cats were in a box at the side of the road.

There are no witnesses, but we are hoping the Chippies who were on scene last night help get this all cleared up. Where are Ponch and John when we need 'em?

Yesterday, I asked to cover a press conference called by the CHP as part of their effort to find clues in the search for a killer who shot a woman to death on the 10 freeway late Wednesday night.

I worte a version of the story for the Tribune, which didn't appear in the newspaper-- but is online here.

That same version of the story was put in a common folder used at our sister paper the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Here's that version.

What's interesting to me (and my reason for sharing the stories) is to point out how news can vary from community to community -- even when those communities are only a few miles apart. The Pomona story absolutely needed the context of pointing out that two shootings occurred there in a short period of time. On the other hand, the story for SGVN didn't really need the context of Pomona, but is important because of the San Bernardino Freeway connection.

Here's the original photo caption:

California Highway Patrol commander Bill Siegl (cq) asks for the help of any witnesses to a freeway shooting on the eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway at White Avenue in Pomona at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday March 12, 2008.   The victim, Deborah Lynn Lepper, 54, of Montclair, died at an area hospital a few hours after the shooting.  Siegl is pictured at a press conference at the Baldwin Park CHP station March 13, 2008.(SGVN/Staff photo by Leo Jarzomb/SVCITY)

Yes we make mistakes:

This was in a story of ours posted on the web earlier today:

"The driver, a 61-year-old-man, failed to see the victim and ran his 2003 Saturn into the victim, according to the CHP.

The officers at the scene showed signs of being drunk, and was booked on charges of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, after failing several sobriety tests."

Here's some comments on Topix.