Los Angeles County sheriff's officials Sunday again warned the public of a telephone scam being carried out by county jail inmates. Here's a previous story on the same scam.

It's was a busy weekend  for sheriff's officials and other rescuers in the Angeles National Forest over the weekend, where 15 people were rescued and one body was recovered. Sheriff's officials have put together a summary of the weekend incidents, complete with footage from rescue helicopter crew members' helmet cameras:

Deputies use new GeoTag system to locate narcotics allegedly thrown from car

FILLMORE -- An off-duty sheriff's deputy from Pasadena crashed his SUV into a Fillmore coffee shop late Tuesday, killing a Iraq war veteran, after officials said he fell asleep or lost consciousness while at the wheel.
Driver Michael Cedarland, 30, suffered minor injuries in the crash that killed 30-year-old Sergio Mendez of Fillmore and inflicted minor injuries on two other men, according to sheriff's officials in Ventura and Los Angeles County.
Investigators in Fillmore were still trying to determine why Cedarland lost control of his SUV and plowed into a Starbucks at 650 Ventura Street, Ventura County sheriff's Deputy Jerry Peterson said in a written statement, however drugs or alcohol were not initially suspected to be involved.
"Investigators are looking into the possibility Cedarland lost consciousness while driving," Peterson said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Cedarland was a seven-year veteran of the department who works a desk job in the agencies custody division. He declined to say where specifically Cedarland works.
"He's devastated by this," Whitmore said. "It appears to be a tragic accident. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department extends its thoughts and prayers to the family of that young man."
"He fell asleep or lost consciousness, we don't quite know what happened," Whitmore said.
Cedarland's employment status was unchanged by the crash, he added.
The crash occurred about 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, Peterson said. Sheriff' and fire officials found the building completely inside the coffee shop when they arrived.
"The vehicle broke through the east wall of the business, traversed through the customer lobby area, and came to rest inside at the front door," he said. "The vehicle pinned one of the customers, Sergio Mendez, against the front door frame, which required heavy rescue from the members of the Fire Department."
Mendez was rushed to a hospital where he died while undergoing emergency surgery, Peterson said.
Two other Starbucks customers, a 25-year-old Lancaster man and a 73-year-old Piru man, were also hospitalized for treatment of minor injuries, officials said.
Cedarland said he couldn't remember anything from before leaving the road until after the crash, said Ventura County sheriff's Deputy Jerry Peterson. Witnesses reported he apparently didn't try to brake.
It was not clear where Cedarland was heading to or from when the crash occurred, Whitmore said, adding that details will continue to emerge over the next few weeks.
Shawn Haney, a Marine spokeswoman, told the Star that the victim's full name was listed in records as Sergio Raul Mendez-Burgos. During his time in the Marines, Mendez received a Combat Action Ribbon and Presidential Unit Citation.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From the Associated Press:

Lisa Gesik hesitates to log into her Facebook account nowadays because of unwanted "friend" requests, not from long-ago classmates but from the ex-husband now in prison for kidnapping her and her daughter.
Neither Gesik nor prison officials can prove her ex-husband is sending her the messages, which feature photos of him wearing his prison blues and dark sunglasses, arms crossed as he poses in front of a prison gate. It doesn't matter if he's sending them or someone else is -- the Newport, Ore., woman is afraid and, as the days tick down to his January release, is considering going into hiding with her 12-year-old daughter.
"It's just being victimized all over again," she said.
Across the U.S. and beyond, inmates are using social networks and the growing numbers of smartphones smuggled into prisons and jails to harass their victims or accusers and intimidate witnesses.
California corrections officials who monitor social networking sites said they have found many instances in which inmates taunted victims or made unwanted sexual advances.
Like Gesik's case, it's often difficult for authorities to determine for sure who's sending the threatening material and the few people caught rarely face serious consequences.
"The ability to have these kinds of contacts is increasing exponentially. In many ways, the law has not caught up with these changing technologies," said Rob Bovett, an Oregon district attorney whose office prosecuted Gesik's ex-husband, Michael Gladney.
Timothy Heaphy, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said criminals' use of social networks to reach witnesses has made his job harder.
"We deal every day with witnesses who are afraid of being identified," he said. "If there are increased instances where folks who are incarcerated can reach outside the walls of the jail, that's going to make it more difficult for us to get cooperation."
In a rare victory, Heaphy's office successfully prosecuted John Conner and Whitney Roberts after they set up a Facebook account that Conner used to intimidate witnesses preparing to testify against him on charges of burning two houses to punish a girlfriend and collect the insurance.
"How the hell can u b a gangsta when u snitchin and lien...," said a post from the pair that publicly exposed one witness who cooperated with law enforcement, according to federal court records.
The issue has emerged as cellphones have proliferated behind bars.
In California, home to the nation's largest inmate population, the corrections department confiscated 12,625 phones in just 10 months this year. Six years ago, they found just 261. The number of phones confiscated by the federal Bureau of Prisons has doubled since 2008, to 3,684 last year.
Noting the increase, California legislators approved a law bringing up to six months in jail for corrections employees or visitors who smuggle mobile devices into state prisons, while inmates caught with the phones can now lose up to 180 days of early-release credit. But no additional time is added to their sentence, minimizing the deterrence factor.
In the old days, those behind bars would have to enlist a relative or friend to harass or intimidate to get around no-contact orders. Social networks now cut out the middle man.
In Gesik's case, Gladney used to harass her the old-fashioned way, sending letters and making phone calls through third parties. The Facebook harassment began in June.
Gesik, 44, got prison officials to contact Facebook to remove that account, only to receive another message appearing to be from him in September. This time, there was a different spelling of his last name.
"I figure, if he's done all this from in prison, what's he's going to do when he gets out?" Gesik said.
A gap in state law meant that "no contact" orders like the one Gesik obtained against Gladney were deemed not to apply to anyone in custody, said Bovett, the prosecutor. "So they could do these very creative ways of reaching victims through third parties," he said.
The attorney who represented Gladney in his criminal trial did not return a phone call seeking comment on behalf of his client.
Last June, Oregon legislators approved a law prohibiting inmates from contacting their domestic violence victims from behind bars.
In California, prison officials are working with Facebook to identify inmate accounts and take them down. But that generally happens only after the damage is done.
Karen Carrisosa, who lives in a Sacramento suburb, was aghast when officials found Facebook postings from Corcoran State Prison inmate Fredrick Garner. Garner is serving a 22-year, involuntary manslaughter sentence for killing her husband, 50-year-old Larry Carrisosa, outside a church 11 years ago.
"My kids, they go on Facebook, I go on Facebook, and what if they decide to look us up?" Carrisosa said.
She was alerted by a Sacramento television station that Garner was posting messages to his mother and others. Garner was punished with a 30-day reduction in his early release credits for possessing a forbidden cellphone and has since been transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison.
While the use of the Internet by Los Angeles County jail inmates to harass alleged victims or witnesses is an issue officials are concerned about, the problem is not nearly as significant as in the state prison system, sheriff's Capt. Michael Parker said. Only fourteen cell phones have been seized from L.A. County inmates since 2009.
"Within the L.A. County jail system, we've not had a significant number of cellphones recovered," Parker said.
County jail inmates are less likely to have cellphones than their counterparts in the state prison system for several reasons, he said. Jails have historically been largely transitional facilities, Parker explained, housing inmates awaiting trial or those who've been sentenced to a year or less behind bars.
Additionally, county jail inmates go through continual searches and screenings as they're transported between facilities and to court hearings, unlike prison inmates serving lengthy sentences.
But California's new prison realignment plan -- which will allow convicts whose crimes are deemed "non-serious," "non-violent" and "non-sexual," to serve sentences of several years in county jails rather than prisons -- may increase the motivation and opportunity for inmates to smuggle cellphones into jails in the future, Parker said.
And while having cellphones is against jail policy and can result in disciplinary action against inmates, Parker explained, there is no law or policy preventing inmates from having others who are not incarcerated from posting messages online on their behalf.
"These are definitely complicated issues that we as a Sheriff's Department are interpreting as best we can, and using existing laws to address 2012 issues," Parker said.
If an inmate is having someone else post online for them, officials can only take action if the speech itself takes the form of a a crime, such as a threat, the captain said.
Non-criminal speech enjoys First Amendment protection, Parker said.
"But if they're making a threat against anyone, then like any other threat... we would potentially investigate that as a crime," he added.
"We can only enforce laws that exist," Parker said. "We are constantly adapting to what is the latest shenanigans the inmates are doing. To that end, we have to do it within the Constitution as well."
- Staff Writer Brian Day contributed to this report

WHITTIER -- Three victims of an assault behind a cigar lounge in Uptown Whittier Friday were off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies, police said.
The incident took place about 12:45 a.m. at the Havana House, 7020 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier police Lt. Carlos Solorza said.
The deputies became involved in an argument, which escalated into a fight, inside the establishment, Whittier police officials said in a written statement. The cause of the dispute was not clear.
"In an effort to avoid any further altercation, The Havana House security staff asked the three suspects to leave the front of the establishment, while the three (deputies) were escorted out the back," according to the statement.
The suspects approached the deputies behind the building, and the fight continued, police said.
The suspects struck one of the deputies in the head with a bottle, and slashed another in the face with a broken bottle, Solorza said.
When the bottles were used, one of the deputies drew a handgun, he said.
"One of the victims identified himself as an off-duty deputy sheriff, showing his badge and pointing a gun at the suspects in an effort to protect himself," the statement said. The suspects then ran away.
The injured deputies, men in their 20s, were treated and released at a local hospital, officials said. Their assignments with the sheriff's department were not available.
The suspects were described as three Latino men in their mid-20s, Solorza said. one was about 6 feet tall, of stocky build, with short black hair and was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
The other two suspects were about 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall and wore dark clothing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Whittier police detectives at 562-567-9267.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- Crime statistics released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Friday show that both violent and property crime is down throughout the county, with some significant decreases in the San Gabriel Valley.
Violent crimes are down 12.61 percent the first nine months of 2011, compared with last year, according to a report issued by the sheriff's department. They're down 21.84 percent over the past five years.
Property crimes dropped by 3.5 percent in 2011, and 14.56 percent since 2006.
Most notable in the San Gabriel Valley, so-called "Part I" crimes such as murder, robbery, burglary, rape and auto theft, declined by 32.1 percent at the sheriff's Altadena Station, 15.6 percent at the La Crescenta Sation and 15.2 percent at the Temple Station, according to the report. All three stations have seen declined of more than 25 percent over the past five years, as have the Industry, San Dimas and Walnut stations.
The only notable spikes in crime in the San Gabriel Valley were in the categories of rape and criminal homicide, which both involve small numbers, making statistics subject to rapid change. Murders handled by the Norwalk Station gre from two last year to six, and five homicide have been investigated in Pico Rivera so far this year, compared with two the year before.
Reported forcible rapes handled by the Industry Station rose from 16 last year to 21 this year. Eleven rapes were reported to the San Dimas Station this year, compared with six last year, and 10 were reported to the Walnut Station, up from seven last year.
At many area sheriff's stations, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and auto theft statisitcs have seen significant and continuing decline over the past five years, continuing this year.
In Altadena, robberies are down 16.9 percent this year, and 33.1 percent over the past five years.
Robberies declined by 13.6 percent this year in the Temple Station's area, 32 percent at the Pico Rivera Station, 24.9 percent at the Pico Rivera Station and 14 percent at the Walnut Station.and 29.8 percent since 2006. All three stations have seen declined of more than 23 percent over the past five years.
Agravated assaults at the Crescenta, Altadena, Norwalk and Walnut stations are down this year by more than 20 percent, also continuing a five-year downward trend.
Burglaries in Altadena have dropped 33.2 percent this year. The Pico Rivera, San Dimas and Norwalk stationsl saw decreases around 15 percent.
Thefts, which were down throughout most of the county, were down in Altadena by 34.7 percent. The Norwalk and Pico Rivera stations saw single-digit increases in thefts.
And auto theft continues to become a less common crime in many areas, with annual decreases of 40.7 percent at the Altadena Station, 36.7 percent at the La Crescenta Station, 22.8 percent at the Temple Station, 36.8 percent at the San Dimas Station and 21.6 percent at the Walnut Station. All five stations have experienced a decrease in auto thefts of more than 40 percent over the past five years.
Rio Hondo College professor of criminal justice Bob Feliciano said the drop in crime was likely do to an aging population.
"That's the dynamic. We have an older society with older crooks, and older crooks don't commit crimes," Feliciano said. "There's very few burglars in their 50s."
He added that predictions five years ago that crime rates would skyrocket due to a bad economy and high unemployment failed to take into account the aging of the criminal population.
But the trend won't hold for long, Feliciano said.
"Unfortunately, we have a new cadre of young people coming up," he said. Once the next generation reaches the "age of crime" in the next five or ten years, police and jails will likely become busier.
"As I tell my students," who are primarily future law enforcement officials, "right now crime is down. but don't worry, business is going to get better."

See the raw data

MONTEBELLO -- Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and Los Angeles police officers are preparing to go toe-to-toe in the boxing ring to help the City of Hope battle cancer.
The 18th annual "Fight for Life: Battle of the Badges" will begin at 5:30 Dec. 2 at the Quiet Cannon, 901 Via San Clemente, City of Hope officials said in a written statement.
The event began in 1994 after some East Los Angeles sheriff's deputies befriended 9-year-old cancer patient Joshua Moreno and decided to become involved in his cause.
Though the young man who inspired the event succumbed to the disease, the annual charity event continues in his memory.
"Whatever the outcome from this event, whether the competitors win or lose, they are all in agreement that the true winner here is City of Hope and the individuals they treat yearly," according to the City of Hope statement.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $50 for reserves seating and $100 for VIP ringside seating. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Sheriff's Relief Foundation at 562-946-7081, and will also be available at the door.
For more information, contact Nancy Lewis at 213-241-7134.

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES -- In most shootings in which Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies fired at suspects who appeared to be holding or reaching for a weapon, the suspect turned out to be unarmed, according to a report released Thursday.
The report by the Police Assessment Resource Center analyzed six years of shooting data, including from so-called "state-of-mind" incidents where a deputy opened fire after seeing a suspect clasp an object or reach for his waist area.
In 61 percent of the 53 cases reported, the suspect turned out to be unarmed; in most cases, it turned out the suspect was holding something like a cellphone or sunglasses, the report found.
According to the report, the number of state-of-mind shootings increased from nine in 2009 to 15 in 2010. In 96 percent of similar cases since 2005, the suspect who deputies shot at was black or Latino.
The sheriff's department said the figure was not surprising because deputies patrol areas in south and east Los Angeles County that are home to a plethora of black and Latino gangs.
The report's author, Merrick Bobb, noted that the sheriff's jurisdiction spanned far more than just gang turf but he stressed it would be wrong to infer deputies harbor intentional bias.
Instead, he called into question the effectiveness of deputy training, noting that in almost a third of shootings, deputies had received no relevant training in the past two years.
"Knowing that black and Latino men are more likely to be shot or shot at ... the sheriff's department should be doing a better job to reduce as far as possible mistaken shootings," Bobb said in his report.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department had not had time to fully digest the report, but it took issue with some of the report's methodology, including that it only drew on a small amount of data.
Whitmore noted that while state-of-mind shootings have increased slightly, deputies have also dramatically increased the numbers of arrests they make.
Bobb carries out audits of the sheriff's department twice a year under a contract he has held with county officials since 1992.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- Extra sheriff's deputies and resources will keep an eye on the county's buses and trains Sunday during the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is responsible for patrolling the buses and trains of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"Although there have been no specific threats against the transit system for 9/11, the sheriff's department and Metro are committed to the safety of their patrons, will remain vigilant and exert every effort to curtail any potential threat to the system and the riding public," sheriff's Metro Transit Services Bureau Capt. Dan Cruz said in a written statement.
More than 723,000 people board Metro buses and trains on an average Sunday, officials said. Metro railways extend 79.1 miles through the county.
Cruz asked anyone who sees suspicious activity at any Metro station or on any train or bus to report it immediately by calling (888) 950-7233. Tips can also be left anonymously with L.A. Crime Stoppers by calling 800-222-8477.

MONTEBELLO -- The Los Angeles County Distinct Attorney's Office has declined to file criminal charges in connection with a brawl between off-duty deputies at a Christmas in Montebello last year.
The Dec. 10, 2010, fight at the Quiet Canon in Montebello has already prompted the sheriff's to start termination proceedings against six deputies who were involved.
A total of eight deputies were being investigated for criminal charges.
Two deputies came forward four days after the brawl and alleged they had been attacked by the eight deputies.
Another female deputy later claimed she had been punched in the face by a fellow deputy after confronting them about the incident.
According to documents filed by the District Attorney's office, both the victims and witnesses of the alleged assault -- all deputies -- were inconsistent in their statements and would be unreliable witnesses at trial.
"Based on the evidence presented, we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the deputies in the aforementioned incident committed any unjustifiable criminal act," the D.A.'s declination read. "Therefore, prosecution in this matter is declined and this office will take no further action."
The documents point out that one of the deputies making the allegation changed his story several times during the investigation, and that the other had no visible injuries by the time he came forward, and no witnesses backed up his claim.
Officials also found inconsistencies in the claim of the female deputy who claimed she was punched, according to court documents. While she claimed she was punched by one deputy, other deputies claimed she told them she had been struck by other officers.
In the D.A's decision not to file a case, it was also noted that Montebello police did not immediately investigate when summoned to the fight.
"They were told by several off-duty LASD deputies, including (one who would later be investigated in connection with the brawl), that the situation was under control and their help was not needed," according to the filing. "They left the area without questioning anyone in depth."