You wouldn’t believe it if you didn’t read it on CNN but New Zealand Olympic hopeful Logan Campbell decided the only way he could compete in taekwondo in 2012 was to open a brothel! It’s unclear if he has hired prostitutes yet. Officials are looking seriously at this since brothels routinely attract drug users and violence .
Man arrested trying to smuggle marijuana ashore on surfboard from Mexico
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man attempting to smuggle 24 pounds of marijuana ashore on a surfboard. Five packages of marijuana with an estimated street value of $74,400 were found inside a duffel bag the man threw into the water.
The suspect was spotted paddling off Imperial Beach, near the Mexican border. Agents went into the water to make the arrest. When agents ordered the surfer to come ashore, he threw a blue duffel bag into the water, the Border Patrol said. Agents went into the water to make the arrest.
The bag later washed ashore.
Judge dismisses supermarket mogul’s racketeering convictions
Recently I wrote about Supermarket mogul George Torres trial. (See post here). I was suprised to see this story in The L.A. Times that reported that Torres was set free in his case after prosecutors failed to turn over recordings with possible exculpatory information regarding an informant who testified for the prosecution at trial. Tuesday, the Judge granted the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss based on a constitutional violation—Torres claimed that he was unable to assert his constitutional right to confront his accusers when the government didn’t divulge that exculpatory information existed.
Torres still faces sentencing on lesser convictions but this ruling appears to significantly limit his exposure to prison time. Torres was facing murder and racketeering charges.
U.S. v. Brady is the Supreme Court case that controls this sort of prosecutorial misconduct. In Brady, the prosecution had withheld from a criminal defendant a confession by a co-defendant in his murder trial. The defendant challenged his conviction, arguing the prosecution jeopardized his Due Process rights. The Supreme Court found that withholding evidence violates due process “where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment” and as a result of the ruling, prosecutors are required to affirmatively notify defendants and their attorneys whenever a law enforcement official involved in their case have a record for knowingly lying in an official capacity.
Founder of anti-drug program is arrested in Redondo Beach drug sting
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Kendall Craig Farris, who heads the Over the Wall Foundation in Marina del Rey, was arrested Thursday at a Starbucks after an undercover Redondo Beach officer was allegedly sold methamphetamine and ecstasy.
According to police reports, Farris, arrived at the coffeehouse in a taxi and an undercover officer gave him an envelope containing $480 in exchange for the methamphetamine and ecstasy. Farris was subsequently arrested.
This pills turned out to be fake, but Farris was arraigned Friday on charges of selling a substance that he alleged was drugs. He is being held on $106,500 bail.
Interestingly, Farris is the author of the book “Drugs, Kids and Crime: Surviving Our Drug Obsessed Culture.”
Off-duty officer killed in Bellflower robbery
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that an off-duty Gardena police officer was shot and killed a man with a knife who was trying to rob a diner in Bellflower last week.
According to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office, a five-year vetern of the Gardena police department was eating at a Norm’s Restaurant when the robber came in. Apparently the officer tried to stop the robbery only to be charged at by the man. Fearing for his life, he shot and killed the man, who died at the scene.
After a dozen years in practice, and with over 100 trials and thousands of successful results, Orange County Criminal Defense Attorney William Weinberg understands what has to be done and how to succeed on behalf of clients charged with Orange County Crimes. Mr. Weinberg understands the complicated criminal court system and has a reputation among attorneys, prosecutors and judges as an attorney who aggressively and intelligently fights for his clients.
Phil Spector to be sentenced tomorrow to at least 15 years in prison
Phil Spector’s six years in Los Angeles County’s justice system, that started with an arrest for shooting a actress Lana Clarkson in 2003 will conclude Friday morning when he is sentenced to prison for murder. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who presided over the music producer’s two trials, has little discretion in punishing Spector, for the shooting– a death that jurors decided last month was second-degree murder.
The conviction carries a mandatory 15 years to life in prison, so the judge’s only choice will be whether to add on three, four or 10 more years to the minimum sentence for the use of a firearm. The music producer also could get three, four or 10 additional years for using a firearm in the killing that occurred at his Alhambra mansion in 2003.
Spector has been in jail since his April 13 conviction and has vowed to appeal his conviction. This appeal is likely to raise issues regarding the trial admissibility of testimony from five women who said Spector menaced them with guns in a manner that prosecutors said were similar to the circumstances of Clarkson’s death in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion—sometimes called “prior bad act” evidence.
Massive Los Angeles criminal bust results in 147 arrests for murder, drug trafficking and racketeering in Hawaiian Gardens
Thursday’s gang bust in Hawaiian Gardens involving 1400 local, state and federal agents resulted in 147 arrests for alleged racially-motivated crimes against African Americans. The L.A. Times is reporting that Operation Knock Out targeted associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang (VHG) who were so pervasive in that community that one in 15 people living in the square-mile city just north of Long Beach has ties to it.
In its 193-page indictment outlining the racketeering case, federal authorities accuse the south Los Angeles County street gang of a litany of crimes, including the murder of a sheriff’s deputy and racially motivated attacks designed to drive African Americans from their town. The indictments included charges for murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and witness intimidation. The gang members, allegedly boasted about being racist, referring to themselves as “the Hate Gang.” The document also details more than a dozen incidents where African Americans were allegedly beaten, shot at or harassed because of their race.
Authorities say that the gang was formed in the 1950s or early ’60s and has more than 1,000 members today–spanning several generations, with many connections to the Mexican Mafia.
In cases as large as this, it is expected that many of the smaller gang players will flip –or decide to testify for the prosecution–in order to implicate larger players and score a better plea bargain for themselves.
Howard K. Stern pleads not guilty to drug charges, conspiracy
Anna Nicole Smith’s former boyfriend and two of her physicians pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday to charges of illegally providing prescription drugs to the reality star and former Playboy model.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Howard K. Stern is charged with conspiracy to illegally furnish Smith with thousands of prescription pills. In their court filing, prosecutors say that all three knew Smith was an addict and were warned that the prescriptions the doctors were writing were dangerous. The charges are the culmination of a two-year, multi-agency investigation.
San Bernadino home robbery turns into kidnapping
The L.A. Times is reporting that a robbery in a San Bernadino neighborhood has left a mother looking for her three year old son.
The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office says that two men armed with handguns, allegedly robbed a San Bernardino home Sunday afternoon and tied up a mother and her five children. The men ransacked the home and took an unspecified amount of cash and property, and then kidnapped the three year old child.
According to reports, both suspects are described as thin, light-skinned Hispanic males. According to the Sherriff’s Office, one is believed to be about 18 years old, 5-feet-8 and wearing blue jeans, a green T-shirt and a black baseball cap. The other is believed to be about 24 years old, 5-feet-10 and wearing a black shirt, black pants and boots, and a white bandanna.
The boy is described as 3 feet tall, about 40 pounds, wearing a yellow shirt with blue sleeves, blue striped shorts and sandals.
LAPD Detectives rescue two women from alleged rapist
The Pasadena Star News is reporting that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives who were staking out a robbery suspect on Thursday stopped an alleged rape in progress and captured the suspect. Kenneth Parker of San Gabriel was booked on suspicion of kidnapping to commit rape, attempted rape, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.
Detectives from the Major Crimes Bureau were conducting surveillance looking for a serial robbery suspect when they saw Parker grab and attempt to rape a woman, a Sheriff’s statement said. The woman escaped before the detectives could intervene, but Parker then grabbed second woman moments later and dragged her into a business in on East Valley Boulevard, took the woman into a rear bathroom of the business and locked the door. Detectives rescued the woman and were able to take Parker into custody.
Parker is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is due for arraignment at Alhambra Superior Court Monday.