May 2012
22 posts
Ryan's Dirty Trailer: On the National Registry of Exonerations →
blogvader.tumblr.com
I’m actually rather surprised that this is something new. One would think that our country would have some organized system for keeping track of people who were wrongfully convicted, but I digress.
Those cataloging the database have identified 2000 wrongfully convicted people since 1989 alone….
Dharun Ravi sentenced to 30 days in jail, 300 hours of community service →
advocate.com
Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student who recorded Tyler Clementi on a webcam prior to Clementi’s suicide, has been sentenced to 30 days in prison. Officials are saying he was charged with a bias crime, but not a hate crime, and that he acted out of gross insensitivity.
Judge Berman ordered Ravi, 20, to report to the adult correctional center in Middlesex at 9 a.m. on May 31 to serve a 30-day jail term as part of a probationary sentence, with other conditions. The three-year probationary term includes 300 hours of community service and a $10,000 assessment to be paid to a state-affiliated group that assists bias crime victims. The judge also ordered Ravi to attend, in his words, a “counseling program relative to cyber-bullying and ‘alternative lifestyles.’”
Ravi could have been in prison for up to 10 years and even faced possible deportation to India. 30 days seems like absolutely nothing in comparison. What do you think of this ruling?
Why social business makes marketing better →
britopian.com
One outcome of social business, which isn’t talked about much, is how it can enable better marketing — from creating content that matters and the creation of a cross- functional command center for real-time monitoring… to a collaborative analytics framework for consistent metrics. Another benefit: the creation of centers of excellence for management of communities and policies. Via Britopian
San Diego Marine wife's murder: 3rd arrest made
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KABC) — Deputies in San Diego arrested a third person in connection with the killing of a Camp Pendleton Marine’s wife.
Brittany Dawn Killgore was last seen April 13, three days after she filed for divorce from her husband, Lance Cpl. Cory Killgore. Her body was found in brush near Lake Skinner on April 17. It’s still unclear how she died.
Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino was arrested Thursday night. Investigators haven’t said how she’s connected to the case. They only said she was arrested as a result of information and evidence obtained during the ongoing investigation.
Two other suspects - Louis Ray Perez, a Marine staff sergeant, and Jessica Lynn Lopez - pleaded not guilty to Killgore’s murder.
Prosecutors said Killgore apparently met Perez for a night out after she filed for divorce, but things quickly went wrong. Authorities said Killgore’s body was found hours after paramedics were called to a San Diego motel and found Lopez with self-inflicted cuts and a suicide note. The prosecutor said Lopez and Perez once lived together but didn’t indicate when or where.
Killgore’s husband has not been named a suspect or person of interest in her death.
Arrest made in arson fire after Lakers 2010 win
Two years after riotous revelers set fire to a taxi following the Lakers’ 2010 NBA championship win, authorities have arrested a suspect in the arson, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday.
Darren Cooper, 22, was initially arrested two weeks ago on an unrelated battery charge, according to officials with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s arson unit. He had also been wanted for the arson on a warrant that had been issued after an anonymous tipster spotted the San Bernardino resident in a video of the June 17, 2010 incident.
After the Lakers beat the Boston Celtics to win the championship, rowdy fans spilled into the downtown streets near Staples Center, breaking car windows and throwing trash cans at buildings.
Near the intersection of Flower and 7th streets, a group of fans used T-shirts and newspapers to set fire to a taxicab. LAFD officials posted video of the incident, leading to numerous tips.
Cooper faces up to three years in jail if convicted on charges of arson of personal property, Captain Michael Rueda said. LAFD’s arson unit continues to seek the identities of at least five other individuals.
Villaraigosa was joined by Fire Chief Brian Cummings and Councilwoman Jan Perry at Wednesday’s press conference. With three L.A. teams — the Lakers, Clippers and Kings — in the playoffs, Villaraigosa urged fans to celebrate peacefully.
“For the first time, all three teams are in the playoffs, and that’s good for Los
Angeles,” Villaraigosa said.
The cab burning was believed to have been the worst of the incidents during the after-game revelry.
AEG, which owns Staples Center, donated $10,000 to the cab’s driver, Abraham Teferi, who was inside the vehicle as the mob set upon it, bashing windows, breaking off mirrors and stomping on the hood and roof while others cheered.
Teferi said at the time he feared for his life and was struck when he got out and tried to get the attackers to stop. He said a man started the fire by tossing flaming rags or papers into the cab. Teferi was rescued from the vehicle by sheriff’s deputies and police officers who saw the incident
Nearly 70 detained in Panorama City raid of alleged 'pill mill' offering Oxycodone for cash
PANORAMA CITY — Nearly 70 people, including physicians, were detained after local, state and federal investigators raided a Panorama City clinic suspected of selling prescriptions for the addictive painkiller Oxycodone, authorities said today.
Wednesday morning’s raid on the Roscoe Van Nuys Medical Clinic at 8121 Van Nuys Blvd. was carried out by the Health Authority Law Enforcement Taskforce and involved personnel from the Sheriff’s Department, the California Department of Justice, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Health and Human Services, said Lt. Chris Brackpool of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau.
The multijurisdictional task force, which is known as HALT, focuses on health-related crimes and also includes the Los Angeles Police Department.
Patients and employees were detained and two of the patients were arrested for outstanding warrants during the raid on the clinic, Brackpool said.
The clinic’s manager, Aida Hawatmeh, 52, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a felony and conspiracy to furnish unlawful pharmaceuticals after authorities served a warrant at her home in the 10100 block of Vanalden Avenue in Northridge, he said. She was released Wednesday evening after posting $25,000 bail and was due in court in Van Nuys Friday morning.
The clinic, which authorities describe as a “pill mill” where addicts and dealers pay hundreds of dollars for prescriptions without
being examined by a doctor, was searched and shut down last year but reopened with different doctors and was again operating illegally, Brackpool said.
Several doctors and other clinic employees were under investigation as part of the case, he said.
Parolee arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting 15-year-old El Segundo girl
A Aparolee described as a “true Internet sexual predator” established an online relationship with a 15-year-old El Segundo girl and sexually assaulted her the first time they met, police said Thursday.
Andrew Kwasi Donkor, 40, of Los Angeles posed as a man in his 20s to entice the girl into seeing him, El Segundo police Sgt. Ray Garcia said.
“He groomed her for months,” Garcia said. “This guy is your true Internet sexual predator. There are indications based on our preliminary investigation that there are other victims out there.”
Riverside County Superior Court records show Donkor was found guilty of committing similar crimes in 2007.
Police arrested Donkor early Wednesday morning, shortly after the girl reported the alleged crime late Tuesday.
The girl told police she had established an Internet relationship with Donkor, who picked her up at her home at 10 p.m. Tuesday when her parents were not there, Garcia said.
Donkor drove her to an undisclosed location in El Segundo and sexually assaulted her, Garcia said. He then dropped her off at home.
When her parents became aware of what happened, they called police.
“With the victim’s assistance, Donkor was contacted and coaxed into returning to El Segundo,” Garcia said. “Officers conducted a traffic stop in the 900 block of Main Street, where Donkor was arrested.”
Donkor was booked at the El Segundo jail on suspicion of lewd conduct and sex with a minor. He was held without bail, jail records show.
Donkor told police the girl consented, Garcia said.
Voter registration records show Donkor lived with his 70-year-old mother on La Brea Avenue near Jefferson Boulevard. The mother, Marian Donkor, declined to comment.
“I have nothing to say,” she said. “I wasn’t there.”
In October 2009, a Riverside County jury found Donkor guilty of three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, and three felony counts of committing lewd acts with a child under 14.
Judge Larrie Brainard sentenced Donkor a month later to two years in prison.
Los Angeles County court records show Donkor, a native of Ghana, was charged in 2000 with six misdemeanor counts of child abuse. He was convicted of battery.
Riverside County records also show Donkor was found guilty of carrying a concealed, loaded gun on Nov. 16, 1995. A judge sentenced him to 10 days in county jail.
Garcia said El Segundo police have found evidence that Donkor has more victims in the latest case.
He allegedly meets girls on social media sites and manipulates them.
“This is the one guy they teach you about in all the classes,” Garcia said. “He gets on the Internet and has a plan. He writes his plans down. He knows what he has to do.”
Garcia said Donkor, pretending to be a younger man, “tells teenage girls what they want to hear,” including how beautiful they are, to get them them to fall in love with him online. He “speaks their lingo” to appear as if he is closer to their age.
Police asked anyone with information about Donkor or similar crimes to call El Segundo police Detective Jeff Humphrey at 310-524-2284 or email him at jhumphrey@elsegundo.org.
Long Beach police officer set to be arraigned in sex case
LOS ANGELES - A nine-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department is scheduled to be arraigned today on 39 sex-related charges involving underage victims.
Officer Noe Yanez, 40, was initially arrested April 19 on suspicion of possessing child pornography. He was re-arrested Wednesday in connection with the filing of a 39-count complaint that lists 13 victims of crimes that allegedly occurred between January 2008 and April 13 of this year.
Yanez — who has been suspended without pay since his initial arrest — remains jailed in lieu of $951,000 bail pending his appearance in Los Angeles Superior Court this morning.
He faces one felony count each of sexual penetration by a foreign object of a person under 18, oral copulation of a person under 18, unlawful sexual intercourse, using a minor for sex acts and possession of matter depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct; four counts of meeting a minor for lewd purposes; seven felony counts of false imprisonment by violence; and eight felony counts of contact with a minor for a sexual offense.
Yanez is additionally charged with 15 misdemeanor counts, including child molesting, arranging meeting a minor for lewd purposes and sale of an alcoholic beverage to a minor.
Play
Parolee Suspect Arrested For Alleged Burglary At UCLA Dorm
WESTWOOD (CBS) — A Los Angeles man suspected in a burglary in a residence hall on the UCLA campus in Westwood was in custody, police said Thursday.
Timothy Bell, 41, was arrested just after midnight on Thursday when a UCLA community service officer observed him in a stairwell in another residence hall and called the UC Police Department, according to campus police.
Bell was taken into custody by the UCPD.
He is suspected in the May 6 theft of $20 from a room in the DeNeve complex’s Fir residence hall. The money was stolen by a man who fled when a female student returning to the room came upon him at 4 a.m. while the student’s roommate was sleeping in the room.
UCPD Lt. Mark Littlestone credited the cooperation between the UCPD and the campus’s residence hall staff for the arrest.
“Taking this suspect off the streets is a step in the right direction toward keeping our community safe,” Littlestone said. “While Hill residents can sleep a little safer because of this arrest, we want them to continue to keep their doors locked and also pay attention, to prevent people from following them into the halls without card-key access.”
Bell is on parole for burglary and has been ordered to stay away from college campuses as a condition of his parole, police said.
He is is being held at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown L.A. and is expected to be arraigned Monday.
