Tuesday, August 2, 2011

6 Fullerton officers involved in fatal beating placed on leave

Memorial All six police officers involved in the fatal beating of a homeless, schizophrenic man in Fullerton have been placed on administrative leave.

Kelly Thomas, 37, died July 10, five days after the incident at a bus depot in Fullerton.

Police officers found Thomas at the depot after getting a report of someone trying to break into cars in the parking lot. After Thomas tried to run, an altercation ensued in which witnesses said officers beat him with a flashlight, used a stun gun on him multiple times and slammed his face into the concrete while he was restrained.

The Orange County district attorney's office and the FBI are investigating.

One officer was placed on leave days after the incident. The other five were reassigned to nonpatrol duty Friday and then placed on leave Tuesday by order of Chief Michael Sellers, according to Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, a department spokesman.

Thomas' father, Ron Thomas, said the announcement that the officers had been placed on leave came a few hours after he met with the chief Tuesday afternoon.

Nevertheless, at an overflowing City Council meeting Tuesday night, dozens of people called for the chief's resignation over the incident.

ALSO:

San Francisco takes on 'crisis pregnancy centers'

LAPD urges drivers, cyclists to get along on the road

Ex-Marine arrested in Valley fires served time for arson in Japan

-- Abby Sewell at Fullerton City Hall

Photo: A memorial for Kelly Thomas outside the Fullerton bus depot where he was beaten by police. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

High-speed freeway chase ends in officer-involved shooting

At least one person was wounded Tuesday evening in an officer-involved shooting after a high-speed freeway chase that began in Banning and ended near City of Industry, authorities said. At least one suspect was wounded in this area near Indsutry after an officer-involved shooting

The shooting took place shortly before 7:30 p.m. near Workman Mill Road and Crossroads Parkway after California Highway Patrol officers confronted three suspects who had led officers on the chase, authorities said.

The vehicles reached speeds of 100 mph as the suspects fled westbound on the 60 Freeway, the CHP said.

"They appeared to be flashing gang signs at our officers," CHP Officer Christian Cracraft said.

He said the driver was initially stopped by Banning police on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Two of the suspects were taken to hospitals, Cracraft said. It was unclear whether both had been wounded by gunfire. The shooting is under investigation.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Robert J. Lopez
twitter.com/LAJourno

Map shows area where the suspect was shot. Credit: Google Maps.

How Chocolate Can Help Your Workout

For those who worry that fitness requires nutritional denial, there is good news, with caveats. Auspicious new science suggests that chocolate can have a surprisingly large effect on the body’s response to exercise, although not in the ways that many of us might expect, and certainly not at the dosages most might hope for.

Researchers have known for some time that chocolate has healthful effects, and recent epidemiological studies have shown that people who regularly indulge in moderate amounts of dark chocolate are less likely to develop high blood pressure or heart disease or suffer strokes. But chocolate’s potential role in exercise performance had not been studied, or probably even much considered, until scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and other institutions gave middle-aged, sedentary male mice a purified form of cacao’s primary nutritional ingredient, known as epicatechin, and had the mice work out. Epicatechin is a flavonol, a class of molecules that are thought to have widespread effects on the body.

The mice were given small liquid doses of epicatechin twice a day. A separate control group of mice drank equal amounts of water.

Both groups were divided into two. Half of the animals in each group began a light exercise routine, which consisted of strolling on a treadmill for a short period each day. The regimen was not meant to get the animals into tiptop shape, only to get them moving. After 15 days, all of the animals completed a treadmill test, during which they ran to exhaustion. The researchers also biopsied the animals’ back leg muscles.

By and large, the animals that had been drinking water were the first to give out during the treadmill test. They became exhausted more quickly than the animals that had received epicatechin. Even the control mice that had lightly exercised grew tired more quickly than the nonexercising mice that had been given epicatechin. The fittest rodents, however, were those that had combined epicatechin and exercise. They covered about 50 percent more distance than the control animals.

The muscle biopsies offered some explanation for their dominance. The muscles of all of the animals that had been given epicatechin contained new capillaries, as well as biochemical markers indicating that their cells were making new mitochondria. Mitochondria are structures in cells that produce cellular energy. The more functioning mitochondria a muscle contains, the healthier and more fatigue-resistant it is.

The leg muscles of the mice that had been given epicatechin and exercised displayed far more mitochondrial activity than the leg muscles of the control mice. Even the mice that had drunk epicatechin and not exercised contained markers of increased mitochondrial health, suggesting that the flavonol prompts a physiological reaction even among the sedentary. But that response is greatly heightened by exercise, no matter how slight.

Exactly how epicatechin intensified the mouse muscles’ response to exercise is not yet known, but “it seems likely that muscle cells contain specific receptors for epicatechin,” said Dr. Francisco Villarreal, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the authors of the study, which was published last week in The Journal of Physiology. Epicatechin binds to the receptors and “induces an integrated response that includes structural and metabolic changes in skeletal and cardiac muscles resulting in greater endurance capacity,” the study concluded.

Mice are not people, though, and it remains to be seen whether the fitness-boosting effects of epicatechin will be identical in humans, especially since most of us would be getting the substance not in purified liquid form but in chocolate. “Processing destroys epicatechin,” Dr. Villarreal said, so heavily processed milk chocolate contains almost none of the flavonol, while cacao-rich dark chocolate has far more.

And even for those who adore dark chocolate, there is a catch. “A very small amount is probably enough,” Dr. Villarreal said. Extrapolating from his group’s mouse data, he said, five grams of dark chocolate daily, or just a sixth of an ounce — about half of one square of a typical chocolate bar — is probably a reasonable human dose if your aim is to intensify the effects of a workout.

Sadly, “more is not better,” he continued. “More could lessen or even undo” any benefits, he said, by overloading the muscles’ receptors or otherwise skewing the body’s response.

But given human nature, microdoses of chocolate may be impractical, underscoring the difficulties of using nutrition to bolster fitness. Dr. Villarreal’s colleagues regularly filch from his cache of dark-chocolate bars, he said, and despite his admonitions, they invariably finish the entire thing. “I keep telling them that’s too much,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. They want to eat the whole thing and,” no matter what the expert tells them, “they do.”

Reader photos: Southern California Moments, Day 214

Click through for more photos of Southern California Moments.

Nom nom: For the first week of August, we're challenging readers to go mobile. Reader "lovedeniseh" is grateful for the vegan tiramisu at Cafe Gratitude, taken Monday using the Instagram app.

Every day of 2011, we're featuring reader-submitted photos of Southern California Moments. Follow us on Twitter and visit the Southern California Moments homepage for more on this series.

Worker dies after falling 30 feet at sewage treatment plant

A worker died in this location at the Hyperion Treatment Plant. A man working at a city sewage treatment plant near Los Angeles International Airport died Tuesday after falling about 30 feet.

The man was pronounced dead by paramedics who had responded to the Hyperion plant on Vista del Mar in Playa del Rey, said Cecil Manresa of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The man was employed by a private contractor and was doing framing work when he fell from a wall shortly after 12 p.m., Manresa said.

The man, whose name was not released, was believed to be between 27 and 30 years old.

The death is being investigated by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

— Robert J. Lopez
twitter.com/LAJourno

Map shows location where the worker died. Credit: Times' Mapping L.A.

64-year-old man injured after paraglider stalls, crashes on beach

64-year-old man injured after paraglider stalls, crashes on beach

A 64-year-old man was seriously injured when his paraglider stalled and crash-landed on a popular Goleta beach, authorities said Tuesday.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, plummeted 40 feet onto the beach at More Mesa, according to a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Firefighters and paramedics treated him before he was rushed to a hospital.

The cause of the accident was unknown.

ALSO:

Man sentenced for posting 'Wanted Dead or Alive' signs

Fatal Fullerton police beating of homeless man sparks outcry

Witness in Bryan Stow beating may have died from peanut allergy

-- Steve Chawkins

Photo: Scene of paragliding accident.  Credit: Santa Barbara County Fire Department

Body sits in burned structure for 2 days before being discovered [Updated]

The body was found in this general area of Pasadena. The burned body of a person who apparently died in a structure fire in Pasadena on Sunday was discovered Tuesday by a private arson investigator probing the scene, police said.

Police said it was unclear why fire crews failed to discover the body after knocking down the early morning blaze in the backyard structure in the 100 block of South San Marino Avenue.

Police and Fire Department investigators have not determined whether the victim is a man or woman or established a cause of death, said Lt. Phlunte Riddle of the Pasadena Police Department.

[Updated, 6:32 p.m.: Investigators have not determined what caused the fire but said the death is "suspicious," the Police Department said in a statement Tuesday evening.]

Police did not say why a private investigator was at the scene. The case was being investigated Tuesday afternoon by police and arson investigators with the Pasadena Fire Department.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (626) 744-4243.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Robert J. Lopez
twitter.com/LAJourno

Map shows area where the body was found. Credit: Google Maps.

Videos will be key evidence in deadly Fullerton police encounter

 











Two videotapes have surfaced of the fatal confrontation between Fullerton police officers and a homeless man last month.

Fullerton Both the FBI and the Orange County district attorney's office are investigating the incident, and the case has generated an emotional response from residents of the college town who are demanding answers from the police department.

Passengers boarded an Orange County transit bus on the night of July 5 with disturbing stories of a violent altercation they had witnessed between police and a homeless man at the  train depot.

“The cops are kicking this poor guy over there. All these cops,” one woman told the bus driver in a conversation captured on a grainy bus surveillance tape.

“He's almost halfway dead,” another passenger told the driver. “They killed him.”

Exactly what happened that night has become the subject of anger and much speculation in the Orange County community.

Officers responding to reports of an attempted car break-in near the station confronted a 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man who had become a fixture in downtown Fullerton.

Six officers fought with Thomas and used a stun gun on him several times. He emerged severely beaten and in a coma. A photo taken of him at the hospital shows his face grotesquely swollen and covered with bruises and cuts. He died five days later after being removed from life support.

Marine convicted of killing Iraqi civilian loses parole bid

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins lost his bid for parole in the killing of an Iraqi civilian The assistant secretary of the Navy has turned down a parole recommendation for a Camp Pendleton Marine convicted of killing an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania in 2006.

The Navy Clemency and Parole Board had recommended parole for Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins. But Assistant Secretary Juan Garcia said the parole would be "premature."

Garcia said Hutchins needs to remain imprisoned to "ensure he is sufficiently punished and to deter others from similar conduct."

Hutchins, the squad leader on the night of the killing, is the last of eight service members convicted in the slaying to remain behind bars.

"I'm at a loss for words, this really hurts," Hutchins said, according to his attorney Babu Kaza.

Hutchins has served five years of an 11-year sentence, most of it at Leavenworth Federal Prison.

Hutchins had been in the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego while his appeal was being considered.  The rejection was announced Tuesday by Hutchins' attorney.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Inglewood man charged with attempting to kill his mother

An Inglewood man was charged Tuesday with trying to kill his 68-year-old mother by torching her car while she was inside.

Gordon Eugene Grant, 40, allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the hood of his mother's car Sunday after an argument, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

The woman was in the front seat with her seat belt on, prosecutors said, but she escaped without injury.

If convicted, Grant could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Robert J. Lopez
twitter.com/LAJourno

Marine from Twentynine Palms killed in Afghanistan

A Marine based out of Twentynine Palms has been killed in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Sgt. Leon Lucas, 32, of Wilson, N.C., was killed Monday during combat in Helmand province.

Lucas, who had deployed twice to Iraq, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine regiment at Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County.

RELATED:

Camp Pendleton Marines in Afghanistan warned of Taliban threat

Encino Army reservists leave for Afghanistan

Marine Lance Cpl. killed in combat in Afghanistan

-- Tony Perry

Caterpillar Inc. to pay $2.55 million penality, recall 590K engines

Cat
Manufacturing company Caterpillar Inc. will pay a $2.55-million penalty and recall more than 590,000 engines that fail to meet emission control standards under the Clean Air Act, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice, which settled with the company last week.

The EPA said the company did not report emission controls or correctly label the engines built between 2001-2005. Failing to comply with emission controls allows engines to release excess nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and other air pollutants that cause respiratory illness and aggravate asthma. 

"The enforcement of vehicle emissions standards, labeling and reporting requirements is critical to protecting the air we breathe and ensuring that companies play by the rules,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. The “settlement will protect public health and create a level playing field for companies that meet their environmental obligations.”

Of the $2.55-million fine, Caterpillar will pay $2.04 million to the U.S. government and $510,000 to California for the sale of improperly configured engines in the state, the EPA said.

The Problem With Serving Sizes

According to its label, a pint of Häagen-Dazs ice cream contains four servings. But when was the last time you measured out a fourth of a container of Cookies & Cream, then put the rest away for another day?

For many people, the reality is that much of a pint can easily vanish in one sitting. A large package of Cool Ranch Doritos lists a single serving as one ounce, or roughly 12 chips, but it’s hard to imagine keeping count of every last chip as you dig into a bag. And while 160 calories and two grams of saturated fat may sound like a small price to pay for a serving of Oreo cookies, keep in mind that technically speaking, a serving is a paltry three cookies.

In the face of mounting criticism, the Food and Drug Administration has been under pressure for years to force food makers to include more realistic serving size information on their labels. The agency regulates the serving sizes that can be listed on packages by providing food makers with detailed guidelines to follow, which list the amounts of a specific food that a person would “customarily consume” in a typical sitting. But critics say these “reference amounts” are often laughably small because they’re based in part on surveys of eating behavior that were carried out in the 1970’s, when Americans ate less food and portion sizes had not been supersized.

Now, in an effort to highlight the problems with some labels, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, has singled out what it says are some of the worst offenders.

At the top of its list are labels for canned soups, ice cream, coffee creamers and nonstick cooking sprays — all of which grossly understate the calories, sodium and saturated fat the average person typically consumes when they eat these foods.

Canned soup may be one of the more dramatic examples. According to its label, a single serving of Campbell’s Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle soup is one cup — just under half a can — and contains about 790 milligrams of sodium. But in a national survey of 1,000 consumers, only 10 percent of people said they would eat a 1 cup portion. Most, about 64 percent, said they would eat an entire can at one time, taking in 1,840 milligrams of sodium in a sitting. That is roughly 80 percent of the 2,300 milligrams recommended as the upper limit for daily salt intake under the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, and well above the 1,500 milligrams that health officials have said about half the population should adhere to (those with hypertension, African Americans and people over 50).

A similar number of the people asked, 61 percent, said they would also eat the entire can of a condensed soup, like Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, which lists 2.5 servings per can. A single serving contains 890 milligrams of sodium, and the full can holds 2,390 milligrams. About 27 percent of respondents said they would eat just half a can in one sitting.

The group also took issue with the “Healthy Request” labels, which are for soups that fall below 480 milligrams of sodium per serving.

“Campbell’s has worked hard to lower sodium to 460 milligrams of sodium per serving, and that qualifies for a healthy label,” said Michael Jacobson, the group’s executive director. “But the amount of sodium that people are actually consuming is enormous.”

The questionnaire was commissioned by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and carried out by Opinion Research Corporation in Princeton, N.J.

Another product that made the list of egregious offenders was cooking sprays, which list nutritional information based on “ridiculously tiny serving sizes,” the group said. One of the most popular, PAM, boasts zero calories and zero fat on the label of its original canola cooking spray. But that information refers to a spray lasting just a quarter of a second.

“That’s just not the way people use them,” Mr. Jacobson said. “It’s probably impossible to spray for a third of a second. We suggested six seconds might be kind of reasonable.” A six second spray, he said, has 50 calories and six grams of fat.

Coffee creamers are another overlooked source of fat and calories. Coffee-mate, a popular flavoring, lists nutritional information based on a single teaspoon, even though many people are likely to dump far more than that into their morning cuppa. A look at the label of Fat Free Original Coffee-mate leads people to think they’re getting 10 calories and zero fat, when a two-tablespoon serving — a more realistic serving size, the group says — would add 50 calories and 1.6 grams of saturated fat. That’s almost identical to two tablespoons of ordinary half and half: about 40 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat.

“Over the years we’ve looked and laughed at many serving sizes,” Mr. Jacobson said, “and these are some of the foods where the label serving is just so different from what people actually consume.”

The F.D.A. has been in the process of revising existing food labels since 2005. But the agency has been somewhat tight-lipped about where it is in the process and any changes it plans to make, like whether labels should include details on added sugars or just total sugar, for example, and whether calories should be emphasized less or more than they are now, Mr. Jacobson said.

This fall, the Institute of Medicine is expected to release its own report on food packaging and labeling as well.

LAPD urges drivers, cyclists to get along on the road

Citing a spike in bike accidents in the central area of the city, Los Angeles police on Tuesday asked both motorists and cyclists to do their part in sharing the road.

“The mayor has declared the city of L.A. a bike-friendly city,” said Capt. Ronald E. Marbrey. “We want to ensure we remain a bike-safe city.”

Marbrey said bike-related collisions have declined 4% across the city so far this year. But there has been a 9% uptick in bike accidents in the central part of the city.

Alexis Lantz of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition said those statistics may be misleading because the number of cyclists on the road has increased.

In an email, Lantz noted that the downtown residential population has grown. “If more people are riding more often, as we believe they are, then a 9% increase in collisions might actually represent a decrease in collisions per trip, or per mile bicycled.”

“We need bicycle count data to be able to know what’s really going on,” she wrote.

Eagle deaths investigated at LADWP wind power generation site

Goldeneagle

An investigation has been launched into the deaths of migratory birds including several federally protected golden eagles at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Pine Tree Wind Project in the Tehachapi Mountains, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

Should the inquiry result in a prosecution, the 120-megawatt facility on 8,000 acres of rugged terrain would be the first wind farm to face charges under the Endangered Species Act, which could cause some rethinking and redesign of this booming alternative energy source.

Wildlife service spokeswoman Lois Grunwald declined to comment on what she called “an ongoing investigation regarding Pine Tree.” But Joe Ramallo, spokesman for the DWP, said, “We are very concerned about golden eagle mortalities that have occurred at Pine Tree. We have been working cooperatively and collaboratively with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game to investigate these incidents.

“We have also actively and promptly self-reported raptor mortalities to both authorities,” he added. “Moving forward, we will be ramping up further our extensive field monitoring and will work with the agencies to develop an eagle conservation plan as part of more proactive efforts to monitor avian activities in the Pine Tree area.”

An internal DWP bird and bat mortality report for the year ending June 2010 indicated that overall bird fatality rates at Pine Tree, were “relatively high” compared with the 45 wind energy facilities elsewhere across the country.

DWP officials acknowledged that as many as six golden eagles have been struck dead by wind turbine blades at the 3-year-old Pine Tree facility, which is designed to provide 1.4% of the city’s goal of a 20% renewable-energy portfolio.

“In June we were in communications with the DWP over our concerns that the golden eagle death rate at Pine Tree was not sustainable,” said Travis Longcore, president of Los Angeles Audubon. “We must deal with the problem right now because Pine Tree is only one of several industrial energy developments proposed for that area over the next five to 10 years. Combined, they have the potential to wipe this large, long-lived species out of the sky.”

RELATED:

Wind turbines threaten endangered birds

Wind turbines growing taller and more powerful

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Photo: Biologist Joseph DiDonato cradles a golden eagle chick for a Bay Area study. On average, 67 golden eagles are killed each year by wind turbines. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Arrest made in Central Library laptop theft sting

A favorite target of thieves at the Central Library, police say, is its history department, shown in 2009.

A Los Angeles man was arrested Thursday for allegedly stealing a laptop in a sting set up by detectives in Los Angeles Central Library.

Brian Natonski, 43, who identified himself as a homeless man living in downtown Los Angeles, was arrested by undercover detectives after taking a laptop they had intentionally left unattended at the library.

Seventeen thefts have been reported this year at the Central Library, one of downtown’s hot spots for theft, police said. Laptops, cellphones, iPods and bikes are among the objects typically stolen from the library.

Natonski was booked for grand theft. His bail was set at $20,000.

ALSO:

Woman falls to death at Yosemite's Half Dome    

Fatal Fullerton police beating of homeless man sparks outcry

Witness in Bryan Stow beating may have died from peanut allergy

-- Kate Mather

Photo: A favorite target of thieves at the Central Library, police say, is its history department, shown in 2009. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Man who fell to his death on Pasadena hiking trail identified

A man who slipped and fell to his death from a trail in Eaton Canyon Park in the Pasadena foothills has been identified by coroner's officials as 21-year-old Erwin Molina.

Molina was hiking a popular waterfall trail with three companions around 6:30 p.m. Sunday when he lost his footing and fell 35 feet to the rocky canyon bottom, fire officials said.

He was taken to Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Coroner's officials are uncertain of his last known residence.

Calls for broken bones and twisted ankles are common on the trail but fatalities are rare, according to Pasadena Fire Department officials.

Molina's death was the first this year at the heavily used trail, which crosses several streams and reaches two waterfalls.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Repo men attacked in Costa Mesa

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Tony Barboza

Five arrested in smash-and-grab jewelry store robberies

Los Angeles police detectives have arrested two adults and three juveniles who allegedly were getting ready to rip off a downtown jewelry store near 6th Street and Broadway.

Investigators suspect the five may be behind a slew of smash-and-grab robberies in the downtown Jewelry District in recent months.

Jabril Greene, 24, and Makrice Leonard, 18, were booked Monday for conspiracy to commit robbery.

Two of the three juveniles -- all of whom were ages 16 or 17 -- were detained at Eastlake Juvenile Hall because of their prior criminal records, and the other juvenile was released to his parents.

Two of the suspects are gang members, according to Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“The jewelry merchants are alert to this spree of smash-and-grab robberies,” Vernon said Tuesday. “It was certain things about the car, how many men were stuffed inside and how they were dressed that added up to [the potential for] robbery.”

Vernon said a merchant pushed his panic alarm Monday when he saw a Cadillac circling his store, and police quickly arrived. As they spoke to the merchant, the Cadillac passed by again.

3.1 earthquake recorded in California desert

Earthquake map centered at 35°N,117°W

A magnitude 3.1 earthquake was recorded Tuesday morning in the California desert of San Bernardino County.

The temblor was centered 15 miles from Boron, 22 miles from Barstow and about 81 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

There were no reports of damage.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

Villaraigosa raises $123,500 to pay costs in free-ticket scandal

-- Shelby Grad

Homeless man arrested for allegedly having sex with teens

Photo: James Russell Watkins. Credit: KTLA-TV A registered sex offender living in a tent in Moreno Valley has been arrested on suspicion of having sex with two underage girls, police said Tuesday.

James Russell Watkins, 29, was arrested Saturday after police responded to a tip about a possible sexual assault of two teenage girls near Alessandro Boulevard and the Old 215 Freeway.

After interviewing Watkins, police said, they determined he had had intercourse with the girls at various times throughout July.

Watkins, a parolee and registered sex offender who told police he lived in a tent in the area, was booked on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, child abuse and violation of parole.

ALSO:

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

Villaraigosa raises $123,500 to pay costs in free-ticket scandal

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: James Russell Watkins. Credit: KTLA-TV

Man charged with setting fire, poisoning dog and slitting its throat

A Stanton man will be arraigned Wednesday on charges of trying to burn down his home and killing his dog by poisoning it and slitting its throat.

Jaime Arturo Garcia, 30, is accused of closing all the doors and windows of the home he shared with his sister July 24 and setting several small fires inside by lighting piles of clothing on fire.

The fires caused damage to cabinets in the laundry room but did not spread throughout the house, police said. His sister was not at home at the time.

After the fires burned out, Garcia allegedly poisoned his 7-year-old dog, Dexter, a dachshund mix, by feeding him various pills and then used a large kitchen knife to cut its throat, authorities say.

Two sought in Fashion District sexual assault

Second suspect in Fashion District rape First suspect in Fashion District rape
Los Angeles police are asking for help in identifying two men wanted in the sexual assault of a woman in the Fashion District, they said Tuesday.

The 18-year-old woman was walking to work July 16 when she noticed a man with long hair walk by her under the California Mart bridge near Olympic Boulevard and Main Street, police said.

The man turned back, placed the woman in a bear hug and dragged her, kicking and screaming, to a driveway entrance nearby, police said.

The victim noticed a second man with shorter hair who is wanted as an accessory to the crime for acting as a lookout, police said. The second man had a tattoo covering most of his right cheek, but the victim could not make out what the tattoo depicted.

The woman fought the long-haired suspect as he held her face down on the ground, arms behind her back, police said. Eventually, she was able to pull loose from his one-handed grip and punch him before the suspects ran away, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD Det. Joshua Riggs at (213) 972-1235.

Anonymous tips can be called into Crimestoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477), or by texting 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) with a cellphone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD.”

ALSO:

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

Fatal Fullerton police beating of homeless man sparks outcry

Witness in Bryan Stow beating may have died from peanut allergy

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Police sketches of suspects in Fashion District sexual assault. Credit: Los Angeles Police Department

Palm Springs police arrest man suspected in Denver slayings

Palm Springs police have arrested a man known as “Ms. Puppy”  who is a person of interest in a highly publicized double killing in Denver.

Daryl L. Rasmussen, 55, was taken into custody Monday at the Score Bar in Palm Springs after a patron called police saying that he recognized Rasmussen from television news reports about the Denver slayings and that he was in the bar, according to a statement released by the Palm Springs Police Department.
Responding officers took Rasmussen into custody after he allegedly  provided them with another person’s drivers license.

Denver police started searching for Rasmussen after two men -- Ronald Thomas Ford, 63, and Ramiro “Rome” Sanchez, 55 -- were found beaten to death in their home. Police found Ford's body in the home on Feb. 11, and a week later found Sanchez’s in the basement, concealed by a stack of boxes. Both died of blunt-force trauma. According to the Denver Post, Ford and Sanchez were life and business partners.

Rasmussen, a reported cross-dresser who goes by the name “Ms. Puppy,” was living with the victims at the time of the murders, and Denver police consider him to be a person of interest in the case.
Rasmussen is wanted on a parole violation on a warrant issued out of Austin, Texas, and on  a counterfeiting charge in Savannah, Ga.

Rasmussen, described as 6 feet tall and 135 pounds, is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on fugitive warrants.

ALSO:

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

Man sentenced for posting 'Wanted Dead or Alive' signs

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

-- Phil Willon

CHP cracks down on Angeles Crest Highway speeders

Angeles Crest Highway speeding crackdown by CHP

CHP officers were out in force on Angeles Crest Highway over the weekend, issuing nearly five dozen traffic citations in response to reports of speeding motorcycles and some near-collisions, the Glendale News-Press reported.

The enforcement campaign yielded citations for speeding, unsafe passing and other violations as CHP officers staked out the 66-mile route popular with motorcyclists.

In addition to tickets for excessive speed and unsafe passing, the officers issued dozens of warnings and tickets for improperly displayed license plates, non-functioning lights and driving without a license, said CHP Sgt. Matt Armenta.

ALSO:

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

Fatal Fullerton police beating of homeless man sparks outcry

Witness in Bryan Stow beating may have died from peanut allergy

-- Megan O'Neil, Times Community News

Photo: A CHP officer leads the way on Angeles Crest Highway just after reopening June 3 after being closed for nearly two years due to damage from mudslides. Credit: Raul Roa / Times Community News

Man allegedly stabs girlfriend who refused him $20 as kids watch

A man allegedly stabbed his girlfriend in the stomach after she refused to give him $20 as their children watched, police said.

Lombard Martinez walked into the Glendale Police Department headquarters on Isabel Street about 11:26 a.m. Sunday and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and spousal assault after the alleged stabbing, Sgt. Tom Lorenz told the Glendale News-Press.

The girlfriend, whose name was not released, was treated for a non-life-threatening stab wound to her stomach at Glendale Adventist Medical Center and released. She was stabbed about 3 a.m. after refusing to give Martinez $20 as the couple’s 3- and 5-year-old sons watched from their bed, Lorenz said.

She told officers that Martinez had come home drunk demanding the money, and when she refused, she was stabbed.

-- Veronica Rocha, Times Community News

Fatal Fullerton police beating of homeless man sparks outcry

 











An arrest that ended in the death of a mentally ill homeless man in Fullerton has many residents outraged and city officials looking for answers.

At about 8:30 p.m. on the night of July 5, Fullerton police officers responded to reports that a man was trying to get into cars parked near a bus depot on South Pomona Avenue.

The suspect was described as a homeless man with long hair and no shirt carrying a backpack, police said. When officers arrived at the scene, they found 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man who had become a fixture in downtown Fullerton and surrounding cities.

What happened next has Thomas’ family, acquaintances and much of the city outraged.

Police said Thomas tried to run after officers searched his backpack and found items that weren’t his. They called in additional officers when he continued to resist, and the scene continued to escalate as witnesses watched.

One took video of the confrontation, a graphic, two-minute clip that has since circulated the Internet.

North Hollywood arson fires: Suspect arrested

  Arson
A suspect has been arrested in connection with a string of arson fires in North Hollywood.

Authorities said the arrest Tuesday came after a small mobile home fire broke out just before 4:30 a.m. in the 7300 block of Farmdale Avenue in North Hollywood, part of an area police had been monitoring after about a dozen fires were set there in a three-day span last month.

The person in custody is suspected in the earlier fires as well, police said. A news conference about the arrest is scheduled for 9 a.m.

At least 12 fires were set July 21-24, and investigators said the arsonist might have been responsible for six more.

Most of the fires were set to vehicles in carports and spread to nearby structures along Lankershim Boulevard between Burbank Boulevard and Saticoy Street.

Arson investigators are still on the scene of Tuesday’s fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

ALSO:

Woman falls to death at Yosemite's Half Dome

Wife of man who tried to fix hernia with knife seeks help

Body in shallow grave identified as Rancho Cucamonga woman 

-- Kate Mather

Photo:  Los Angeles City arson investigators at the scene of a motor home fire in the 7300 block of Farmdale Avenue. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

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