Articles tagged with crime

On Tuesday’s “Which Way LA?” we heard from Internet sleuth and writer Michelle McNamara who has become obsessed with trying to solve the  cold case of a serial criminal she’s nicknamed the Golden State Killer. He claimed 60 victims of rape and murder from Sacramento to Orange County between 1976 and 1986. Detectives have had little success and an online community of true crime …

Christopher Jordan Dorner was formally charged today with killing a Riverside police officer and attempting to kill two others. So-called “special circumstances” make him eligible for the death penalty. In his lengthy manifesto on Facebook, Dorner vows “unconventional warfare” against all officers involved in his firing by the LAPD — and their families. In many Southern California neighborhoods, armed guards have been assigned to …

The hunt for ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner came close to home this weekend. I returned to my Glendale house Saturday evening after a night out to find a pair of plain-clothed LAPD officers hunkering down on my front patio. 
The two bulky men in baseball caps and sweatshirts had pistols strapped to their thighs and shotguns in hand. They were standing in the dark on …

 
Updated Monday 9:30 a.m.  A false sighting led an LAPD SWAT team to a Lowe’s in Northridge Sunday,  as the massive manhunt continues for accused killer Christopher Dorner. In addition to the two women who were mistakenly fired on, a man driving a truck similar to Dorner’s was also targeted by police.  Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced yesterday that the city is putting up a $1 million …

Naming names. The fight over secret church files dealing with sexual abuse cases isn’t over yet. The L.A. Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s $660 million settlement with abuse victims included an order that the files be made public. Previously, a judge ruled that the names of officials – including Cardinal Roger Mahony – should be redacted to avoid further embarrassment for the church. But an L.A. …

California’s Three Strikes law was first passed in 1994, at a time of anxiety over violent crime. Offenders previously convicted of two violent or serious crimes could be sentenced to 25 years to life for any third conviction. Now, state prisons are so overcrowded that federal courts have ordered population reduction, but the state’s voters may be ahead of the game. By huge margins …

Passed overwhelmingly by voters on Nov. 6, Prop. 36 effectively revised  California’s “three-strikes” law. The easing of the law made it so felons could no longer be locked up for life for non-violent crimes. This change in law affected some 3,000 inmates and now first of those inmates has been released. As UT San Diego reports:
In a hearing that took less than eight minutes, …

Proposition 34 aims to repeal the death penalty in California and replace it with life in prison without parole.
This isn’t the first time California has wrestled with the death penalty. Back in 1972, the state Supreme Court declared the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment. It was reinstated through a voter approved ballot measure six years later.
This time backers of Prop. 34 are pointing …

The LAPD is investigating detective work that put a Los Angeles man in prison 19 years ago—for a murder he did not commit. We talk with him about his new life on the outside. Listen below:

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The US Supreme Court has ruled that California’s overcrowded prisons constitute cruel and unusual punishment. To reduce the population, Governor Brown and the legislature enacted “realignment,” which provides that non-serious, non-violent, non-child abuse convicts be sentenced to county jails. That’s where parole violators are going now, too. But the state prisons are still not emptying out fast enough, and three appellate court judges are …

Police are seeking a suspect in a strange case. Three homeless people have been stabbed, but not killed, and notes were left behind that police describe as “death warrants.”
The three homeless people were attacked in their sleep. Police think it might have been another homeless person who committed the crimes, and who left behind typed and signed “death warrants.”
The first attack was reported July …

Remember that sweet old guy in Apt. 303? Well he was picked up for murder and racketeering…
It’s been a year since FBI agents swooped down on brutal Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger and his lady friend, Catherine Greig in Santa Monica. They’d led a quiet life there since going on the lam back in 1995. Writer Gideon Brower (and KCRW freelance producer) happened to …

What was it like to be a Los Angeles cop back in 1992, right before the riots? What did the LAPD learn from those days of violence and fire? And how has the relationship between the department and the sprawling city it patrols changed over the last twenty years? These are some of the issues I explore with cop-turned-historian, Glynn Martin, the executive director …

Warren talks to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck 20 years after the Rodney King Riots. A sergeant at the time, Beck says that “even though it was a failure of the Los Angeles Police Department, it wasn’t just the failure of the Los Angeles Police Department.” He says that the community and the police department have a much better relationship today than back in ’92. …

Two of USC’s 2500 students from China were murdered yesterday morning a mile from the campus. Is violent crime on the rise again in West Adams? Why have Chinese social media sensationalized the incident with reports of “rich kids” in a BMW. Also, “So nice you’ll see it twice.” That’s one headline about this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which will be …

#LAPD Chief Beck on Lazarus verdict: LAPD family felt a sense of betrayal to have an officer commit such a terrible crime.
— Claudia Peschiutta (@KNXClaudia) March 8, 2012
The Los Angeles Times has been covering the trial of Stephanie Lazarus, the  ex-police detective who was found guilty today of murdering the wife of her ex boyfriend. Lazarus was linked to the victim after DNA on …

The superintendent of LAUSD, Dr. John Deasy talks to Warren Olney about the decision to remove all the faculty from Miramonte Elementary school. Listen to the interview on “Which Way, L.A.?” after the jump.

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A second teacher has been removed from Miramonte Elementary and there are reports that parents have started pulling their children out of the school. On Monday,  Mark Berndt was jailed on $23 million bond under accusations that he molested 23 children between the ages of 6 to ten. Berndt had worked for the school for 30 years. 

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There’s a movie in here somewhere…
Two Southern California sisters were sentenced to 37 months in prison for money laundering. Drug cartels had been funneling millions through their company, Angel Toy Corp. Here’s more from the story:
The money was then used by a Colombian importer to purchase teddy bears and other stuffed animals. These toys were sent on to Colombia, where the importer sold them …

A Glendale man was arrested on “suspicion of indecent exposure, possessing methamphetamine and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”  He was convicted of indecent exposure back in 1998.  According to the L.A. Times, he liked the sense of freedom.

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