Posts Tagged “LASD”

TMZ’s Harvey Levin threatening to sue L.A. Sheriffs over investigation into Mel Gibson leak.

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By Robert Holguin

ATHENS, Calif. (KABC)
— A law enforcement “surge” operation is being carried out by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department four nights a week to combat gang activity.
The surge was under way in Athens Friday night.
This is the mobile command post here behind me… The sheriff’s department is essentially able establish a mobile substation inside neighborhoods where gang activity is heating up.
At the nerve center for the gang enforcement team, the sheriff’s department says this effort has already made a huge difference in some of L.A. County’s most troubled neighborhoods.
Story continues belowAdvertisementFirst they talk strategy. The sheriff’s deputies have just gotten word that a large group of gang members are gathering. The deputies form a plan, then more than two dozen deputies swarm into an Athens neighborhood.
It’s exactly how the gang enforcement team is designed to work, a surge of law enforcement in order to combat gang activity.
“It kind of gives them a sense of ‘a cop on every corner,'” said Sgt. John Hanson, a member of the sheriff’s department. “And for that period of time that we’re there, it’s not unusual for us to get 10 or 12 people coming up to say, ‘Hey, I appreciate you guys being here. Can you stick around for a while?'”
Hanson says the so-called “get team” has been around for 15 years. But since February, the 40 deputies and five sergeants now work under one lieutenant in a platoon formation. They operate Wednesday through Saturday, hitting the streets of L.A. County in hopes of saturating neighborhoods where gang activity is spiking.
“Instead of taking time to draw up a plan and bringing resources together that might take two or three weeks, we can deploy that night,” said Hanson.
The deputies in the enforcement unit are handpicked from the station from gang areas. They work alongside members of the Probation Department.
Inside the command post, crime analysts are working to map out the areas the team will target.
“Gang saturation is very specific,” said L.A. County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Crystal Miranda. “We focus on the gangs. The deputies in this enforcement unit are from the actual stations that we patrol.”
Friday night, the team responded to a car-to-car shooting, a stabbing and parole violations. Relatively speaking, a quiet Friday night.
Saturday night, the team will be in Bellflower.
(Copyright ©2009 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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Zoltan Tombol, a 42 year old Sheriff’s Deputy had gone to the Cleveland National Forrest over the weekend. His wife had reported him missing on Sunday evening.

No cause of death has been given, and the Sheriff’s Department is not looking for anyone in the case.

Tombol was known to hike and jog quite regularly.

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Neighbors thought dead man was Halloween display
The Associated Press
Posted: 10/16/2009 09:01:19 PM PDT
Updated: 10/16/2009 09:01:20 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—Residents of a Marina del Rey apartment complex say they saw a lifeless body slumped on a neighbor’s patio, but didn’t call police because they thought it was part of a Halloween display.
Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday.

Cameraman Austin Raishbrook, owner of RMG News, told the Los Angeles Times he was at the scene Thursday when authorities arrived. The 75-year-old man was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the eye.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigator says the case is an “apparent suicide.”

Raishbrook says neighbors told him they noticed the body Monday “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy.”

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

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CAUGHT ON VIDEO:
LYNWOOD SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES INTERRUPT ARMED ROBBERY

From the Sheriff’s website:

Deputies from Century Sheriff’s Station arrested two armed robbery suspects after a brief foot
chase in Lynwood. The incident was caught on video, and is another example of the Sheriff’s
Department combining advanced crime fighting technology with good old fashioned police work.
The incident began August 26, 2009, shortly before 9:00 A.M. at “ Goyos Check Cashing, 3598
Imperial Highway, Lynwood, when two male Black suspects entered the location, held employees
at gunpoint and demanded cash. Deputies from Century Sheriff’s Station received a robbery
alarm call and arrived at the scene within minutes. Upon their arrival, deputies observed a getaway
vehicle with its engine running, as well as suspicious activity inside the location.

The incident was monitored and recorded on video at the Century Station ASAP Command Center
(ASAP – Advanced Surveillance and Protection). The live video feed provided deputies with the
advantage of knowing where the suspects were fleeing, as well as evidence for prosecution. As
shown on video, deputies at the scene were alerted that suspects were fleeing the location.
Deputies contained the area and arrested the suspects as they ran through a residential area.
Nobody was injured during the robbery. A firearm and stolen cash were recovered at the scene.

SUSPECT #1: MALOSI TRAHAN, MB/19
SUSPECT #2: IJAHMAN GENTLE, MB/19

For additional information, please contact Century Sheriff’s Station at (323) 568-4811 or Sheriff’s
Headquarters Bureau at (323) 267-4800.

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Contra Costa Times
By Rick Orlov Staff Writer
Posted: 10/09/2009 07:35:56 PM PDT
Updated: 10/09/2009 11:06:44 PM PDT

While District Attorney Steve Cooley wants to charge ahead with a get-tough campaign against medical marijuana dispensaries, Los Angeles police said they are waiting for a definitive city policy regulating the businesses before stepping up their efforts against rogue operators.

Capt. Kevin McCarthy, commanding officer of the LAPD’s gang and narcotics division, said that without a new city ordinance – which has been in the works for more than a year – officers cannot act against many of the clinics.

“We have been getting complaints from neighborhood councils and others and we log them and try to deal with them on a case-by-case basis,” McCarthy said.

“I think the district attorney made clear where he wants to go,” McCarthy said. “The city attorney and Sheriff Lee Baca are on board with him. The bottom line is we want to make sure people who need it have safe access.

“But we don’t want to see situations develop where there are other problems.”

In a radio interview on KABC-AM (790), Cooley reiterated his plan to close down many of the 800 to 900 medical marijuana shops believed to be operating in the city of Los Angeles.

“We will give them fair notice and, hopefully, they will see the light and voluntarily close down,” Cooley said. “We are going to uphold the laws of California.”

Local law enforcement has faced a dilemma as the City Council debates what to do about controlling the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries.

A moratorium on opening new shops expires in March and officials hope to have a new ordinance in place by then with detailed requirements on the shops and their allowed locations.

“None of us have a problem with the legitimate collectives,” said Councilman Dennis Zine, who has taken the lead on the issue. “The problem is with all these for-profit places that open up all over and who give out marijuana to everyone.”

Cooley and other officials say that in addition to selling to minors and others who do not use the drug for medical purposes, some of the dispensaries sell marijuana laced heavily with insecticides that endanger users even as they help finance Mexican drug cartels.

Councilman Greig Smith, who chairs the Public Safety Committee where the measure is pending, said he hopes to have action within the next two weeks.

Attorney Joe Elford, who has represented clinics, said he believes as long as the clinics follow the guidelines of the state Attorney General’s Office, they should be allowed to operate.

“We support reasonable regulations – such as there are too many in one area or the like – but for the district attorney to come right out and say all sales of marijuana is illegal (conflicts) with state law and what the voters have approved,” Elford said.

While the lack of an ordinance has partially tied the hands of the LAPD, McCarthy said officers have been able to go after brazen operators. For example, they took action against one shop that distributed fliers on the cars of students at a high school.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who wrote the state law implementing medical marijuana use, said he believes Cooley’s approach goes too far.

“All of us want to do something to make sure there are controls,” Koretz said. “I certainly never envisioned Los Angeles having more than 800 clinics. But I think the direction he is going is too far to try to eliminate all medical marijuana.

“It is clear they are out of hand, but the city is trying to deal with it.”

rick.orlov@dailynews.com

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