Posts Tagged “Los Angeles Sheriff”

Mark Fitzpatrick, a sergeant with the LA County Sheriff, has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a woman and inappropriately searching two others while on duty last year, prosecutors said.

Fitzpatrick, 39, allegedly assaulted the women during traffic stops in Compton and threatened one with arrest or deportation during one incident.

The sergeant will face five felony charges, including sexual battery by restraint, penetration under threat to arrest or deport and three counts of false imprisonment by fraud and deceit, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Natalie Adomian.

Mark Fitzpatrick has posted $245,000 bail.

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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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Sheriff’s deputy injured in crash in San Gabriel
By Brian Day, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/16/2009 10:16:10 PM PDT

SAN GABRIEL – A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was injured Friday when his patrol car collided with a civilian minivan, authorities said.

The crash occurred about 8 p.m. on San Gabriel Boulevard at Chestnut Avenue, San Gabriel police Lt. Chris Ortell said.

The deputy, who was from the sheriff’s Temple station, was expected to be OK, officials said.

The minivan caught fire after the collision, however the driver escaped uninjured and was being detained by officials as they investigated the crash late Friday, Ortell said.

No further details were available.

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From the LA Daily News

Deputy Sheriff Sentenced for DUI
By Steven Mikulan in crime
Wed., Sep. 30 2009 @ 4:15PM

Our sister publication the O.C. Weekly has a wrap-up today on the tale of L.A. County deputy sheriff Robert Andrew Moran. Make that convicted deputy sheriff Moran, as a judge sentenced him to six months in jail for causing an injury accident while driving under the influence last year. What made this case a cut above the usual DUI-cop story was that the vehicle Moran was driving at the time was a marked, LASD SUV, and that Orange County deputies allegedly tried to cover up the crash, which took place in the O.C. town of Stanton.

“An eyewitness at the scene,” writes the O.C. Weekly’s Matt Coker, “previously told the Weekly’s R. Scott Moxley that some unnamed Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene and tried to help their LA County colleague by quickly giving him water before any field sobriety tests could be given by other officers working the accident. The local deputies also tried to prevent for as long as they could the blood test that would ulimately seal Moran’s fate, Moxley was told.”

The O.C. Weekly piece concludes by noting that a lawyer for Moran, who is currently on unpaid leave, says the deputy will seek reinstatement. According to the O.C. Register and other sources, Moran has served nearly all of the six-month sentence under home confinement since pleading no contest last February. Earlier this year the L.A. Times carried a piece about the L.A. County Office of Independent Review’s claim that alcoholism is a growing problem within the department, and that alcohol-related arrests of LASD employees have nearly tripled since 2004.

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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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It’s about making money, say prosecutors

JOHN HOEFFEL
October 11, 2009

Dispensations … a man holds a placard at a clinic at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Critics say some doctors will prescribe marijuana for people who are not ill. Photo: AFP/Mark Ralston

LOS ANGELES: Californian laws legalising medical marijuana and permitting collectives to cultivate the plant have had some unexpected consequences: one is the challenge local growers are posing to the profits of Mexican drug barons; another is an explosion in the number of marijuana stores, or dispensaries, in Southern California.

Law enforcement is arguing that most are for-profit enterprises that violate the 1996 Compassionate Use Act and the 2003 collective cultivation law.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney, Steve Cooley, has announced he will prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries for over-the-counter sales.

”The vast, vast, vast majority – about 100 per cent – of dispensaries in Los Angeles County and the city are operating illegally; they are dealing marijuana illegally,” he said. ”The time is right to deal with this problem.”

Mr Cooley recently concluded that state law bars sales of medical marijuana, an opinion that could spark a renewed effort by law enforcement across the state to rein in its use.

This comes as polls show a majority of state voters back legalisation of marijuana, and supporters are working to put the issue on the ballot next year.

The district attorney’s office is investigating a dozen dispensaries, following police raids.

”We have our strategy and we think we are on good legal ground,” Mr Cooley said.

Medical marijuana advocates say the prosecutors are misinterpreting the law.

”I’m confident that they are not right,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access. ”If they are right, it would mean that thousands of seriously ill Californians for whom the Compassionate Use Act was intended to help would not be able to get the medicine that they need.”

In the City of Los Angeles, some estimates put the number of dispensaries as high as 800.

In August, Mr Cooley and the Sheriff, Lee Baca, wrote to all mayors and police chiefs in the county, saying they believed over-the-counter sales were illegal and encouraging cities to adopt permanent bans on dispensaries.

Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, was not surprised by the move. ”I think it’s a natural response to the rather flagrant marketing practices of a bunch of the dispensaries. The medical veneer has been wearing thinner and thinner,” he said. ”I’ve always wondered why those things were legal when they didn’t look legal to me.”

Mr Cooley said he believed that under state law collectives must raise their own marijuana and can recoup only their costs. ”That’s absolutely legal.

”We’re going to respect that.” But he said none of them currently do that. Mr Cooley said he would also consider going after doctors who write medical marijuana recommendations for healthy people.

Critics of medical marijuana say some doctors freely prescribe the drug for people who are not ill.

Medical marijuana advocates celebrated a brief thaw in the enforcement climate after the Obama Administration signalled earlier this year that it would not prosecute dispensaries that followed state law. That spurred many entrepreneurs to open dispensaries in Los Angeles.

As stores popped up near schools and parks, neighbourhood activists reacted with outrage, and police took notice.

A Los Angeles City councillor, Dennis Zine, welcomed Mr Cooley’s decision to prosecute dispensaries.

”There are many that are operating illegally, and it’s not a secret,” he said, but added that he believes ”a few” collectives in the city are operating legally.

When Californians voted for Proposition 215 (also known as the Compassionate Use Act) in 1996, they made it legal for patients with a doctor’s recommendation and their caregivers to possess and raise pot for the patient’s medical use.

In 2003, the legislature allowed patients and caregivers ”collectively or co-operatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes,” but said they could not do it for profit.

Mr Cooley, after reviewing a state Supreme Court decision last year, concluded that the law protects collectives from prosecution only in the cultivation of marijuana, not sales or distribution.

Medical marijuana advocates note that the state requires dispensaries to collect sales taxes on marijuana, and that guidelines drawn up by the Attorney-General conclude that ”a properly organised and operated collective or co-operative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful”.

The guidelines, however, do not deal directly with over-the-counter sales.

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Associated Press

From AP

LOS ANGELES — Police are looking for a woman who left a 3-year-old boy alone at a South Los Angeles bus stop.

The little boy played with a purple stuffed frog, squealed and squirmed in the arms of a police officer during a press conference today.

Captain Robert Green says a witness saw the woman waiting for a bus with the boy sleeping in her lap at about 1 a.m. Friday. When the bus arrived, she got on and left the boy behind.

The witness stayed with the boy for an hour and finally took him to a police station.

Green says the boy was taken to a hospital and was determined to be in good condition.

Green says the woman could be charged with child endangerment.

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