Law Enforcement News
Search Underway For Driver Involved In Hit-and-Run Of Severely-Injured 22-Year-Old Woman In Westlake
Authorities are searching for the hit-and-run driver involved in a collision that left a 22-year-old woman severely injured in Westlake. The incident occurred on Oct. 1, when the woman was crossing the street at the intersection of 8th Street and Carondelet Street at around 9:50 a.m. According to Los Angeles Police Department, a dark-colored Toyota Tacoma, traveling westbound on 8th St. struck the woman and left her in the road as they fled the area. "The driver fled the scene without stopping to render aid and identify him or herself," police said. The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital with severe injuries, where she has remained since the collision. Graphic surveillance footage from the scene shows the woman fly several feet into the air upon impact before the car is seen speeding away. Anyone with information on the case to contact Detective Juan Campos at (213) 833-3713.
CBS 2
Police Searching For Driver Who Walked Away From Crash In Downtown Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public’s help to find the driver of a vehicle who caused a crash in downtown Los Angeles and then walked away from the scene, leaving her own vehicle behind. The crash happened on Oct. 7 around 6:45 a.m. on Olympic Boulevard. Video shared by the Police Department showed a black 2018 Cadillac XTS make an abrupt left turn without yielding to oncoming traffic. The vehicle is then slammed into by a tan minivan. The driver of the Cadillac got out of the car, made no effort to help or exchange information, and then walked away from the scene on foot, police said. Both the Cadillac and the minivan were left at the scene. The driver of the van suffered minor injuries, according to police. Investigators are looking for the driver who is described as a Black woman with black hair and a “possible 4-foot long ponytail extension” and “long false eyelashes.” She is believed to be about 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighing about 160 pounds.
KTLA 5
Rape Victim Speaks Out About Erin Darling's Tactics In Defending Alleged Rapist
According to publicly available court records, in 2016 and 2017 CD 11 City Council candidate Erin Darling questioned the credibility of a rape victim and mischaracterized statements made by a lead detective in the case. It's one of several cases in federal and state court, including the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, that raise questions about Darling's legal tactics as a federal public defender. Darling represented an alleged gang member named Edgar Alexander Lobos who was charged with assaulting a woman in Lincoln Heights. Lobos, whose record included multiple domestic violence and gun convictions dating back to at least 2008, had just been released early from prison on previous gun possession charges. Within 12 hours of his release, public documents show that he allegedly kidnapped, assaulted, raped, and forcibly sodomized a woman at gunpoint in a public bathroom in Lincoln Park. Darling defended Lobos on the gun charges, initially as a full-time Federal Public Defender with two colleagues and later as a private attorney under a federal law that enables qualified lawyers to represent clients in federal criminal cases. The other FPDs withdrew from the case in February 2017 and Darling continued as sole counsel.
WestSide Current
Man Killed In SUV Rollover Crash On Freeway In South LA
A man was fatally injured when an SUV rolled over several times Sunday morning on the Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles, authorities said. The crash occurred at about 4:25 a.m. on the southbound freeway at West Florence Avenue, the California Highway Patrol reported. The CHP said a person was later found lying in the traffic lanes suffering from a possible head injury. Paramedics rushed him to a hospital, where he died from his injuries, the CHP said. No further information was immediately available.
MyNewsLA
Antisemitic Flyers Left On Vehicles At The Grove
Antisemitic fliers were placed on cars at The Grove in the Fairfax neighborhood in Los Angeles over the weekend, in what officials are calling an isolated incident. Officials with the Grove told FOX 11 that the person responsible has been identified, and that the situation has been turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department. "We responded quickly," said Rick Caruso, former chariman of the Caruso organization, which operates The Grove. "My team responded quickly, and we have no tolerance for it… We do not tolerate hate speech. We do not tolerate any kind of vile comments against anyone." The weekend's antisemitic display was the latest in a long line in Los Angeles County over the last year. In May, vehicles sporting antisemitic messaging were spotted in Beverly Hills. In April 2022 and November 2021, antisemitic fliers were found hanging in neighborhoods in Beverly Hills as well. According to the Anti-Defamation League, hate crimes against Jewish people reached a five-year high in Southern California in 2021.
FOX 11
Trespasser Arrested At Kim Kardashian Mansion After Scuffle With Guards
An intruder tried to enter Kim Kardashian's Hidden Hills mansion Saturday, but security stopped him before he was able to enter. The man made it past the community gate and then got into a fight with a security guard outside Kardashian's home. A call was made to 911 and the man ended up getting taken away in handcuffs. Sheriff's deputies say this same man has been caught on the Kardashian's surveillance video before, and know of his obsession with the family.
ABC 7
NYT Columnist Worries ‘White Supremacy' Could Be Replaced By ‘Lite Supremacy' After Racist Remarks Out Of LA
New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote Sunday that he was worried "white supremacy" would be replaced by "lite supremacy" after leaked audio revealed Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez making racist remarks. "It is a theory that worries me and that I have written about: that with the browning of America, white supremacy could simply be replaced by — or buffeted by — a form of "lite" supremacy, in which fairer-skin people perpetuate a modified anti-Blackness rather than eliminating it," Blow wrote in his column for the New York Times. Martinez resigned on Oct. 10 after leaked audio revealed she made racist remarks about Councilmember Mike Bonin's Black son. "I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments. I am so sorry," she said in a statement. Blow criticized Martinez' comments and said what was most concerning was "the racial, ethnic tribalism of her political calculations," because the meeting concerned redistricting.
FOX News
Armored Truck Driver Shot During Robbery At Bank In Harbor City Area
The driver of an armored truck was shot and wounded Monday during a robbery outside a bank in the Harbor City area, officials said. Two suspects wearing masks approached the driver as he was collecting money from the bank, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. At least one suspect opened fire multiple times at the driver, hitting him at least once. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and is expected to survive. The suspects fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money. The shooting was reported shortly before 11:30 a.m. at 23800 Vermont Avenue. No one was in custody and the initial description of the suspects was only two individuals wearing dark clothing and masks who fled in a dark sedan.
ABC 7
Calabasas Pharmacist Convicted Of Medi-Cal Fraud
A pharmacist from Calabasas faces sentencing in February for her role in a health care fraud and prescription drug diversion scheme involving two drug stores. Irina Sadovsky, 53, the former owner and pharmacist-in-charge of two Van Nuys pharmacies, was convicted Friday in downtown Los Angeles of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Sadovsky submitted claims to Medi-Cal and Medicare for prescription drugs that were never dispensed to beneficiaries but rather were provided to co- conspirators to sell on the black market. Her co-conspirators created fraudulent prescriptions, either by writing the prescriptions themselves or by paying kickbacks to marketers with access to patients and prescribers. Sadovsky recommended the combinations of prescription drugs to be written, checked the eligibility of the patients for reimbursement, and fraudulently submitted claims to Medi-Cal and Medicare.
FOX 11
San Bernardino Police Seize 20,000 Fentanyl Pills In Drug Bust
In a recent bust, San Bernardino police seized 20,000 fentanyl pills along with a half-ounce of cocaine. The bust happened last week when narcotics officers stopped a car for unspecified "vehicle code violations." The officers detained the three people inside of the car. They said the driver was on federal probation. Police proceeded to search the car and found 20,000 fentanyl pills, a half-ounce of cocaine, a loaded handgun and over $1200 in case. The three occupants were arrested for multiple felony charges.
CBS 2
CBS Tried To Reform The Cop Show. Police Reform Advocates Are Not Impressed
“I want to have community policing mean something,” Regina Haywood, played by Amanda Warren, says in the pilot episode of “East New York.” In CBS’s newest police procedural, Haywood is the new top cop in one of New York’s toughest precincts and she’s looking to usher in serious change, whether it’s sending a cop to live in the local housing projects or cracking down on officers who deny suspects their lawyers and are willing to lie on the stand. “We had a desire to see where the cop show can live in the post-George Floyd era,” says co-creator William Finkelstein. “You can’t ignore the moment in time.” An old hand at broadcast network cop shows including “Law & Order” and “NYPD Blue,” Finkelstein, 70, was partnered by Warner Bros. Television with Mike Flynn, 40, who has worked on cable series like “Queen Sugar” and “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” Each had been developing their own new series.
Yahoo! News
He Rescued Her From A Drug Den As A Baby. 22 Years Later, He Pins Deputy Badge On Her
On Nov. 2, 2000, Escondido police officer Jeff Valdivia was called in to help with the arrest of a parole violator at a known drug house in south Escondido. Valdivia was in his mid-20s and just four years out of the police academy. What he found inside the house would haunt his thoughts for decades. Inside one room, he found a dangerously underweight and sickly 6-week-old girl, along with her teenage mother and a used methamphetamine pipe. The mother admitted the pipe was hers, and she showed physical signs of having recently used the drug. The house was filthy and there was no more than six ounces of baby food in the kitchen. Valdivia had never taken a child into protective custody before, but he feared that if he left the baby with her mother that day, she wouldn’t survive. So with the support of his fellow officers and a juvenile detective, Valdivia decided to file the paperwork that would forever change the life trajectory of the baby who became Natalie Young. But he never knew how important that decision was until six weeks ago.
LA Times
FBI Releases Preliminary LEOKA Statistics For 2022 To Date
The FBI recently released preliminary statistics on officers who were killed in the line of duty during the first nine months of 2022. According to the findings, 92 officers were killed last year. Of those 92 deaths, 49 were felonious acts and 43 were accidental. The number of officers killed as a result of felonious acts in the first nine months of 2022 decreased by 9.3% compared to the 54 officers killed during the same period in 2021. The southern region had the most law enforcement deaths in 2022, with 47 deaths total, 24 of those being felonious and 23 accidental. The leading circumstances surrounding officers’ deaths included activities related to ambushes on officers, investigative activity, unprovoked attacks on officers, and responses to disorderly or disturbance calls. The 10 ambush attacks in 2022 are a 100% percent increase compared to the 5 ambush attacks during the same period in 2021. The 43 accidental law enforcement deaths reported this year have increased by 2.4% compared to the first nine months of 2021. Accidental deaths were primarily due to motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian officers being struck by vehicles, and airplane crashes.
PoliceOne
Local Government News
Councilmen Cedillo And De León Stripped Of Committees After Racist Leak
Acting Los Angeles City Council President Mitch O’Farrell removed Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo from a variety of committee assignments on Monday in order to encourage them to resign, following the leak of a conversation they took part in with former Council President Nury Martinez in which she called Councilman Mike Bonin’s Black son “a monkey” and protested that L.A. District Attorney George Gascon would not help hispanic residents in redistricting because, “Fuck that guy! He’s with the Blacks.” Although Martinez has quit her seat, and Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, also resigned his post after the meeting was leaked, Cedillo and De León have been refusing to step down, and O’Farrell said the two men had both disqualified themselves from committees concerning real estate development, housing, and homelessness, the Los Angeles Times reports. Governor Gavin Newsom and even President Biden have urged the pair to resign. Still, O’Farrell has not been able to persuade either De León or Cedillo to step aside, which is even thornier considering recent reporting that De Leon took money from a known mobster.
LA Magazine
Councilmen Cedillo And De León Stripped Of Committees After Racist Leak
Acting Los Angeles City Council President Mitch O’Farrell removed Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo from a variety of committee assignments on Monday in order to encourage them to resign, following the leak of a conversation they took part in with former Council President Nury Martinez in which she called Councilman Mike Bonin’s Black son “a monkey” and protested that L.A. District Attorney George Gascon would not help hispanic residents in redistricting because, “Fuck that guy! He’s with the Blacks.” Although Martinez has quit her seat, and Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, also resigned his post after the meeting was leaked, Cedillo and De León have been refusing to step down, and O’Farrell said the two men had both disqualified themselves from committees concerning real estate development, housing, and homelessness, the Los Angeles Times reports. Governor Gavin Newsom and even President Biden have urged the pair to resign. Still, O’Farrell has not been able to persuade either De León or Cedillo to step aside, which is even thornier considering recent reporting that De Leon took money from a known mobster.
LA Magazine
City Council Member, Radical CPA In The Race For LA Controller
Between the Pikachu mascot, the corgi logos and TikTok dances, it’s clear Kenneth Mejia is anything but politics as usual. He’s running against City Council member Paul Koretz to be Los Angeles’ next city controller, touting his experience as a certified public accountant. “I can take data, break it down and explain it in a way to people that’s easy to understand,” Mejia said. The activist is part of a wave of millennial candidates taking on Los Angeles establishment Democrats from the left. Mejia, a tenant’s rights activist, is a police and prison abolitionist who believes in systemic change to solve LA’s problems. “I want to abolish poverty. I want to abolish hunger. Things that make it difficult to live in LA,” Mejia said. Koretz is firing back — saying Mejia is too radical for public office, citing his old tweets, including one in 2018 saying “Not a fan of police. That is the one thing stopping many revolutionary uprisings in America.”
Spectrum News
