Car thieves use mystery gadget to hack in

Police across the country are stumped by a rash of car thefts.

In surveillance video of the thefts, criminals appear to open locked cars with a mysterious handheld device.

But Kyung lah reports nobody — not even the car manufacturers — knows how it works.

In Long Beach, California, a man walks up to a car and using a small box, opens it.
Right next to him is another man, also using a box, opens that car.
The problem — they’re thieves. No keys. Now they’ve swiped all valuables from the cars.

In Chicago, the exact same scenario. A man by the sedan, unlocks it. No key.

Alarm disabled by some mystery device. You feel you’ve been outsmarted.
I thought I had everything on lockdown. The same thing happened to Steven Doi of Corona, California.

His car’s computer system was hacked. But the crook didn’t get away clean. Doi’s dash-cam, pointing toward the front of his Escalade. They caught the suspect… pacing… holding some mystery box.

“I was like whoa. You see this guy walking back and forth in front of the car.”

Sure enough, in the video, you can hear the door locks go plop. In just 18 seconds, the crook emptied out $3,000 worth of electronics.

Same device, different cities.

Mike Bender,an ex-cop and auto theft expert, calls it the latest high tech crime tool hitting New York to Los Angeles.

And like police across the country, he doesn’t know exactly what it is.

“The ease that this is working and the frequency we’re seeing it reported throughout the US, means it’s only become a greater problem,” Bender said.

Bender says your car is a rolling computer. What it takes to break in aren’t sledgehammersnot sledgehammers but hacking devices.

If you can hack into the NSA you can hack into GM.

But federal agents may be closing on what these boxes are. Law enforcement sources tell CNN they now have one of these boxes in Texas.

They’re trying to figure out if this is the same device used in other car burglaries.

Port of Coos Bay faces heat for fee hikes, LNG

About 60 people packed the North Bend Public Library’s meeting room to cheer and jeer as the commissioners of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay adopted two controversial resolutions Thursday night.

Both supporters and opponents of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG facility were vocal as port commissioners David Kronsteiner, Jerry Hampel and Eric Farm approved a resolution in support of the facility’s export permit application to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The facility is one of about 20 whose applications the federal government will evaluate this year to determine whether LNG exports from those sites are in the nation’s best interest. The only two proposed facilities applying on the West Coast are Jordan Cove and a site in Warrenton, on the Columbia River.

Board president Kronsteiner said the port’s resolution would have an effect on the Department of Energy.

During the public comment period, supporters and opponents of Jordan Cove weighed in.

“I think this is great for the state of Oregon, for the county, for the Bay Area, for the cities and all of the businesses,” said Rick Skinner, a manager at Knife River Materials and a Bay Area Chamber of Commerce board member.

“It’s just a way to retain our children here so that they can enjoy the things we’ve enjoyed all this time.”

Patty Cook said, “I’ve talked to a lot of community members myself, and there are a lot of them who support this project.”

Addressing safety concerns, she said, “My husband’s a fireman, and he is completely fine with having Jordan Cove here. He’s spoken with Jordan Cove, and they’ve shown (the firefighters) a lot of things that maybe the general public doesn’t know about.”

In contrast, J.C. Williams said it wasn’t “morally responsible” to allow people to work in an LNG plant on the North Spit, which she said was subject to earthquake activity and tsunami inundation.

Jonathan Hanson went further, calling the commissioners’ involvement with Jordan Cove “a criminal enterprise.” He said Jordan Cove Energy Project had violated the National Energy Policy Act and anti-racketeering laws by proceeding with regulatory applications before the project’s Environmental Impact Statement was finalized.

Anti-LNG activist Jody McCaffree urged the commissioners to reject the resolution, offering evidence that it was based on false claims.

“For instance, they state that they are going to export gas to Hawaii and Alaska. Hawaii is going to import gas, but not from tankers,” she said. “They are going to use ISO (intermodal) containers from Long Beach (Calif.) and Los Angeles. Alaska is working to export North Slope gas; they’re not going to be importing gas.”

Marina fees

Though the comments on LNG were passionate on both sides, when the commissioners took up a resolution to adopt higher fees for customers of its Charleston marina, RV park and shipyard, they didn’t seem to have a single ally in the audience.

Speaking of the raised fees, Knute Nemeth, who described himself as a “former fisherman” and the president of the Charleston Community Enhancement Project, said “I’ve talked to a lot of people who are going to pull the plug” on using marina services.

Nemeth also suggested that the commissioners reconsider a plan to fence off land for boat storage near the kayak launch south of the Charleston Bridge. He said it would be better to make it a grassy plot with picnic tables so the public could enjoy more access to the South Slough. Boat storage would be better provided by private businesses rather than by the port, he said.

Several commenters lambasted the commissioners for raising fees to make up for deferred maintenance. Lee Wright said the port had neglected the marina, the source of most of its income, in favor of projects such as the Coos Bay Rail Link.

“You’re going to have to start paying attention, because you haven’t been paying attention,” Wright said.

In response to the complaints, commissioner Jerry Hampel said, “I’d like staff to take a look at individual concerns in these areas.”

“I don’t want the door slammed in their face,” Hampel said.

Port CEO David Koch said staff planned to hear more from the public after the comments of about 100 people at two recent budget meetings.

Although the budget submitted to the board Thursday night still contained fee increases, Koch said staff plan to implement discounts for customers using multiple port services — for example, someone who uses boat storage, works on their boat in the shipyard and occupies an RV spot.

The commissioners adopted the budget, which includes pay freezes and benefit cuts for staff.

Later, Kathy Wall, the port’s chief financial officer, said the discounts would likely take effect in October.

In other business, the port:

• Awarded a contract to repair rail bridges over the Siuslaw and Umpqua rivers and Coos Bay to Osmose, the only bidder that remained in the bidding process.

• Awarded staff $6,383 in merit pay, to be divided among all staff, because the port met one of its 10 goals last year.

• Tabled a motion to amend Koch’s employment contract to allow his pay freeze and benefits cut. Hampel said he’d rather consider that motion when absent commissioners Brady Scott and Donna Opitz were present.

Signal Hill Police Capt. Ron Mark retiring to take position at CSULB’s criminal-justice department

After more than 30 years in law enforcement, Signal Hill Police Capt. Ron Mark is retiring to work full-time in higher education. But he won’t be too far away.
Mark, who is leaving the department next month, plans to stay involved in public service, only in a more behind-the-scenes role as director of the Center for Criminal Justice Research & Training at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
Sitting at his desk that now has a window view at the Signal Hill Police Department’s newly built headquarters, Mark told the Signal Tribune on Tuesday that his new position was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
“I went through the testing process and was fortunate enough to be appointed into the job,” he said. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. It doesn’t come up very often. The last guy was in there for 10 years, and he left because he was sick. It was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to.”
First working for the Gardena Police Department for nearly 25 years, Mark climbed the ranks from cadet when he was 19 to police officer in 1984. He was promoted to sergeant five years later and then lieutenant in 2000.
In Gardena, Mark took on a wide range of duties, including working as field-training officer, staff instructor for the sheriff’s academy and SWAT team operator, supervisor and commander, among other positions.
In October 2006, Mark joined the Signal Hill Police Department as operations captain when the department had two captains. He later assumed responsibility for both captain positions after the department reorganized its staff.
For the past nearly seven years, the husband and father of two children worked many details and special assignments. He was also instrumental in helping the City to complete a disaster plan and in 2007 spearheaded a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training program.
That same year, Mark was heavily involved in reinstituting the police department’s Explorer program, which had been nonexistent for a number of years. He said some Explorers, who are 14 to 21 years old and are required to pass an academy-training program and other reviews, have transitioned to paid cadet positions in hopes of someday becoming a police officer.
“I think that’s something that has always been really, really important– to give back to the community,” Mark said. “It helps our youth and it then helps build our employees here. … When they’re young, we can help shape their work ethic. We can help get them to understand what public service is about, and, if they’re well qualified, we bring them on as police officers.”
While working as a part-time professor and lecturer at CSULB’s Department of Criminal Justice and at Concordia University for the past eight years, Mark helped to boost the Signal Hill Police Department’s college internship program. In fact, some cadets working at the police department today were once his students, he said.
As director of the university’s Center for Criminal Justice Research & Training, Mark said his new position will allow him to stay involved in public service and help with law-enforcement training.
The center offers a wide variety of instructional programs through Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) and has trained over 36,000 law-enforcement personnel, including judges, criminal-justice scholars, practicing attorneys and law-enforcement practitioners.
Mark will be collaborating with a full-time professor at the university to conduct research on such topics as juvenile justice, crime prevention and law-enforcement management, he said.
“This gives me the opportunity to start figuring out the back side of it,” Mark said. “We do the ‘boots on the ground’ stuff on a daily basis, but what kind of research can we put into it? How do we reduce the crime rate? How do we keep kids on the right track?”
He also hopes to send college grads willing to receive work experience in crime analysis to the Signal Hill Police Department.
“We’ve got grad students over at Cal State Long Beach, and they’re itching to apply to train but they have no place to apply to,” Mark said. “That’s why I kind of want to bridge that gap and start bringing some graduate students here to look at crime analysis to try to figure out crime trends… Those are really important tools for law enforcement to try to predict crime and try to prevent crime. Frankly, we don’t have the personnel to do that.”
Mark added that he had planned to leave earlier but promised Signal Hill police and city officials to stay on until the City finished building its new police headquarters.
After the previous police chief and captain left the department, he was the last remaining top-ranking police official involved in original planning of the new, state-of-the-art, $18-million facility, which was completed in January, replacing a cramped, aging building that was nearly half its size.
Mark hailed Signal Hill’s city management and police staff as being among “the best” for which he’s ever worked, adding that Signal Hill Police Chief Michael Langston has not only been a “good boss but a good friend.”
Langston added, “A good man is hard to find. [Therefore] not what you see, it’s what you don’t see. Ron’s leadership was extremely important.”
Even though the police department and the City faced challenges over the last several years and during the economic downturn, they have survived it by maintaining tight budgets and lean staffs, Mark said.
Now, Mark’s departure comes as another senior sergeant and possibly others plan to retire soon, likely opening up vacant positions at the police department. Mark said he is comfortable his position will be easily filled.
“It’s been a good career,” he said. “It’s been a great experience. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great individuals. There’s a good team here. This police department really understands community-oriented policing, which is something I really enjoy and one of the reasons why I came here.”
On Thursday, June 20, the Signal Hill Police Department hosted a potluck lunch and farewell party for Mark. Co-workers and friends stopped by to congratulate him and give their best regards.
During the farewell party, Mark thanked his wife and children, as well as members of the police department. “The beat will go on,” he said. “This is family here.”

CA Doctor Indicted For Illegally Dispensing Oxycodone

Fresno, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment against Terrill Eugene Brown, 61, of Visalia, charging him with conspiracy to dispense oxycodone, dispensing of oxycodone and hydrocodone, and structuring currency transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan announced.

According to the indictment, Brown, a medical doctor, sold prescriptions for large quantities of highly addictive, frequently diverted prescription drugs, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, without medical necessity. Brown sold prescriptions to customers that did not have a legitimate medical purpose and were not in the usual course of his professional practice. Brown deposited the cash earned from this into different personal bank accounts in a manner designed to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

Oxycodone, also known as “oxy,” is a narcotic analgesic or painkiller and is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance. Demand for oxycodone-based prescription pain medication has grown to epidemic proportions in the United States, and dealers profit by selling such medication on the street. Oxycodone-based Schedule II drugs have a high potential for abuse, and users will often crush and snort the pills or dissolve and inject them to get an immediate high. This abuse can lead to addiction and overdose, and, sometimes death. Hydrocodone is an addictive prescription painkiller, the abuse of which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. Hydrocodone is sold generically or under a variety of brand names, including Vicodin, Vicoprofen, Lortab, Lorcet, and Norco.

“Addiction to prescription painkillers is a very serious problem. Diversion of such drugs to the black market is a danger to public health,” stated U.S. Attorney Wagner. “The indictment alleges that the defendant prescribed thousands of highly addictive pills for his own personal profit and with complete disregard for where they would end up or who would take them.”

“The abuse of prescription pain killers and their illicit sale on our streets is a plague on our community. We hope to raise awareness of this epidemic and deter criminals from engaging in the illegal sale of prescription drugs,” said Fresno District Attorney Egan.

“Doctors are entrusted by the public to protect their health and the distribution of highly addictive prescription drugs without medical justification is a violation of that trust,” stated DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge Bruce C. Balzano. “DEA will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners to stop prescription drug diversion and trafficking.”

This case is the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the Medical Board of California, California Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Nathan Lambert, a Fresno County Deputy District Attorney sworn in as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen A. Servatius.

If convicted of the controlled substances crimes, Brown faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, and if convicted for the structuring, he faces 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is being brought as part of Operation Footprint, a nationwide law enforcement initiative led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. Operation Footprint targets large drug trafficking organizations by identifying the transfer of drug proceeds through financial institutions, bulk cash smuggling and other forms of money transfers. Operation Footprint is focused on bringing criminal charges based on Bank Secrecy Act violations in addition to violations of the Controlled Substances Act and the Money Laundering Control Act. This case is also the product of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a focused multi-agency, multijurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

On April 11, 2013, a federal grand jury charged 13 defendants in an indictment that alleges that they obtained prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone, and medical marijuana cards from a doctor in Modesto — Dr. Brown. They recruited other individuals to obtain prescriptions and marijuana cards from the doctor by offering them payments in return for the prescriptions and marijuana cards. After obtaining the oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, the defendants shipped the pills to other states.

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MORENO VALLEY: Suspect to stand trial in Norma Lopez’s death

Despite attempts by defense attorneys to cast doubt on DNA evidence, a judge ordered the man charged with kidnapping and killing Moreno Valley teenager Norma Lopez to stand trial.

Jesse Perez Torres, 36, of Long Beach, faced a preliminary hearing in a Riverside courtroom Monday, June 10 — nearly three years after her slaying. As he sat in court wearing a red jumpsuit and shackles, his family was on one side of the courtroom, while Norma’s family was on the other.

An expert testified that DNA on an earring Lopez was wearing when she died matched Torres’ DNA, but defense attorneys tried to show that the evidence was not strong enough.

The prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Soccio, then pressed analyst Daniel Gregonis, “Are you confident the suspect was a match?”

After a long pause, Gregonis replied, “I believe the accurate sample is a candidate match.”

In holding Torres over for trial, the judge said this case makes one look up the definition of probable cause and sufficient evidence. But he said the prosecution’s case exceeded the preliminary hearing’s very low standard for evidence.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Norma, 17, was abducted July 15, 2010, while walking alone to a friend’s home after summer school classes at Valley View High. An intense search began after police found her backpack and signs of a struggle in a field.

Five days later, Norma’s body was found in a different field about a mile away by a man mowing his weeds.

Investigators had never said whether Norma was sexually assaulted. In court Monday, it was revealed that her body was too badly decomposed to determine that, or even an exact cause of death. A single antigen of sperm was found on Norma’s body, but it could not be tested for DNA.

Torres was arrested in October 2011, after his DNA was determined to be a match for DNA found near Norma’s body. He lived in Long Beach at the time of his arrest but had been living across the street from Norma’s school when she was abducted.

Torres also was seen in a video driving a SUV that was similar to one seen leaving the field where Norma’s body was found, a detective testified Monday.

Forensic analysts tested Norma’s body, her clothing and her earrings, and found a single sample of DNA that didn’t belong to Norma, DNA analyst Maria Richardson testified Monday. The earring contained Norma’s DNA and a minor DNA profile of an unknown man.

Initially, there was insufficient evidence of the man’s DNA to submit it to the Department of Justice crime lab, Richardson said. But once it was magnified, criminalists found enough of the sample to test for a match with the California criminal offender database.

Torres was matched from a sample he was required to provide following a domestic violence arrest earlier in 2010. The domestic violence charge was dropped but his DNA sample was catalogued in a federal database.

DNA analysts with the Department of Justice had no knowledge of Torres or if the sample came from someone who was alive or in jail until the match was confirmed, Richardson said.

“We had a partial profile. There was very little information entered,” Richardson said. “We were looking for possible candidates for a match … It came down to picking the best one.”

Defense attorneys argued that the DNA profile used to bring charges against Torres appeared in one in two Hispanics, one in three African Americans and one in five Caucasians. Defense attorneys also said the earring contained another unknown man’s DNA.

The long delay between Torres’ arrest and the preliminary hearing was caused by lengthy DNA testing and conflicting attorney’s schedules, the prosecutor said last month.

Body is missing teacher; Cause of death: drowning

The body found in a car pulled from a New Orleans bayou over the weekend was identified Monday as a missing teacher and her death was ruled a drowning, the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office said

Dental records were used to identify Terrilynn Monette, who was 26 when she disappeared in early March, said coroner’s investigator John Gagliano.

There were no signs of trauma to the body, so her death was ruled a drowning, city police said in a news release. Routine toxicology tests were pending.

The car holding the badly decomposed body was found and removed Saturday from Bayou St. John in New Orleans.

Monette was a Long Beach, Calif., native who moved to Louisiana to teach. She was last seen leaving a New Orleans bar not far from the bayou early March 2. She would have had to cross the waterway to get home.

She was a second-grade teacher at Woodland West Elementary School in Harvey, which is located across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.

The police department’s accident reconstruction unit will try to work out how the car wound up in the bayou, and officers are working to enhance all video collected in the case, police spokeswoman Remi Braden said.

Monette’s disappearance sparked a broad search handled in part by the Texas group Equusearch. A number of cars were pulled earlier from Bayou St. John as part of the search, some of which had been reported stolen.

Slidell Police Officer Mark Michaud, a recovery diver, volunteered for Saturday’s new search. It turned up six vehicles not found during the earlier months-long search for her, said State Rep. Austin Badon, who was a leader of the search.

He said 24 vehicles were hauled out of Bayou St. John during the original search and three more were too deteriorated to tow. The more complicated salvage for those three will be done, he said.

“If there’s a car in the water, it’s in the water for a reason,” Badon said. “A lot of them were stolen cars, insurance scams. We are going to remove all the cars we find.”

Badon said it’s not surprising previous searches missed six vehicles.

“You miss stuff,” he said. “It’s not easy. You’re looking at a computer monitor, and if you don’t go into the right area, or you don’t have it set wide enough, if you look away, you can easily miss it.”

Regardless of how long the search took, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. That, said Badon, “is just bitter. It’s tough.”

Badon said he hopes the case convinces more agencies to buy the expensive equipment required for underwater searches.

Long Beach Judge Sets $300,000.00 Bail in Misdemeanor Case

Last week, Long Beach Judge Laura Laesecke ordered Michael Tart , a Long Beach resident with no criminal record, into custody setting bail at $300,000 for his alleged violation of a municipal ordinance of working at a collective, that is similar to a city law requiring a permit to display a sign.  Judge Laesecke set Tart’s bail more than ten times higher than is normally set for similar cases. Tart remains in jail and has been transferred to a maximum security prison.

The excessive punishment and jailing of Tart and his disproportionate bail may be related to a claim he filed against Long Beach and the LBPD after video cameras captured an unmarked van pulling up to a sidewalk at the NatureCann Collective on July 3, 2012 with officers grabbing Tart and forcing him into the back of the van (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSkZu9nKUaA).  Not knowing what had happened to him for several days, Tart’s family members learned the van was actually operated by Long Beach Police who used it to arrest him for a minor violation.  A separate video released within that same month shows the same police department enforcing the Long Beach city ordinance on medical marijuana. This video shows a LBPD officer during a raid upon a collective applying the full weight of his body while stepping on a patient volunteer’s neck.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGfqN3pDRM).  That same video showed other LBPD officers smashing video surveillance cameras that captured the attack on the patient volunteer, who has since filed an excessive force lawsuit against the city. In a string of cases dating back to 2004, Long Beach taxpayers have paid millions of dollars in damages in cases brought against the city.

Lee Durst , Tart’s attorney, asked Judge Laesecke to consider that the alleged charges are based on a municipal ordinance that is being challenged in multiple lawsuits.  “Even if he was convicted, the fine would be between 250 and 1,000 dollars at the very highest.  Bail of 300,000 dollars is simply punitive,” Durst said.  Matthew Pappas , a lawyer representing plaintiffs in lawsuits pending against the city, noted that approximately 43,000 signatures had been gathered by a local group for a medical marijuana ballot initiative but that the city is refusing to recognize the initiative.  “It is a big problem when a city puts people in jail to thwart claims of misconduct and police violence.  It is even worse when enough signatures have been gathered for an election to repeal the invalid law it is jailing people for allegedly violating,” he said.  A federal judge has ordered Long Beach to explain on June 10 why it is conducting warrantless raids and using submachine guns when raiding medical cannabis collectives.

As an unopposed candidate, Laesecke was re-elected to the limited jurisdiction court in 2012 without having her name appear on the ballot. She is paid a base salary of $178,789.00 annually. Investigation into whether she has ties to Long Beach city officials is ongoing. When asked in March why certain individuals had been targeted by Long Beach, Laesecke refused to comment.

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Protesters allege police abuse at Vicente Fox lecture

Eighteen protesters, some of them from the Occupy movement, have accused Pasadena police officers of physically abusing and assaulting them outside a lecture by former Mexican President Vicente Fox at the Pasadena Civic Center last November.

The claims, filed May 13, allege that at least 11 Pasadena officers used excessive force against a group, which included children, outside the Nov. 14 lecture. The group, including several members who were arrested by police, was protesting legally and peacefully across the street after police had blocked the front of the civic auditorium, said civil rights attorney James Segall-Gutierrez, who is representing the protesters in the civil claim.

Segall-Gutierrez said the “bruises, scratches, cuts and abrasions” his clients suffered from the incident are further proof of a problem in the Pasadena Police Department.

“Police brutality in the city of Pasadena is rampant. It is out of control and unfortunately the chief of police and the city have not seen to it to retrain their officers on whether it is necessary to use excessive force or deadly force,” Segall-Gutierrez said.

At the time of the incident, police said the protesters pushed toward the auditorium, blocked some of the entrances and hit some of the police officers on the back of the head and threw things at them. A woman broke through the barricade, police said, and then other protesters clashed with police.

Police officials reported that there were 40 officers at the scene and about 50-100 protesters.

 

Segall-Gutierrez said his clients were legally protesting behind police barricades when officers began arresting them, and then things turned violent. Video of the incident captured by security cameras and citizen video posted on YouTube, he said, show that his clients did not do anything wrong. If the city rejects the 18 claims, he said, he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.

“There was a concerted effort to prevent these people from exercising their First Amendment right to protest,” Segall-Gutierrez said.

Alejandro Torres, 22, of San Pedro, Ulises Hernandez, 21, of Van Nuys, Benjamin Torres, 29, of Pasadena, and Christopher Wohlers, 23, of Long Beach were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer, and Dara Glanzer, 22, of Pasadena and Brian Connolly, 36, of Pasadena, were arrested on suspicion of inciting a riot during the protest.

Hernandez, Benjamin Torres, Wohlers, Connolly and Glanzer are among those who filed the claims. The other protesters who filed complaints are Kylene Wolfstein, Paul H. Waters-Smith, Clarence Joseph Smith, Jr., Yehuda Maayan, Niglmoro Erin Okuk, Eddie Betts, Arturo Blas, Sofia Blas, Zyanya Blas, Maria Cazarez, Antonio Hernandez, Brenda Hernandez and Adriana Alcaraz.

Each of the 18 claims is asking for $25,000 in damages.

Alejandro Torres appears to have filed a separate complaint from the group, which is listed for council notification at Monday’s meeting.

City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris did not return calls for comment Friday and City Attorney Michael Beck said he did not have enough information to comment on the case.

Councilman Steve Madison, chair of the Public Safety Committee, said he has seen video evidence that shows the protesters were out of line, and he has no “reason to believe” the officers acted inappropriately.

“Sometimes unfortunately, … someone who has been charged for a crime for their actions will make those claims strategically,” Madison said. “I think, … maybe I’m just an old guy telling them this, part of civil disobedience is being arrested sometimes and accepting responsibility for your own actions.”

Jury convicts Compton teen of two murders

A jury deliberated less than two hours Wednesday to return with guilty verdicts in the case of a Compton teenager accused of killing the mother and stepfather of his girlfriend in 2011. Giovanni Gallardo, now 18, was found guilty of firstdegree murder for plotting and murdering Gloria Villalta, 58, and Jose Lara, 51, while his girlfriend, Cynthia Alvarez, looked on. Both charges also carried special allegations of lying in wait and multiple murders.

Gallardo, who was tried as an adult, faces life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 31.

What the jury had to decide was whether Gallardo freely confessed, as the prosecution contended, or whether he was improperly led to confess by detectives who took advantage of his developmental disability, as the defense argued.

Earlier this month, Alavarez, 16, was convicted after four hours of deliberation of two counts of firstdegree murder and special allegations connected with the killings.

It took Gallardo’s jury half the time to reach the same decision.

Gallardo strangled Villalta and beat Lara with a baseball bat and stabbed him with Alvarez’s help.

In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall described Gallardo by saying: “This is a person who has no shame.”

“You have heard in great detail how this man plotted with his girlfriend Cynthia Alvarez for weeks,” Siddall said. “They coordinated and orchestrated the murder of (Villalta and Lara).”

 

The prosecution’s case was built largely on a statement Gallardo gave when questioned by police.

In that statement, which jurors saw on tape, Gallardo attempted to absolve Alvarez, although he admitted she took part in the killings.

Los Angeles County Deputy Alternate Public Defender Scott Johnson argued the interrogation of Gallardo was “botched” by the detectives, who believed Alvarez when she told them that Gallardo killed the parents.

With that, he said detectives used leading questions to get Gallardo to implicate himself.

He also argued Gallardo was easily steered because he has an IQ of 57, which experts described as mild to moderate mental retardation, and is illiterate.

“(Detectives) got what they wanted, but I don’t think they got the truth,” Johnson said.

Johnson said there were discrepancies in Gallardo’s testimony and contradictions with physical evidence, including how many times Gallardo claimed to stab Lara, the placement of wounds and other details.

Johnson said Gallardo was clearly involved with the disposal of the bodies, but was only an accomplice after the fact.

Siddall in his closing said the level and detail of Gallardo’s statement proved his participation throughout and referenced quotes from a transcript in which Gallardo talked about the planning that went into the attack and items he brought with him to commit the alleged crime.

Siddall also argued that the defense’s own witness described Gallardo’s limitations in a way that showed he could not have concocted the elaborate false confession that Johnson suggested.

Despite Gallardo’s low IQ score, the defense did not argue Gallardo’s competence to stand trial.

The murders of Villalta and Lara, whose bodies were discovered in shallow graves in Norwalk and North Long Beach, respectively, drew considerable attention.

The crimes were notable for their brutality, the alleged assailants’ ages and their subsequent behavior in the wake of the killings.

Both admitted to driving around with the dead mother’s decomposing body in the trunk for days after her death while buying supplies, planning and decorating for a Halloween party.

In Alvarez’s trial, she claimed killing the parents was Gallardo’s idea, although she did nothing to stop him.

Woman sought court’s help over man accused of killing unborn baby

Remee Lee, 26, who lost her baby, accused her ex-boyfriend of giving her an abortion drug

TAMPA — Fresh from Tampa General Hospital, three days after Remee Jo Lee lost her baby to an ex-boyfriend’s alleged deceit, she sought protection from him in Hillsborough Circuit Court.

In her April 1 petition for an injunction, she listed his weapons: “guns, knives, brass knuckles.” And “medicine.”

“I am afraid that he took measures to kill/abort/murder my unborn child, potentially killing me by switching my medicine,” wrote Lee, 26. “And now that he is facing investigation he will continue to cause me more emotional and physical harm.”