Vigil honors Chapman Law’s Katherine Darmer

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Teary-eyed friends participate in a candlelight vigil in honor of Katherine Darmer, a Chapman law professor who died last week.

ORANGE Students, friends and colleagues gathered by candlelight to remember Katherine Darmer.

The group of about 100 people met at 7 p.m. on the front steps of the Chapman School of Law building, where Darmer just one week ago was teaching classes on criminal procedure law. Darmer died by suicide Friday.

The vigil was organized by the Safe Space Committee, Chapman Law chapter of Outlaw and the Wallace All Faith Chapel.

Darmer, 47, jumped from a six-story Irvine parking garage, said Orange County Supervising Deputy Coroner Daniel Aikin.

The news of Darmer’s death came as a shock to many people, who remembered her as a tireless champion for equality and human rights, a teacher who pushed her students to achieve and a good friend, mother and wife.

A public memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Marks Presbyterian Church, 2200 San Joaquin Hills Road in Newport Beach.

Darmer married Roman Ernest Darmer II in December 1999, according to a New York Times wedding announcement. Darmer is noted as a mother to two children, ages 8 and 11, by the Daily Pilot.

 

Bystander loses car, gets debt in shootout

How many movies have you seen where the crime-fighting hero commandeers a bystander’s car, embarks on a wild chase that leads to a shootout and the capture of the crook – along with a spectacular wreck that destroys a car or 50?

But how often do you see the part where the guy who owns the commandeered vehicle is an octogenarian trying to park peacefully at a Jack in the Box who now has to deal with the hassle of paying for a rental car, paying to store the wreckage of his old car, sorting out insurance issues, and arguing with authorities over whether he really ever gave consent to have his car appropriated for heroic purposes in the first place?

That doesn’t make for such compelling screen drama, but fortunately the bar for this column is somewhat lower.

Kenneth Carrier, 80, is a retired aerospace engineer who about 9 a.m. on Dec. 13 was with his daughter, Linda Threadgold, in the parking lot of the Jack in the Box at El Toro and Rockfield. Suddenly, they saw people running across the lot, including a man waving a handgun. According to Threadgold, the man, who was not wearing a uniform, “came up to Dad’s side of the car waving the gun saying, ‘Let me have the car! … Quick! I’m a police officer!” Carrier said he asked to see identification and the man flashed a badge on his waistband, but Carrier couldn’t tell whether it was real. Carrier said both he and his daughter were frightened, and she screamed, “Let him have the car, Dad! Let him have the car!”

Carrier said he felt he had no choice. He gave up his 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara. “He commandeered the vehicle. He did not have my permission.”

It turns out the man with the gun was a security guard at the nearby AT&T store, which had just been held up, and he was chasing the man who’d robbed it. The chase ended nearby with either the Suzuki hitting a pick-up (the initial report) or a pick-up hitting the Suzuki (what the guard’s lawyer says happened).

In any case, a sheriff’s investigator who had joined the chase cornered the robber, yelled “Freeze!” according to witnesses, and then shot the man when he failed to comply. The robber has since pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Back at the Jack-in-the Box that day, Carrier said, he “stood around wondering what to do.” Finally, a deputy took him behind the tape to show him his wrecked Vitara. “The whole right side was caved in,” Carrier recalls. An attorney representing the security company showed up and “told us not to worry, that they were going to take care of everything” regarding the wrecked SUV.

Carrier went home. A few hours later, a deputy called and said he could fetch the SUV. Carrier had the car towed to a shop. His insurance company declared it totaled and agreed to pay him $12,500.

A check finally came last week, less some expenses. What he’s left with doesn’t cover his loss, Carrier says. Those expenses include $3,200 to the storage yard and $2,300 for a rental car; plus the $250 deductible. Bottom line: Carrier can’t buy a dependable vehicle of the quality he lost with the money he’ll have left. He and his wife are living on a fixed income and don’t want to take on car payments to make up the difference. The Suzuki had been paid off.

In addition to full compensation by the security company, Carrier believes the guard should be charged with auto theft. That’s not the way the Sheriff’s Department or the guard’s attorney see it. Capt. Steve Doan told me, “I really feel for him, I do,” but Carrier’s statement at the scene was he turned over the Suzuki willingly, “so we didn’t have the elements of a crime.” If Carrier is changing his story, Doan said, it is still unlikely to result in an arrest. You can see why; the record of Carrier’s initial statement probably would be hard to overcome.

Alan Romero, attorney for the company that employed the guard, said the guard is a retired cop and called his actions “heroic.” He also says Carrier gave up the SUV willingly. Romero says he offered Carrier “full replacement value” for it and doesn’t understand why he won’t accept it. I asked Romero whether he was willing to include storage, car-rental and other expenses. He replied: “Please advise what other costs or monies the OC Register believes… my client should pay … and I will present these amounts to my client for consideration.” Glad to be of help.

 

Jackson doctor denied bail during appeal

LOS ANGELES A judge Friday turned down the defense’s request to release Michael Jackson’s personal physician from jail while he appeals his involuntary manslaughter conviction stemming from the singer’s death from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol in June 2009.

Dr. Conrad Murray was not required to be in court for the hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, who sentenced him Nov. 29 to four years in county jail.

The judge says he was scared when he heard Murray say during a documentary interview that he thought it was permissible to give propofol in a home setting.

In his Jan. 27 court filing, Murray asked the judge to release him on his own recognizance – meaning his promise to return – or on bail pending his appeal. Murray, who turned 59 Sunday, wrote in his declaration that he has been informed by his appellate attorney that it will take “well over a year” before a decision is rendered in his appeal.

Murray also wrote that he would agree to comply with “any and all conditions of release, including but not limited to electronic monitoring, periodic check-in with any agency or court or such other conditions that the court deems reasonable,” and that he would live with Nicole Alvarez and their son, who will turn 3 next month.

In their response last week, Deputy District Attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil urged the judge to deny Murray’s request.

“The defendant fails to demonstrate that he is unlikely to flee,” the prosecutors wrote, noting that he has “significant ties outside the state of California, as well as ties outside of the United States.”

“Defendant is unauthorized to practice medicine since each of his medical licenses has been revoked. Moreover, defendant is now a convicted felon, sentenced to a term of four years in state prison. He clearly is not in the same position as when he attended court proceedings prior to being convicted and sentenced,” Walgren and Brazil wrote in their opposition to Murray’s request.

The judge Friday concurred with the prosecutors, saying he considers Murray, who was born in Granada, a flight risk, and that he would be a danger to society if he tries to practice medicine again.

Murray has been jailed since the judge ordered him to be taken into custody Nov. 7 just after he was convicted of the felony count stemming from Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.

 

Car splits in half after crashing into tree in Seal Beach

SEAL BEACH – A woman was detained on suspicion of DUI Friday morning after she crashed into a tree and split her Nissan sedan in half, authorities said.

The single-vehicle crash was reported at about 2:15 a.m. on Lampson Avenue west of Basswood Street, said Seal Beach police Sgt. John Scott.

The woman, who suffered minor injuries, was detained on suspicion of DUI and released at the hospital, said Scott. She had no passengers.

It appears the vehicle spun out of control and hit the tree on the passenger side, causing it to split in half behind the driver’s seat, Scott said.

 

7 arrested in rare rhino-horn raid

LOS ANGELES – The nationwide, multi-agency effort was dubbed “Operation Crash” — a term for a herd of rhinoceros.

For 18 months, special agents from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other agencies used surveillance cameras and undercover operatives to track the activities of suspected traffickers of endangered black rhinoceros horns, which fetch exorbitant prices on the black market in some Asian countries for their alleged medicinal properties and as symbols of good luck.

This week, in what federal authorities say is the largest-ever seizure of protected rhino horns, seven suspects — including a father and son from Orange County, as well as the father’s girlfriend — were arrested on charges related to trafficking in a commodity that largely has been banned by international trade laws since 1976.

Vinh “Jimmy” Choung Kha, 49, owner of Win Lee Corp., an import business in Westminster, and his son, Felix Kha, 26, were arrested last Saturday and made their initial court appearances Tuesday in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

The men are being held without bond until further proceedings scheduled for Monday, authorities said.

Jimmy Kha’s girlfriend, Mai Nguyen, 41, who is accused of funneling illegal shipments through a nail salon she owns in Highland, also was arrested. All three have been charged with conspiracy and violations of the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act.

All species of rhinoceros are protected under U.S. and international law, and all black rhinoceros species have been on the endangered species list since 1975.

“The rhino is an animal of prehistoric origin that is facing possible extinction because of an illegal trade for its horns on the black market that is driven by greed,” Ignacia S. Moreno, an assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a statement.

“We are taking aggressive action to protect the rhino by investigating and vigorously prosecuting those who are engaged in this brutal trade,” Moreno said.

 

Sells for $250,000

 

 

A black rhino horn typically weighs between 10 and 20 pounds, and a 10-pound horn can sell for $250,000 on the black market after being purchased by a trafficker in the U.S. for about $30,000, said Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In Vietnam, black rhino horns have been touted as a possible cure for cancer, and in addition to ornamental uses, the Chinese consider the horns — which are composed of keratin, the same protein in hair and fingernails — to have widespread medicinal applications.

The seven arrests were made in Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York by agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations.

“We anticipate that there are going to be more arrests,” Grace said. “The investigation is ongoing.”

The most recent arrest occurred Wednesday night when authorities nabbed a Chinese national who allegedly oversaw the shipment of dozens of rhino horns from the United States to China. Zhao Feng, 45, was arrested by agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after he arrived at Los Angeles Airport on a flight from China, authorities said.

Kha and his son are among members of a U.S.-based trafficking ring who allegedly supplied rhino horns to Feng. The Khas, who live in Garden Grove, are accused of purchasing rhinoceros horns from various sources since at least 2008, according to court documents.

One of the Kha’s alleged suppliers, Jarrod Wade Steffen, 32, was arrested in Hico, Texas.

According to a criminal complaint, the Khas began receiving packages from Steffen and another supplier in 2010. Seventeen packages were opened under federal search warrants and 37 rhinoceros horns were found.

Federal agents searched the Khas’ business, home and safety deposit boxes last weekend and found horns, cash, bars of gold, diamonds and Rolex watches; approximately $1 million in cash and another $1 million seized in gold ingots was seized.

Agents pored over financial and travel records to help build their case against the Khas, Nguyen and other suspects.

Nguyen, owner of Joline’s Nails in Highland, made deposits of about $580,500 over a 16-month period “that appear inconsistent with her business at (the nail salon),” according to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint.

Jimmy Kha frequently travelled to China and to Texas, Steffen’s home state, court documents show.

 

Up to 5 years in prison

 

 

On Oct. 5, an undercover operative observed Nguyen greeting Steffen and Steffen’s mother as they arrived at Long Beach Airport; the three then got into Jimmy Kha’s black BWM and drove off, according to the affidavit written by U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent Lizz Darling.

The charges against Nguyen, Jimmy Kha and Felix Kha carry maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy; five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for Lacey Act violations; and up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for violations of the Endangered Species Act.

After months of undercover work, the case blew open Feb. 9 when federal authorities got a tip that Steffen, his wife, Molly, and his mother, Merrily, were carrying a large amount of cash on them at Long Beach Airport.

Transportation Security Agency officers found about $300,000 in $100 bills in three of the Steffens’ carry-on bags; the money was turned over to the Long Beach Police Department, according to court documents and a Department of Justice news release.

Merrily allowed Long Beach police officers to look at her camera and they observed images of rhinoceros horns and pictures of large sums of money, according to the affidavit.

Additional money was found in Molly Steffen’s purse: two stacks of $100 bills totaling about $20,000, according to the affidavit.

“That money is not mine,” Molly Steffen told officers, according to court documents. “It’s from his accounts,” she said, referring to her husband.

Neither Molly Steffen nor his mother has been arrested.

Authorities also have arrested as part of “Operation Crash” New Jersey resident Amir Even-Ezra, who was nabbed Saturday on a felony trafficking charge after allegedly purchasing rhino horns from a person from New York at a service station off of the New Jersey Turnpike, according to the Department of Justice news release.

Even-Ezra allegedly brought a scale for weighing the horns and envelopes of cash to the meeting, which was brokered by an individual outside the United States, the news release said.

In U.S. District Court in Manhattan, antiques expert David Hausman was also charged with illegally trafficking rhinoceros horns and with creating false documents to conceal the illegal nature of the transaction, both in violation of the Lacey Act, the news release said.

Hausman allegedly purchased a black rhinoceros mount (a stuffed head of a rhinoceros) from an undercover officer in Illinois and later was seen sawing off the horns in a motel parking lot, according to the news release. Rhino horns were found in a Feb. 18 search following his arrest, the DOJ said.�

“Rhino horn traffickers continue to fuel the illegal demand for horn — demand that has led to hundreds of rhino deaths and put the white and black rhino in danger of extinction in the wild,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said in a statement.

“These arrests have dealt a serious blow to rhino horn smuggling, but represent only the beginning of a significant crackdown on this illegal trade.”

 

Suit: ‘Cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals’ at TBN

Jaw-dropping details about alleged financial digressions at Trinity Broadcasting Network were made in a lawsuit filed Thursday – including the purchase of a$50 million jet through “a sham loan to an alter ego corporation” for the personal use of the Crouches; a $100,000 motor home purchased by Trinity as a mobile residence forJan Crouch’s dogs; “multiple residential estates” falsely reported as guest homes or church parsonages to avoid income disclosures;  meal expenses of up to a half-million dollars per company director; “personal chauffeurs compensated with Trinity funds under the guise of medical payments;” and “multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals.”

The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court by Joseph McVeigh against Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana (which does business as Trinity Broadcasting Network, the largest Christian broadcaster in the world), its International Christian Broadcasting arm, attorneys Davert & Loe (who do legal work for Trinity) and others.

McVeigh accuses Trinity and its lawyers of malicious prosecution in connection with a loan he received through Trinity companies.

So who is McVeigh? He is the uncle, by marriage, of Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper — who sued Davert & Loe in federal court last month. Koper accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to its principals — and of firing her as its finance director, and beginning a campaign of “malicious retaliation” against her and her family (including McVeigh), for refusing to go along with the scheme.

Trinity paints a very different picture — saying it was Koper and her husband who committed financial misdeeds at Trinity.

‘ABSURD AND CONTRIVED’

While Trinity has not been served “with this absurd and contrived suit, it is nothing more than a tabloid pleading,” said Trinity attorney Colby M. May in an email. “No matter how hard Ms. Koper and her husband try to divert attention from their embezzlement and misappropriation of money, it won’t work (regardless of how many Uncle McVeighs they marshal). As I previously reported to you in the context of Ms. Koper’s suit against Davert & Loe (of which neither TBN and ICB are not parties), the outrageous, false, and unsubstantiated assertions about TBN and ICB, which are embellished in Mr. McVeigh’s suit, are untrue. The claims are nevertheless being echo-chambered in the continuing vain attempt at diversion.

“I simply remind you of the following: (1) Ms. Koper has admitted several times to having embezzled and misappropriated money; (2) the IRS was months ago informed of Ms. & Mr. Koper’s conduct, and they face considerable fines and excise by the IRS; (3) in recognition and admission of their misconduct and dishonest acts, Ms. & Mr. Koper have made partial restitution, but that stopped when they fled to New York, and (4) at no time have any charitable assets of the Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana Inc. or International Christian Broadcasters been ‘diverted’ to any director, period (except, of course, whatever Mr. & Ms. Koper diverted and embezzled).”

SALACIOUS DETAILS 

McVeigh’s suit says that Koper was promoted to finance director because Trinity wanted somebody within the family who would keep its “financial ‘skeletons’ safely in the ‘closet.’”

The suit then delves into much more detail regarding the “unlawful and unreported income distributions to Trinity Broadcasting’s directors” than Koper’s suit does, including:

• “Multiple jet aircraft, including a $50 million ’Global Express‘ luxury jet aircraft purchased for the personal use of the Crouches through a sham loan to an alter ego corporation set up by the directors of Trinity Broadcasting in Florida, as well as an $8 million Hawker jet aircraft purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use of director Janice Crouch;
• “Multiple motor vehicles, including a $100,000motor home purchased by Trinity Broadcasting as a mobile residence for director Janice Crouch’s dogs; the latest Bentley recently purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for director Paul Crouch, Sr.; the most recent Denali purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for director Janice Crouch; a new Suburbanrecently purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for director Matthew Crouch; and numerous other vehicles;
• “Multiple residential estates falsely reported as ‘guest homes’ or ‘church parsonages’ to avoid income disclosures, even though they are maintained by Trinity Broadcasting for Paul Crouch, Sr.’s personal use in Newport Beach, California; another mansion purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use of Paul and Janice Crouch in Nashville, Tennessee; residential property purchased by Trinity Broadcasting Florida for the personal use of Paul and Janice Crouch in Miami, Florida; residential property purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use of Paul and Janice Crouch in Irving, Texas; two homes purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use ofMatthew Crouch in Irving, Texas, although one of the homes is used by his sons; three more homes purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for Matthew Crouch’s personal use in Costa Mesa, California (adjacent residential properties occupied by Matthew Crouch, his wife, and his two sons); a cabin inLake Arrowhead, California purchased by Trinity Broadcasting and reserved solely for the personal use of Trinity Broadcasting board members; another mansion purchased by Trinity Broadcasting San Marcos for Janice Crouch’s personal use in Newport Beach, California; and twomore mansions next door to one anothcr that were purchased by Trinity Broadcasting Florida for the personal use of Paul Crouch, Sr. and Janice Crouch in Windermere,  Florida.
• “Multiple other perquisites, including meal expenses on the order of $300,000 to $500,000 per year for each director of Trinity Broadcasting; hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional credit card reimbursements for each director; personal chauffeurs compensated with Trinity Broadcasting funds under the guise of “medical payments”; fictitious ‘rent’ (and expenses) and other ‘donations’ paid to Paul and Janice Crouch for the fictitious use of a home owned by those directors in Newport Beach, California (even though the residence sits empty); and tens of thousands of dollars in ’redecorating’ expenses paid each year for such items as stain removal in the Crouch mansions;
• “Multiple backchannel distributions, kickbacks, and related schemes, such as tens of millions of dollars distributed through a company owned by TBN director Matthew Crouch, called Gener8xionEntertainment; a revocable trust account scheme by which Trinity Broadcasting’s directors were paid returns above market rate on invested funds, with Trinity Broadcasting paying the difference as undisclosed distributions to the directors; fraudulent accounting schemes by which Trinity Broadcasting luxury assets (such as the $50 million jet aircraft used by Paul Crouch Sr.) are falsely held on the books of other corporations controlled by Trinity Broadcasting’s same directors; falsely reporting income received and controlled by Trinity Broadcasting as income purportedly received and controlled by third-party corporations to avoid financial disclosures and adverse tax consequences; routine assignment of sham ‘business purposes’ to the use of Trinity Broadcasting’s luxury assets (such as frequent vacations around the world on corporate jets); and fraudulent donation and kickback schemes involving third party ‘ministries’ and entities owned or controlled through Trinity Broadcasting’s directors; and
• “Multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals, including the cover-up and destruction of evidence concerning a bloody sexual assault involving Trinity Broadcasting and affiliated Holy Land Experience employees; the cover-up of director Janice Crouch’s affair with a staff member at the Holy Land Experience; the cover-up of director Paul Crouch’s use of Trinity Broadcasting funds to pay for a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford (a former TBN employee who said he had a homosexual affair with Paul Crouch); the cover-up following director Matthew Crouch’s exposure of his genitals to cleaning staff on multiple occasions; under-the-table payments to avoid liability and punitive damages in the ongoing David Rhodes wrongful death suit, including payments funneled through All American TV, Inc., a nonprofit corporation controlled by Trinity Broadcasting’s general counsel, John Casoria;  falsification of records transmitted to the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California; and the list continues.

(Note: The bolding of names and numbers is our style here on Watchdog, and is not in the suit itself.)

Trinity Christian Center is a nonprofit in the eyes of Uncle Sam, which means it doesn’t pay taxes on its income. It reported revenue of $175.6 million, expenses of $193.7 million, and net assets of $827.6 million at the end of 2010, according to its tax returns. Its highest-paid officer was Paul Crouch, with compensation of $400,000.

Koper (right), the Crouch granddaughter, has filed reports regarding all this with the Orange County District Attorney’s office, the police, and the California State Bar detailing her accusations, her attorney, Tymothy MacLeod, has said. She is submitting a report to the Internal Revenue Service as well.

This is not the last of it, either.

“This is the second of four lawsuits that we have now been retained to file by individuals who continue to come forward in connection with the alleged public policy violations at TBN,” MacLeod told us by email. “There is much more to be said on these important issues, and we look forward to getting each of these cases on file on behalf of our clients.”

We’ll keep you posted.

• More nonprofits:
  • Suit: ‘Cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals’ at TBN
  • Crouch granddaughter not backing down
  • ‘God help anyone who would …get in the way of TBN’
  • Suit: TBN board diverted millions from ‘charitable assets’
  • Charities get extra time to file taxes from IRS
  • Americans are most generous in the world, survey finds
  • IRS yanks nonprofit status of 3,200 O.C. charities
  • O.C. animal group: No bad fundraisers
  • OC: Worst homeless charity in America?
  • Are you donating car to charity, or to for-profit middleman?

 

Teacher had sexual relationship with boys for 2 years, police say

Police allege that a Roosevelt High School teacher had a sexual relationship with two boys for two years.

Gabriela Cortez, a 42-year-old Spanish teacher at the Boyle Heights campus, was booked Thursday on suspicion of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Police in Montebello, where Cortez lives, allege that she had lengthy sexual relationships with the boys between 2008 and 2010. One of the youths, now 18, reported the teacher last week, said Police Chief Kevin McClure.

After learning of the allegation, school officials immediately removed her from the classroom.

Over the last three weeks, six employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District have been booked on suspicion of sex-related crimes, while several others have been pulled from the classroom amid investigations.

The media coverage after the arrest of Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt, who is accused of spoon-feeding his semen to blindfolded children, has intensified discussion among school officials, parents and children about abuse.

“As a community, people are coming together and are hyper-vigilant about any other perpetrators. Everything is now being reported,” said Pia Escudero, who directs L.A. Unified’s mental health and crisis counseling services.

The district has seen an uptick in allegations of adult sexual misconduct in recent weeks. Counselors have been dispatched to several campuses — including 45 at Miramonte, one for every classroom.

– Richard Winton, Howard Blume and Sam Allen

 

Hackers publish private information about L.A. police officers

The FBI is probing an Internet breach in which hackers publicly posted private information belonging to more than 100 local law enforcement officers who are part of the Los Angeles County Police Canine Assn.

Tony Vairo, a San Fernando police officer, who is president of the group, told The Times that they were contacted by the FBI Tuesday morning informing them that information belonging to its members, who include the Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, had been compromised.

“I’m appalled that our website was breached,” Vario said. “It’s not right and we will pusue it [a case] on every level, state or federal.”

Vairo described the FBI probe into the hacking incident as being part of an ongoing criminal investigation. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller would not comment on what, if any, involvement the agency had in the case.

The incident, first reported Tuesday by CNET.com, comes two months after personal information about more than two dozen members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s command staff was anonymously posted on an Internet site.

In that case, the hackers posted officers’ property records, campaign contributions, biographical information and, in a few cases, the names of family members, including children. But that information was gleaned from public records.

Authorities said the current intrusion is different because the information gleaned from the association’s website was not available to the public.

Marshall E. McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officer’s Assn., which has three members whose information was compromised, said his association has contacted the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office to ask for a criminal investigation.

The postings were linked to from a publicly available Twitter account, where unnamed activists claimed responsibility for the information dump. The information was posted on a site that allows users to anonymously input data. This type of site has increasingly been used to post personal information of individuals who raise the ire of online activists. The practice is known as “doxing.”

 

Appeals court upholds DNA testing of felony suspects

Law enforcement officers may take a DNA sample from anyone arrested on a felony charge without running afoul of the suspect’s right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, a divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The challenge brought by a group of Californians arrested for alleged felonies but never convicted upheld a 2004 amendment to the state’s laws governing DNA collection and use.

In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals compared taking an oral swab from a suspect with fingerprinting arrestees, a decades-old booking practice consistently upheld by the courts as a legitimate identification aid.

“We assess the constitutionality of the 2004 amendment by considering the ‘totality of the circumstances,’ balancing the arrestees’ privacy interests against the government’s need for the DNA samples,” said the opinion written by Judge Milan D. Smith Jr.

“DNA analysis is an extraordinarily effective tool for law enforcement officials to identify arrestees, solve past crimes, and exonerate innocent suspects,” wrote Smith, who was named to the court by President George W. Bush, in an opinion joined by a visiting Tennessee judge appointed by President Reagan. “After weighing these factors, we conclude that the government’s compelling interests far outweigh arrestees’ privacy concerns.”

The sole Democratic appointee on the panel, Judge William A. Fletcher, dissented, calling the law authorizing DNA sampling for investigative purposes contrary to Supreme Court and 9th Circuit precedent.

Fletcher, an appointee of President Clinton, noted that three of the four lead plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit had been arrested during demonstrations in the Bay Area in 2009, including a UC Berkeley student protesting tuition hikes and faculty layoffs.

Elizabeth Haskell, another of the plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, was arrested during a peace demonstration in San Francisco three years ago. No charges were filed, but she was threatened with prosecution unless she submitted to the DNA collection. She told the court she considered the swabbing “an intimidation tactic” aimed at stifling her free speech rights.

Michael T. Risher, the ACLU lawyer who argued the case, said a petition for rehearing by the full 9th Circuit was likely and that he expected the judges to be inclined to reconsider the split panel ruling.

“This is clearly an issue where different reasonable judges have differing opinions, and we’ll have to see how it ends up,” Risher said.

About 300,000 people are arrested for alleged felonies each year in California, and a third are never convicted, Fletcher wrote. Many, including two of the plaintiffs, are never even charged, he added.

Once an arrestee’s DNA sample is taken by swabbing the inside of the mouth, it is analyzed to produce a genetic profile of the individual and submitted to the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, and available to law enforcement from all 50 states and the federal government. Genetic evidence from unsolved crime scenes also resides in the database and is scanned weekly for matches with arrestee profiles.

 

‘Speed Freak’ letter points bounty hunter to another body

Convicted “Speed Freak” killer Wesley Shermantine has sent a new letter from death row to a bounty hunter giving him directions to another body in Central California.

The letter, dated Feb. 13, arrived this week to bounty hunter Leonard Padilla in Sacramento.

“The new letter says ‘Hang in there, keep going, we’ve got their attention and by golly we’re making some progress, and I’m going to send you some more details shortly,’ ” Padilla told FOX 40 Sacramento. Padilla spent Wednesday surveying the land near Linden for physical clues to link Shermantine’s handwritten maps.

“We’re getting a better feel for the wells. Where the old wells are, where the filled in wells are and who owns what property,” Padilla said.

The letter from Shermantine was brief and part of the ongoing communication between the bounty hunter and serial killer.

The so-called Speed Freak Killers, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, were arrested in 1999 for a series of slayings that may have spanned more than 15 years.

Shermantine was sentenced to death for killing four women. Herzog was to receive 77 years to life for three murders, but his sentence was overturned by an appeals court that found his confession to some of the crimes had been coerced.

Herzog served 14 years on a plea deal and was paroled in 2010. He committed suicide two months ago, shortly after Shermantine started drawing maps to where he buried the bodies in exchange for $33,000 offered to him by Padilla. The maps pointed to two abandoned wells on a cattle farm in Linden, a small town about 13 miles east of Stockton.

So far, authorities have recovered more than 1,000 bones from the site.

ALSO:

‘Speed Freak Killers’: Bones from mass grave sent to DOJ lab

‘Speed Freak’ serial killer allegedly reveals third body dump site

‘Speed Freak Killer’ was paid $33,000 to guide search for victims