The Grim Researcher: Finding meaning in how Orange County dies

SANTA ANA – The lady in black stares at a nondescript computer set atop a nondescript desk.

Donna Meyers peers from an Orange County coroner’s office file room at bullet-shattered glass used as a training aid. MINDY SCHAUER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The wall paint is industrially calming – gray, white, blue. Likewise, the decor is utterly routine: pictures of grown kids and growing grandkids, a few framed images of Laguna Beach that she shot herself.

Her tidy office could be any tidy office. The spreadsheet on her computer screen could be any spreadsheet.

Except it’s not.

The lady in black is looking at numbers that explain in stark detail Orange County’s way of death.

Stabbings. Falls. Car crashes …

Donna Lynn Meyers keeps tabs on all that and more.

… Overdoses. Drownings. Shootings.

Meyers analyzes data for any given day (and month and year) and organizes it in ways that allow others to find patterns about how people in Orange County stop breathing.

Most people spend their lives dodging even a thought about death. But every workday, just as she has for most of her 17 1/2 years as an employee of the Coroner Division of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Meyers immerses herself in the jet-black side of our world.

And she smiles while she does it.

THOUSANDS OF LIVES

In 2012, the latest year for which complete statistics are available, 18,915 deaths were recorded by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

The coroner’s office, which looks into all homicides, suicides and accidents, as well as suspicious and unexplained deaths, investigated about a third of them.

The job of deputy coroners, who roll out to death scenes, and forensic pathologists – the physicians who conduct autopsies – is to determine the identity of the deceased, the medical cause of death, the manner of death, and the date and time of death.

The information they feed into the official records become the grist of what Meyers works with, as she analyzes and extracts statistics that eventually get turned into documents with titles like “Coroner Division Annual Report” and “Child Death Review Team – 5-year Report.”

Most of the time, Meyers does this while sitting behind her desk.

But the work sometimes places her next to decedents, who are stored in a cooler that can hold up to 250 bodies kept at 40 degrees.

Still, the work ambiance, she says, is never unnatural.

“Being exposed to death all day … I don’t really look at it that way,” Meyers says.

The nature of the job for the entire office might foster a stronger-than-expected sense of family, Meyers says.

She recalls what happened when a colleague was hit by a car and had to miss work for an extended period. Coroner employees set up a website for her, and for weeks delivered meals to the woman and her family.

“It was awesome and inspiring to see and to be a part of such a group,” Meyers says.

“We support each other.”

PERSONAL TOLL

Meyers, who has been in her current job, the blandly titled Research Analyst IV, since 2008, starts her workday at 7:30 a.m.

Sipping on a Dunkin’ Dark coffee she brews at her Aliso Viejo home, she first checks her email. Most days, she finds several requests for data either from the media or someone within the Sheriff’s Department or someone in her office.

After scanning those requests, Meyers prints out an autopsy log to read about the day’s cases.

On average, the Coroner Division performs between four and five autopsies per day. Due to budget cuts, autopsies no longer are performed on weekends and holidays.

The office also investigates about 14 deaths, on average, on any given workday.

Reading the autopsy log each day ushers in a host of feelings for Meyers:

Today’s log includes a 5-year-old victim of a man suspected of driving under the influence – the child’s father.

DUI-related deaths particularly upset Meyers.

“Most of the sympathy and sadness I feel on the job is directed at the innocents who die as a consequence of others’ actions or inaction,” Meyers says.

“I feel anger at the people responsible for all of these lives that have been cut short.”

Meyers is concerned about another trend that has emerged in recent years: the number of people, many young adults, dying from accidental overdoses of prescription and illicit drugs.

In 1999, 21 people died of a mixture of illicit and prescription drugs. In 2012, the total was 77, an increase of 267 percent during a period when the county’s total population grew by about 11 percent.

Fatal overdoses of prescription drugs alone totaled 188 in 2012, up 114 percent from 1999.

“I find the current trend … to be particularly alarming,” Meyers says.

She says her job has caused her to warn her kids about dangers most people don’t know exist or don’t think about much.

She says she probably worries too much about something happening to her children or grandchildren.

“This job has taught me,” Meyers says, “that there is no dignity in death.”

LIVING RESOURCE

Humor isn’t a job requirement at the coroner’s office.

But it helps.

For example, Meyers has an eraser on her desk in the shape of a skull-and-crossbones.

An eraser in the shape of death itself?

“Yes,” says Meyers, who has large, inquisitive brown eyes – eyes that in any given work week see more real-life descriptions of horror and sadness than most people experience in a lifetime.

“Working for my in-laws prepared me for this,” she adds, recalling her time with their body removal service.

Her dark clothes (today it’s a dark blazer and matching dark slacks) have nothing to do with the nature of her job.

“Black,” she says, “is slimming.”

Meyers’ behind-the-scenes work has made her an invaluable resource for reporters and authorities seeking information on death trends in Orange County, as well as for public agencies whose missions involve protecting the health and welfare of the most vulnerable.

It’s not what she planned. In the late 1970s, when she was a student at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Meyers considered a career in photography or writing.

At community college, she took paralegal classes.

Then, at 21, she married a sheriff’s deputy and started a family. A couple of years later she was working for her in-laws, who ran a body removal and transportation business that contracted with the coroner’s office, and also did business with mortuaries throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Meyers processed death certificates and performed other office work for Meyers Transportation. Several months after the family sold the business in 1996 and the new owners closed it, Meyers volunteered at the coroner’s office.

Soon after that, in December 1996, she landed a clerical job. And soon after that, she became the go-to person for any number of tasks.

It was Meyers who helped pick out furniture, as well as purchase equipment, for the coroner headquarters that opened in March 2004 at the corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and North Shelton Street in Santa Ana.

The $12 million facility is home to a statewide coroner training center that includes eerily detailed “scenario” rooms.

In these two rooms, trainees try to determine the cause and manner of death of two life-like dummies created by The Burman Studio, a Burbank-based makeup-effects shop known for its work on the FX plastic-surgery drama “Nip/Tuck.”

In one such room, Meyers poses next to a bed dominated by the sprawling (and very “dead”) pseudo-corpse nicknamed “Manny.”

He has ligature marks on his neck and bottles of prescription medications next to him.

He has bloody streaks on his white tank top.

His belt is loose.

Still, Meyers points to a small brown mark on Manny’s faux face.

“I think that’s cancerous,” she jokes.

In another room, an extremely decomposed and extremely fake body of a middle-age man lies on a couch, face up. Coroner officials call him “Moe Green.”

Richard Rodriguez, a former forensic tech and deputy coroner and 33-year veteran of the office now in charge of the training center, praises Meyers.

“She’s incredible,” Rodriguez says. “She does a great job for us. She takes on any challenge I give her.”

Lt. Jeff Hallock, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, agrees. He adds that her work “ultimately impacts the entire county.”

LIFE-AFFIRMING

Outside of her normal job, Meyers sits on the multi-agency Orange County Child Death Review Team. The group probes child homicides and unexplained child deaths, and strives to come up with ways to prevent such tragedies.

It’s heartbreaking stuff.

It’s also a reason Meyers views her job as life-affirming rather than bleak.

“Appreciate each day,” says Meyers, who grew up in Lakewood and Westminster.

“The people in your life who you love and cherish shouldn’t have to wonder if you love them. Tell them and tell them often, especially if you can’t see them as much as you’d like.

“You don’t know what tomorrow will bring, or when it’s your time to go.”

Although Meyers says the job isn’t relentlessly depressing, that isn’t the same as saying it doesn’t spark emotion. And sometimes that emotion is sadness.

“I find it difficult to have sympathy (for), or to feel bad about, adults who knowingly do things to themselves and thereby cause their deaths.

“I only feel sympathy for their families.”

Meyers shows a copy of an office newsletter. It’s filled with routine stuff like profiles of new employees, birthday and anniversary announcements, and information about charitable events.

“We’re all normal people here,” Meyers says, smiling warmly.

“Really – we’re normal people.”

Source: www.ocregister.com

By GREG HARDESTY  / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

Con man’s latest crime: forging judge’s signature

For most of his adult life, Gerald McComber has been either committing fraud or serving prison time for it – and sometimes both.

His record includes 14 felony fraud convictions. A probation officer wrote in a report that since 1989, the longtime Orange County resident “has repeatedly committed serious financial crimes unabated except for periods of his incarceration.”

But last year, McComber picked perhaps his most audacious target yet: He forged a federal judge’s signature.

On Monday, a different judge sentenced him to 10 months in federal prison.

McComber, 58, pleaded guilty in January to forgery. Gray-haired and balding with a mustache, he appeared in court wearing a white inmate jumpsuit and walking slowly with a cane.

“Your honor, I’m just disappointed in myself,” he said, speaking softly from a lectern.

McComber said he had lost his job and simply wanted another one. His lawyer has said he forged the signature to try to clear a tax lien that was a blemish on his credit report.

“It was a stressed position. I made a poor error, and I’m sorry for it,” McComber said.

Since the judge McComber impersonated sits in Orange County, the case was heard in Los Angeles to avoid a possible conflict of interest.

In February 2013, McComber applied for a job selling life insurance for One America Services. He was offered a contract position contingent on a background check.

When a check of his credit report showed an outstanding tax lien, company official Mark Anderson called McComber to ask about it. McComber said it had been taken care of and he would send proof.

Shortly, a faxed letter arrived on Anderson’s desk, purportedly written months before to McComber, then living in Rancho Santa Margarita.

“As of the date referenced above, the Tax Lien #0508725R has been released from your name, and the amounts in question have been satisfied completely,” the letter began. “There are no outstanding fees or penalties due, and your record has been cleared of any restrictions or liens.”

Below a signature, it said: “Alice Marie Stotler, US District Judge.”

Suspicious, another company official sent the letter to the Santa Ana office of Alicemarie H. Stotler, a real judge who’s been on the federal bench since 1984.

McComber knew of Stotler, since she once sentenced him to prison for filing a falsetax refund claim. But he still didn’t spell her name right.

Like any other citizen, the judge reported the crime. When FBI agents confronted McComber, “he was cooperative and made a full confession,” his lawyer wrote.

He could have faced up to five years, but his lawyer and the prosecutor agreed to the 10-month sentence.

“You are a 58-year-old man who made what can only be characterized as a huge mistake to sign the name of a United States District Court judge,” Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell told McComber. “But it was to be gainfully employed, which is in your favor.”

But the fraud was futile. Even if the faked letter from the judge had fooled everyone, McComber never would have gotten the job. According to a court filing, a company official told the FBI he quickly discovered McComber’s long criminal record, which he hadn’t disclosed when he applied.

Because he turned himself in in September, McComber should be released from prison in July. He’ll be on supervised release for one year.

A probation report found “prior terms of supervision have proven ineffective in every instance from deterring (defendant) from engaging in criminal conduct.”

McComber even managed to commit crime while he was in prison. In 1997, he admitted filing a false tax refund claim while serving a five-year federal prison term for securities fraud. Stotler gave him another 33 months and ordered him to pay back $82,705.

His lawyer told the Los Angeles Times in 1997 that McComber only committed the crime to provide for his ex-wife and young daughter.

The earliest fraud on record dates to 1985, when McComber forged his wife’s signature on a deed to finance a real estate venture, a scam that ended with her losing her home in Anaheim Hills, according to a lawsuit she later filed and won.

Nearly 30 years after that forgery, as deputy U.S. marshals prepared to take McComber from the courtroom, O’Connell told him, “Good luck to you, Mr. McComber. Stay out of trouble now.”

He replied, “Yes, your honor. Thank you.”

Source: www.ocregister.com

By ERIC HARTLEY  / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

Ex-O.C. youth pastor accused of molestation commits suicide

A former Dana Point youth pastor who was charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy in Colorado committed suicide Monday, officials said.

Nicholas Henshaw, 35, who was a junior-high pastor at Capo Beach Church in the early 2000s, was investigated on similar allegations when he was in Orange County, but wasn’t charged, officials said.

Henshaw was found dead in a hotel room in Loveland, Colo., said Stephen Hanks, a deputy investigator with the Larimer County Coroner’s Office. Death was caused by suffocation by asphyxiation with helium and has been ruled a suicide, Hanks said.

Henshaw was arrested Feb. 24 in the Colorado case and charged with sexual assault of a child by one in a position of trust, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. He was free on bail and was expected to return to court for his next hearing April 4.

In Colorado, sexual-assault cases involving minors can carry a sentence of up to life in prison, said Linda Jensen, spokeswoman for the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office.

Source: www.ocregister.com

By LINDSEY RUTA  / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

Feds launch cyber-safety campaign for children

MISSION VIEJO – Do you know what your children are doing online?

The father of an Orange County teenage girl thought he did. He said he was shocked when he discovered last year that his “sweet little girl” was exchanging sexually explicit videos, photos and text messages with strange men on Facebook and apps like Snapchat.

The Register is not naming the father to avoid identifying his then 16-year-old daughter, the victim of a sexual predator. When he and the girl’s stepmother discovered the images on her smart phone, they immediately called authorities — and a 27-year-old man was arrested.

To help curb the escalating number of children falling prey to sexual predators online, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division launched a first-of-its-kind national cyber safety campaign Tuesday in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The campaign was announced during a news conference at Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo.

Every week, the National Center receives 1,500 reports of dissemination of child pornography or other forms of online sexual exploitation of children, said Michelle Collins, the center’s vice president.

“Every year we receive more and more reports,” Collins said, adding that last year they received more than 500,000 reports.

The safety campaign is called Project iGuardian. Its goal is to teach young Internet users to “think before you click” and to raise awareness about the risks that lurk in cyberspace. The campaign will target grade-school students and teenagers nationwide.

“The online sexual exploitation of children has reached epidemic proportions,” said ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale said Tuesday at Newhart Middle School. “Increasingly, these incidents involve young people who are self-producing explicit images and sending them over the Internet.”

Last year alone, agents with Homeland Security Investigations logged nearly a million hours working child sexual exploitation cases, according to officials. They opened more than 4,000 investigations, including a probe announced last week targeting a child exploitation scheme operating on the Darknet’s Onion Router that identified more than 250 minors in the U.S. and around the globe who had been sexually exploited.

Five of the victims were teenage boys from Orange County who were contacted in online chat rooms, authorities said. Four of the victims were friends from Anaheim, and the fifth lived in San Clemente.

“(Sexual predators) are using trickery and deceit to get children to create sexually explicit images and provide them with stills or video on the Internet,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for ICE.

The teenage boys thought they were sending explicit videos to an attractive 18-year-old woman, when in fact they were sending them to a sexual predator, he said.

“The purpose of the iGuardian program is to educate children and their parents to the relative ease with which these predators can come through the Internet, right into their house, right into their children’s bedroom, and victimize their children,” Arnold said. “We want to educate people before they become victims.”

The Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force receives 10 to 20 tips every week from citizens, Internet service providers and social media outlets, which are assigned to investigators, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said. The Internet, she said, has become the preferred playground for child sex predators.

“The Internet has enabled predators to exponentially capitalize on what they’ve been doing for years,” Hutchens said.

Students at Newhart Middle School watched a Project iGuardian presentation, which uses superhero-style characters and trading cards to give tips to both kids and parents on how to avoid falling prey to sexual predators online. Don’t share personal information. Know who you’re chatting with. Report suspected abuse.

“It was a good lesson for everyone to know that everything on the Internet is public and no matter how hard you try to keep it private, it’s always going to get out somehow,” said 7^th grade student Katelyn Severance. “You can’t protect everything on the Internet because once it’s out there; it’s out there for good.”

The Project iGuardian presentation will be held upon request at schools and community organizations.

Hutchens said she hopes the presentations will lead parents to have a conversation with their children about the people who are using the Internet and might be trying to exploit them through social media.

Source: www.ocregister.com

By DENISSE SALAZAR  / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

 

Known by their M.O.s, many bank robbers haven’t faced the music

The “Big A Bandit” is believed to have robbed three banks in Orange County. He is known for wearing an Angels baseball cap. Investigators are asking anyone who may recognize him to contact the FBI at 714-939-8699.
COURTESY OF THE FBI

Most heists are quick. No gun, no weapon, just a bag full of stolen cash and a quick getaway before police arrive.

Posted throughout most banks, however, are cameras aimed at entrances and counters in hopes of capturing the biggest clue robbers can leave behind – their faces.

With the right images, local and federal law-enforcement officials expect to catch up to robbers sooner rather than later.

Last year, 37 bank robberies were reported in Orange County, a sharp drop compared with recent years, said FBI special agent Chris Gicking of Orange County’s Bank Robbery Apprehension Team, a local task force that includes local and federal investigators.

In 2012, 75 bank robberies were reported. In previous years, Orange County often saw more than 100 bank heists a year.

“It’s been gradually decreasing,” Gicking said.

Why reasons are not known, but members of the BRAT have been running into fewer serial robbers, Gicking said.

Unknown robbers usually are assigned colorful nicknames that attract media attention and help give investigators from multiple agencies a common reference point.

The Gone Plaid Bandit, for example, has been one of the most prolific robbers in Orange County and has eluded investigators since 2010.

Since he first showed up in security-camera images, the Gone Plaid Bandit is believed to have been behind at least one dozen robberies in Orange and Los Angeles counties, Gicking said.

He received the name because of the plaid shirts he was spotted wearing during his first heists.

Like most bank robbers, he’s used little more than a note and a verbal warning in his robberies, officials said.

Then there’s the Count to 30 Bandit, known for ordering victims to count to 30 as he makes his getaway. He is believed to be responsible for four takeover-style bank robberies in Orange County.

In takeover heists, the robbers often display weapons and attempt to halt business in the bank to commit robbery. Those events can sometimes turn violent.

But those robberies tend to be a fraction of all bank robberies, according to numbers provided by the FBI.

Last year, takeover-style robberies accounted for 18 percent of all robberies in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. In Orange County, seven of the 37 bank robberies were takeover heists.

Investigators also are searching for the Big A Bandit, a serial robber known for wearing an Angels baseball cap during the robberies. He is believed to have robbed three banks in Orange County.

Other robbers are on the lam, but investigators said they have not been linked to multiple heists.

Cameras in banks often catch clear images of robbers, and officials hope someone in the community may identify them. Most robbers have a criminal past, Gicking said, and may be recognizable to law-enforcement officials, including parole officers and patrol officers.

Anyone with information on robberies is asked to contact the FBI at 714-939-8699.

source: http://www.ocregister.com

BY SALVADOR HERNANDEZ / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

O.C. fire danger raised from ‘watch’ to ‘warning’

Gusty winds and dry conditions will keep firefighters on alert Wednesday, fire officials said, after a red-flag warning was issued for Orange County.

The National Weather Service issued the red-flag warning Tuesday afternoon for Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, noting that humidity could drop below 15 percent Wednesday.

The Weather Service issues a red-flag warning when weather conditions – such as strong winds, high temperatures and low humidity – increase the chance of brush fires.

Fire agencies monitor the warnings and often increase staffing on red-flag days.

The increased fire danger is expected to last from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m Wednesday, according to the Weather Service.

In Orange County, officials expected dry and windy conditions, especially in coastal areas, the Santa Ana Mountains and the foothills, Concialdi said.

Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s in inland areas, according to the Weather Service.

In Irvine, wind gusts are expected to reach 50 mph. The canyons will see stronger winds.

Silverado Canyon residents, for example, are expected to see wind speeds of 30 to 40 mph. Gusts will reach up to 65 mph.

The 22-member hand crew will be prepared to respond immediately to any fires, while two helicopters will be fully staffed and available beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday, several hours before they are normally available.

“The winds will be kicking up early,” Concialdi said.

According to the Weather Service, winds will calm by Wednesday night.

Staff writer Sean Emery contributed to this report.

Source: www.ocregister.com

By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ/ ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

Sheriff gets $1.5 million to process gun permit applications

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens shifted the department’s policy on concealed weapon permits following a Feb. 13 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The old policy said applicants had to show specific elements of “good cause” to carry a concealed weapon. The new policy requires them to say they need a gun for self protection. Other rules, including background checks, still apply. But the policy shift has set off a flood of concealed weapon permit applications in Orange County.
LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens received $1.5 million from the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to help process a flood of applications for concealed weapons permits, though she didn’t believe it would be a regular annual request.

She said the initial enthusiasm expressed by applicants who want to obtain permits under new, looser guidelines, required her office to add 15 people to answer phones and conduct interviews for the process. She said the backlog was extending into 2015.

“I’m hoping we can get a lot done with this staff,” she said.

Hutchens request to the county came on the heels of a Feb. 13 decision by the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that declared the guidelines used by Hutchens and other sheriffs in California’s urban counties were unconstitutional.

After that ruling, Hutchens eased the guidelines to allow applicants to only indicate a need for a permit for personal safety or self-defense.

Her decision has thrust Hutchens into the spotlight. Orange County is the only urban county in California to relax concealed weapon rules since the Feb. 13 decision, and Hutchens is sticking to the new rules even though the 9^th Circuit has issued a stay on its ruling.

In an interview with the Register Tuesday, she talked about the ruling and the department’s policy shift.

Q: Did you agree with the 2-1 appeals court ruling that said the previous standard of “good cause” before issuing a concealed weapon permit violated a person’s constitutional right to bear arms?

A: It’s not a matter of whether I agreed with them or not because my opinion to me isn’t important. What is important to me is what the law says. They decided that there was a right to bear arms outside the home, or a place of business… And they felt that requiring good case was unconstitutional. That’s the decision, and that’s the decision I decided to follow since it’s the law to date.

Q: The court ruling didn’t compel you to change your previous “good cause” guidelines and neighboring county sheriffs – including the subject of the court case, San Diego County and Los Angeles County – have not broadened the opportunity for more applications. Why did you choose to do that?

A: I conferred with county counsel about that. And I also felt very strongly that when I came into office, and was going to review some of the applications that had been given by the prior sheriff, there was quite a disturbance about that… There was misperception that, gee, ‘She’s not going to issue CCWs, or is against CCWs.’ (But) that’s not the case. I just wanted to make sure we were following the existing law, which talked about having good cause. …

It wasn’t a matter of opinion with me; it’s a question of what the law is. … I felt it important to go ahead and start accepting applications and processing them under those new guidelines.

Q: Are you surprised your neighboring sheriffs haven’t followed suit?

A: I can’t say I’m surprised. But I could not have predicted what they might do because I think people have different thoughts about it. … Sheriffs have had differences of opinion or different polices (about) carrying concealed weapons.

I think you can see a distinct difference between urban areas and rural areas… In a rural area, where there is a high crime rate, there are sheriffs – and I would be one of them – who are more inclined to say ‘That’s good cause, and I’m going to let you have a gun to carry because there is an extended police response, and there is a lot of crime here.’ (But) in the urban areas, you’ll generally see (fewer permits) because it’s a high density population and faster police response. Those kinds of things enter into the thinking.

Q: What public safety concerns do you have with allowing a broader pool of applicants seeking to get a concealed-weapons permit? Or, on the other side, what is the upside for having a broader pool of applicants seeking to obtain a concealed-weapons permit?

A: We don’t have problems, to my knowledge, with our CCW carriers. But we vet the people we give them to. We do background (checks), check with neighbors, and we make sure they’re not a hothead or anything, or have mental illness, that kind of thing.

Because we vet them, that’s a reason why we don’t have issues with them.

Does it reduce crime because there are lots of people with CCWs out there? There are studies cited all the time. But, again, we haven’t had a lot of CCWs in Orange County, and we have a low crime rate. … I can’t say definitively that a community where a lot of people carry concealed weapons has any impact on crime or not.

Q: Have you had any pressure brought upon you by gun rights groups, or from opponents to changing the policy? And has the NRA been involved at any level?

A: No, actually nobody has called me on either side of the equation. I didn’t get a call from anybody from the NRA or anybody from the Brady folks who are opposed to having weapons out there. I can say nobody called me or asked me to do anything.

Q: Your office had previously said that if a stay had been issued, you’d go back to the policy of good cause. And yet you’ve continued to adhere to the new policy. Why not change it back to the way it was before?

A: When we said a ‘stay,’ we meant if the court had said we’re going to stay this decision, meaning vacate this decision. They didn’t do that. What they did say is they issued a stay of the mandate to the lower district court. It’s not ordering the district court to do anything, and they didn’t withdraw their opinion. Had they withdrawn their opinion, that would’ve been different, but they didn’t. … So the existing law is still there

Q: If it’s vacated, you’d go back to the prior protocol?

A: I’d have to see what it says. I’d have to see what the terminology says. They could come up with any number of things. I’m not going to speculate on what that could be because I don’t know what that will look like. I think it will take some time for them to sort through it. They can do whatever they want — they’re the 9th Circuit — but I don’t think this will be decided quickly.

Staff Writer Michael Reicher contributed to this report.

BY DAVID MONTERO /   ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

If you are charged with a crime, contact an experienced Orange County Bail Bondsman to assist you in any bail situation.

 

Impact of Guzman arrest on O.C. drug trade remains to be seen

In this Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 photo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican navy marines at a navy hanger in Mexico City, Mexico. Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, was captured overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan.
EDUARDO VERDUGO, AP

SANTA ANA – It’s too early to tell whether the capture of Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will put a dent in the drug pipeline from Mexico to Orange County, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials said Monday.

An assessment of the exact impact of Guzman’s arrest by Mexican marines Saturday in Mazatlan can’t be made until it’s determined if there is a fluctuation in the price and quantity of drugs available on the street, said the DEA.

The DEA said the Sinaloa cartel is the largest supplier of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine in Southern California, including Orange County.

The drugs often are smuggled by vehicle through Arizona as well as the border crossing at San Diego and by boat along the California coast, the DEA said.

The Sinaloa cartel also uses Los Angeles as a major distribution hub to repackage and ship narcotics to other locations throughout the United States, according to the DEA.

Gary Fouse, a retired DEA agent who lives in Orange County, applauded the arrest of Guzman. However, it’s unlikely to impact the Sinaloa cartel’s operations in Southern California, he said.

“You are talking about one person in the cartel,” Fouse said. “He will be replaced and life will go on.”

Guzman may have more ability to continue to operate the Sinaloa cartel from a Mexican prison rather than a U.S. prison if extradited, he added.

BY SCOTT SCHWEBKE  /   ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Girl sold by parents in Egypt, enslaved in Irvine for years, is hidden no more

Shyima Hall, 24, was 8 when she was sold into slavery by her parents in Egypt. She was forced to work for a wealthy Egyptian family that moved her to Irvine. She was rescued after four years of servitude.
ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Shyima Hall is surrounded with the stuff of childhood, the childhood she never had.

Her daughter’s Minnie Mouse table and chairs sit on one side of her living room. Children’s books are tucked neatly on a shelf under the TV. A box of her own new book, a memoir titled “Hidden Girl,” is brought out and opened on her leather sofa.

It’s a world away from the one that first brought her media attention a dozen years ago, when she was rescued from a life of slavery in Irvine: a little girl sold in Egypt to a wealthy family who moved her to a gated neighborhood and made her their domestic servant.

The day she was rescued, Shyima was a scared 12-year-old who spoke three words of English, had never been to school and spent every day and every night washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning for the family and their visitors.

Today, she is a confident, poised and articulate 24-year-old woman with barely a trace of an accent who describes her own Arabic as “rusty.” She loves her job as an assistant manager at a store in the Desert Hills Premier Outlets near Palm Springs. She loves her boyfriend, Daniel Urquidez, with whom she shares a home in Riverside County. And she’s madly in love with her 16-month-old daughter, Athena.

“I’m happy,” she says, surrounded by photos of Athena on every wall.

Authorities saved Shyima on April 9, 2002. The next chapters of her life were not easy. Shyima had to save herself.

As she writes in her book: “My life … drastically changed course the day my parents sold me into slavery. I was eight years old.”

•••

The seventh child in a family of 11 children, Shyima grew up so poor she didn’t have a bed or water for regular showers or a meal every night. But she didn’t know any other life. She loved her younger siblings, who were under her care. And despite the extreme poverty, she was content.

She remembers moments of happiness – like jumping off a stack of hay at the age of 7. Except that she landed on the edge of a sheet of glass, cut off all the toes on her right foot and underwent reattachment surgery without anesthesia.

“My life in Egypt was like that – simple happiness interrupted by unimaginable tragedy. It was an unsafe world. But it was my home.”

•••

It would get worse.

One of her older sisters was accused of stealing from a wealthy family. And Shyima ended up paying for it. Her parents sold her to the rich couple, saying it would bring back honor to their family. Plus there was a $17 monthly payment the little girl netted her impoverished parents.

When she went to live with the wealthy couple and their five children, she worked long hours and ate one meal a day, the family’s leftovers. After two years, they moved to Orange County and brought her with them.

She lived in a storage room with no heat and no air-conditioning in the family’s three-car garage. The door to the house was often locked at night.

“If I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I couldn’t. I had to wait until morning.”

Snapshots of her life: Her clothes were deemed too dirty for the washing machine, so she had to wash them by hand. On a trip to Big Bear, she rode with the luggage in a tiny space behind the back seat. She wasn’t called by her name but was called “stupid girl” – or worse.

Then an anonymous someone – “a wonderful someone” – alerted authorities. And they rescued her.

“Before I was hustled out of the house, the Dad hissed into my ear, ‘Do not tell them anything. Say you do not work for me.’ ”

In her recently released memoir, Shyima refers to her captors as “The Mom and The Dad.” In U.S. District Court, their names are Abdel Nasser Youssef Ibrahim and Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd El Motelib. Both were sentenced in 2006 to federal prison after pleading guilty in what became Orange County’s first human-trafficking case.

The happy ending didn’t come right away. But it was a good beginning.

At first, she couldn’t believe the gentleness she was treated with at an emergency shelter, the Orangewood Children and Family Center – her matted hair brushed by a kind lady; no rudeness or hitting or slapping; her first pair of new pajamas (with a black, gray and white check pattern).

She was afraid to answer questions. For years, she had been told that if anyone ever stopped and questioned her, she and her family back home would be hurt. She even began to hope she would be returned to her family, who lived in a town near Alexandria, Egypt.

That hope evaporated when social workers got her biological mother and father on the phone. Her father shouted at her to go back to the people who “treated you right.”

“I decided in that single moment that, no, I was not going to go back to Egypt. I was done with my parents.”

•••

Shyima lived in three foster homes.

The first two were with strict Muslim families, and she didn’t feel she fit in. Her third foster family adopted her. The younger siblings reminded her of the ones she left behind in Egypt, and she grew to love them. But there were issues, including financial troubles, so she went to live with a friend and her mother.

At last, Shyima found “true friends” who became her support team.

She had no mother role and was nervous when she unexpectedly learned she would become a mom. But she had her friends. And her own instinct to “act out of love.”

Today, her family is the one she created with her boyfriend and his family, their daughter and their close friends.

“When I say family now, that’s what I’m talking about. They are always there for me,” she says.

She’s also close to Mark Abend, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations who was involved in her rescue. Through the years, he has invited her to attend seminars across the country to share her story and talk about human trafficking. She dedicated her book to him.

One day, Shyima, now a U.S. citizen, would like to become a police officer or an immigration agent. She wants to help others trapped by human traffickers.

And that’s why she also wrote, with the help of author Lisa Wysocky, “Hidden Girl,” a memoir designated as a young-adult book.

“I would like to help young people understand that slavery still happens,” she said. “This isn’t just in history books. And they can help.”

In the book, she urges readers to be vigilant and report to authorities should they see something amiss with a child.

One day, when her daughter is old enough, she will tell her the story of her life.

“If a little girl like me can go through all the crap my parents put me through and be OK today, she will grow to be a strong person and be able to handle it.”

Shyima doesn’t rule out one day traveling back to Egypt. She has lost contact with everyone in her biological family, and for the time being, that’s OK. Her father died. She doesn’t know if her mother is alive. And she has no desire, for now, to see her.

Perhaps, in the future, she says, she may want to visit her younger siblings in Egypt.

For now, though, she won’t go searching for them.

She’s found her home.

BY ROXANA KOPETMAN /   ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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O.C.’s opioid epidemic takes nearly 200 lives a year

Kirk Shaffer, 23, poses by the area where he was found overdosed and nearly dead in Westminster.
FILE PHOTO

Kirk Shaffer went to his AA meeting during his lunch break Monday and after it was over, the shadow of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death crept into conversations and sowed doubt in his mind.

Not because Hoffman was a talented actor, died too young or that he’d been found with a needle still stuck in his arm after an apparent heroin overdose Sunday. Shaffer, a 25-year-old from Huntington Beach with two years and eight months of sobriety under his belt, was mostly struck by Hoffman’s reported 23 years of sobriety.

“It made me feel a little weaker,” Shaffer said. “Honestly, whenever I see something like that happen, it triggers me to think – what could happen after more than 20 years that would make them relapse?”

In Orange County, death from opioids, the family of drugs that includes heroin, is a reason for concern with overdoses happening at a clip of one every other day.

Hoffman’s death also brought out one of the tricks of addiction – drawing doubt from anywhere to feed the addiction. Shaffer recognized the disease’s pull when he asked the group a question after Monday’s meeting.

“That guy had 23 years and was nominated for best actor,” Shaffer said. “That’s all pushed under the rug. All they will look at is that he relapsed.”

Hoffman’s death shocked a lot of people, but it rocked some in the recovery community even harder. It was a combination of sadness, regret, familiarity and reality. Addiction comes in many forms and destroys lives. The drug, Shaffer said, is secondary. It just so happened they shared a taste for the drugs in the opioid family.

Specifically, heroin.

OPIOID EPIDEMIC

Through November, the Orange County coroner’s office showed 187 people died from an overdose of an opioid in 2013; 36 of the cases involved heroin. An additional 164 deaths remain under investigation.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a steady increase of opioid overdose deaths between 1999 and 2010 – the most recent data available. In 2010, 38,329 died of a drug overdose and nearly 60 percent involved pharmaceutical drugs. Of that total, 16,651 involved opioids.

Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at Phoenix House – a drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization, said opioids are an “epidemic” in the U.S.

He said the opioids – which include prescription drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone, and illegal ones like heroin – physically alter the brain after regular usage in as little as two weeks. When the body comes down off the high, the brain tells the person who is awash in paranoia and flu-like symptoms that the drug is needed to stay alive.

“It hijacks the brain’s reward system,” Kolodny said.

The shifting usage between heroin and pharmaceutical opioids can be attributed to a variety of reasons, he said, but cost can be a key driver.

Sarah Pullen, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said a bag of heroin on the street can go for as little as $8. Prescription painkillers can fetch about four times that amount.

BATTLING ADDICTION

Tim Truelove, 54, has overdosed about a dozen times, relapsed three times and had a heart attack.

He said he saw his fiancée die of a drug overdose and that he comes from a family of addicts. He said that hearing Hoffman died alone made him look back at his journey. It occurred to him that all of his heroin overdoses came when someone else was nearby.

Had someone not been there, he’s not sure he’d be here – sober for 11 years.

Truelove also said the addiction tries to deflect focus from deaths like Hoffman’s. And his fiancée’s.

“It’s pretty sick, but when you hear someone OD’d on heroin, the first thing you think is – where did they get it?” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t good quality or the dosage was wrong.”

Kolodny said overdoses often happen after an addict exits rapid detoxification. He said the body’s tolerance for the high dosages being ingested goes down, and when addicts go back to using, they will start at the dosages they were at just before entering detox.

That can be fatal, he said. Kolodny said it’s important to get effective treatment after the detoxification.

Shaffer agreed and said a critical part for him is having a support structure in place, because the struggle is ongoing.

“For me it’s just as real today as it was a year ago, as it was two years ago, as it was three years ago to stop using,” he said. “It’s not any easier. For me, I want things out of life, to know I have relationships I value highly and I’m trying to combat that illness I have inside by maintaining those relationships.”

BY DAVID MONTERO /   ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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