Updated at the bottom with the officer charged. First posted at 4:02 p.m. Monday.
billsoPHOTO / Flickr
An LAPD officer was arrested today on suspicion of lewd conduct in a case involving underage victims, authorities told the Weekly.
The officer was arrested in the Santa Clarita area, a sheriff's official said. According to an LAPD sergeant:
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The final black cloud over the Los Angeles Police Department has lifted.
John Liu / Flickr
A 2001 consent decree that put LAPD under federal oversight following allegations of false arrests, excessive force and unreasonable searches and seizures in the wake of the Rampart scandal is officially over:
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The LAPD, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies in Southern California routinely scan millions of license plates via patrol-car-based devices that can track your whereabouts.
Cliff / Flickr
What do they do with the info? It's not entirely clear, but the record shows that cops have used such stored data to help piece together cases. Good right? Well, the American Civil Liberties Union wants to know more about the plate scanners that have been almost ubiquitous in SoCal:
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Why are drivers of luxury cars in Los Angeles involved in a bloody binge of hit-and-run driving, leaving innocent victims for dead? Are rich folk out of their minds? This is felony manslaughter, not "oops."
Courtesy of Facebook/David Alexander Granados Memorial Fundraiser
The city is offering a $50,000 reward to help find the driver of a silver or white Mercedes Benz M-Class SUV who struck bicyclist David Granados in the San Fernando Valley in broad daylight on March 24, throwing his body 200 feet. The popular student was about to graduate from Grant High School. Instead, he is the latest fatality in L.A.'s horrific hit-and-run epidemic. Chief Charlie Beck has been ordered by the City Council and Police Commission to explain what's gone haywire:
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| Courtesy of Giles Spencer/Collegian |
| Temporary placards are red and spark more fraud, but the blue ones are easily abused too. |
A ticket for being a wank starts at $363 and will change the behavior of just about anyone.
The city responded after Los Angeles Collegian, the campus paper, exposed widespread disabled placard abuse in Fall 2012, in which students were apparently borrowing -- and in some cases believed to be stealing -- placards from disabled people:
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So you're driving down the street delivering newspapers and all of a sudden police open fire on you without much if any warning.
You're wounded and your delivery truck is finished. What's your damage? You get a new truck, sure. But there's a lot of medical treatment and emotional stress. Here's what it's worth:
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Sick and tired of helicopters flying low over your neighborhood?
Marshall Astor / Flickr
California-based federal legislators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, today introduced the "Los Angeles Residential Helicopter Noise Relief Act" to restrict flight paths and limit how low choppers can fly.
Of course, LAPD "ghetto birds" have been tormenting the people of South and East L.A. for decades. But ...
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A San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy was arrested for having sexual relations with a female inmate.
Konstantin Stepanov / Flickr
Johnathan Miller, 27, was booked on suspicion of being an officer who engaged in "sexual activity" with a detainee, according to the department.
Oops (allegedly):
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Commissioned U.S. Army Reserve Officer Diana Elizabeth Zschaschel and her family are facing a cold winter eviction set for today in Los Angeles, after they say the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, wrongfully evicted them -- while she was on duty in San Diego.
Courtesy of Blue Eyed Entertainment Commissioned Officer Diana Zschaschel, Paul Garcia, and their baby
On May 14, 2011, Zschaschel, an active-duty officer, was part of "Operation Ready Warrior," in San Diego, which helped military personnel with dental needs, a field in which she specializes. While deployed out of town, her husband was trying work out a repayment plan with Bank of America because they were behind on their mortgage in Los Angeles. Instead, she and the family's attorney allege, B of A illegally foreclosed:
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In the wake of Simone Wilson's excellent LA Weekly coverage of the city's hit-and-run crisis, including the revelation that nearly half of all vehicle collisions in town involve people who flee the scene, an L.A.-based state lawmaker wants to do something about it.
mikegatto.com
State Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who represents such northeast communities as Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake, says he'll propose closing a loophole that allows hit-and-run suspects to avoid prosecution after three years. You see, ...
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Following her horrific death, an attorney representing the family of Alesia Thomas wants the LAPD to release its video of the woman's confrontation with cops last summer.
Thomas died in custody following a kick to her genitals and a leg sweep at the hands of officers, the department admits. At least some of it was caught on police video.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crunch wants that tape. In fact, he's asking for federal help:
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We love the double standards when it comes to law enforcement in L.A.
LASD
Cops these days can get you for texting while driving (and L.A.'s Superior Court referees often back them no matter what) even though the law makes the infraction almost impossible to prove: " ..Selecting or entering a phone number" is legal, says the DMV. That sounds like a difficult case, but cops, who talk on phones and radios all day long while they blow through stop signs, will write you up anyway.
Well, now that you're pissed off, consider the latest initiative at the L.A. Sheriff's Department:
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A college student says LAPD officers beat him and tased him after he was stopped in 2010 on a Hollywood street for drinking in public, according to CBS Los Angeles.
CBS Los Angeles
Abagabe Ohgogo and his attorney have filed suit against the department and provided to the station security video from a nearby nightclub that depicts two and then a whole gang of officers piling on the young man and using fists and at least one baton.
The confrontation happened ...
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They say when you buy a vintage car, you don't want one with a "story." You know -- if it requires too much explanation, there's trouble ahead.
DoggyTV / YouTube Villaraigosa bros down with Alarcon.
And frankly, Richard Alarcon's story about the Panorama City house he was supposed to be living in to qualify for his City Council district election is one that's hard for us to buy.
The judge in his related perjury case seems have the same doubts. She ordered Alarcon and his wife to stand trial for perjury. Interestingly, that judge is ...
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If you were surprised to learn from LA Weekly's report in June that police agencies across Southern California -- including the LAPD and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- were using license plate readers to track your moves, you weren't alone.
Illustration by Peter Hoey for LA Weekly.
The Wall Street Journal used the piece as "one of the reasons" it decided to create an awesome database of tracked plates that will allow you to find out if you're being followed by cops digitally, a reporter told Weekly contributor Jon Campbell via email.
For real:
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We call him the Teflon Sheriff because, despite more than a decade's worth of serious problems inside the L.A. jail system, woes that include gang-like cliques of tatted-up deputies, you keep electing Lee Baca as the county's top cop.
David Markland Lee Baca.
Nothing seems to stick.
Well, that might have changed today:
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No surprise here.
ACLU
L.A. County Jail deputies sometimes stomp on, bash in, and literally break inmates' heads: That according to an ACLU report issued today, 48 hours ahead of the much-anticipated final findings of a separate Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence.
The ACLU says in a summary that the Sheriff Lee Baca's jail system has a "high incidence of head strikes and injuries."
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A "unified protest" involving representatives of three people in controversial, videotaped confrontations with the LAPD was set for Wednesday afternoon outside the department's downtown headquarters.
NBC4 Michelle Jordan, after a chance meeting with two officers.
Civil rights activist Najee Ali said the one-hour demonstration was scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
He told the Weekly ...
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As LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called for community meetings on three recent controversial clashes between cops and suspects that were caught on tape, one community leader is calling b.s.
Mikey Wally / Flickr
Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable says the pow-wows should be open to the public.
That's right, these "community meetings" aren't for me and you. Well, maybe:
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L.A. County probation Officer Rochelle Williams was arrested at the department's headquarters today following allegations of worker-compensation fraud.
halloweencostumes4u.com
In a statement about the case today probation officials warned that there are "several other potential criminal cases involving department employees."
Eek. It's not as if the department hasn't had its hands full with scandal and controversy:
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